Session 15: Pursuing the Pleasure Planet Paphadis Report

General Summary

Introduction

Blazing like fire over of the Ice-Planet Xanti, a cherry red ship with a bright logo of an old-Earth Horse rearing on its back legs rockets through the upper atmosphere like a fireball. The strained engines whine and plead for relief as they push through the thick air laden with ice crystals up into the depths of space. The treacherous planet isolated on the edge of the Rim, so near the terrifying Depths themselves, seems to have very tangible left its mark on all members of the Intrepid Explorer. Even Alexa, inhabiting the Intrepid Explorer, bares 3 symmetrical scratches in her freshly painted exterior beneath from the failed assault of the horrifying beast, the Xanti Render. The tension of the narrow escape starts to leave and clenched fists, tensed shoulders, and set jaws start to relax across the entirety of the ship. The permeating cold of the Ice Planet begins to leave and become replaced by the familiar cold of space. No ice crystals freezing you to the bone, simply the unfeeling absence of all. While it is a dark, scary feeling to many first time travelers…it feels like returning home once again. Maybe the Shipper’s have the right idea after all?   The ship’s engines begin to settle and the desperate whine reduces to a steady hum as the metallic sound of feet on rungs echos into the Cargo Hold. Chiara, hoodie having fully slipped off her head to reveal her dark blue hair and yellow eyes fully, slips out of the Turret and meets Jason, who stands waiting at the bottom. She approaches the rest of the group as William Blake, the purpose of your misadventure, begins to peel off his heavy winter gear that seems desperate to be attached to his lower clothing due to both the cold as well as the blood frozen between the layers. Mark 37-091 hits something to release the grappling arrow embedded into the roof of the Cargo Hold and it falls to the deck with a sudden “Thunk” of metal on metal. Li, isolated in the cockpit, seems to be desperately punching in coordinates as Alexa’s voice echoes back through Coms-units and intercoms alike.   Alexa: “Welcome back, everyone! That was exciting! Where to next?”   The ship sails forward towards the slowly approaching Asteroid Field known as the Hunters Belt and the clear space beyond. You know you have 3 weeks and 2 days to go to make the timeline promised at this very spot to Lady Ash.   Anna glares at Mark 37-091 with anger and distrust before spinning on her heels and storming off to her room with "I need to work on something." muttered under her breath. Botley slips out of her bag and falls to the floor before scuttling up some boxes to stand and stare at the robot.

Decompression

After the harrowing events of Planet: Xanti, the Crew rushed onto the ship and found themselves in a moment of peace and relaxation. Anna Cross and Kyralin Straussedorph headed to their respective rooms to decompress (PCs absent), Dash Reynard angrily stormed off to his room, and Jason remained in the cargo hold with Chiara Mekiee, Botley Botterson the 17th, Mark 37-091, and William Blake.
Tumerian Li Shen rushed up to the front of the ship and assisted “Alexa” in safely rescuing everyone from the planet. Alexa raved excitedly about how good she'd done and sought Li's approval. He gave her a few high-fives as a symbol of approval. As they spoke, she eventually asked why she'd been unable to open the docking ramp. She seemed concerned that she'd failed them and screwed up in some way. Li managed to confirm that he knew why she'd been unable to open it and calmly, firmly discussed that she is still in a "training phase" where she needs to learn how to operate as the ship and work with her fellow human crew. He very truthfully explained that his concern is that she, not needing a physical body or oxygen, wouldn't be as careful with the life support needs and had initially prevented that until she has had time to learn. While she seemed slightly upset by the lack of inherent trust, his calm approach focusing on explaining his reasoning while treating her as a fellow crewmate calmed her and de-escalated the situation.
Meanwhile, Jason had rushed into the room. Chiara watched Dash and the others rush off to their rooms and ran to Jason. She asked what had happened and why the person they were there to kill was now in their ship. Jason explained that Dash had talked to him and essentially just changed his mind. Jason then passed out from the severe chest wound and exhaustion. He awoke to Chiara pressing a bandage to his chest clumsily. William moved her out of the way and bandaged his chest successfully. They helped him up with Mark's assistance. Jason pointed William and Mark to their rooms, Mark handed over his bow/quiver, and Chiara helped Jason to his room to rest and recover. Mark went up into the turret (with Jason's permission) to look out at the stars for his first time in space.
Dash, having rushed to his room, unleashed his outrage and frustration at having been used (and given up) his whole life. He trashed and destroyed the room loudly, breaking things, cursing, and venting. When he looked back at the mess he'd made, he realized that his trash had formed what looked like a diamond crossing over the infinity symbol...a new symbol of his abilities. Alexa attempted to talk to him over the intercom, but he angrily disconnected his intercom to stay in silence.

The Hunter's Belt

The Intrepid Explorer entered the Hunter's Belt in System: Xanti as they headed towards the edge of the system. They attempted to speedily traverse the asteroid field, but halfway through Mark pointed out something approaching in the distance. Everyone not disconnected from the intercoms discovered that there seemed to be a passenger yacht entering the asteroid field heading into the system. Unfortunately, a separate fighter had broken off and sped toward their ship. They attempted to hail the ship but it never responded.   Anna used her skills to hack into the ship's encrypted coms and listen into the transmitted signal between the escort fighter and their main ship. She uncovered the following communication.

The Encrypted Communication

Yacht: “-ckin Fates, Pallo, come back and do your damn job!”
Fighter: “It may not matter to you, Senator…but I am chosen. I have a sacred duty. Someone on that ship is fated to die. I will deliver their destiny to them.”
Yacht: “Your JOB, Pallo, is to protect us until we get back and nothing else! *mutter* Fuckin religious nutters!!! You’ll get back here or you’ll forgo your payment for neglect of duties.”
Fighter: “Senator, it’s a long road back to Terran Space. A long, lonely road without your escort, which you will pay in full. But some duties go deeper than money. Carry on, Senator, I will catch up after my destiny is fulfilled.”

The Pursuit

Li shifted the course to try and move away from the incoming fighter to test their course as Anna hacked their signal. He found that the fighter did shift their course to chase after them. They raced to the edge of the Belt as the fighter's weapons warmed up. A first, and only, communication came in from the fighter.
Fighter: "Someone on this ship has been fated to die. This is your only chance now to hand them over and save yourselves."
During this, Dash exited the room and came to the cockpit to see what the communication was about. Li asked Alexa to warm up the Z-Drive for an 85LY Planing Jump to System: Prilini Suvanch as he pretended to slow down the ship. Dash grabbed the Coms and shouted back an angry "Go fuck yourself". The fighter fired two missiles at the Intrepid Explorer in response as Li activated the Z-Drive to make the exceptionally far jump. Alexa pushed everything she had into making the jump possible and the ship strained as they rocketed into Z-Space. One of the missiles exploded impotently behind them in normal space, but the second trailed their wake. It rocketed and exploded behind them in Z-Space, sent ripples and waves through space around them, but they managed to escape the threat. Alexa deactivated and fell offline from the exertion, but they successfully plotted and made the jump while shaving a week off the 3 week journey.

Z-Space Week 1

During the first week, everyone spent time trying to recover from their harrowing experiences on Xanti. Anna and Kyra never left their rooms, though Anna was heard working on something loudly inside of hers. Warren returned to his as well.
Li attempted to find peace in meditation but found the distance to his home and the absence of his purpose's completion getting in the way of his ability to focus. Instead, he ended up physically training and attempting to teach Alexa some meditation and discipline techniques when she managed to return to consciousness a few days into the journey.
Dash fell into a routine of self-reflection and meditation. He found himself better able to focus while sitting inside of one of the diamonds of the mess in his room as he attempted to unravel his new abilities. Very soon into the trip, William Blake approached him and they found companionship in trying to meditate and learn his new powers together. Dash found that he could focus and see threads of fate flowing off of others. As his powers progressed, he found the ability to very carefully tweak a thread to alter their fate very slightly.
Jason took the time to recover for the first few days. After that, he approached Chiara with a request to stand guard for him. He took her to the smuggling compartment, had her bind him to the cargo straps there, and began working on the KPO Demorte's Black Box. He eventually, with her help, cracked the box and plugged into it. He found the final audio recording intact and took the clues from it to learn slightly more about himself. During the experience, he and Chiara bonded over their pasts. He ended up explaining the part of the vision he had broken through and was able to explain it clearly enough to make Chiara realize that it sounded like the mountains and cave systems of Sihnon II, her former home and prison.
Chiara also let Jason know that she'd headed out onto Xanti while they were gone and found some information out. She'd discovered that the bounty hunters weren't accepting any contracts in the Krasian Colonies or Krasian Territory as they hadn't had word from any hunters who had entered either in the last 3 months. She had confirmed that FreeST Commander Grace Drake had arrived at Nibian 6 Outpost okay and that the outpost had a call out for 150 new workers. Finally, she learned that Doctor Lorie Parker was still the leader of the Sihnon II research facilities.

The Montage

At the end of the week, Li found an old-Earth recording of a great training song, "Eye of the Tiger". He and Alexa (in the form of the emergency lights) raced down the hallways training physically. Meanwhile, Dash approached Chiara asking if she'd train with him in unarmed. Dash started off with a quick victory over Chiara, though she trumped him in the second round. He clinched the win during the final bout as others gathered around and cheered. Mark watched the bout insightfully while Robot: Botley Botterson the 17th stood behind him and tried to mirror his stern stance. Dash gave the palm-sized robot a fist bump (recipricated as best as the little guy could). As the physical challenges came to a close and the training routines ended, it seemed that the energy of the Intrepid Explorer finally lifted and the crew stood ready for the new challenges ahead.    

Z-Space Week 2

During the second week of travel, Dash and William continued training while focusing on writing out what they could remember of their past kills to see if they could find a pattern. Li approached Dash and had a good conversation about them moving forward, finding a way to direct the ship together, and even briefly discussed Dash's questions as to the nature of the The Depths. Li continued to try and break through the barrier for his meditation. Finally, he found a connection to his past and his peace in a memory of his father. He was able to use this to reconnect to his peace and meditation and finally calm his spirit enough to refocus.

Li's Memory

Li's Memory 1: A Father's Approval

Jason's Breakthrough

Jason was able to piece the clues he'd discovered over his journeys to find that something was actively in his mind preventing him from accessing his memories. He decided to go out into the cargo bay after everyone had split off into their rooms for the day and plug the access cord from his arm into his datapad. He ran a de-encryption program to attempt to boost his ability to break through this program and fell into a meditative state while focusing on the single memory he'd managed to somewhat recover.   As he pushed his willpower against it, he locked onto the resistance as he tried to access it. He began a battle that took 20-30 minutes at a time as he forced his willpower against the willpower of this entity. He made a step of progress before experiencing serious mental backlash. He pushed forward as Li walked into the hallway and happened to spot him. Li rushed over and felt the aura coming off of Jason. He felt a sense of purpose, frustration, and resolve mixed with anger as well as sensations of love and protection. He focused his own energy into bolstering the sense of resolve in Jason as he fell into a medative stance behind him with his hands resting on Jason's back in support. Jason continued the mental battle, gaining ground, taking mental backlash, until he realized that he was catching memories and glimpses of himself. He, as Jason, had attempted this before. Each time, as he could recall, he pressed forward, was beaten back, and his memories were taken again leaving him as the amnesiac cyborg that he was. Realizing the true stakes of failure, Jason continued his mental battle with everything he had.   Dash and Chiara eventually found themselves in the hallway and were drawn to the commotion. Dash tapped into his newly trained abilities and found the threads of fate around Jason spiraling and woven like a circle in and among themselves. He attempted to pull and straighten a thread forward out of the spiral to help Jason in his battle. Chiara found the knife she'd crafted for Jason, pressed it into his hand, and wrapped her hand over it in his to give him her support. Blood trickled from his eyes and ears as he pressed the last steps through until the program snapped and diminished.  

The Guardian's Demise

Jason was mentally transported into a space for a final message from the Guardian Program. Meanwhile, Li felt the aura of love and protection dissipate as Dash pulled a thread out of the spiral around Jason.
Jason: The Guardian's Final Message   After Jason's return to consciousness, shaken but stronger with the knowledge that he holds the unlocked doors to his past life to step through as he wished, the others pressed him for details. His companions provided their support, though Chiara seemed hurt that she hadn't been included from the start, and they eventually split off to their own rooms.  

Prilini Suvanch

The crew entered Prilini Suvanch and were able to uneventfully descend to Paphadis. They heard the introduction message as they descended into the closed Starport hanger bay. Dash and William opted to remain aboard as Li, Jason, Chiara, and Mark exited the ship. They walked along towards the entrance to the Hakuna: Pleasure Palacio. As they walked, a young, blonde girl ran toward them screaming for their help wearing a toga and bracelet. Mid-sentence, she was shot down by the gate's guards and the approaching woman introducing herself as their Concierge. She apologized for their having to see that and offered them compensation as they stood amicably around the body of the dead (or dying) girl.

Rewards Granted

Minor Milestone

Missions/Quests Completed

Jason: Mental Breakthrough/Destruction of the Guardian Program
Dash: Fate-weaving skill & path

Character(s) interacted with

Fatalist: William Blake 
Chiara Mekiee
BHG: Mark 37-091 
AI: “Alexa” Companion
Robot: Botley Botterson the 17th