Session 03: Can't we all be friends?
General Summary
After leaving Silex, Kade and Roku decide to explore a desert world while Cygnus recharges its E-drive. On the planet of Fallow, they encounter giant, metal-plated insectoids with the behavior of passive grazers that excrete a lightweight but durable metal. Kade names them "bell beetles".
They encounter a wreck nearby and when they explore it, they make the acquaintance of father-son duo Daniel and Tobey Keller. They crashed while surveying the planet to get metal for a special sculpture that artisan Daniel was commissioned to make. Daniel injured his leg while he and Tobey were out looking around for metal following the crash. Kade offers them a lift to Silvana and, while Daniel is initially suspicious, they ultimately accept.
While Roku forms a connection with the young, earnest engineer Tobey, Kade forms an unexpected connection with gruff artist-dad Daniel. Tobey confides to Roku that he doesn't want to return home after reaching Silvana, as his dad wants, and instead would love nothing more than to travel the stars.
A few jumps later, the Cygnus encounters the distressed hauler, SV Hollister, where Kade talks to Ragnar "Shutdown" Blackstone, who turns out to be a hired vet who is the only crew member on the ship to have escaped the worst of a radiation leak that killed their engineer. Kade offers him and his three surviving members a lift to Silvana and learns that the Hollister is actually on its way to Silex as it's hauling materials ordered by Kimora Zhang. Ragnar also had heard that Zhang is hiring vets with space combat experience to build a mini army. Tobey confirms that the Hollister is not capable of making it to Silex and so Ragnar accepts Kade's offer, but defers their offer of a permanent place on the ship, and instead says that he'll make that decision once they get to Silvana. In the meantime, Kade informs Ragnar that Roku owns the ship, but she's the captain, and Ragnar indicates that he understands what that means for the chain of command.
Ragnar, it should be noted, is ridiculously attractive, and Roku and Tobey both find it hilarious that Kade has noticed.
Roku, meanwhile, pokes around the databanks of the Hollister and found that what it was really hauling to Silex was detailed chart information about the coordinates provided by the Edenstone. Roku takes these coordinates from the ship with his secure datacube and shares his findings with Kade and Kade alone. They discuss with trepidation what Zhang could be planning over on Silex and what they might do if they ever find Roku again. Roku guesses it's nothing good, but Kade suspects it's also nothing necessarily all that bad.
The Cygnus sets off again and Kade shares a nice moment with Daniel in which they give Daniel the sample of the special metal from Fallow so that he might still be able to replicate it to make his sculpture. Kade then hands the controls of the ship over to Roku and goes to bed.
Kade wakes up a few hours later when the ship stops to recharge and is in the wake of intense gravitational waves that are rocking the entire boat. Kade staggers into the cockpit and asks Roku what's happening. Blake comes up to the cockpit and informs them that this is the wake of a void worm. She advises that they turn off everything except the E-drive and hope the void worm doesn't sense them. Kade rejects this advice as plain stupid and the two get into it. Blake makes an off-color comment about Kade and Cassius, and Kade reveals that she met Blake and Cassius together after finding them crashed on a planet after Blake apparently was piloting drunk. Blake denies that this is what happened and claims that Cass had been piloting, but by then, tempers are too high and the arrival of Ragnar in the cockpit makes Roku realize he needs to step in now.
Roku pulls Blake aside and she reiterates her warning about Kade, this time telling Roku that everyone who travels with Kade too long either ends up dead or leaves because she's a pain in the ass. Roku doesn't deny this, but also tells Blake he'll handle it, and Blake goes back to her bunk. Roku returns to the cockpit and does manage to convince Kade to turn off all but the E-drives. Kade then storms off to bed. Ragnar asks Roku how long he and Kade have been traveling together and is surprised to learn they've known each other for about nine or ten days. Ragnar says that they sound like they've known each other longer, as they have the sort of "love 'em and hate 'em" vibe of very old comrades.
The E-drive comes back on not long after, and the Cygnus is underway again.
The Cygnus finally reaches Silvana but finds a massive salvager fleet pouring over the wreck of a large fleet between them and Silvana. Kade hails a salvager ship and learns that the wrecked fleet was attacked by robots. Kade ends the call with the salvager and turns to an equally stunned Roku and declares that they need to call Cass right now.
Character(s) interacted with
The crew of the SV Hollister
A salvager hive with scarred hulls and abnormal sensor readings (who were ultimately relatively friendly)
Vibe Check
The interlude with the bell beetles proves to be a lighthearted and humanizing moment between Kade and Roku, allowing them both to display their strong senses of curiosity to each other (traits that they both admire in others), as well as for their deeper personalities to shine through in Roku's concerned inquisitiveness and Kade's compassionate bravery. Upon meeting the Kellers, Kade strikes up a deeper connection with the gruff and more closed-off Daniel, while Roku bonds with eager, curious young engineer Tobey. The arrival of the crew of the SV Hollister leads to new connections, such as the one that Kade strikes with Ragnar, who is only too happy to fall in line under the leadership of the ship's captain while he is a passenger. Ragnar is a military man who finds the chain of command reassuring, and Kade appreciates the steadiness and predictability of that sort of relationship. The biggest change, however, comes in terms of Kade and Roku's relationship once they discover that SV Hollister was taking data relevant to their quest to Zhang on Silex. Roku and Kade don't speak about it but neither one of them trusts any intel about the Edenstone to anyone but the other. Roku doesn't even tell Blake about it, despite having initially asked for her insight back on Nyx. Kade and Roku finally trust each other, at least when it comes to their mission, and this is even with Blake's repeated private warnings to Roku not to trust Kade and to abandon her as soon as he's able. Kade's relationship with Blake, meanwhile, breaks down utterly in a confrontation that almost turns violent. Conversely, Roku's relationship with Blake continues to get deeper, as Blake admits to Roku that she recognizes him as a good friend to have out here in the wild stretches of the Outlands.19 Aprion 212 - 23 Aprion 212
Report Date
16 Oct 2022
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