The Perfect Stranger.

General Summary

The party was contacted by Sergeant Major Donovan Johnson to deal with the following mission:

The Islands Sectors

The Islands subsectors were colonised around the time the Third Imperium was founded by sublight colony ships in transit for many centuries. Most colonists spent the entire trip in cryogenic suspension, with some awake at any given time to deal with contingencies. One result of this long time spent in stasis is that the culture of the Islands is essentially two thousand years closer to that of Old Earth at the beginning of the Interstellar Wars than Imperial-standard culture. The Islanders also missed out on hundreds of years of Vilani and other cultural influences. There are several powers within the Islands, most of which have a culture that can be traced back to a nation or region on Old Earth. The major powers are either first or second-generation colonies. The first three systems settled by the colony ships got a head start but the worlds they went to next have also developed into powerful states. Later colonisation, conducted with vessels built at first-generation worlds, resulted in smaller settlement programmes that remained colonial possessions. Until recently, the Islanders did not have jump drive technology, colonising the worlds of their cluster using sublight ships. This represents a very different mindset to that of the Imperium – as they say: ‘Imperials think a century is a long time, Islanders think a parsec is a long way’. The situation changed when an Imperial vessel accidentally misjumped into the Islands and some of the locals gained the secret of jump travel. To redress the imbalance of power this caused, well-meaning Imperial scouts disseminated the jump drive to all major cultures in the Islands. This did not have the intended effect of restoring stability; quite the opposite. Despite common origins and a shared heritage – or perhaps because of it – the powers of the Islands mistrust one another deeply. Alliances are possible and can endure, but peace is always fragile and tensions run high. It would not take much to trigger a highly destructive war between two powers and such a conflict could spread to engulf the whole region.

The Mission

To many citizens of the Imperium, it matters little if a distant region destroys itself in warfare. However, the Islands Cluster is important because it is one of the main crossing points of the Great Rift. Troubled times in the Islands could result in communications delays at a critical juncture, something the Imperium would prefer to avoid. So, the merchant ship Perfect Stranger was sent into the Islands on an intelligence-gathering mission. Ostensibly just a trader, Perfect Stranger was crewed by Imperial Navy and Scout Service personnel with a couple of representatives of the major merchant lines and an intelligence expert. The mission was to observe the Islands from the inside, as it were. Perfect Stranger would ply the trade lanes within the Islands, sending raw data and any conclusions back when she contacted an Imperial representative. Something went wrong. A few months ago, two members of the crew arrived back in Imperial space. They were dead, apparently because of wounds inflicted by a laser weapon. The bodies were shipped in cryogenic units aboard a vessel transiting from one side of the Great Rift to the other, and were accompanied by no personal effects. Documentation sent with the bodies simply names the crewmembers, and states they were shipped from Amondiage. What happened to Perfect Stranger and her crew is unclear. Apparently, they got as far as Amondiage and met some mishap. The Travellers’ mission is to retrieve the ship and bring it to the Imperial representative at Zuflucht, whereupon the intelligence data from its data cores will be sent on, and the ship returned to service in the Islands on a new mission. Discovering the fate of the crew and rendering assistance is a secondary goal and must not be permitted to compromise the primary objective. The Travellers will be given relevant paperwork to take possession of the ship by an Imperial representative – either a member of the Scout Service or a member of the Imperium’s intelligence community. The Travellers’ mission is to take possession of Perfect Stranger (her last known location is Amondiage Starport) and bring her to Zuflucht with her data storage intact. If necessary, the ship may be considered expendable, so long as the data is delivered. Upon delivery, the Travellers will each receive payment of, Cr250000. This is a success-only contract. If they do not possess their own means of transport, the Travellers will be sent to Amondiage in low berths and have very little baggage space available (10 kg). Each of the Travellers will be given passcodes for the Perfect Stranger that can be uploaded into any computer, along with, Cr10000 assigned for expenses, to be spent as they see fit. Each Traveller also has a credit account of Cr10000 per month, arranged with the government of Amondiage (it may not be welcome in states hostile to that world), expected to be spent on necessities for the mission – this account is monitored and may be withdrawn if purchases that are clearly nonmission related are consistently made.

Notable events:

The mission was stated to be NDA.
The party took Regis Fulben ship “Shaniqua” for the voyage.
The party flew from Filentred.
The party travelled for 10 weeks to reach the planet of Amondiage. During this time they started to try to learn new skills.
Once they arrived, they hid all their weapons and armour in the smuggler compartments of the ship.
The party wanted to look up in the starports database to see where The Perfect Stranger is parked. They never got around to doing that.
The party was interviewed by Jack Joseph, to which Kris Kringle spoke openly about their NDA mission.
Regis Fulben failed his recon check, and was spotted by Jack Joseph while he was bolting for the mini-watermelons stationed outside of the interview room.
The party went after the interview to the watermelon bar. There they met Kevin Joseph. Vic Maker did the mistake and spoke openly about their “Success only mission.” To which Kevin asked what they were on about. Vic thought the best course of action was to threaten and bully the young bartender. The bartender pressed the panic button and military personell eventually entered. It turned out Jack Joseph was the bartenders father. Jack asked the party to leave, but told Vic to stay. He was not happy with Vic threatening his son and referring to his kid as “Fragile.” Eventually, a bug was placed on Vic, which Vic noticed.
Once Vic left, he destroyed the bug and left.
The party took a cab and booked rooms at “the watermelon hotel” that was out of watermelons.