The Menorbi Partnership

Session 5 - November 1, 2018
The Gorilla in the Room

1100-04 – Regina Starport

1530 -1630 - Settled at a table in the IISS cafeteria, the Partners caucus on the Phizab job. Leah leverages AI and machine learning to interpret the data the Partners have acquired, messaging Dandelion at TekImport looking for specific data and other preparatory elements.

1630 – 1700 Sitting at their table in the cafeteria, the Partners see Madeline ap-Corserra enter IISS with the same slender, fit-looking man with a dirty-blonde forelock that they met earlier that day in the PodThinkers conference room. Martaan, curious, slips downstairs to the range ask Pug if he knows anything about this stranger, but Pug does not. Intrigued, the Partners wander back up to the team's ready room; Froge chats with Saeagang about the newcomer; she seems a little concerned. They see Madeline interviewing the stranger for the position of Tactical Officer on the An Lang's crew, and he accepts. Madeline introduces him as Fitz Gandrell. Fitz introduces himself to the rest of the crew, and goes to work cleaning and preparing a curious item- a Gauss rifle made entirely out of plastic, making it invisible to most weapons detection systems.

1700 – 1800 - As the workday ends, crew members begin to drift out of the ready room; the Partners invite Dr. Pascal Lentevi to dinner with them at the Travellers' Aid Society. At a nearby table sits Count Quinlan ap-Corserra, deep in conversation with some dinner companions. Over dinner and drinks, Dr. Lentevi is briefed on the Phizab mission, and joins the Partners in conspiracy.

1800 – 1900 During dinner, the manager of the Travellers' Aid Society discreetly informs Froge Brison and Martaan Anders that their rooms were burgled earlier that afternoon, between 1430 and 1500, by two men in gorilla suits. A number of other details emerge- the burglars were able to defeat some of TAS's countermeasures, but not all of them. It turns out that nothing was removed from either Froge's or Martaan's rooms, and there is no indication that anything was tampered with. The Partners tell Count Quinlan, who whisks them, and Dr. Pascal Lentevi with them, off to TekImport, using his private grav vehicle and driver.

1900 – 2030 The Partners introduce Dr. Pascal Lentevi as part of their team, brief the irritable crew-cut man and Dandelion on what happened, and later present him and Dandelion their plan to break into Phizab as well. The crew-cut man then fills in the conspirators on the nature of the break-in- TekImport, which is "loyal to the Duke and the Emperor" is conducting a counterintelligence investigation; they have evidence that Phizab has unwittingly become involved with something that they don't understand.

In the middle of this, Jelph returns from a bug sweep of Froge's or Martaan's rooms, where his team found only commercial-grade surveillance devices, which would have to be manually serviced. Dr. Laria, reasoning about the break-in at TAS, suggests that the cleaning staff at TAS should be investigated, as they could easily retrieve and service the listening devices the burglars left behind.

2030 – 2100 - The conspirators accept a lift home from Count Quinlan. Dr. Lentevi is left at his apartment, Dr. Laria at IISS and Leah's Delight, while Martaan, Froge, and the Count himself return to TAS

2100 – 2230 - Fitz contacts Dr. Laria, asking if he can borrow a stateroom aboard Leah's Delight.  

Pinkie messages the crew: "Hey, amigos! Pinkie here, on the secure VES channel. Some asshole broke into my buddy’s place where I was sleeping on the foldout and went through my stuff! Can you believe it? I didn’t have anything of real value— mostly portable prospecting gear, but what the Hell! Regina used to be a pretty safe town! Nothing was taken, but I hate putting Aliz through this kind of bother. Skipper, any idea if this is related to our mission? Should I call the law? Comp sci docs—- any chance you could check the calibration on my gear? This is spoiling a perfectly good day! Yours in ever-increasing annoyance, —Pinkie"

Madeline reports to Leah that she did let Fitz know about Leah's Delight. She also reports to the crew that Soto's place was also burgled, and that her brother, and "Station Chief del'Zed" (?!) informed her that Martaan's and Froge's rooms were broken into at TAS.

Fitz turns down a berth on Leah's Delight, looking instead for a cheap place to stay where he could conceivably ambush a burglar.

Saeagang checks in with the crew, sending her sympathy for the recent spate of burglaries. Lieutenant Commander Elwen ap-Floran also reports in, just to let everyone know he is OK.

Leah points out that the crew must meet immediately tomorrow to establish a duress code and an authentication code for future interactions; Madeline regretfully agrees.

The day ends on the following note from the Referee—

"In their rooms at TAS, Martaan and Froge shifted uneasily under their high thread count sheets, weapons on the nightstand. Gazing at his comm, Pascal read about the break-ins on the cheap couch in the messy living room of his apartment, as his roommate Gyllyan pwned n00bs in Interstellwars, and wondered what in the Ten Thousand Suns he had gotten into. In the fresher aboard a 100 ton Sulieman scout ship, Leah brushed her teeth, thinking of phrases that were unique enough to be uncommon in general conversation, and yet still innocuous. Assuming the lotus posture, Dr. Soto straightened his back and gazed resolutely at the featureless wall of his room, seeking why Bodhidharma had come from the East. Saeagang, brushed her tail, fretting about Madeline. Rooms away, Madeline quivered with exhaustion and frustration, as a tiny, elfin, curly-blonde-haired woman briefed her over a heavily-encrypted link. Lt. Commander Elwan ap-Floran rolled over in his rack into a dream where he apprehended a miscreant and felt, for once, a little confidence in his own abilities. Across the city, grinning wolfishly, Fitz checked himself into Cheaphotel, requesting a room on the end of a hallway on the fifth floor. Bantering and bullshitting his way through the ID check, his left hand closed reassuringly on the handle of a long, slender, razor-sharp knife."

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Session 4 - September 20, 2018
A Scoop, or an Expose?

1100-04 – Regina Starport

0900 – 0915 – Dr. Leah Laria and Madeline ap-Corserra interview and hire Dr. Pascal Lentevi, a postdoctoral research assistant in xenoarcheology at the University of Regina, focused on the Ancients' technology.

0915 – 1230 - After being hired for the VES, Dr. Pascal Lentevi spends his morning in the team's ready room, working with Pinkie Werdast, who trains him on the sensor array on the Donosev-class An Lang. He later spends time writing programs attempting to data mine something interesting out of the available sensor data and footage, but is unable to find anything with clear significance.

0915 – 0930 – Leah leaves for PodThinkers, where she rendezvous with Martaan and Froge, in preparation for their meeting with their unknown caller.

0930 – 0945 - Froge, Leah, and Martaan roust a slender, fit-looking man with dirty-blonde hair which has grown into a huge forelock from a conference room, where he has apparently been bivouacked. Shouldering his shoulder pack (which includes a sleeping bag), as well as a large cardboard tube (containing his "business presentation system"), he leaves, rather amiably.

0945 – 1100 - The Partners then rent an adjacent conference room from PodThinkers (from which Froge and Martaan can surveil Leah's meeting), and bug Leah's conference room, collecting full video and audio. Martaan then goes downstairs, and prompts the PodThinkers desk clerk to remember everything he can about the Partners' mystery visitor, as part of an actor characterization exercise.

1100 – 1130 – The visitor, a "Mr. Jones" arrives, dropped off a block or so away by grav vehicle. He is tall, with long black hair and a thick beard. He knows Leah has been hired as part of the VES, and claims to represent a journal that will pay handsomely for her story upon her return. Leah turns "Mr. Jones" down, and he leaves, dawdling his way up and down the street, before hailing an autocab. In retrospect, Martaan believes "Mr. Jones" may have been running a surveillance detection routine to unmask pursuers.

1130 – 1200 - Leah contacts Madeline ap-Corserra, who is very disturbed by this news, and requests the Partners to return to their ready room at IISS.  Martaan debriefs the would-be thespian desk clerk at Pod Thinkers. An after-the-fact review of the surveillance footage suggests "Mr. Jones" may have been wearing a fairly subtle mask.

1200 – 1230 – Hailing an autocab, the Partners return to IISS, and rejoin the rest of the team in the ready room. On the cab ride to IISS, the Partners receive a message from Madeline instructing them to begin putting their equipment requisition and purchase list together.

1330 – 1430 - Pascal is evaluated by IISS Range Safety Officer Pug, and it is determined that the best weapon for him to carry on the VES is an ACR.

1430 -1530 - Madeline ap-Corsera debriefs the Partners on their meeting with "Mr. Jones," and changes security protocols for the VES as a result, determining that the VES team's badges were the reason that "Mr. Jones" could identify Leah as a VES team member.

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Session 3 - August 9, 2018
Meet the Crew I / Casing the Joint

1100-03 – TekImport 

1200 – 1330 – Following an apology from Count Quinlan ap-Corserra and some of the operatives at TekImport, the Partners are briefed on an opportunity to help smuggle Dandelion into Phizab Pharmaceuticals, and provide security for her while she is there, so that she can steal data from the air-gapped research network. The mission is scheduled for 1100-010. The Partners accept. They are given directions to a TekImport safe house which they can use for planning and materials storage. They are also instructed to develop a plan and return to TekImport to brief the unnamed man and his agents at 0900 on 1100-006.

1330 – 1400 – The Partners make their way back to IISS and the VES Ready Room.

1400 – 1630 – The Partners meet three new VES team members—  

  • Dr. Soto Odayaka, the VES's physician and Surgeon. An order gentleman, originally from Terra
  • Lieutenant Commander Elwen ap-Floran, the VES's Navigator, a young officer on loan from the Imperial Navy
  • Pinkie Werdast, one of the sensor team serving under Leah, a former asteroid miner

In addition, they are briefed on the Djinni system itself, and on hypotheses regarding the Ancients. Elwen requests Leah review his course to jump into the system without being immediately visible via sensors by the mysterious asteroid. Madeline requests Leah come to a morning interview with an academic with background in the Ancients' civilization that she is considering for the VES.

1630 – 1900 - Leah purchases some surveillance technology and begins an initial survey of Phizab. Martaan and Froge begin looking for a rental property called "the safe house's safe house", so that they can have a base of operations, and a place to retreat to, in case things sour with TekImport or Phizab. They make an appointment to see a commercial property the following morning. 

1900 – 2200 - The Partners have dinner at the Travellers' Aid Society. Martaan hits the gym. Froge trades messages with Arbellatra, making a dinner date for two days hence. Leah checks Elwen's course, and does some more research on their current projects. All retire to their respective beds, expecting an early morning.

1100-04 – Travellers' Aid Society

0630 – 0800 – Leah rises, breakfasts, and realizes she has received a mysterious message from an unknown ID inviting her to a meeting at 1000. She counter-offers with an 1100 meeting at TAS, which the unknown party declines, citing privacy concerns. After a discussion, the Partners decide to rent a meeting room at a collaborative work space.

0630 – 0900 -  Froge and Martaan rise, breakfast, trade messages with Leah about the mysterious meeting she has been invited to, and then go and meet with Edt, a young real estate broker showing a property for his father. Charming Edt, they rent the property, but fail to do so completely anonymously.

Future Meetings

  • 1100-004 0800 – Madeline and Leah's breakfast meeting with their academic candidate
  • 1100-004 1100 – Meeting with the unknown ID
  • 1100-005 – Froge's date with Arbellatra
  • 1100-006 0900 – The Partners brief TekImport on their Phizab proposal
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Session 2 - July 12, 2018
Of Risk and Rugs

1100-002 - The Partners join an IISS Volunteer Emergency Survey

 

1200 – 1800 - Madeline ap-Corserra finishes the Partners' briefing, and gets them badges granting them  access to facilities inside the Regina IISS base (including the gym, the range, the commisary, and the VES's Ready Room. The Partners mention to Madeline that they might do a side job for TekImport while the An Lang is being outfitted; Madeline cautions them. The Partners meet Madeline's second-in-command and the An Lang's Chief Engineer, a female Vargr named Saeagang Uztsuee. The afternoon is spent between the Ready Room (where Froge, Leah, and Martaan discuss ship's armaments, software, and power plant requirements with Madeline and Saegang), and the base's firing range, where a retired Marine named Pug serves as the Range Safety Officer. Pug helps the Partners try out a variety of firearms and orders them weapons and ammunition for the VES. The Partners return to the Ready Room, find Saegang gone, and ask Madeline if she wants to join them for dinner. She declines, but suggests that they might meet a fellow VES member, the Tactical Officer Grigor Phelleps, at the Travellers' Aid Society bar.

1800 – 1900 – The Partners arrive at TAS and find the bar almost deserted. A man and a woman are sitting at a table in the corner, while a young man, extremely drunk and dressed in Imperial Army fatigues bearing a Major's insignia, is loudly proclaiming to Arbellatra and anyone else that he is going on a secret mission to battle "alien tech." This turns out to be the afore-mentioned Tactical Officer Grigor Phelleps. Martaan sits down with Grigor to talk to him, while Arbellatra whispers to Froge that Phelleps has been at the bar for a while now, is very drunk, and she's pretty sure that the stuff he's talking about isn't appropriate for a public setting. Martaan helps Grigor to bed (he's staying on the same floor at TAS), removes the liquor from his room and leaves it at TAS's front desk, and then rejoins Froge at the bar, where he gets a big hug from Arbellatra. While all this is taking place, Leah is bemusedly making her way through the appetizer menu.

1900 – 2200 – The Partners sit down for dinner, only to find themselves joined by the man and woman who have been at the bar's corner table. They introduce themselves as Jelph (a tall, handsome man with perfect teeth, who looks like a holographic entertainment star) and Dandelion (a tiny woman with obvious cybernetic implants). They claim to be from TekImport, and remark that they will address Grigor's behavior and breach of VES security. They excuse themselves, stating that they will most likely meet the Partners later. The Partners message Madeline about Grigor; she responds tersely that the situation is being addressed. The Partners have a leisurely dinner and drinks; Froge and Arbellatra make tentative plans for a date after Arbellatra finishes her bartending shift. 

2200 – 2330 - The Partners call it a night— Leah walks back to her ship, Martaan departs for the gym, and Froge heads up to his room to freshen up for a night out with Arbellatra. While getting off the elevator, Froge encounters two burly young men wearing work clothes labeled "Ed's Cleaning" carrying a lumpy-looking rug with a surprising bulge in its center. The two young men try to avoid eye contact with Froge as he makes small talk with them; at one point, Froge hears a faint hiccup and the words "alien tech" issue from the rug. He calls the other Partners to warn them that Grigor is being kidnapped; the Partners leave their comm devices in a shared conference mode as they head back to the TAS lobby. 

Martaan runs up from the downstairs gym into the TAS lobby, finds it empty, glances around and identifies the door from the lobby into the service portion of the TAS facility. Dashing through, he sees two men loading a rug (which grunts in protest) into a service elevator. (Meanwhile, Leah is threading her way through the crowd as quickly as she can on her way back to TAS, and Froge has taken the elevator down to the lobby and is looking for the kidnapers.) Seeing the two kidnappers distracted with rug, Martaan surprises them, rushing the elevator, and solidly punching the nearest one. The second kidnapper fumbles for something in his pocket, but Martaan has the initiative and strikes first, throwing a solid punch that stuns him. Unfortunately, this gives a moment for the first kidnapper to act— he draws a snub-nosed pistol and shoots Martaan with some kind of dissolving gelatin dart. Martaan struggles to remain conscious, but feels himself slipping down onto the polished floor. The last thing he sees is the first kidnapper scooping up his personal comms device as the elevator door closes and begins to ascend.

By this point, Leah and Froge have made their way into the TAS lobby. They find their way into the service portion of TAS, locate Martaan, wake him, and help him to a couch in the lobby. Leah and Froge are convinced that the kidnappers will be leaving the hotel from a vehicle stored in an underground garage, but they are unable to find a garage egress and intercept the vehicle. Leah hacks together a tracking app to find Martaan's comms device, and detects it traveling at speed and altitude away from TAS. She realizes the kidnappers must have had a grav vehicle on the roof, and they are leaving Grigor. Martaan's comm signal abruptly cuts out. The TAS night manager is clearly frightened, and wants to distance himself from the evening's events. Leah hears from the kidnappers that they must meet them at TekImport tomorrow at noon to retrieve Martaan's comm device and explain themselves. The Partners also hear from Madeline, who seems a little irritated at the turn the Partners' evening has taken. 

Arbellatra, leaving her bartending shift, sees Froge briefly in the TAS lobby. He tells her that this might not be a good night to visit with each other. She agrees and urges him, "Be careful!" The Partners finally turn in for the night. Leah orders new comms devices for the Partners.

1100-003 - TekImport

 

0600 – 0900 - The Partners wake up, eat breakfast, and steel themselves for the day ahead.

1100 – New comms devices are delivered to TAS; the Partners head out to TekImport.

1200 – The Partners are greeted at TekImport by a furious-seeming individual who walks them into a conference room containing Jelph, Dandelion, and Count Quinlan ap-Corserra. Martaan explains his reasons for intervening at TAS— he couldn't be certain who was kidnapping Grigor Phelleps, and didn't want to put the VES in jeopardy. Count Quinlan nods once after Martaan finishes. The unknown man begins to upbraided Jelph and Dandelion for theirs sloppy fieldcraft, and is in turn upbraided by Count Quinlan for their lack of subtlety and imagination. Both the unknown man and Count Quinlan apologize to the Partners for the way this situation was handled.

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Session 1 - June 7, 2018
Well-Met on Regina

1100-001 - The Partnership reunites on Regina after mustering out

 

1100 - Leah gets a berth at IISS for her detached scout ship Leah's Delight and lands at Regina's Downport.  Froge's captain detaches a pinnace from the Heavy Cruiser Whatever to ferry him to Regina's Downport.  Maarten gets a seat on the passenger shuttle from Regina's Upport Hub to the Downport. The Partners meet at the Holographic Globe in the center of Regina's Downport.

1200 – 1800 - Drinks at the Travellers' Aid Society. The Partners are met by Count Quinlan ap-Corserra, who joins them for drinks. Reviewing the advertisements at TAS, they discuss the Volunteer Emergency Survey, and Quinlan reports that his sister, Madeline, is leading the survey.  On behalf of the Partners, he calls Madeline, who responds curtly, stating she will review their credentials. The Partners transmit their credentials to Madeline. The Count continues his discussion with the Partners, and recommends that they discuss a short-term employment opportunity with TekImport (whose credentials he transmits to you). The Count leaves the Partners, but not before buying them dinner and paying in advance for three TAS rooms, should they want them.      

1800 – 2400 - Leah returns to Leah's Delight at IISS. Maartan goes the TAS gym to exercise, before turning in at TAS. Froge cleans himself up, and returns to the TAS bar, where he hits it off with a pretty young TAS bartender, Arbellatra.

1100-002 - 

 

0000 – 0800 – Froge and Arbellatra take a room a local Startown motel, enjoy each other's company, and part very amicably, Arbellatra returning to her apartment to continue her day, and prepare for another shift bartending at the Regina TAS.

0800 – 1200 - The Partners receive invitations from Madeline ap-Corserra to interview for the VES. They eat breakfast, and meet up at IISS to interview for their new position.

1200 - IISS staff escort the Partners into a conference room, where Madeline ap-Corserra offers them Cr100,000 each for the VES, but tells them they have to accept before briefing them. The Partners accept. Madeline then tells them of Djinni, the mining craft, and its fate.  

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