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GM Iridium Shore Gerivan, Volash Lor time mark 1484.1 [January 2nd (Terran Calendar)] Once again, the Voidrunners had found themselves acting as freelancers. Their recent individual successes let to an offered commission as professional privateers for the Lor. Which was promptly turned down. The news of the refusal led to their latest job offer from the man who taught Roulette everything he knew about surviving in space. But, they were not alone as the Praetorians had sent two envoys along to the meeting. General Almasi of the Stellar Khanate was one Kinan Khan's many "trusted" officers. The former captain of a band of Khanate Pirates, Star Khan conquered his crew and took the pirate under his control. Breaking and bending the man under his iron fist, one of many. But, after the Incursion as Kinan's heirs began squabbling for control of their father's territory, Amalsi's true loyalties revealed themselves. The former general starting his own campaign to take control of what was left of the Khanate. The Zultasian general was in his late 50's, dark indigo colored skin and greying silver hair that ran down to his waist. His left eye was covered by a cybernetic eyepatch that appeared as if were bolted on to his flesh. His right hand was missing, albeit safely protected behind the cover of the bright yellow Zultasian warsuit that he was wearing. The suit itself was heavily scarred with obvious signs that many pieces had been hastily replaced by other discarded armors. Amalsi's reputation for ruthlessness implied that the Khanate revolutionary would not drastically change the empire's culture. However, his deeds with the Coalition and expressed goals for at least some continued relations with the Lor made him sound almost trustworthy. The meeting place was inside a VIP room of the infamous Irridium Shore. Gerivan's finest casino and home to all manner of the worst dregs the Lor had to offer.

Early December 2015 Wolf 359 Aquaria didn't know much about space - but she could tell the space-house (or space station, as Ruby called it) orbiting the tiny young star was old and busted. The metal plates that made up the walls and the ceiling were obviously corroded, turning green like copper instead of orange like steel around their dark grey edges and the air had the smell of something alien and old burnt away in the ducts, long ago. The humanoids in the station were exotic and strange, even stranger and more exotic than the Surfacers of Freedom City, their hair, clothes, and skin all strange colors and textures - but at least they ate good food, including a delicious flying insect as big as her fist that both she and Bliss had developed a taste for. She spent most of her time in the station's small garden, taking advantage of the high humidity (and even small pond!) to bask in the comforting wetness without her suit. She earned her keep by tending the plants, a skill she'd learned at the home of Jessie's sister and her mate, and did her best to get Jessie to come by and help her. It was less stressful than being on the ship. There had been some sort of dispute over repairs to the Voidrunner (she hadn't really followed the conversation) - and it was a high-stress time on-board for everyone. We just have to make it home, Aquaria assured herself as she ducked down to the bottom of the pond (which was just deep enough for her to completely immerse herself in), the ever-present hum of machinery reminding her that this was no ordinary body of water. And they will have all the gold the ship can carry! Reaching down, she cut a few fronds of pondweed with a knife - the stuff was vile to her, but some of the local people on the station loved it in their stews. In just a day, or less, she'd been assured, the repairs would be done and they'd all go home - but now, everybody pulled their weight, Luckily, she and Jessie were both very strong indeed. - It had been a tough few weeks for the Horizon crew and their Star Knight companion. They'd tracked the fugitives to a remote swampy world, and even found the ion trail of the vessel that had picked them up there, but they'd found no clues about the identity of the vessel they were chasing. Whoever they were, they were fast and good, sticking to high-traffic lanes to blend in (but not the ones still regularly patrolled by the Lor), running their engines so fast they must be risking needing to scrub out their coils, and not staying in any one place long enough to be positively identified by eyewitnesses. If not for the unique energy emitted by Aquaria Innsmouth's suit, which noticeably warped extradimensional space while in hyperdrive, and if not for the further n-dimensional changes caused by the fact that the other passenger was from some other dimension entirely, they'd have lost the scent long ago. But now they'd caught the scent. Station K-7 was old and tired, a collection of habitat domes welded together centuries earlier, with a mostly transient population in the hundreds. It was widely known to be a den of smugglers making the potentially profitable run to Terra now that Lor border patrols weren't what they used to be - or even there at all, most of the time. As the ship approached the station, their sensors jangled with news - their two fugitives were _on that very station_.

The OOC

March 1, 2015 51 Pegasi 50 light years from Earth 51 Pegasi is an LV-type star, the kind of small yellow dwarf utterly undistinguished except for the simple accident of longevity and luminescence that means they are, by a wide margin, the stars most likely to support Lor-type life across the galaxy. 51 Pegasi does have one novelty - 51 Pegasi B, the gas giant trapped a little more than 4 million miles from its home star. 51 Pegasi B is a burning hot world, wracked by storms and super-heated winds that make the planet one of the most hostile in Lor space. Even so, the scientific research station on 51 Pegasi Ba, the single asteroidal satellite of the planet, has always been something of a backwater. The fluid dynamics of superheated gas giants is a vigorously debated scientific discipline, but one with few practical applications. The team from Ohtalv University arrived for their year-long assignment five and a half months ago, a few weeks before Ohtalv University and the rest of Lor-Van was atomized by strong-nuclear suppression from the Communion. A routine scientific posting had suddenly become a refuge, but also a cage - the picket ship usually assigned as their rescue vessel was called away for convoy duty months ago and they have nothing on the base rated to so much as leave the shadow of the asteroid. Of the five person team from the University, their world gone and families dead, supplies dwindling more and more every day, four are still alive. It's a sad story, but a story repeated again and again the Lor Republic. Nothing out of the ordinary here. Until recently. As he sat in the station's control center, Narab Zober watched what would have been the career-making discovery of a scientist a year earlier play out before him with calm interest. Only the cool discipline of his Hephestian martial heritage kept him here, kept him working, and kept thoughts of home, family, and all he had lost out of his mind. Lives had ended - but life went on. "...from deep neutrino scans, the entity has reached the rocky core of Pegasi 51b and has begun what can only be described as _feeding_ on the heavy metals and other materials within." He watched the rippling clouds, gone chaotic in recent days, and raised a long feathered eyebrow, his padded fingers folded on the table in front of him. "To survive at the heart of a super-heated gas giant, the Gorgon's energy and matter absorption abilities must be even greater than previously estimated. Fascinating. At current rate of consumption, I estimate that within seven standard days, Pegasi 51b will have lost its gravitic cohesion and begin breaking up." And then plummet into the burning heart of the star - along with this station. "This is Dr. Narab Zober of Lor Science Station #0047, ending this rotation's report. Tomorrow Dr. M'Kelley will offer her report on the fluid dynamics of a gas giant in the process of core destruction. End transmission." When he was done, he stared at the communications terminal, as if willing a reply by sheer force.

The Traveller Power Level: 11 [15] (200/250PP) Trade-Offs: None Unspent Power Points: 50 In Brief: A warrior-scholar who has spent millennia wandering the galaxy helping people. Residence: A citizen of the Universe Base of Operations: Space Catchphrase: "In all mine time wandering the Universe.." Alternate Identity: Sitara Shashikala Identity: Public Birthplace: Indus Valley, Earth Occupation: Soldier, Scholar and Explorer Affiliations: Praetorians Family: Long dead Description: Age: 5,000 Apparent Age: 30 Gender: Female Ethnicity: South Asian. Height: 5'8" Weight: 119 lbs. Eyes: Brown Hair: Black Though her biology has been massively altered by her masters on the outside she appears much as she did when she left Earth all those Millennia ago. She tend to go for simple comfortable clothing normally the jump suit she wears inside her armour. The armour itself if a thing of beauty appearing to be ceramic of some kind. It's a sparkling white with fine intricate engraving on its surface in Aztec or even Celtic style abstract forms, only the faceplate is unformatted just appearing as a black surface, which Sitara can cause to become opaque as needed. Underneath the armoured plates there seems to be a number of fine interlocking cog-like meshes that seems to move and shift as the armour moves about. The power pike that she carries is similarly designed with the intricate patterning on it's surface. The weapon is designed to be split into two parts but the join is so fine that it's almost impossible to tell. Power Descriptions: Sitara has had her biochemistry radically altered to such an extent that she's not technically human any more. Thanks to these alteration she is effectively immortal and can fight off any infections in the environment. Her biorhythmic field has also been altered, which synchs up with the armour and pike's own power systems, meaning that only she can use the equipment. History: Over four thousand years ago there existed a peaceful race of aliens, the mArttik Avata, who gave their time to peaceful pursuits to expand there knowledge of the universe. Unfortunately in their travels they came across another race, the Amitra, as advanced as themselves but with an interest in only violence and conquest. Unable to even consider committing violence against another creature the mArttik Avata could not bring themselves to fight the Amitra directly, but they knew that if they did not challenge the Amitra they would conquer and enslave, if not destroy, all the other fledgling races that inhabited the galaxy. So they decided that they would form a army from some of the more primitive races who would fight this vital battle for the future of the galaxy for them. One of the planets they choose was Earth. Sitara who lived among the flowering Indus valley civilization had always been curious, travelling many miles from her home city to see what was beyond the next hill. When the strangers from the stars came it was not long before she had travelled to visit these strange creatures from beyond. When they asked for volunteers to journey with them to fight among the stars she didn't hesitate, even though she had never raised even her voice in anger; she would do almost anything to explore the stars above her. They must have seen something in the young woman for she was one of the few chosen to serve these aliens. The mArttik Avata took her, along with many others, to their home planet where they radically altered the volunteers' biochemistry and began to teach them all that they knew. Not only did they train them to fight effectively with all the weapons available to them they also taught them about the sciences and the universe around them. Then they were set loose to fight in one of the most brutal wars of that era which took a massive toll on their forces, but they knew that they needed to fight on or all would be lost. Sitara doesn't know how the war was final ended, gravely injured in a battle she was placed in a healing pod. When she awoke thousands of years had passed and there was no sign of either the mArttik Avata her or the Amitra that they fought. After awaking she wandered the universe helping those in trouble where she could learning what she could about the galaxy she was now in, trying to find out what had happened to those she fought alongside. Eventually she fell into another group that was trying to protect the universe from threats and once again she was placed on suspension, from which she has only recently awoken. Personality & Motivation: Even after the millennia of wandering the universe Sitara's curiosity hasn't been sated, she still has a strong desire to explore and discover new things. There is always the next planet where something new can be found. Seeing the worst that the universe can offer has left Sitara a little jaded and slow to full trust others but she had also seen the best of the universe and has a guarded optimism about how things will pan out. She tend to hide her true feeling behind a confident bluster with a thick veil of humour, she lives her life hard as if all those centuries of travel could come to an end tomorrow. Powers & Tactics: Sitara was trained as a soldier and tend to try and break things down into an military encounter always looking for the best tactical advantage before striking. That said she can in the heat of battle become a little gun-ho. Complications: It was here last time... : Sitara has gained vast knowledge about the people and places of the universe. Unfortunately some of her information can be centuries, if not millennia out of date. We have plenty of time : After millennia of existence, plus a push towards perfection, means that Sitara finds difficult to rush things. Even if she has only seconds to disarm a bomb she will stay until the very last second. Distracted by the shiny: Sitara was taught by the raise that recruited her to find the beauty in the universe around her, sometimes she can get carried away and focus on the beauty, be it a sunrise or an intricate device, to the detriment of more important things going on around her. I am Legend: Those that Sitara fought for, both four thousand and a thousand years ago, have become legends among modern races. In some they are revered as heros, lifted up to god like presence, other however remember them as cruel conquerors or even evil destroying demons. Abilities: 4 + 4 + 6 + 10 + 6 + 2 = 32PP Strength: 14/20 (+2/+5) Dexterity: 14 (+2) Constitution: 16/24 (+3/+7) Intelligence: 20 (+5) Wisdom: 16 (+3) Charisma: 12 (+1) Combat: 12 + 10 = 22PP Initiative: +6 Attack: +6 Base, +10 Combat Pike Grapple: +8/+11 Defense: +10 (+5 Base, +5 Dodge Focus), +2 Flat-Footed Knockback: -7 Saving Throws: 1 + 8 + 7 = 16PP Toughness: +7/+10 (+3/+7 Con, +3 Protection [impervious 4]) Fortitude: +4/+8 (+3/+7 Con, +1) Reflex: +10 (+2 Dex, +8) Will: +10 (+3 Wis, +7) Skills: 136R = 34PP Bluff 9 (+10) Computers 10 (+15) Craft (Electronic) 10 (+15) Skill Mastery Craft (Mechnaical) 10 (+15) Skill Mastery Diplomacy 9 (+10) Gather Information 14 (+15) Intimidate 9 (+10) Knowledge (Galactic Lore) 10 (+15) Knowledge (Tactics) 10 (+15) Skill Mastery Knowledge (Technology) 10 (+15) Skill Mastery Language 4 (Delaztri, English, Sanskrit [Native], Galstandard, Lor) Medicine 2 (+5) Notice 7 (+10) Pilot 13 (+15) Sense Motive 7 (+10) Survival 2 (+5) Feats: 17PP Ambidexterity Attack Specialization (Combat Pike) 2 Dodge Focus 5 Equipment 2 (10 EP to Praetorian spaceships and HQ) Improved Initiative 1 Improvised Tools Inventor Jack-of-all-Trades Skill Mastery (Craft [Electronics], Craft [Mechanical], Knowledge [Tactics], Knowledge [Technology]) Uncanny Dodge (Auditory) Well-Informed Powers: 2 + 54 + 23 = 79PP Immunity 2 (Aging, Disease) [2PP] Power Armour 13 (65 PP Device, Hard to Lose, Feats: Restricted 2 [biorhythmic Field]) [54PP] Communication 2 (Radio 100 ft Extra: Area) [4PP] Comprehend 3 ( Read All, Speak All [One at a time], Understand All ) [6PP] Enhanced Constitution 10 [10PP] Enhanced Strength 6 [6PP] Flight 6 ( 500 mph, 5000 ft/rnd) [12PP] Immunity 10 (Life Support, Starvation & Thirst) [10PP] Impervious Toughness 5 [5PP] Protection 3 [3PP] Space Travel 1 (Interplanetary) [2PP] Super-Senses 3 (Darkvision, Direction Sense) [3PP] Super-Strength 2 (Effective Strength 30, Heavy Load: 1,600lbs) [4PP] Power Pike 7 (35PP Device, Easy to Lose, Feats: Restricted 2 [biorhythmic Field]) [23PP] Weapon Modes 12 (27PP Array, Alternative Power 8 ) [35PP] Base Power: Blast 12 (160ft increments; Feats: Improved Critical; Improved Range; Precise)) [27PP] Alternate Power: Blast 8 (160ft increments; Extra: Autofire; Feats: Improved Critical, Improved Range 1) [26PP] Alternate Power: Blast 8 (160ft increments; 40ft Bust Area; Extra: Area - General (Burst), Feat: Improved Range 1) [25PP] Alternate Power: Dazzle 9 (Visual Senses, 90ft range, 45ft Burst Area; Extra: Area - General (Burst)) [27PP] Alternate Power: Drain Toughness 8 (80ft increments; Extra: Affects Objects, Ranged, Feats: Precise, Reversible) [26PP] Alternate Power: Paralyze 8 + Strike 7 (Feats: Improved Critical, Improved Trip, Mighty) [26PP] Alternate Power: Stun 12 [24PP] Alternate Power: Stun 6 (Extras: Autofire, Ranged [60ft increments]) [24PP] Alternate Power: Stun 6 (Extra: Area - General (Burst), Ranged [60ft increments]) [20PP} DC Block ATTACK RANGE SAVE EFFECT Unarmed Touch DC 20 Toughness (Staged) Damage (Physical) Blast 11 Ranged DC 26 Toughness (Staged) Damage (Physical) Blast 6 Ranged DC 21 Toughness (Staged) Damage (Physical) Blast 7 Ranged DC 22 Toughness (Staged) Damage (Physical) Dazzle 7 Ranged DC 17 Fort Dazzle Drain Toughness Ranged DC 16 Fort (Staged) Drained Toughness Paralyze+Stun Touch DC 16 Fort (Staged) Paralyze DC 22 Toughness (Staged) Damage (Physical) Stun Touch DC 21 Fort (Staged) Stun Stun Touch DC 15 Fort (Staged) Stun Stun Ranged DC 15 Fort (Staged) Stun Totals: Abilities (32) + Combat (22) + Saving Throws (16) + Skills (34) + Feats (17) + Powers (79) - Drawbacks (0) = 200/250 Power Points