Arion 1-04: Mr Osheen

“Those who ‘abjure’ violence can do so only because others are committing violence on their behalf.” - George Orwell

Jewell, 1105 Week 5

Outbound from Jewell, Arion finds himself the only ship with the right orbital mechanics to render aid to a pinnace with drive failure. The rendezvous poses no problems beyond a few hours' delay, nor does a minor repair; this sort of diversion is one of the reasons Traffic Control schedules a full day for him to drift out to the 100 diameter jump limit, rather than the three hours or so it would take him at full throttle.

Jumpspace, 1105 Week 6

On the first night in jumpspace, Arion wakes from a nightmare that has him dripping with sweat, or so he thinks until he realises one of the water pipes to the stateroom's fresher has burst for some occult reason of its own. In his sleepy, befuddled state it takes him far too long to isolate the fault and close off the relevant flows, and by the time he's done that his stateroom is flooded. The cleanup operation takes him most of the next couple of days. Fortunately, other staterooms are available, so he doesn't have to sleep in the flooded one.

This, he reflects philosophically, is the problem with detached duty and constructive possession of a twenty-year-old scoutship; quite a lot of the internal systems hover perpetually on the ragged edge of breakdown. He makes a mental note to ensure the ship's medical cabinet has some Fast Drug in it before the next jump; the 60:1 metabolic slowing would make a week in jumpspace feel like just under three hours, reducing life support demand commensurately. Never know when you might need that kind of edge.

Mongo, 1105 Week 7

Arriving in the Mongo system, Arion finds himself hailed by a mining cutter which warns him: "Stand off, pirate! I've got a laser! I'll cut you to pieces before you get my cargo!"

"Umm, not a pirate," Arion explains. "Look, I'm in a standard approach pattern, no threat to you at all. And I'd have to be a pretty stupid pirate to try anything this close to a navy base."

"That's exactly what a pirate would say!" blusters the cutter. But it lets him pass, twisting to keep its laser pointed at him and locking him up with targeting lidar. He wonders what it found that has the pilot this wound up.

Arion's cargo for this run is three units of hazardous raw materials; it's not clear what the hazard is, exactly, but judging by the vermin he didn't know he had on board lying dead around the crate, the sooner it's off the ship, the better. He makes a profit, barely, but looking at his account balance it'll be gone by the end of the week. Probably on vermin disinfestation.

Returning from offloading his cargo, Arion finds an invitation in his commlink from Major Evelyn Sheng, Imperial Army, asking him to attend a celebratory dinner the next evening. Arion remembers Sheng from an assignment shortly before he mustered out, carrying her and an aide to a conference. They got on very well, as he recalls, so he is happy to accept; plus, free food, what's not to like.

The dinner turns out to be a farewell party for a number of Army officers mustering out on Mongo. Arion finds himself seated next to a bulky, grey-skinned almost-human who is monosyllabically polite, focusing his attention chiefly on the soup course. As the dinner winds down, Major Sheng gathers the pair of them up by eye and takes them aside into a small, quiet room.

"Arion," she says warmly. "Good to see you again," and this prompts an exchange of what-have-you-been-doing that lasts a good half hour, while the bulky humanoid acquires - and consumes - a prodigious quantity of leftover soup, seeming not to care that it is cold by now. Arion notes that he carefully strains out any lumps and sets them aside.

Eventually, Sheng gets down to business.

"Arion," she says, "I have a favour to ask you. Mr Osheen here has been my bodyguard for some years, and I owe him my life, more than once. But, his kind are not welcome in Imperial space, and I can't justify taking him on my next assignment. To be frank, no-one else wants him, I can't protect him any more, but I do owe him. So, as a personal favour to me: Can you sign him onto your crew?" Arion turns to Mr Osheen.

"How do you feel about that?" he asks.

"I am a soldier," Mr Osheen replies calmly, and with the plodding and slightly forced pronunciation of someone whose vocal apparatus is not suited to Anglic. "I go where I am sent."

"What would you do as part of my crew?"

"I am qualified on ship's lasers, but my chief role has been to kill Major Sheng's enemies and consume their bodily fluids. For nourishment," he says, helpfully. Arion begins to understand why Mr Osheen faces some prejudice in Imperial space. The greyskin continues. "I would transfer my allegiance to you, and serve you in the same way. Will there be opportunities to kill enemies and consume their bodily fluids in your service?"

Arion considers this before replying. "Not if I can help it," he says, though honesty forces him to continue. "But I'm afraid it is more likely than not, at some point."

Later, he is never able to explain satisfactorily why he agrees, even to himself. It just feels like the right thing to do, and Arion is a man who trusts his gut.

"Okay, Major," he says. "But someday I might need to ask you for a favour in return. Welcome aboard, Mr Osheen." Sheng and Osheen exchange a final salute, then both shake hands with Arion, and the deal is closed.

GM Notes

Episode 4, so Bennies refresh. I think we'll say that Wealth dice refresh every 4 posts too. I like the idea of refreshing Bennies and Wealth dice at the same time in my group games as well, one less thing to track.

The Solo encounter rolls for this session:

• Ship encounter leaving Jewell: Private small craft, medical emergency - doctor is ill. Arion can't help with that so I swap 'doctor is ill' for 'drive is broken'.
• Event (non-passenger): Broken fresher floods stateroom. That sounds like cause for a reaction check, which I decide ought to be a Spirit roll; critical failure, and the reaction check gives 'Panic/Anxiety'.
• Ship encounter arriving Mongo: Mining cutter, thinks Arion is a pirate based on rumour.
• Starport encounter Mongo: Potential contact, reaction roll of 8 confirms as a friend. Roll type on Patron table (Solo p. 59), soldier.
• World encounter Mongo: Invited to a posh function. Roll patron to see who the host is; local military officer, reaction 11.

The 'soldier' encounter offers a good chance to start getting the band back together, so since he is friendly, I decide that this NPC is Mr Osheen, a regular supporting character; the rest of it comes from One Page Mythic rolls, which I won't bore you with.

One full-fledged PC is enough for the moment, so based on Mr Osheen's origin in earlier campaigns as a 5150 grath, I assign him the SWADE Zombie statblock. In 5150, grath are shot on sight in Gaian Hegemony space, which is the 5150 equivalent of the Imperium; that seems a bit harsh, so I decided to interpret that as a Law Level check whenever Mr Osheen leaves the ship on an Imperial world. It also gave me an idea for the reason behind the party invitation, which you see above.