Arion 1-16: Revelations

“When every one is dead the Great Game is finished. Not before. Listen to me till the end." - Rudyard Kipling, Kim

Hollis Highport, 1106 Week 01

Hollis: A370642-C NS De Ni CsIm GG

Arion, Cori, and Mr Osheen sit down at Officer Muhammed's table at the cafe, with her and the tall woman from the dockers' godown.

"One thing you learn early on in law enforcement," Muhammed says conversationally, "Is how to tell when people are going to say something incriminating. And if those people are your friends, you learn to leave before they say anything you have to do something about. I recommend the Danish." She stands, smiles at everyone and marches off purposefully.

Arion looks at the tall woman.

"Okay," he says. "This has to be about you, because my friends can talk to me anytime. What do you want with us?" He doesn't bother asking for a name. Nobody ever gives you their real name anyway, that much he has learned.

"I have a message from the Consulate, and an offer," she says. "First, the message. The gang boss is right, there's no way you can smuggle across the border, and we're not going to let you set up a cell on our side. If you want information, ask us nicely. I'm having that message delivered personally to Mr Karagoz right now; I'm sure he's listening in, so I'll give that a moment."

Through his earpiece, Arion hears a shouted warning from Major Sheng, then silenced gunfire and screams, indistinct voices, and a couple of slow, deliberate shots.

"We're blown," Karagoz says. "Escape and evade. Sheng, with me." That last tells Arion that Sheng, too, is still alive.

"Ah," says the tall woman. "I see the two of them are more alert than I gave them credit for. No matter. Now, the offer; that's for you, Ms Ganzfeld. There's no need to keep on working for these deadheads. Your talents would be appreciated so much more by my superiors."

Arion stares at Cori in shock, as he realises both women must be psions. Judging by their expressions of concentration, there is another, purely mental, level of conversation going on. After a long moment, Cori looks at Arion, then the woman, and at last says simply: "Fine. See you in another life, Arion." She sighs for things that might have been, then, with absolute certainty: "I would've rocked your world."

The tall woman smiles an unpleasant, cruel smile, and stands to leave with Cori.

"Don't try to stop us," she says. "That wouldn't end well for you." Arion takes in the unusually hard-looking baristas inside the cafe, who are now all watching him intently, and the sudden shortage of other customers.

"Back to the ship," Arion says to Mr Osheen. "Fast." And they move off, as quickly as they can manage without attracting too much attention.

Arion takes stock as they head back to the docking bay, where with any luck Karagoz and Sheng will meet them and they can leave the highport. Muhammed is obviously working with either the tall woman, the docker gang, or both. She fought alongside them against the gangers, but Arion imagines any gang has members the boss wants to get rid of, and what better way to demonstrate she isn't working with them than to shoot a couple?

Cori is off with the Zho; maybe that's because she's tired of being suppressed inside the Imperium, maybe it's a set-up to get an Imperial psionic inside the Consulate. There's no point asking Karagoz, he realises, because if it is an Imperial plan, nobody whose mind could be read would know about it. For the first time he wonders who was really in charge of the mission, and what it actually was.

Above my pay grade, he decides wearily. I'm just the bus driver. At that moment, his commlink buzzes, and he accepts the call. It's Muhammed.

"Heads up," she says. "The gangers are waiting for you in the docking bay."

"And I should trust you why?" he asks, bitterly.

"Because you're a fun date, and I owe you this much. Listen, you spacers come and go, I have to live here, and neither the Port Authority nor the gangers are going away anytime soon." He can hear the smile in her voice, but then there's always a smile in her voice, and in another moment of sudden clarity he wonders how deep the cheerfulness really goes, and what's underneath it. "Be safe," she finishes.

"You too," he says, and to his surprise he means it. But she has already broken the connection.

Up ahead, there are people in overalls, with wrenches and knives. Beside him, Mr Osheen is grinning fiendishly, in his element.

"Just another day at the office," Arion sighs.

GM Notes

A few Mythic checks were needed to move this on. Was Muhammed working with someone? Yes, and a couple of other checks told me this was the gangers. (I didn't see that coming, but it was a logical development from episode 15.) Was the Zho going to be straight with the Imperials? Yes, and the roll was 22 - doubles - so triggered a random event; NPC Action, Oppress Intrigue. That's what led to the firefight involving Karagoz and Sheng, which as only NPCs were involved I resolved as a Quick Encounter offscreen. Karagoz and Sheng both rolled ridiculously high though.

The Zho tries to Persuade Cori to go over to the Dark Side, and the detail of that is offscreen because only they know about it and neither is a viewpoint character. In game terms, however, the Zho rolls a 17 for Persuasion thanks to Aces, and Cori rolls an 8 - also with Aces, but the Zho still gets success and two raises. So Cori is away with the Zho, although as you see above, we don't know why.

Finally, is the ganger boss going to attack Arion and company in broad daylight near the docks? Yes, yes he is; I was more or less expecting that, he'd lose too much face otherwise.

It looks like the next episode is going to be another fight. The harem comedy is pretty much trashed at this point, and I think I'm about ready to move on from Interstellar Rebels, although the NPC Variants are handy, so they can stay.