021. Bug Overload

• 23 December 2021
• soloRPG,
• mongoose

Mongoose moves brashly through the loose fleet of Raider ships in orbit. They don't seem to pay the Ultraviolet any mind. It doesn't hurt that it's covered in graffiti and looks like a piece of junk. "This system looks a bit on the rough side. I think hide your Founder Clan tattoo a bit?" Wayfinder touches her Savarin Clan mark on her neck, which is a silhouette of a solider planting a flag on a planet, the planet's ring framing the soldier in it's arch, the scene then framed in a semi-circle of five pointed stars. "Fair call. Looking forward to being on a Vital World again! Breath some fresh air for a change!"

Halia frowns, she always gets hayfever in these places. Recycled air though clean filters is the ideal.

She hails the Freya settlement, and get's an automated landing approval, just like that shithole, Prism, but this planet, Erebos is breathtaking.

The Ultraviolet enters the atmosphere. A much nicer atmospheric entry than the near disaster at Brink. There do seem to be fierce electrical storms, but not around their destination at the moment . Freya looks very industrial - Ultraviolet passes over vast rolling grasslands and then huge automated farms. There seem to be grazing animals, made of plant-matter or fungus? Ambulatory though! And small crystalline birds. Freya seems to home to thousands. The buildings are very blocky and utilitarian. There are some taller towers in the centre, but it sprawls out in neatly planned overlapping circular quadrants - with lots of automated trucks and monorails. The spaceport is slightly away from the rest of the settlement, which a large number of open air landing pads, most of them occupied by ships of all sizes and shapes.

They touchdown without a fuss, and prepare to leave the ship. Jools laughs at Mongoose putting on her respirator.

"Shut up! I don't want some weird alien pollen turning this visit into a snot filled haze."

Jools laughs again, packing the A.I. canister into a satchel. "Us evolved folk have the appropriate gene therapy to avoid such... fates."

"Evolved? Rich and privileged more like".

Jools rolls her eyes. "You do know owning your own ship means you aren't one of the downtrodden working class? That if you can afford a ship, you can afford to not get the sniffles in every system?"

"Let's say I didn't pay market price for this ship."

Jools raises an eyebrow, but when Halia doesn't elaborate further, Jools files that infomation away for later.

They exit the UV, with the A.I, nav computer, and Astrid. The air is thin, but the breeze is pleasant and Jools takes in a huge breath through her nose, eyes closed, arms outstretched... and a bug flies up her nose causing her to cough and splutter, her eyes watering. Halia doubles over laughing, hands on her knees. After wiping her face and nose, and scowling at Halia for a good long while, Jools breaks into a laugh too.

"OK OK. Laugh it up chuckles."

"Thanks. I am."

They enter a waiting monorail car, covered, but all the windows are open, as begins to race towards Freya proper.

Once in town, after checking in with the nav computer, they start asking some of the colourful characters they come across if they know an Evelin Barlowe? Goes by Zephyr?

[Gather Information -wits - 6 vs 1|1 - Strong Hit with a Match]

Jools stops someone racing by with a crate of circuit boards, "Hello! Can you help us? We've come from Sundown Orbital - hoping to catch up with a friend, Eveline Barlowe - I don..."

"You're friends with Evie?" the woman says, awkwardly shifting the crate, lifting a knee to brace it while she gets a better grip. "What do you want from her?? If she's promised to help someone else for free, I swear to Iron..."

The woman seems a bit distracted, mainly with holding a conversation and a heavy crate at the same time. Her nose is red and a bit runny, spacer-hayfever Halia assumes. She has the look of a pilot - wearing a flight suit, but mostly unzipped in the warm weather.

Jules interrupts her "no no, just wanted to say hi. Yes, we do need her help, but we can pay! Or help her in return" she looks at Halia for confirmation, and Halia nods back "Yeah, I'm... we're, in the salvage business and we've come across something that might be right up her alley"

"Sure sure, I'm headed to her now, follow me." she pushes the crate at Jools, who takes it with no apparent physical effort, props it on her left shoulder, just where the cybernetics start.

"I'm Overload."

"I'm Mongoose, that's Wayfinder."

"And you know Zephyr from Sundown? She hasn't mentioned you. I met her at Sundown, and I sure as heck don't know you"

"We're actually friends of a friend, from a settlement called Brink. They said Zephyr could help us..." At this Overload interrupts "I knew it! Another favour!"

Halia puts up her hands "But we can and will pay! We're not freeloaders. And we think she's going to love what we've brought her."

[Make a connection - 2 vs 10|9 - miss - pay the price]  
 - not sure what that is yet, will bank it

Overload scowls. "Look, she's way too busy already. She's doing too much for too many people. We don't need this. I'll take you to her, but I swear on iron, if she fucking works any more hours a day, or your shit brings shit on her, you're in for a world of hurt."

[End a session]

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