Characters: All
NPC: Kagfak, Major Elloekothe, Egz Aerugurzae, Uengghae, Major
Arsashaammu
Location: Pack of Daggers
System: Zannokh
In attempt to avoid suspicion, Gvarokh has decided to take a slightly different
route to Daama. Rather than go to Ronni and risk someone looking them up and
doing the math, Gvarokh has chosen to go to the sparsely populated (900+
people), and little patrolled, Zannokh (Vland 1802).
While the world served as the launching point for the Gemid invasion, that
mission's success has rendered this world's importance to minimal. Zannokh is
surrounded by more interesting worlds (Newcastle, Gemid, Ronni) and thus serves
as a refueling station for those ships unable to skip over it on their way to
more important worlds. There are no gas giants; local fuel comes from ice tugs
working in the outer reaches of the system.
But Gvarokh decides to skip the starport and opt for ocean refueling. And while
the fuel is purifying, he wants to strip the paint job. Slade is unhappy about
this decision as it taxes the fuel purification plant, but he can spend the week
during the next jump cleaning it.
The planet's geography is unusual. There is but one land mass, and 90% of it
lies in the northern hemisphere. Mountains primarily run around the equator with
a few chains extending north to mid-latitude. The starport, sole settlement,
and Confederation outpost lie at the northernmost reach of a bay. During the
decel burn, Gvarokh spots an island near the coast that's roughly at the
antipode of the starport and gives the order to put the ship down in that
vicinity.
Pack of Daggers either isn't detected or just plain ignored during its
descent and has now landed on the south side (facing away from the mainland,
though it's uninhabited) of the island as close to ocean as is feasibly
possible. Zannokh has no moons, so tidal action is a non-factor.
It's near dusk, hot (32°C, 89.6°F), and the air is thin (51% of
standard) and clear. The ship's exterior floodlights are turned on so that
people can see while they work.
Slade grabs Vincent and Chuck to assist him with the refueling: dragging a hose
down to the ocean, connecting it to the pump, monitoring the purification plant
readings, occasionally clearing debris from the sieve from the mouth of the
hose, flushing out the effluent waste from the plant.
The rest of the crew is put to work removing the temporary paint job.
With the thin atmosphere unable to retain its heat, temperatures have plummeted: 11°C, 51.8°F. Fortunately, the "all hands on deck" approach to stripping the paint has paid off and the crew is done. The refueling process is 80% done.
Input pressure on the fuel hose has dropped off. It's clogged. Clouds have
rolled in, but the temperature has continued to drop (7.2°C, 45°F).
Since he's going to have to wade in up to his waist to reach the end of the
hose, Chuck opts to put on his combat armor to stay warm-—the ship doesn't
have dry suits or SCUBA gear.
Dougok volunteers to go. "Someone needs to watch my packmate's tail."
Gvarokh tells Uengghae to join them and take the air/raft. "Be sure to put a
safety cable on Chuck to make sure we get him back no matter what. And since we
have no idea about the lifeforms here, I want everyone in combat armor and
armed. I'll monitor your progress from the ship."
"Crap," Chuck mutters. "I'd forgotten all about beasties." He shakes his head.
"Been out of the service too long."
After Chuck attaches a simple winch to the pedestal mount on the air/raft, the
trio get their armor and gear. Armor and air/raft lights are on as Uengghae
drives the air/raft down to the length of the intake hose and Dougok helps
attach Chuck to the safety line. Chuck then goes over the side, finds the hose,
and walks along its length to the end. Dougok lets the rope play out two meters
to give Chuck some space from the raft.
Once he finds the end of the hose, Chuck signals to Vincent to shut off the
pump. He lifts the hose—it's half a meter in diameter—and brings it
to the surface to inspect it. Most of the debris has fallen off with the
termination of the suction, but not all of it. Caught in the sieve is some
fibrous seaweed and a small (25 cm) creature dining on it. The creature looks
vaguely amphibian: four legs with webbed toes and a large tail equal to the
length of its body. Small, saw-like teeth for tearing through the seaweed.
"Awww. Poor little fella got his leg caught while eating—"
Suddenly, a much larger version of the creature leaps out of the water and
tackles Chuck. He loses his grip on the hose and the two of them disappear
beneath the water.
Dougok and Uengghae spring to action. Dougok grabs his ACR and scans the water
trying to get a clear shot at the creature. But with poor illumination and the
struggle being underwater, it's difficult. Meanwhile, Uengghae puts a lock on
the winch to keep Chuck from getting dragged away.
Gvarokh is pleased to see the two of them react so fast. "Do you see him? Do
you have a clear shot?"
"Hard to tell who's who," Dougok says, keeping his eyes on the struggle.
Gvarokh says over the internal comm, "Man down. Elloe, Simrii, Vlad, and Kagfak,
suit up and see if you can help out.
Uengghae barks over the comm, then dives into the water. From Dougok's
perspective, all that does is make things more chaotic. Twenty seconds go by
and then Uengghae emerges from the water. He reaches down and pulls up Chuck,
apparently unscathed.
"Thanks, buddy," he says between pants to Uengghae. "That sucker was heavy.
Never would've gotten her off me if it wasn't for you."
"Anything for packmate." He pauses for breath. "Besides, armor kept my fur dry."
This gets a chuckle out of Chuck. "Yeah, good thing for that."
"Good thing you have armor on, too. Kept you from drowning."
"Yeah it did!"
"How you know it female?"
"Just a guess. That was probably its pup stuck on the hose sieve. Momma probably
thought I was gonna eat the little thing."
Gvarokh asks, "You ok, Chuck?"
"I'm fine, Captain. Just a little winded." He walks over to the hose and lifts
it. "The critter is gone. Safe to fire it up again, Vincent." He drops the hose
back into the water. "If that happens again, someone else can go clean it."
Uengghae laughs.
Chuck is about to wade into shore when the rope goes taut. Uengghae unhitches
him, then Dougok helps Uengghae back into the air/raft.
Gvarokh tells the rest of the crew, who hadn't made much progress getting
dressed anyway, that they can stand down.
Vincent fires up the pump, and everything seems back to normal.
Refueling is completed. While the purification runs through one last cycle, the hose is reeled in—from shore—and stowed away.
Slade gives the all clear on fuel, and Gvarokh gives the order to depart.
Pack of Daggers reaches safe jump distance without any interference and then jumps.
Character: Gvarokh
NPC: Major Elloekothe, Egz Aerugurzae, Major Arsashaammu, Chuck
Location: Pack of Daggers
System: Jumpspace between Zannokh and Daama
Gvarokh and Elloekothe are sharing a meal in crew lounge when they hear Chuck
shout, "What the hell?"
"This doesn't concern you," is the reply. The voice is unfamiliar at first, but
its very unfamiliarity is its giveaway: Egz.
Gvarokh and Elloekothe leap to their paws and race out of the crew lounge and
down the short hall to sickbay. The door is open. Inside, they can see Chuck
pummeling Egz, who's on the floor, naked. Leaning against the wall, clearly
shaken, with a scratch on her face and a ripped t-shirt is Irma. She seems to be
fumbling with her pants, which are ripped in places.
Elloekothe growls, but doesn't take action. She merely says, "We need him alive,
Chuck."
Chuck stops mid-punch.
Gvarokh looks over to Irma with sincere concern. He's about to say something
but then realizes he's not the right person to say it right now. Instead, he
sub-vocalizes to get Elloe's attention. Once he does, he gives a nod in Irma's
direction. She crosses the room and puts an arm around Irma and guides her into
the back of sickbay and activates the privacy screen.
Gvarokh places a paw on Chuck's shoulder. He stands and backs up a step. Egz is
on the floor breathing heavily. His right eye is already starting to swell.
There's blood trickling from his nose, mouth, and abrasions on his face.
Gvarokh says, "Get dressed. Now."
Egz replies, "Captain, if you'll let me—"
"Shut up. I don't care."
Egz gathers up his clothes, his tail between his legs, and begins to get
dressed.
To Chuck, Gvarokh says with a predatory grin, "Please help me take our guest
upstairs. He gets a new room for the rest of the trip."
Chuck continues to glare at Egz. His breathing is slowly returning to normal.
"With pleasure, sir."
As soon as Egz is dressed, Chuck grabs him by the scruff of the neck and yanks
him out of the room.
Characters: Gvarokh, Vincent, Slade, Simrii, Dougok, Lakir
NPC: Chuck, Egz Aerugurzae
Location: Pack of Daggers middle deck
System: Jumpspace between Zannokh and Daama
Simrii is in the crew lounge sipping his coffee while Dougok is preparing his.
Both are just waking up after sleeping off a very long and stressful day on
Zannokh. They hear a commotion in the corridor outside and move to the door to
investigate.
Vincent and Slade are on their way to the crew lounge from their respective
staterooms. Slade is discussing the day's work plan for stripping the fuel
purification plant and stops mid-sentence—and mid-stride—when he
spots Egz getting shoved out of sickbay into the wall on the far side. Chuck is
immediately on him. He grabs Egz by the scruff of the neck and leads him down
the corridor. Gvarokh follows closely behind, a scowl of anger visible from
light years away.
Loud enough for all to hear, Chuck answers the question before anyone can ask
it. "He attacked Irma."
Egz's face is bloodied, his right eye swelling closed.
Dougok asks, "Is she ok? I'll go peek in on her, see if she needs help."
Gvarokh stops and snaps, "No. That would be a very bad idea. She's already
getting the help she needs from Elloekothe, and a male sticking his head in
right now will definitely not help. Particularly, a vargr male."
Gvarokh hopes that Dougok realizes that the harshness of his reply and anger in
his voice is because of Egz, not Dougok, but he's too distracted to worry about
it right now and resumes his march behind Chuck.
Slade and Vincent make their way into the galley after the corridor is clear.
While Slade heads to the coffee maker, Vincent finds a bag of microwaveable
popcorn and puts it in the microwave.
Dougok watches them go, ears flattened against his head. A moment later, he
decides to follow them.
Upon reaching the staircase iris valve, Chuck pauses while Gvarokh hits the open
button. Once it's open, Chuck guides Egz through. Gvarokh follows, and the trio
make their way up the stairs to the top deck.
Lakir is exercising, jogging up and down the stairs. He pauses his routine and
watches the procession, making note of the anger etched into Gvarokh's and
Chuck's faces.
Chuck says, "He attacked Irma," as he passes Lakir and completes his march up to
the top deck and into the Bridge.
Lakir shakes his head, cancels his exercise, and heads to the galley.
Characters: Gvarokh, Vincent, Dougok
NPC: Chuck, Egz Aerugurzae
Location: Pack of Daggers upper deck
System: Jumpspace between Zannokh and Daama
Chuck marches Egz to the upper deck. He goes straight from the bridge to the low
berth room. Gvarokh is right behind them.
Once inside the room, Chuck shoves Egz against the far wall and then starts
prepping one of the low berths for him.
Chuck asks Gvarokh, "Do you want me to activate the medical treatment cycle?"
Gvarokh ponders the question a moment, then says, "Do it."
"Captain, this isn't necessary," Egz implores. "Can't we discuss this?"
About this time, Vincent and Dougok arrive and stand in the entranceway. Vincent
has a bag of popcorn, and the aroma is tickling Dougok's nose. Upon noticing
his intrigued nose bobbing around and subsequent salivating, Vincent shares his
popcorn with Dougok. He takes it with a grateful nod.
Gvarokh says, "You have 60 seconds after I give you the go ahead to explain why
I didn't see what I thought I saw. Before you start, do note that such an
explanation has to not make me, and the guy who you need to not screw up, even
angrier." He then jabs his thumb at the two in the doorway and continues, "It
also has to not make them laugh, as that will make the two of us," indicating
Chuck and himself, "angrier."
After a pregnant pause to let all of that sink in, Gvarokh says, "Go."
Egz's ears are down, his tail between his legs. He swallows hard, the pleading
look in his eyes still there, then begins. "I thought that the reason why Soks
hired you to rescue me was that you and your crew were part of our faith. I had
reason to hope as during my escape as I had a brief, but friendly, chat with
Vincent, and he gave me no reason to think otherwise. At the very least, seeing
a mixed race crew with a charismatic vargr in charge, I thought that you were
former Touzagh and that it would be ok if I...I did ask her if she was already
mated to someone on the ship. She said, 'No,' so I..." His jaw trembles a bit.
As his desperation has grown, so has the volume of his voice. "You have to
understand that I've been imprisoned for a very long time, and this sudden
release from captivity has opened up a whole flood of emotions—"
Dougok's ears fold back, and he growls.
"Berth is ready when you are, Captain," Chuck announces tersely, his focus
squarely on the berth's control panel.
Gvarokh thinks for a moment, trying to figure out what the correct thing to say.
Ultimately, he decides to keep it short.
"Weak answer. You tried to justify what I saw, not explain how I misunderstood.
I don't care how long you have been hard up. There is no excuse for rape. And
assaulting one of my crew members makes it infinitely worse. We will wake you up
when it is time to deliver you."
Chuck and Gvarokh each grab one of Egz's arms and forcibly lead him into the low
berth. Egz mutters, "No," in weak protest.
"It's best if you don't struggle or move around a lot," Chuck says with obvious
insincere concern. "Doing so only complicates the initiation sequence, and if
you want to live, you don't want complications."
That does the trick. Egz lies still.
Gvarokh steps back and says, "Whenever you're ready, Chuck."
Chuck activates the cryo sequence. The lid closes on Egz, his expression one of
resignation.
A few minutes later Chuck announces, "Cryo successful."
Characters: Gvarokh
NPC: Elloekothe
Location: Pack of Daggers captain's quarters
System: Jumpspace between Zannokh and Daama
After taking some time making sure Chuck was going to be ok, Gvarokh made an
effort to back off his own anger. But he held on to his resolve. Rather than
barge in on Elloekothe while she was seeing to Irma, he sent a text for her to
come see him when Irma was ok to be left alone. A couple of hours had passed,
and now she was in his quarters, standing, arms folded across her chest.
"How is she?"
With a certain professional detachment, she replies, "All things considered,
she's ok. Between her struggles and Chuck's arrival, Egz's attack was still in
its initial stage. As horrible as it was, the psychological damage could've
been worse."
Gvarokh says, "I have no experience dealing with that type of trauma. I am going
to have to heavily rely on your input for anything Irma might need. I'll do
whatever's needed; I just don't know what that is.
"Also, if you haven't noticed, Chuck can be overly chivalrous. Please let me
know if I need to reign him in. He's got a good heart and a pretty good head,
but a 'damsel in distress' might be too much."
She tilts her head to the side, thinking about what Gvarokh said. "Ahh, took me
a moment to recall that human idiom. He came to the aid of a female packmate.
I'll make sure he doesn't see this as some fairy tale.
"As for Irma, there isn't a psychologist AI to help her deal with this, because
this is a corsair ship and why would a corsair give a damn about anyone's
feelings. I'm not professionally trained to deal with trauma either; I only have
the basics. For starters, she'll need privacy and space. She should only be met
with in large public areas where she won't feel trapped, which could be tough
on a starship. If she has to be alone in a room with a male, the door should be
kept open. I'll make it a point to chaperone her for the rest of the jump to
monitor her progress."
Gvarokh gestures for Ellokothe to take a seat across from him. She hesitates at
first, but then accepts it.
Once she's seated, he says, "I want to know everything. Don't leave anything
out. Although I have an idea what I'm dealing with, I want to make sure that
there aren't any further surprises."
Elloekothe nods, then asks, "Got any uekhfarsal?"
Gvarokh's ears go up in surprise. He hasn't seen Elloekothe drink alcohol since
she's been on board. He stands, grabs a bottle and two glasses, then returns to
the table. He pours each of them a drink. She downs the first, then pours a
second, but this one she holds onto, only casually lapping from it.
"In 1104, corsairs were hired by the Church of the Chosen Ones to take
Newcastle. It was an easy target. Local defenses were soft, and the Imperium was
distracted by events to spinward that would later lead to the Fifth Frontier
War. The Ngath Confederation was busy consolidating its borders. Its attention
was focused on the Sunggoe Combine and the Kishadiku Empire.
"The vargr that was put in charge of Newcastle was Onggzou, who was the church's
listener for the area, including Anarsi subsector. He claimed that being the
'chosen ones' brought along with it a moral responsibility. He claimed that it
was time for the vargr to guide other races to enlightenment. No one outside of
his immediate pack of disciples knew what that meant. As a reward for his
service to the church, and acknowledging his charisma, he was given Newcastle
and instructed to spread the faith.
"Onggzou presented his ideas to Newscastle's leaders. They laughed at him and
were summarily executed. Others that respectfully disagreed were imprisoned.
Onggzou's disciples took over the roles or hired administrators from within the
church's pack. The human populace was then forced to follow not only the
church's teachings, but Onggzou's interpretation as well.
"Onggzou told the humans that since vargr were the Ancients' chosen race, they
would have to obey their wishes if they wanted to be part of the Ancients'
divine plan."
She pauses to take a drink.
"Obviously, the people resisted, but they weren't really prepared for what was
to come. Children were subjected to indoctrination in schools. Adults were
beaten or executed, depending on the severity of their transgressions. Onggzou
became convinced that the only way to bridge the divide was to develop a race
of hybrids of the two species. Lacking the technology to genetically engineer
something like that, Onggzou decreed that it would have to be done the old
fashioned way. As there were no humans willing to go along with this idea, he
resorted to abducting certain members of the populace who seemed like promising
candidates and raped them."
She pauses to take another drink.
"Word eventually leaked out to the Ngath Confederation what was going on, and
even they were disgusted. In 1111, corsairs were sent in to Newcastle, and they
took the system from the church. Onggzou's regime was dismantled, and his
barbaric practices ended. As a form of apology to the people of Newcastle,
Onggzou was publicly executed along with many others who perpetuated his crimes.
"Egz Aerugurzae was one of his disciples who managed to avoid execution. I don't
know how or why, but he was only given life in prison.
"Egz had been in the Church for fifteen years by the time the original Newcastle
invasion occurred. Before the invasion, he'd spent most of his time in
education. One of his pupils was Soks Dhunkul.
"Soks was a business major, the orphaned child of corsair parents. He'd spent
time with various foster packs, but never really bonded with anyone. He buried
himself in his studies and received early admission to a university on
Kishadiku. The church's philosophy appealed to Soks, and Egz was instrumental in
guiding him, particularly over to Onggzou's interpretation.
"After university, Egz worked for the church for a few years in their finance
division. But the corsair blood in him made him strike out on his own. He left
on good terms with the Church. He remained friends with Egz, and the two kept
in constant contact. We don't know if Soks ever took part in the rape of
Newcastle, but we do know from his criminal record, that he has had dealings
with the Touzagh and they were notoriously involved in the slave trade. Soks was
one of their brokers for offloading captives and merchandise."
Elloekothe pauses to let Gvarokh digest what he's heard so far. After a moment,
she says, "I can see that you're puzzled. 'How can anyone be dumb enough to
think that humans and vargr can mate and produce offspring?' The answer is:
They're not! Anyone with a tech level six biology education knows that. It's
just a cover story, a lie, to justify their perversion. With a high enough
charisma, you can get anyone to follow you and believe everything you say. And
if the resultant ideology persists long enough, it becomes tradition.
History—human and vargr—is full of examples: Sex with a virgin will
cure your disease, eating your enemies will give you their strength, drinking
blood will grant you immortality, the gods demand the sacrifice of sentients in
order for crops to grow, you have to give all your wealth to the tyrant so that
he can protect you from enemies of the state, the leader is a god and thus
infallible, the gods talk to the leader so everything he says is a directive
from them, vote for me because my opponent is secretly allied with our
enemies—"
"Ok, ok, I get it."
"Sorry. It's a sore subject."
"I can see that. Given what you've said, how much difficulty are we going to
have because of what Chuck did? The freezer should put him back together well
enough, but I don't think Soks is gonna be very charitable when he finds out
what happened."
She nods. "Egz will wait til later to complain about what Chuck did. Soks won't
do anything right away because Egz is fully healed and free, but he'll exact
some form of revenge later. I doubt he'll be confrontational; he'll bring it up
as way of probing you for weakness. Telling him that violence against your pack
won't be tolerated will be respected, but he's conniving. He'll find some way to
exact revenge: Someone will have an accident or get arrested."
"What is Soks' bigger plan? He stated outright that he doesn't know us. Sure we
freed his dear old mentor, but that is just a first step; it can't be the main
thing he will require from us. He is going to want something much more
significant for us to get that good word. What is he going to want?"
"Correct. Freeing his mentor was a big step. The fact that you did it through
subterfuge shows that you're savvy. But that just grants you the privilege of
working with him—he has no patience for amateurs. He's going to want a
piece of the action or some leverage that grants him more power. It all depends
on what he sees in you. If he thinks an alliance with you will be profitable,
he'll settle for money. If he thinks you're weak, he'll sell you out to whomever
grants him the most favor."
Next: Arrival in Daama System