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Act I

Starts out waking the PCs from hibernation sleep. They have been on a transport ship and are being dropped off at Station 178, a space station that is currently orbiting a planet with a fresh start colony based around mining, the PCs / colonists end destination. All of them have signed a corporate contract for X amount of years. Minimum of 4. They also have the choice of doing more years, 20 max. The more years they choose the higher in the pecking order on the colony they will be. Of course they don’t know this until they arrive plus it prevents the PCs from going full murder hobo or going off on their own…maybe. If they violate the contract they will get a fine and bounty placed on them. Contract violators with a reward for anyone turning them in. Everyone chooses 4 years which will make a fun time when they get to the colony (Act II).

However all is not well on the space station when they arrive. The new colonists (60 in number) get inside the concourse and are told due to maintenance issues the shuttles cannot transport them to the planet at this time. They are told it should only be a few hours. The station crew wheel in several dolly’s with blankets and pillows handing them out. Another crew member hands out a few hotel cards for rooms but these are limited to the first ten.

Station 178 has quite a few things going on (Quest Lines):

3 hubs to the station. The Command Hub, the Docks, and the Processor. The Command Hub is a Novgorod station build. The docks have 12 bays and is mostly secure storage. The Processor is for ore from the planet below. Once a month a ship comes by to pick up the processed ore and drop off supplies.

Recently the Captain died and his second replaced him some weeks ago. The XO believes foul play was involved and has some crew approach the PCs for help in the investigation. This distances him from them so he can claim innocence in anything they find or do. The Captains corpse is in the morgue which is in life support before reclamation. Normally it would happen much quicker but the XO keeps delaying the paperwork. Everything points to a heart attack.

The crew have been working a lot of double shifts and have decided to strike. They are on the docks and have assembled into 5 large groups. Later in the Act some of the more furious crew start doing bad things. Attacking security when they have overwhelming numbers, breaking things. They believe things would be better under the new captain but it’s been the same thing going on for several months now. They get good overtime pay but have nothing to spend it on.

The station is currently short on a lot of luxury goods. Food and drink are plentiful but only the cheap kind. This has created a black market and has allowed a new drug to take over. Named Bliss it gives the user a quick euphoria and then leaves the user in a heightened state like caffeine overload. Easily annoyed.

A group of unsavory individuals are on the station. Neon hair, dark leather jackets. They have a ship in Bay 4 and have been drinking, assaulting people, making a lot of trouble. Anytime station security have arrested them they’ve been told to release them after they sober up. This has angered the crew and some in security will ask the PCs to look into it because anytime they try to bring it up to their own higher ups they get the response of ‘It’s being looked into.’ They give the PCs a small amount of money to help them with the promise of more if they can find out or stop it altogether.

Turns out the Neon hair group are smugglers and thieves. 22 in number. They had a good deal going with the previous captain (the current captain was in on it too) where they stored goods on the station. They have come to pick up their most recent goods but without the old captains passcodes can’t access it. They stole 4 crates from a company called Bio-Tec and have no idea what are in the crates but have been offered a large sum for them. These crates currently sit inside a secure warehouse alone, in the dark, waiting…

There’s a few more but just in case my players check these forums I’ll keep them quiet.

Session 1

The PCs having 2 colonial marshals, a medic, and a company agent decide to stop into the nearest security booth to chit chat. They are told about the Neon gang and given some cash for expenses. They immediately find a group in a bar and strike up a conversation while pouring them some drinks. One member realizes he’s getting information from the younger members and knows what’s going on and tells them all not to say a thing. He goes outside to make a report to the gang’s leader who instructs him to find out who the one asking questions is. He waits for our PC to leave the bar and then assaults him. The other PCs seeing this intervene and the 3 of them beat the guy into unconsciousness. The ones in the bar remain blissfully unaware thanks to a bad roll.

Our PCs take him to the security station and riffle through his belongings. The medic manages to find a small metal cylinder under his arm and cuts it out. Curious as to what this is they ask the security manager if they can borrow the man for a bit. Fed up with the gang he tells them to keep him if he can have the guy’s jacket. The PCs put some random clothes on the thug and bring him to a hotel room where they tie up and gag him in the bathtub. Examining the cylinder they realize it’s a small storage device that will work with a computer. The company agent gets into it and finds a lot of information regarding the gang’s activities. Turns out the thug was keeping tabs on his crew in case he could make a pay day out of it or get him out of trouble. The second newest job just has ‘Bio-Tec.4BP.S178.W14.’

With the thug out of it they take their time and decipher the code while looking at the stations map. Figuring out warehouse 14 must have something the gang wants they wonder over to the docks hub. This place is huge and the maps are pretty bad for figuring out an easy way to get around. They pass several groups of crew workers shouting themselves hoarse about inequality and other issues. Staying away they find the warehouse area and walk past a Neon gang member sitting at the bottom of some stairs. After walking by, one of the PCs decides to head back and talk with the gang member. The others head into the warehouse portion and start looking around.

Meanwhile our marshal convinces the thug that he should talk to the gang leader and offer his assistance. The man leads him to bay 4 and gets the meeting. The guy listens and believes the marshals words stating he’s there for a pickup the previous captain planned but since his death is incomplete. However it’s inconsequential and he refuses to leave until he has his merchandise. Our marshal states he’ll find out what the holdup is and warns that some people are coming in the near future concerning the gang but doesn’t have more information at this time. States there may be a leak in the gang.

He leaves and joins the other PCs looking for the warehouse. They find it but have no way to access it or the controls. They consider doing a spacewalk to see if they can get into it but decide not to (Very fortunate as someone may have put a mine in the emergency release outside. They also wouldn’t have the code to the inner door).

Heading back to the hotel they decide to check on the gang member and possibly get more information. They find him conscious but figure out he doesn’t know much more to help them. They do learn of the groups history and how they are smugglers, thieves, pirates, etc. whatever opportunity they have. A knock at the door ends the session.

Brilliant story lines! Keeping true to the system with a lot that can go wrong and little going right. I love a setting where a good day for a character is a hot meal and sleeping in a comfy bed. Hope your players aren't reading for spoilers and you can share more backstory once you've played through! Looking for more content for this game.