Firefly: Blood, Sweat and Tears

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Spectrum
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Firefly: Blood, Sweat and Tears

Post by Spectrum »

Fēngshōu (Bountiful Harvest), out near the Dragon's Spine mountains, is the major breadbasket on Sahadeva and of importance to the rest of the Dragon's Egg planet out in the Blue Sun System. There was a mechanical crisis a few years ago, causing a season of bad crops, which nearly led to starvation of the entire moon. Only through costly intervention were fatalities kept to a minimum. What passes for a local government isn't eager to have that happen again. The Blood Sweat has come on Fengshou recently and people are eager to put an end to it.

The Harvest train line represents the best way to get supplies in and out of Fengshou. Unfortunately, the local raiders realize that as well and make it a frequent target. The mountain range is full of little nook and crannies that allow them to hide pretty effectively. While security has been able to fend off attacks they haven't been as successful in actually ending the threat.

The tale of our band of heroes begins.
Last edited by Spectrum on Wed Nov 23, 2016 11:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
We rise from the ashes so that new legends can be born.
Spectrum
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Re: Firefly: Blood, Sweat and Tears

Post by Spectrum »

Takashi Rayne

It was a pleasant surprise to hear from Yaneta Krasnoff, your former second in command. While your immediate command section had agreed with your choice, very few of them had the same political support that you did. They were cast to the winds, their careers effectively over, no longer seen as trustworthy. Perhaps that was the hardest part of all of this, they had followed you and sacrificed, whether on the battlefield against the Independents or against the war tribunals of the Alliance, and you walked away in much better condition.

You hadn't heard from her for the past few years, getting lost in the vastness of the Verse. She had settled down out on Sahadeva, found herself a man and were working on a bucketful of kids. Hard to imagine the duralloy bitch as a mother. She sure took care of your crew though. She was desperate and maybe that's why she contacted you, her last hope. The kids, James and Melody were sick, a plague that they called the 'Blood Sweats', and she was hoping that you were close enough to get Alliance medication in. It sounded like the last hope of a desperate mother. Hope that you get there soon enough, not exactly an easy trip.

On your way out, you get a notice from your older brother- Sato. A request for a few words before you go. Not unusual but also not something high on the list of things that you want to explain why you chose to ignore it either.
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Spectrum
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Re: Firefly: Blood, Sweat and Tears

Post by Spectrum »

Tracy Iskellian

A few months ago, you settled into a decent job working for the rail line on the way to Fēngshōu. Decent pay (enough to pay for room, board and your intoxicant of choice), long hours and while it wasn't the most brilliant work you've ever done, enough attention had to be paid that you weren't given that long to stop and think. In other words, a decent job for someone that didn't want to stop and consider it.

Lately though, the work has turned even more difficult. You've been rising through the seniority levels faster than you would have wanted, people deciding that the risk of the 'Blood Plague' wasn't worth the pay. Can't spend the credits if you're dead. Bandits are turning out to be more dangerous than its worth too. You've tried so hard to ignore the drama around you but its even starting to edge through that tough carapace.

"Hey Tracy, you ready to go?" chirps Kim Bok from somewhere behind you. Way too cute and chipper for their own good. Still haven't figured out if Kim's a guy or a gal, nobody's given you much of a clue either. Eh, the wet will be wrung out from behind Kim's ears before too long.
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Spectrum
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Re: Firefly: Blood, Sweat and Tears

Post by Spectrum »

Shepard Atreju

After give years of the quiet and thoughtful isolation of the Abbey, the train station is a thriving hive of humanity. People zipping this way and that, a constant barrage of sights, sounds and scents (ewww, maybe could do without that scent) of humanity in all of its diversity. What once was a normality has become a source of overexposure, so much to experience.

You're at the ticket vendor, trying to pay for a ticket out to Fēngshōu. Those were some folks in desperate times, the 'Blood Sweat' a danger to that entire city and potentially beyond that. People needing to be set right with God on their way out the door. He indeed works in mysterious ways.

A sermon comes to mind from Shepard Dillon: Why? Why are the innocent punished? Why the sacrifice? Why the pain? There aren't any promises. Nothing's certain. Only that some get called, some get saved. She won't ever know the hardship and grief for those of us left behind. We commit these bodies to the void... with a glad heart. For within each seed, there is the promise of a flower. And within each death, no matter how small, there's always a new life. A new beginning. Amen.

"Hey Shepard, you gonna buy a ticket?"

Between your bag of meager personal belongings, the vegetables, the chicken cage, the goat on a leash, that doesn't leave you many hands at all.
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Spectrum
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Re: Firefly: Blood, Sweat and Tears

Post by Spectrum »

Nadia Patel

Trains. Trains are safe. Trains don't suddenly burst into flame when they try to reenter atmo- they're already there. Trains also have nowhere to run when there's a heat seeking rocket aimed at them. Trains can jump their track causing horrible wrecks. Trains aren't that safe after all.

Breathe. Breathe. You can do this, you can get on the train and get back to Voyager port, find a ship that's looking for a short term pilot and get off this rock. So you have to go through this Fēngshōu stop on the way there. No big deal. You should be at Voyager tomorrow at the latest.

That is, if this line to get a ticket would keep moving. How hard is it to buy a ticket? Really? Looking around, high intelligence, basic hygiene and an untangled family line aren't requirements.

Dusteaters
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Doctor Malsyn
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Re: Firefly: Blood, Sweat and Tears

Post by Doctor Malsyn »

Tracy Iskellian
HP: 1

The giant of a woman dosn't interrupt her routine, forcing Kim to wait in agonizing silence only broken by the sounds of tools being tossed into a metal box. 'Sockets... Damn, forgot to replace that quarter-inch at our last stop. No time now. Ugh... There's the All-screwdriver. Need to check it's settings again later, the hexagonals were giving me trouble... Code-reader seems charged up. Got all my... yeah, there they are. Shiny.' With all her essentials packed away, she reaches for the most important tool of the bunch. Her standard, 10" adjustable spanner. Useful in virtually any situation and capable of turning the most common bolts in the whole damn alliance. She slips it into her tool-belt separately, and slams her toolbox shut.

'All set'

Shutting the box is the only answer the small-framed individual receives, which isn't much less then her usual reply, as she moves to brush past them. In her own mind, Tracy has decided to consider them a woman today. Or more accurately, an annoying teenage girl with a gratingly high pitched voice. Tracy never really liked them, their cute face and chipper tone equating to inexperience and nativity in her own books. But she wasn't going to say anything to Kim one way or the other. To be honest, she didn't really say much to anyone at all really.

The quieter she is, the dumber she comes across, and the dumber she seems, the less people decide to ask her questions. And that suited her just fine.

"How long this time?" She managed to grumble out, her naturally gruff voice doing all the work for her.
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Spectrum
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Re: Firefly: Blood, Sweat and Tears

Post by Spectrum »

Will Xanatos

For this little section of the Verse, it's not a bad job. You've been on the payroll for the station for a while now, acting as general security on one train or another. Sometimes it real quiet, other times well.. there are some bad folk out there and you're there to make sure that they think better about doing bad things. Nice folk, quiet folk, generally.

Not sure what'd you do if the Blood Sweat epidemic came for you. Not sure what you can do. Most of the symptoms are easy to see when they manifest, but supposedly people are contagious long before that. Lots of pressure from on high to do something, but that something isn't well decided on, but you've got to do something.

This time around, there's a lot more security on board. People that work for some fancy doctor and his assistant and through them, some government types. They've even claimed an entire car for hauling freight. Lots of hush hush, not eager to spread secrets other than you don't need to worry about it. No, really.
Don't get on the train yet.
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ZenGypsy
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Re: Firefly: Blood, Sweat and Tears

Post by ZenGypsy »

Takashi Rayne
Hero Points: One. Luck: Two.
Conditions: None.


Since his release from Charleston, Takashi had spent some time living in a sub-let in Eastdown Docks, surrounded by tramp freighter captains, tradesmen, brokers and the downtrodden looking to make their fortunes out in the 'verse, it was easy to lose oneself. When he got the message from Krasnoff it had been a kindness, bittersweet, but a kindness still. Too long at rest.

He'd been talking to the gardener at Southdown abbey, who had spoken of faith, and the opportunities it afforded a man. When Takashi lowered his head, shaking it, the gardener wearily mumbled something about how when he spoke of faith, people assumed he was speaking of god. The mag-lev rumbled as it rounded the rails, headed towards the Rayne compound, shaking Takashi from his reverie. Faith. The Shepard wasn't talking about God, or some higher power, he was speaking of faith, in one's self.

He had made a decision at that moment, he couldn't continue doing as he'd done. Hiding, from himself, his shame, his family. He'd fought against the Independents during the War, but his time in Charleston, watching the Tribunals dishonor, discredit the 137th, his men; he had come to understand the appeal of the open sky, of freedom.

He'd let the lease on his sub-let expire, some dock-side slum lord had tried to extort another two month's rent from him, the negotiations turned ... hostile, but only for a moment. Takashi's sidearm had been the great persuader, all his belonging's packed into a bag, a small box of fresh fruit, a gift from the abbey's garden sat atop it all. He'd made a decision, trade his two month's rent and ride in steerage to Sahadeva, but before he went he needed to talk to his brother, Sato, the patron of the Rayne clan. As fate would have it, his comm pinged with a message that Sato wished to speak to him.

The confrontation with the slum lord and his thugs couldn't have come to Sato's attention, not yet. So the call was fortuitous, it meant Sato needed something, perhaps Takashi could negotiate his brother's need to something advantageous, like the medical supplies that would be needed out on Sahadeva. The mag-lev rumbled to a stop, and Takeshi disembarked, his ruck sack slung over his shoulder. Once he was off the platform, he waded through the crowds, distinctly more genteel and urbane than the Eastdown crowds, his own appearance caused the crowds to part, allowing him to find the transport Sato had arranged for him.

As he ducked under the gull-wing door, and slid across the rear bench seat he looked forward at the pilot, "Rayne compound, docking platform thirty-seven. Sato wouldn't want his disgrace of a brother coming home through the front door." He watched the pilot's eyes inspect him curiously, his haggard face, his disheveled, worn clothing, until it settled on the hilt of his mono-edge katana. The Rayne family mon prevalent on the carefully wrapped handle, his back straightened and he nodded respectfully as the vehicle glided into the sky.

Takashi for his part lowered his chin to his chest and closed his eyes, a meeting with his brother, while not exactly a battlefield, was certainly going to be laden with tension. He sighed, and waited until the transport arrived at his old family home.
Flynnarrel
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Re: Firefly: Blood, Sweat and Tears

Post by Flynnarrel »

Nadia stared disdainfully at the other ticket hopefuls. The man with the goat and chicken holding everyone up drew some discrete baleful looks. Though no stranger to the sights and smells of livestock they generally had modules they were confined to on the ship. The thought that one would be in their passenger car was abhorrent! But then again these were dirt lovers, she wouldn't be surprised if the man actually had relations with.... oh, he was a shephard.

Nadia felt bad about her assumptions. She'd always been told to respect the men and women of Faith. She pulled her hijab so that it hid more of her face. The head garment was still in use by some of the traditionalists on the Hauler-ship she grew up on and it would serve to hide most of her facial scars and identity now.

She kept to her role - looking down when someone would try to meet her gaze. Deferring to others. Her bulky burqa hides the utilitarian outfit and gunbelts she's wore.
"Something pithy this way comes."
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Atreju
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Re: Firefly: Blood, Sweat and Tears

Post by Atreju »

"Yes, yes. Terribly sorry..."

'Focus Atreju, you have a job to do.' But he couldn't stop thinking about THAT sermon and those words from Shepard Dillon, "within each seed, there is the promise of a flower... a new life". He hoped and he wished... I mean, prayed that THIS new life he had now chosen would indeed become a flower with an aroma of good that would overwhelm the stench of his rotten, seared conscience. 'Get your ticket, help those poor souls, change the verse... or at least your conscience...'

"Quite a magnificent day we have here today, no? Excuse me for one second"

Realizing he wouldn't be able to reach into his backpack to get the few credits the Abbey gave him to get a ticket for the train, he quickly turned around without even thinking who was behind him and quickly said,

"Excuse me, good sir. Would you mind holding this for me so as to help out THE Ministry?"

Knowing people loved to be complimented and would usually help for a charitable cause, without waiting for an answer he handed the empty-handed man his chicken cage in one hand, and his lethargic goat (hoping he would stay that way) to his other hand.

"You are too kind. Thank you..." quickly scanning the man to see what he may believe "... may your gods smile upon your day."

Turning back around he reach into his pack for his credits... 'Wow', he thought, last time he had to buy something for himself he had so many credits he didn't know what to do with them (well, except for use them to gamble) and now he had so few he felt so insecure as he always knew he could get what he needed with the right amount of credits. He had enough to get the ticket but didn't want to spend ALL his credits, just having some for some security is all, err... possible charity, 'Ya, I may need some extra for charity.... not gambling, charity!'

Reaching in for less credits than needed, he quickly put them on the counter and said,
"Lovely 'mam..." quickly scanning her "...wow, what a nice ring, where'd you get that, that stone doesn't come from this system does it?" After waiting a second for a response but receiving none. "I would like to claim the Shepard discount... I know it isn't in the brochure or any of the signs around here, but your manager gives it to me every month when I take this train..." 'Wow, it has probably been 5 or 6 years since I've been on a train'"I realize there is a long-line and I don't want to hold it up, so next month when I use my discount again, the Shepard discount, I'll be sure to fill out the proper form and back date it. I know your manager will let me, we do it all the time" Smiles and pushes forth the credits.

Assuming she will go with the trade, Atreju turns around, bows, grabs all his goods, turns again to the ticket counter holding out two fingers that are just enough to hold only one ticket in his crowded hands. Smiles again and says, "Don't want to hold up the line now..."
Last edited by Atreju on Mon Nov 28, 2016 12:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Flynnarrel
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Re: Firefly: Blood, Sweat and Tears

Post by Flynnarrel »

Nadia was quick to reverse the charitable thoughts she had about the Shepherd as the groundhog showed himself a complete buffoon. Eyes still downcast Nadia indulged in her uncharitable thoughts.
"Something pithy this way comes."
Spectrum
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Re: Firefly: Blood, Sweat and Tears

Post by Spectrum »

Jonathan Crompton, Esq.

You've been corresponding with Dr. Henri Gateu for the last several years. He first distinguished himself during the Unification War, an Independent prisoner that overcame a great plague that was threatening to take the lives of the entire prison colony. Since then, he's travelled extensively and become one of the quiet experts in the treatment of terraforming related diseases.

A month ago, in his most recent wave transmission, he asked you to join him on Sahadeva, a chance to finally meet and to work together. A honor, and an opportunity to study further with an expert.

So you've brought yourself to this little dustbowl world, ticket in hand and waiting for boarding to begin.
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Spectrum
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Re: Firefly: Blood, Sweat and Tears

Post by Spectrum »

Tracy Iskellian

"It'll be just a few minutes. You were supposed to be given enough time to get on board and get your thighs ready." Kim's face going pale as they watch you, all but cowering, taking dumb as likely to hit things with heavier things that annoy them. Percussive maintenance works well on both machines and people. That wouldn't be... fun.

Still, you're unfortunately going to be crew chief, second in command, for this trip, so expect questions. Thankfully most of your crew are pretty independent and doing twice as much work as they should be, so should be quiet.
We rise from the ashes so that new legends can be born.
Spectrum
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Re: Firefly: Blood, Sweat and Tears

Post by Spectrum »

Takashi Rayne

You are lead to a elegant in its simplicity, traditional office. The paper door sliding behind you as you step into the padded floor. An ancient wooden short table midway through the room.

Lady Megumi is already there, kneeling in preparation. She is not your brother's wife, but his primary mistress, his assistant. There was a time that the two of you were close but that would not be allowed now. It would not be proper to think that she deserves better than your brother.

You settle, silence coming over the room.

Your brother enters from the other side, looking the very proper lord.

Tea is served. Quiet talk of nothingness that mean everything. Politeness.
We rise from the ashes so that new legends can be born.
Spectrum
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Re: Firefly: Blood, Sweat and Tears

Post by Spectrum »

Shepard Atreju
I'd normally ask for a persuasion roll for doing that kind of thing, but to speed things along: _: 1D20+7 = [16]+7 = 23 Yep! That works.
The ticket seller gives a pause, "The Shepard discount? We d..we haven't had many Shepherds come through here lately sir." a quick uncomfortable look, a look at the terminal before her, up at you.. back down again. "But since you're headed for Fēngshōu.." her voice drops a little more, a whisper nearly lost in the noise of the crowd, "Just this one time, since you're doing the Good Work.." she takes the scrip, handing back not as much as you were hoping but still more than you would have otherwise pay. "They sure do need help there. Bless you for your kindness."

The faithful on the outside, those that live a busy life and still find time for acts of Faith. A flower in this dustbowl of a moon. A precious thing.

On the other hand, you hear a bleat behind you, further than you would have expected from the person right.. behind... you... that isn't there anymore and fading more into the crowd.
We rise from the ashes so that new legends can be born.
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