Tim (GE Smith) says he wants to run some kind of post-Apocalyptic limited session, even if it bombs on the very first session. Paul (Bob the Saurk) mentions his fond ambitions of starting up a new fast-food restaurant called Crucifix and Tambourines, serving very rich Greek food that you have to feel guilty about. Then he speaks with great enthusiasm about the idea of using Drama Cards in games. Ernest (Liz Blessing) sits back and makes wise comments, all the while thinking, "Ooooohh... guilty food..." Billy (Mister Yong) is just enthusiastic. Chris (Caleb Kagan) worries that Billy is far too enthusiastic, and does his best to calm the situation by bringing a fire extinguisher into play. Bruce (Goat Gulgusskun) reminds everyone that Ernest has the most active social life of any three members in the group, because he drinks both coffee and beer. Chuck just holds his head and groans.
GE Smith had previously been a demlux experimental subject. He suddenly realizes that he is actually a human experimental subject. Nobody particularly notices anything odd about this at all. He also discovers that the ICBM experiments to give him the Zed psionic power were actually successful. Again, nobody notices anything odd about this. It is as if it had always been that way.
Knowing that the BreeKhanAr representatives are at most hours away, the characters quickly try to figure out how to talk to aliens without getting killed. Everyone agrees that Liz Blessing and Caleb Kagan should be out in front doing the talking, though when Caleb catches Liz practicing saying, "I am the Queen of the Human Empire..." into a mirror he starts to rethink this idea. Goat Gulgusskun indicates that he should be close enough to the two of them to be able to heal and evac them when things go to hell in a handbasket. Goat suggests that of the remaining characters, Bob the Saurk should be at the helm of the Blue Lady, which should be hidden out of sight some distance away. Nobody thinks that either the brain-juice junkie GE Smith or the shaved research subject Mister Yong should be flying a ship, though there is surprisingly high acceptance of the idea that Smith can be trusted as a gunner.
Mister Yong makes some effort to use his freaky psychic powers to clean up the wreckage of the ICBM camp. He pushes all the bodies off into the cave so they won't be lying about on the ground.
The characters have one prisoner, whom they leave conveniently nearby just in case the BreeKhanAr want to sample his succulent brain-elements.
The characters start to pick up some strange radio signals. Liz can make no sense of them until she remembers to turn on the BreeKhanAr Translator, at which point she starts to get a comprehensible message from the incoming BreeKhanAr ship. They express concern that her signal is not coming from the right location. Liz swiftly explains that the colony had some trouble: the Anzani dumped a bunch of mutant bugs on it, and the humans had to nuke the area to clean them out. Caleb chirps up in the background, "But the area is secure now, Ripley!"
The BreeKhanAr agree to land at the new location. Their ship is about the same size as the Salt Witch, but much more nicely streamlined. The front ramp slowly drops down and the BreeKhanAr step out. They definitely look reptilian with some avian qualities. All of them are huge: even common BreeKhanAr have BLD +2, and the leaders seem to have BLD +3. Five of them deploy out of side airlocks, and six more from the front ramp. All of them are carrying some sort of melee weapon, either a short sword or a big knife. Most of them are also packing rifles.
The leader approaches Liz and Caleb. He is much bigger than the others, and carries a weapon that seems more ceremonial than practical. He tells them, "I do not recognize you." Caleb introduces himself and Liz. He goes on to explain that there had been some ICBM representatives in the area, but that they have relinquished their right to speak to the BreeKhanAr. The leader thunders back, "I am Warleader Toggoth! You are not part of the merchant house?" Liz very quickly explains that the merchant house ICBM has been dealing with the BreeKhanAr under false pretenses. She provides something of an alternative explanation of ICBM's role in human society, one that is probably a good deal less self-aggrandizing than the one the ICBM negotiators offered.
The Warleader steps aside and a smaller BreeKhanAr carrying only a blade and a pistol takes his place. Liz notices that many of the BreeKhanAr seem to be fairly heavily scarred. She whispers to Caleb, "I bet ritualized blade combat is a big part of their culture."
The new BreeKhanAr introduces herself as Diplomat Asynth. Liz repeats her story to Diplomat Asynth, and goes on to explain a general political overview of the situation. Diplomat Asynth rubs her cheeks, and then responds very directly, asking, "Why should I believe you?" Liz is ready for this: she hands over a copy of Microsoft Encarta 2044 and the captured ICBM goon. She tells Diplomat Asynth that ICBM had intended to ambush the BreeKhanAr and steal the secrets they brought with them. Diplomat Asynth confers briefly with Warleader Toggoth, who seems to concur that this site would have been a good place for an ambush.
Diplomat Asynth heads back to the BreeKhanAr ship with the prisoner, leaving Liz and Caleb to chat with Warleader Toggoth about his prowess in battle. Caleb asks, "So, do you like milk?" Warleader Toggoth scowls down at him and growls, "Glandular excretions from the female animal! Disgusting!" Liz whispers, "Shut up! Don't make me have to taser you."
Caleb asks Warleader Toggoth about the bugs. The Warleader grumbles, "Yes. That is an Anzani weapon. That is one of their least expensive weapons." Caleb continues, "So if they were to drop them on one of your cities, how would you stop them? Would you just eat them?" The Warleader Toggoth growls, "The best defense is to not let them into orbit. But if some do land, we have found that the smaller bugs are good training for our children. We have been fighting the Anzani scum for many cycles. They are an evil and wicked people. They tried to invade our worlds, but now we are having a war-without-fighting against them." Liz deadpans, "We come from France..." and makes conehead gestures.
Caleb offers, "So, what would be likely to break up this cold war you're having? Or are you just getting ready to be able to fight again?" Warleader Toggoth demonstrates that his politics make the ideologues back on BreeKhanAr Prime proud by thundering back, "We are just waiting to be ready. The Anzani cannot be trusted!"
About this time, the prisoner screams and is thrown from the ship. Goat takes a look at him and calls back to Caleb and Liz, "You won't believe it, but I think they pretty much left his succulent brain-essences intact! Looks like they beat him around quite a bit, though!"
While Goat is busying himself with the prisoner, Diplomat Asynth very elegantly steps down the ramp and indicates that she would like to see the ICBM computer records. Liz confesses that there aren't many available, as they had been in one of the buildings that were totally destroyed. Diplomat Asynth seems rather disappointed by this admission. She tells Liz, "Yes. And I now know that your government has signed a treaty with the Anzani." Liz stammers, "Aaahh... Yes... it is true that one faction of our government signed a treaty with the Anzani, but we've heard that they aren't to be trusted. And we would like to have a peace with both your peoples, so let's say we discuss the Anzani situation at some length as friends. And if you need someone defeated in ritual combat then Caleb's your man." Caleb perks up, "And if you want someone defeated in ritual combat, I'm your man!" The BreeKhanAr immediately perk up and suggest that they hold a ritual combat between Caleb and the prisoner.
Caleb looks over the prisoner and remembers that succulent brain-meats or not, the fellow is a former member of a Black Ops squad. He tells the BreeKhanAr diplomat, "It is not appropriate to my rank to fight such as him. I shall bring out Bob, one of our less-experienced crewmembers. He will fight." Liz talks into her comlink, "Goat! Bring out the lurpa!" Goat obliges by bringing Bob the Saurk out to the field. The terms of the dual are arranged: they will fight unarmored, with vibro-ninja swords, or in Bob's words, "Naked! With swords!" Caleb amends this to insist that Bob must wear pants. If the prisoner wins, he gets his freedom. If Bob wins, then the BreeKhanAr will talk to Liz and Caleb about the Anzani.
Caleb and Goat clear out an appropriate arena while Mister Yong works on videotaping the upcoming spectacle for subsequent sale over the Internet. Caleb applauds this idea, telling Mister Yong, "Great! That way we'll have video proof that Bob kills people." Mister Yong points out, "But only when aliens force him to!"
The prisoner's name is Red Kildare. The BreeKhanAr arrange to have him stripped to his pants and equipped with a vibro-ninja sword. The crowd watches with breathless tension.
Red Kildare comes in with a fast swing that Bob parries. Caleb starts up a commentary, "The prisoner knows the Crab Style, but Bob knows the Spiral Cook-pot Defense! And look! Bob has struck back with a Reverse Monkey Gouge!" Bob slips past the prisoner's defenses and delivers a vicious strike that leaves Bob overextended and the prisoner bleeding. The prisoner staggers back then returns with an ineffective strike. Bob responds by first disarming Kildare, and then killing him. Warleader Toggoth shouts out with great drama as Bob lands the killing blow. Caleb comments to Liz sotto voce, "We are not a savage race..."
Bob turns up the vibration on his blade and demonstrates that vibro-swords are self-cleaning. This isn't as impressive as it could be: by the time the blade is clean, his clothes are quite dirty.
With the excitement of blood-sports fading, Warleader Toggoth announces, "Now we must feast! And then we will talk." The BreeKhanAr bring out preserved animal meat that tastes a lot like beef jerky. Caleb continues to press milk on anyone in sight. And Goat does his best to prepare ship's gloop into the best cuisine he can manage.
During the meal, the characters ask any BreeKhanAr they can talk to about the Anzani. They learn that the Anzani race is very expansionistic. They regard any non-psionic race as inferior, fit only for extermination or enslavement. In contrast, they regard psionic races as threats that must be exterminated. Caleb Kagan asks what they do with races like humanity, which have psychics but not very many of them. Diplomat Asynth explains that the Anzani will eventually fit humanity into one of their two boxes. They will either decide that the humans are fit for incorporation into their Combine, and then exterminate every human psychic they can fine, or they will decide that humans are a threat, and then exterminate every human, psychic or not. Caleb murmurs in interest, unsure if he would rather be a live slave or a dead threat.
Liz describes the sensor records that the characters took from the wreckage of the ICPA patrol boat Schwarzenegger. Diplomat Asynth is able to identify the massive ship that destroyed the patrol boat as an Anzani Hive Ship.
The Anzani have three distinct castes. The pranzani are the administrators, scientists and workers. BreeKhanAr normally disdainfully refer to them as "prawns." They don't know or care what the Anzani call them. The canzani are the warriors. But the worst of the castes are the ramzani. They are shapeshifters. Warleader Toggoth explains that they can be detected through DNA testing. If that is not an option, killing one will cause it to revert back to its natural shape.
Anzani ranged weapons are crystal-based, and are generally quite good. Their weakness is in close combat: individual Anzani are weak and squishy (at least from the point of view of a three-meter-tall BreeKhanAr warrior). Their fleet is very large, but is dominated by a relatively small number of huge vessels. They tend not to build many smaller scout and raiding vessels (on the scale of human patrol boats). This can make their attacks very hard-hitting, but not particularly flexible.
Finally, Diplomat Asynth reassures the characters that as far as the BreeKhanAr can tell, the Anzani have not been responsible for any of the internal political problems facing the humans. Though they might be egging on the various factions.
Diplomat Asynth goes on to describe her own race. She tells the characters that the BreeKhanAr are almost isolationist in their dealings with other species. Early in their history, not many decades after they discovered faster-than-light travel, they encountered several younger races. Out of a sense of altruistic brotherhood, the BreeKhanAr explorers who found them tried to help them develop their cultures and learn advanced technology. Unfortunately, many of these efforts came to a bad end. Some younger races proved unable to handle the responsibility inherent in the knowledge the BreeKhanAr gave them and ended up destroying themselves. Others turned upon the BreeKhanAr, pursuing vicious and genocidal warfare until they finally had to be exterminated.
Older and wiser now, the BreeKhanAr have adopted a policy of avoiding contact with pre-technological races. When they encounter a race that has already developed advanced technology, they generally find that neither side has much to offer the other. They sometimes help lesser races, but prefer to let them survive or die on their own.
The characters thank Diplomat Asynth and Warleader Toggoth, and then open up into a big internal debate on how to get the BreeKhanAr to guide human social development. Everyone generally agrees that the major division in human interstellar society is between the rather fascist ICPA bureaucrats on Alpha Centauri against the more liberation-minded people on Earth, New Israel and Terra Beta. The characters strongly suspect that much of humanity gives lip service to the ICPA but is not particularly loyal to the ideals of the ideologues on Alpha Centauri.
Much though some of the characters want to find ways to get the BreeKhanAr to directly fight against the Anzani, leaving humanity entirely out of it, the BreeKhanAr decline to get involved. They point out that they need to keep their presence quiet. If the Anzani realize that the BreeKhanAr are taking action they will move up their schedule and start explicitly taking over human worlds quickly. And neither the BreeKhanAr nor the humans could seriously stop them then.
However, the BreeKhanAr do turn out to be willing to provide backing if the characters put together some kind of resistance group. Especially if the characters are able to recruit as many psychics as they can find into their organization. They agree to give over some technology and weapons for the humans fighting on New Israel. The down payment for this is the improved FTL drive technology they originally brought with them to trade with ICBM.
Mister Yong and GE Smith approach Diplomat Asynth and tell her about the brain juice and how it can turn people into Zeds. She is interested enough to accept a sample.
All through dinner, Bob the Saurk has been admiring the blades Warleader Toggoth and some of the other BreeKhanAr carry. He admires it even more when he discovers that the blades are hand-forged from super-tech materials and inflict AD+20 damage. Warleader Toggoth tells him that the blades can be awarded only to warriors who have distinguished themselves in battle and demonstrated their bravery in a series of ordeals. Bob refuses to be dissuaded, and eventually Warleader Toggoth relents and agrees to hold a duel with him to see if he is worthy to carry a BreeKhanAr honor blade. The battle takes only one strike: Toggoth feints, and then knocks Bob clean out of the arena. As Bob desperately attempts to rise to a kneeling position, Warleader Toggoth bows to him and says, "You show spirit, but you are not yet worthy."
With the after-dinner dueling done, the characters make plans with Diplomat Asynth for the BreeKhanAr to make a dead drop of small arms, ship weapons for the Salt Witch, and various other hardware. The delivery site will be a rockball world on the fringes of human space. The characters promise to send their ship Salt Witch, captained by Jake Reflux.
The Blue Lady has an uneventful journey from Bedlam back to Aetna. The characters are quite happy to find that Jake Reflux and the Salt Witch are both at the port. He still has quite an array of ICBM Black Ops prisoners sitting in his hold. After some debate (not all of it morally bankrupt), the characters decide to turn them over to the local military with some guidance as to how to keep them under control.
Liz Blessing has a nice little sit-down with Jake to describe how the characters' arrangements with the BreeKhanAr are going to play out. On the plus side, he becomes Captain of the Salt Witch, though Liz Blessing and Caleb Kagan retain ownership of the vessel. His main task will be to link up with Colonel Striker on New Saigon and spread the word in the pirate and independent mercenary communities. Beyond that, he will be responsible for showing up at the BreeKhanAr dead-drop points and picking up the gear they leave behind.
The characters know that they will need the cooperation of the government of Aetna if they are going to be able to run a realistic-looking conspiracy against the ICPA. They choose Councilor Eric Pravad as their initial contact point. They arrange an appointment, then explain that the Anzani were responsible for the mutant bug attack on Bedlam that killed his son. By the time the characters finish talking, the Councilor is so on board that he'd be willing to send thousands of people to their deaths for the cause.
Councilor Pravad tells the characters that Alman Trevakian is only barely keeping hold of the Presidency. The only reason he's still in power is thanks to Stitches, who is not even on Aetna at the moment. In desperation, President Trevakian has turned to practicing government by not being in. The characters consider this to be a less than completely promising start. But it doesn't stop them from heading over to the Ministry of Defense to talk to Colonel Hotsul. The Colonel is willing to agree with whatever Councilor Pravad says.
Having already enlisted the aid of the only figures in the government of Aetna with any real power, the characters do make one valiant attempt to see President Trevakian. They find that his office door is closed and locked. A couple of Stitches' goons are standing guard. Every fiber of the guards' bodies tell the characters, "Go away!" The characters decide that there is nothing for them there.
The characters start asking questions about Stitches. They learn that he hasn't been around for a couple of months. The characters fear that he might have gone on to a better place. They eventually manage to dig up Jimmy the Jackal, one of his junior lieutenants. The Jackal is able to tell them that Stitches is on New Saigon, where Czar Nicki is having Fed trouble. Jimmy thinks that the whole situation will just blow over sooner or later, and then Stitches will come back and everything will be normal again. The characters aren't so sure.
The characters head back to the spaceport and promptly lift off for New Saigon. On the way, Liz Blessing cautions everyone that because the characters have dealt with Czar Nicki in the past, there is a chance that they and the Salt Witch will be listed as his confederates in the ICPA databases. If there really is a big crackdown going on, that isn't going to make their lives easy. As an additional possible complication, the Blue Lady was taken from an ICBM Black Ops team, and ICBM has a big office on New Saigon. Caleb Kagan tells the others, "So if anybody in a suit starts looking strangely at you, ice him."
The characters break insystem in a convoy with both the Salt Witch and the Blue Lady. As soon as they arrive, they put a call in to Hector to see how things are going with Aetna Human Redevelopment. They figure out that they are not currently wanted, that the Feds are still looking for Czar Nicki, and that the current Military Government is stirring up a lot of trouble with his anti-corruption crusade. Apparently he's realized that being Governor of New Saigon is not the career-boosting plum he might have hoped for now that actual fighting has broken out.
The characters quickly learn that Colonel Striker and his company are not on New Saigon. They have accepted a contract to fight on Sternvaal. The characters set Hector to looking for Capri Paolo, whom they want to enlist as an insurgent leader in their cause. Sadly, Hector is unable to find any trace of him. In contrast, Goat Gulgusskun finds him by sheer luck. These days, Paolo is working as a bouncer in a strip club. Goat walks up to him with a big smile on his face, "Hey Capri! You remember me? I remember you! See, I made you some gloves!" Capri Paolo is clearly not sure that Goat's sudden appearance is a good thing, "Uhh... thanks... hey, this is Missy and this is Chastity." Goat prods him with an elbow, "So, you get a lot of job satisfaction out of this new career you've found?" Goat manages to persuade Paolo to show up at the Salt Witch later on. He gives him Cr 500 to bring along a couple of strippers as well.
Liz Blessing tries to find either Stitches or Czar Nicki. Instead, she gets a job. She finds a goon who tells her and her companions to show up at a warehouse out near the port in the middle of the night. She gets the idea that Benny the Goon might know where Stitches or Czar Nicki is, so she agrees to show up. She knows that Benny the Goon is one of Czar Nicki's guys, so this isn't a completely irrational idea.
On the way back to the ships, she sees Stitches slipping into an alley. She hails him down. Stitches seems a bit disoriented at first. He looks her over, then seems to remember, "Oh yeah, you're that junkie broad. We've having problems. We gotta ice this Governor to get him off my uncle's back. You do that for me, and you can get territory on Aetna." Liz asks, "So, does he need to actually get iced, or just put out of the way?" Stitches rubs his hands together with unhealthy glee, "Sometimes, you just gotta make someone into an example." Liz scowls back, "That's not really our deal, ya know. If he's not Governor any more you can have some of your goons ice him, but that's not our problem." She finally agrees to pass his request on to the other characters.
GE Smith and Jake Reflux serve as the advance and getaway team. They check out the site beforehand, and stand by during the meet with the SUV. Mister Yong announces that he is freaky psychic ninja man ("Sometimes they grow up to five feet tall and they can fight with their feet.")
Caleb Kagan walks in first, followed by Liz Blessing and Goat Gulgusskun. Lights shine in their faces. Benny the Goon meets the characters and sets to disarming them. This takes a fair amount of time because all the characters have shown up loaded for bear. Reassured that Mister Yong can use freaky psychic powers to telekinetically thrown the characters' guns to them, they leave their hardware on the table near the door.
The lights change. The characters see a woman sitting at a table. Nobody recognizes her. She is smoking. She looks them over skeptically, and then says, "This is the crew that helped Nicki take over Aetna. This is the crew that jacked nearly a mil from Legos. I gotta business prop for ya." Liz sits down at the table. The woman continues, "Nicki's an old man, very traditional, and he's getting on in years. Trouble is, he wants to pass the family business on to his idiot nephew Stitches." The characters suddenly deduce that the woman is Alexis Cavanaugh, Nicki's tough daughter. She keeps on talking, "You have several things going for you. You're not part of the family, but you could still get close to Stitches and Nicki. Let's say they were to end up in Federal custody. Let's say you were to be responsible, you could collect quite a bit of reward money. And even though Nicki is supposed to be holding Lungsucker off your back, you know that Stitches sold you out on Aetna, though technically that doesn't break the deal. Technically. And the new Governor, he's going to die in a training accident soon."
The characters instantly understand that they need to make a choice right now: Czar Nicki or Alexis Cavanaugh. They know that Czar Nicki is 70+ years old, isn't very pleased with whoever put the bugs into the warehouse, and has a nephew who might be selling them out. They also know that Cavanaugh has a lot of guys pointing guns at us. As Mister Yong says, "The only answer right now is YES! We'll see what we do afterwards."
Liz Blessing tells Alexis Cavanaugh, "It's a deal, but we need your help. I saw Stitches earlier this evening. He wanted us to ice the Military Governor. Maybe you could do the job and let us have credit for it. That'd get us a sit-down with Czar Nicki." Cavanaugh doesn't like this idea, because the death of the Military Governor could kill all interest in arresting Czar Nicki. Also, she doesn't know where Czar Nicki is right now. She'll know who will succeed the current MilGov in 24 hours. If the current Governor's designated successor is another straight-laced anti-corruption type, then the assassination can happen before Nicki is in custody.
The characters collect their guns and head out.
Later that night, Capri Paolo shows up at the Blue Lady with two strippers. A big party ensues. Lots of debauchery happens. Morals fail all over. And Liz ends up spending a wretched night with a stripper named Penny Chastity. Liz and Caleb talk Paolo up with revolutionary jargon, then fire him up about the whole alien threat deal. He seems agreeable, but tells them he'll have to think about it. Then he passes out from too much booze.
Bob the Saurk spends the night brooding and drinking alone. Mister Yong protests, "But we got a saurk stripper just for you!" Screams of dismay come in from the next room.
Each character gains four experience points. Each character also gains a Genre Point for not trying to blow away Alexis Cavanaugh as soon as the characters walked into the warehouse.