Huascar Quilago hung from the remains of the recently nuked suspensor platform by his krimskel fiber rope. Dr Ichuri hung from Huascar's legs. Alan Nomad dangled from Dr Ichuri. Below them: 100 feet, then the ocean. The Doctor grabbed the rope and climbed up over Huascar onto the suspensor. He used the rope's self tightening action to gradually haul Huascar and Nomad up onto the floating ball.
100 feet below, Sister Victoria woke up on a beach. A small child covered in the same identifying tattoos and scars as the other slaves was prying the rings off her fingers. She chased the kid away and stood up. There were a few dead bodies washed up on the beach. She did a quick inventory of her cells and found no evidence of radiation sickness from the blast, indicating a "clean" fusion reaction. The child had retreated inland, into a wild forest.
Victoria went into the woods, hoping to find someone who could help her. She found crashed pieces of the suspensor platform, and drag marks where bodies had been removed from the scene, leading deeper into the forest. By climbing a tree and suspending her breathing, she avoided a skirmish line of armed slaves, moving through the forest looking for survivors. They didn't look friendly.
Tost Viracocha sat in a clearing in the forest, along with Ser Rhineland Rashomon and a handful of mercenaries from the convention. They had been captured by the rebels, who were standing around with various weapons, out of reach of Tost. It was clearly a hostage situation, the surviving nobility who had washed ashore after the blast were acting as human shields for the surviving maula. It would only be a matter of time before forces from House Thoss (or their parent House) showed up to reassert control of the situation, and things got bloody.
Dr Ichuri used his command of advanced technology to interface with the remaining suspensors, lowering the assembly until the group could climb down the rope into the water without falling. They swam to shore, but were spotted by a couple unknown figures on the beach, who quickly retreated into the jungle. Once they reached the safety of land, Dr Ichuri used an adrenaline shot to revive Alan Nomad, Hetman of the Bomb Knights. Alan wasn't happy with Huascar after being pushed down the stairs, but put his differences aside temporarily to focus on getting off the island alive.
Sister Victoria observed Tost from the treeline as he talked to the rebel leader. The slave in charge, Rug, was a one armed man, covered in decorative inkvine scars and wearing nothing but a gourd over his genitals. Tost suspected that he was also a self taught mentat, which happened occasionally among the pyon classes.
Rug, Slave Rebel Leader and Wild Mentat
Tost used his natural innocence and charm to establish a rapport with Rug. Even persuaded him to give Tost his shield belt back, even though it would make him immune to the gunpowder weapons many of the rebels carried (which Sister Victoria noted were similar to those from the pit fight at the casino).
On the beach, Alan Nomad cautioned against going into the forest. The people who had spotted them had indubitably raised the alarm and set up an ambush. The safe thing was to set fire to the forest and stay on the beach. Huascar agreed, and used one of Alan's HESH daggers to ignite a tree, pressing the shaped charge tip to the wood and blasting it. The jungle was set ablaze.
The fire didn't escape the rebel slaves' notice. Rug yelled at everyone to pack up the hostages and retreat to the beach on the other side of the island, safe from the flames. Sister Victoria followed the group stealthily, but was set upon by a trio of rebels fleeing the flames. One carried a shotgun, one an inkvine whip, and one had his hand surgically replaced with a large claw for pit fighting purposes. She dispatched the firearm guy with a swift blow before the report of his weapon could alert anyone else, no-sold inkvine guy's whip by turning off her pain receptors, and quickly dispatched him and crab-man with her martial arts talents. She knelt to scoop up the shotgun and narrowly avoided being decapitated by a lasgunner. She fled into the bush and broke line of sight before he could get a second shot off.
The group on the beach decided to work their way around the coast to the other side of the island. The beach became rocker as they went, terminating in a series of sharp rocks at the base of a bluff on the South side of the island. The stones were wet and repeatedly dashed by incoming waves. Everyone had a shield so there was no risk of being cut or bludgeoned to death, but there was a real threat of being sucked underwater and slowly drowned by diffusion of water through the shield membrane. Huascar wasn't afraid. He ran across, leaping from crag to crag, and only slipped and fell once. A lucky strain of sturdy kelp allowed him to salvage the fall, and he pulled himself across to the other side using the brown algae like a rope.
Huascar debated how to get Alan Nomad and the Doctor across. A pair of slaves came around the rock face from the beach, armed with a pellet stunner and various blades. Huascar hid and debated just letting them look around and leave, but Alan Nomad began swearing at them from across the submerged rocks, daring them to cross and face them. Huascar hit one in the back of the head with a piece of driftwood. The other managed to shoot him in the chest, the slow pellet penetrating the shield and dealing him a nasty shock, before he could disarm the guy and take his gun.
Sitting on the beach as the island burned, Tost negotiated further with Rug. The obvious play was for Tost to tell everyone that Rug and his fellow slaves had rescued him and the other nobility after the explosion, and shielded them from the surviving agents of the bombers. He'd ask to buy their freedom, and take them all with him when he went back home to... wherever he was from. Rug offered up his people's skills at at counterintelligence to seal the deal - the slaves had, after all, snuck in not one, but two bomb plots under the nose of a dozen different mercenary armies. Tost sealed the deal, and began scheming how to sell the story once they were rescued. It went against his whole thing about the importance of the truth, forcing him to use his imagination.
Sitting on the beach as the island burned, Tost negotiated further with Rug. The obvious play was for Tost to tell everyone that Rug and his fellow slaves had rescued him and the other nobility after the explosion, and shielded them from the surviving agents of the bombers. He'd ask to buy their freedom, and take them all with him when he went back home to... wherever he was from. Rug offered up his people's skills at at counterintelligence to seal the deal - the slaves had, after all, snuck in not one, but two bomb plots under the nose of a dozen different mercenary armies. Tost sealed the deal, and began scheming how to sell the story once they were rescued. It went against his whole thing about the importance of the truth, forcing him to use his imagination.
Sister Victoria didn't want to run out onto the beach where all the well armed slaves were posted up. Instead she ran uphill to the South end of the island, where the forest rose up to a cliff overlooking the sea. She saw Huascar dispatch a pair of armed maula on one side of the cliff, and Alan Nomad and the Doctor on the other. She also spotted Tost held captive on the beach. Before the advancing flames could sear her, she leaped off the cliff, clearing the sharp rocks at the bottom and plunging into the clear water beyond. She swam ashore on Huascar's side, and helped him shuttle Alan and the Doctor across the sharp rocks.
There were a lot of armed maula on the beach, more than Victoria was confident she could take down before they killed Tost. She decided to try diplomacy, coming out from behind the cliff face under a flag of truce. Which suited Rug and Tost just fine, since their negotiations were concluded anyway. Everyone was friends now, any slaves killed by the House Viracocha agents would be written off as assassins dispatched by Rug and his people. Tost used his memocorder to get some flattering footage of his "rescuers". Alan Nomad objected loudly to the players striking a bargain with a group of rebellious slaves and Huascar shot him with the pellet stunner, knocking him out.
There were a lot of armed maula on the beach, more than Victoria was confident she could take down before they killed Tost. She decided to try diplomacy, coming out from behind the cliff face under a flag of truce. Which suited Rug and Tost just fine, since their negotiations were concluded anyway. Everyone was friends now, any slaves killed by the House Viracocha agents would be written off as assassins dispatched by Rug and his people. Tost used his memocorder to get some flattering footage of his "rescuers". Alan Nomad objected loudly to the players striking a bargain with a group of rebellious slaves and Huascar shot him with the pellet stunner, knocking him out.
Gladiators by Stepan Alekseev
Back on Bonavera, the agents met the Mentat Figaro in his favorite cafe. They sat bundled up in heavy winter clothing and sipped espresso while they went over the mission debriefing. Though Jumping Spider and the CHOAM registry distrans who recorded the transaction were killed in the catastrophe, the House Viracocha agents still had the message cylinder with a notarized copy of their contract with the Watchers. Add to that the additional hundred or so freedmen and their mentat leader who House Runasimi could further employ as spies and soldiers, plus the capture of Alan Nomad, Hetman of the Bomb Knights, and the procurement had gone quite well.
Figaro warned them that atomic explosions were really not to be trifled with, and usually resulted in a nasty and embarrassing investigation that could dismantle entire houses. Tost did a great job establishing House Runasimi's non-involvement with the bombing, but it certainly helped that the only people who died in the blast were petty nobility from Houses Minor. Hosue Clavier would bear the brunt of the Landsraad's wrath for the incident, as their budget "pure fusion" atomic weapons were pretty obviously just a box containing a lasgun and halfshield, with no insertion-safety or other mechanism to safeguard against uncontrolled detonation.
As for the former slaves, they were a promising resource, but had to be handled with care. Most were scarred and maimed from work in gladiator bouts, human hunts, sadomasochistic sex work and snuff. Their religion was a mix of pre-CET Hinduism and pre-Jihad techno computationist pseudo-heresy. They believed in a hierarchy of universes, through which human souls advanced each time they died. The foremost objective of any being was to "get to the next screen" by living life as fully as possible, or by dying in a spectacular fashion. The fatalistic attitude of the freedmen backed this up - Dr Ichuri had to chemically neutralize several implanted suicide bomb-organs during his physical examination. Rug himself had several times threatened to kill himself and all of the hostages during his negotiations with Tost, utterly unafraid to die. If he or his people suspected that House Runasimi would return them to bondage, they would revolt violently and with no regard for their own safety, tearing through anyone within reach.
Rug, Consul of the Free Shooters
Mentat Joe and Lydia were fine, incidentally. Nobody attacked them at the hotel they were staying at when the convention platform got nuked. Mentat Joe had come close to predicting the day's events, if it weren't for his substance abuse problems. Even with them he had been a real asset. Figaro agreed that Mentat Joe would remain in House Viracocha's service as Master of Assassins as a practicum for his doctoral thesis at the Diplomacy College. Figaro privately remarked that, between himself, Joe and Rug, there were too many Godsdamned mentats running around the Studio City of Lake.
Thus concluded the agents' Trip to Gamont.
Thus concluded the agents' Trip to Gamont.
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