Licking their wounds, the remains of the Belerophon crew return home diminished but successful. They have captured Revel Hour from the notorious pirate gang The Group, but lost two of their members in the process.
Ask Not For Whom The Gum Pops
Down beneath the surface of 2.5, Lonnie is tied whimpering to a metal chair, illuminated from above by a single hanging bulb.
A slow drawling voice from behind him asks, “So what the hell were you doing in my turf, eh?“. Victoria Death is here, and we get our first look at her. She’s a tall Japanese woman, with bleached blond hair & a strong fake tan. She wears a sleek black leather jacket, tight black trousers and a shocking pink buttoned shirt.
At her shoulder is a creature, hovering just above her, enfolded in its wings like an egg very little can be made out of it’s actual form aside from a demonic forked tail curling at the bottom. We fade to black as Lonnie starts talking in a babble.
He’s Been Here This Whole Time
Now that Lonnie is missing, and Bill is dead. That means we need some new player characters! In Lancer you’re allowed to bring PCs back through cloning, but both have elected not to (for now).
First up we have “Beefy” Bob Roberts, he’s been1 here this whole time, in the back of a number of shots. Eagle-eyed viewers will recognise the massive hulking form of Beefy Bob hunched over on a small stool, attentively poring over a small porcelain lamb figurine. His hobby2 is painting these tiny figures.3
Turning up at one of Yumai’s movie screenings on Baldachin Station, a young woman named Fortunate Sacc bounces up for an autograph. She’s a competent Lancer pilot, and a diehard fan of all of Yumai’s films. Down some fighting crewmembers, Yumai invites her aboard. She is, frankly, embarrassingly excited at the prospect.
Negotiations
Back on the Belerophon, with Revel Hour safely stowed in the brig, the crew gather round to ask some “polite” questions.
Interrogating them about the nature of the Corona Mantle, and Catherine Hollow’s worsening health. They discover that the Corona Mantle is a piece of ancient technology, and has been re-building it to be implanted. Catherine was relatively easily disappeared, and a suitable host for the mantle.
The host can be kept alive, however if the ENLIL Adherents wish to do so they will need fruit of the Genesis Tree4, an artefact found alongside the Corona Mantle when it was first unearthed. With this in mind, it’s time to plan out how the adherents can get a hold of the fruit, or the Genesis Tree itself.
To The Plucky Strike
Gorn meets with Ullio to Get Connected in a smoky back booth of a bar on Baldachin Station called The Plucky Strike. Over whisky, they discuss a potential handover. Ullio can secure them a good handover spot, despite the fact that they know that Octopotenta BioTech won’t agree to anywhere off of the planet Tabernacle I, where their main base of operations is. Ullio can wrangle somewhere far enough away to prevent immediate reinforcements from scrambling if things go badly.
They also pitch two options to Gorn, either a straightforward handover for some of the fruit with no real strings attached. They could also swing bigger, and negotiate a handover for the Genesis Tree itself. Octopotenta BioTech will probably agree to that kind of trade, but they’d almost certainly double cross the crew and try and take it back.5
Gorn (and the rest of the crew, out of character) agree to swing big, and negotiate for and then retain the Genesis Tree from Octopotenta BioTech when they inevitably attempt to steal it back.
The crew is faced with a conundrum, if they hand back the Revel Hour they’ve captured they’ll be able to divulge secrets back to Octopotenta. They decide to visit a back-alley doctor to have their memories modified. This is, needless to say, deeply illegal and morally reprehensible.
Beefy Bob’s Absolutely Great Night Out
Beefy Bob is parched, and is going to get a Damn Drink (last time this happened it went horribly for Gorn). As we see Beefy hit a series of different dark-coloured shots to wild cheers of the crowd at a table a little way away from Gorn & Ullio’s discussion, it looks suspiciously like he might be in for another really Great Night Out.
We fade to black, as Beefy Bob wipes the liquor from his lips, and fade back in with him slumped in the exact corner of Baldachin Station Gorn ended up in. As he wretches limpily, shades his eyes from the harsh fluorescent lights overhead, images from the previous night flash through his mind.
In a back alley, Beefy Bob and Gorn have cloth strips over their knuckles, Beefy Wipes blood from his mouth and spits as Gorn smacks his chest and raises his fists again.
In a dark bar, slumped over the counter Beefy Bob is sobbing inconsolably, empty glasses arrayed around him like a fortress.
In a white clinical room, Beefy Bob is injecting stock directly into his own veins.
In a bright lit market street, colourful signs and shouts of the crowd around him, Beefy Bob is swaggering along, his gigantic frame bursting from a set of very tight shorts and miraculously small cropped t-shirt.
In a cramped room, illuminated by grubby low hanging shaded bulbs, a crowd is gathered in a ring cheering wildly, holding out tight wads of bills. Beefy Bob stands in the centre holding a heavy revolver. He waves it madly, spins the cylinder and holds it to his temple. With a harsh scream, he pulls the trigger. As the gun clicks emptily, he whoops, swinging the gun around. As he does, a deafening bark and bright muzzle flash, the crowd scatters in shouting.
What exactly happened on Beefy Bob’s absolutely great night out? It’s lost to dingy dark bars and the hangover of a lifetime.
Footnotes
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Apparently. ↩
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Or vocation? Compulsion? It’s not clear. ↩
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He’s apparently going to get an accuracy for any task related to “painting small porcelain lamb figurines”. ↩
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I’m enjoying the theistic melange we’re creating here. ↩
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Mechanically (and narratively) speaking this was really a choice between having the next mission be the handover (for the tree), or to do it in downtime now and have the mission be something else. ↩