Odradek's Drift Session 5: Krongu Ascendant
Players
- Capt. Minnow Blux (Oldhawkeyes)
- Castrucci Frankfurters (Jay_zer0)
- Dr. Aarav Papadopoulos (Epistellar)
- Laszlo "Lazer" Llewellyn (Mistuh)
- Lt. Hiroto Nakamura (Kwall)
Summary
Still in their fifth week abroad, and still on the industrial world of El Zocalo, the crew set out to continue their plot to frame Rudiger Kreft, the itinerant fugitive who lately appeared to have been working for the Coca-cola corporation to tarnish the Krongu brand name.
Castrucci volunteered to plant the package prepared by Dr. Papadopoulos: a microfilm dossier containing fake wrondoings by Krongu corporation, a revolver (now implicated in the murder of some Cicelian soldiers), and 15 pills of Substance D.
Rudiger emerged into his usual haunt (a gentrified neighborhood next to a park), looking better groomed than before. He retrieved the microfilm and pills, leaving the pistol. After he left the area Castrucci retrieved the pistol and brought it back to the Doctor to investigate. The Doctor identified one set of fingerprints that did not match anybody in the crew.
Deeming this not quite enough to incriminate Kreft, the crew decided they would arrange a new dead drop. This time, they all bought short-range communicators. Minnow stationed himself next to a police precinct, ready to tip off the cops as soon as Kreft had the contraband in hand. Castrucci and Laszlo kept watch. Hiroto, having never met Kreft, was selected to make contact and tell him about the new drop.
Unfortunately, Kreft did not appear at his usual location. Lt. Nakamura radioed this to the rest of the group, and Castrucci was able to call on his underworld contacts to get in touch with Rudiger's old gang of escaped industrial serfs. He learned that Rudiger had a cousin, Anderson Kreft, at 918 Menard St.
Lt. Nakamura went directly to the address, a shabby studio apartment in a run-down residential neighborhood. When he knocked asking for Rudiger, however, a voice replied "There's no Rudiger here". Obviously false, as man who answered the door, was none other than Rudiger. But rather than intentionally dissimulating, enlarged pupils indicated that he was "zooted out of his mind" (as they say). Hiroto attempted to engage him regarding the fake whistleblower dead drop, but Kreft seemed interested solely in musing about whether or not human beings are made out of information.
Exasperated, Hiroto radioed the others, who suggested that they could just plant contraband in the apartment if Kreft could be distracted for a moment. Hiroto thus began to lead Kreft out of the apartment. Then Kreft glimpsed himself in a mirror, exclaiming "Oh, Rudiger is here, but he can't come with us -- he's trapped in this mirror". So the mirror came too, and was adequate to hold Krefts attention as the ex-marine led him around the block.
When Castrucci and Lazer arrived, however, they found that the apartment was now occupied by the other industrial serfs with whom Kreft had been loitering when he was first encountered by Evie Moth four weeks ago. Castrucci attempted to intimidate them into leaving, but the guests held firm, saying they were invited. Lazer tried to mediate, but the rogue was incensed when one of the fugitives called him an "attack dog". He drew his auto-pistol and opened fire, but the fugitives were surprisingly fast. Two had blades and dealt Castrucci blows that knocked him unconscious before escaping into a back alley. Lazer, who had ducked into an alley as soon as he saw Frankfurter's hand moving for the pistol, called for the Doctor.
Dr. Pappadopoulos arrived at the same time as Hiroto and Rudiger returned. With clinical composure, the Doctor drew his body pistol and shot Kreft point-blank in the head. He then set about planting the remaining drugs and revolver in the apartment.
The altercation caused a neighbor to call the police, but Blux (who, as you may recall, was waiting outside the nearest station) jumped into the elevator after the dispatched officers and began hitting all the buttons. When called out, he began blubbering about imaginary mental health issues stemming from his time in the army -- embarrased, the officers muttered "thank you for your service" and left him alone. It was enought to buy the others time to get Castrucci's unconscious body back to the ship to rest and heal.
With Kreft seemingly neturalized, the crew enjoyed some celebratory Big Rollem cigarettes and began preparing for the big fight, now just a day away.
Rudiger's Tale
Rudiger Kreft was born on the planet Giardini, an agrarian world where serfs toil under the thumbs of overbearing barons. It's a planet where running water is a luxury, and a kilowatt is worth several ounces of pure gold. His parents were about as kind as one could reasonably expect, but much of that kindness was stretched thin by their first 11 children. When Rudiger ran away, he was missed for a season or two.
He stowed away on a train car full of Yuptoids en route to the slaughter. When the baron's inspector came by with his lantern, he was clinging to the downy fur of a Yuptoid's flank. Grateful to his dying day, he told himself that even if he could afford it someday he would never eat one of those docile beasts.
Once inside the chainlink fence that demarcated the Class-E landing field from the non-landing field, he stole a low passage ticket at knifepoint from a traveling vicar.
On El Zocalo, he spent a few months living on the streets before being caught up in an anti-homeless sweep. He was enrolled in a state-run youth enrichment program, its aim a seamless transition between vagrancy and industrial serfdom.
Starting at age 16, he spent 3 years operating a lathe at the Neogen Multistellar cosmonautics plant, then 2 years pushing slag at the Ad Astra tungsten refinery, 4 years running QC spot-checks on Myishi Z-12 windshields, then 3 years clearing jams in the Big Rollem packaging works.
His escape wasn't daring or glamorous. One day the power went out after a particularly bad stellar flux storm, and he simply walked out along with six other serfs after crushing their ankle monitors in the hydraulic box-flattener.
Life on the street was hard, and he began to regret his choice, but he knew that if he went back he had nothing to look forward to except for thirty or forty years at the meat-packing plant, or perhaps sorting refuse at a recycling node. So he continued to hang around with Corky, Skrobb, Lola, Buster, and Shrimp as they raided dumpsters and shoplifted and evaded the human resource patrols. Then, he chanced upon a spacer named Evie Moth.
He really did want to work for Krongu. It was a weird request, but it seemed better than scrounging and petty crime. So he donned the gym shorts, quaffed deeply from the bottle of Krongu Ultra Drank™, and began to jog. He tried to resist the knot forming in his stomach to no avail. And afterward, he was angry, and he started making a scene.
He was lying in a puddle of green vomit when the kind man in the red sash approached and knelt. "You've had a hard life, my friend. It all must seem so confusing, so strange." With these words, he cracked open an aluminum can, red as a dying star. "The wait is over, my son. It's time to Enjoy."
Notes
- It has been decided: next session will open with the cage match.
- I have my zero-g cage match rules, but I need to draw up a reasonable way of determining how the advertising investment and cage match success affect the base price of 1 metric ton of Krongu green slime.
- The fugitives showing up at Kreft's apartment were the result of a serendipitous encounter roll. One thing I really like about running CT is the way the encounter categories are general enough to be either woven into existing threads or used to start new ones. I could probably be a lot more deft in how I do this, but it's fun to see the result "6 fugitives" and realize that since Kreft was met as part of a fugitive encounter, these were probably the same people.