“Stop, you’re coming with me.” He gives you a look of confusion before he accedes to your demand. “As you say, no reason to have trouble,” he says. You don’t know how you’re going to move the unconscious one, though. Sresh are head and shoulders taller than you and no doubt are twice your weight. You flick coms, “Vasquez, I know it’s not your shift yet but I need bodies down here to move bodies.” Your visor flashes an affirmative light.

Two of Vasquez’s men come down within minutes. With the help of the manager, they move him with ease. There isn’t quite a brig yet but there are some broom closets in the comms center that would do nicely. It takes a bit of effort not to laugh after remembering that he went down stiff as a board.

When you arrive back at the center, you have them leave the unconscious one in the closet and bar the door. You take the manager into a side room and ask him, “Tell me what that was about.”

He doesn’t move more than breathing, he remains passive. “He unrightfully claimed that he wasn’t being paid his wage and demanded more money. I told him that he should stop spending it on grorcha. The exchange continued until he pulled out his knife. It was an uncoordinated and brash move, which he paid for.” You were there, that sresh’s anger was almost out of control. “Why’d you ruffle through his pockets?” You ask.

“He’d lost the right to have it after what he did. His pay is now a reparation for attacking me.” You’ve got the manager’s PDA and you start to look through it for pay history. While you’re doing that, you radio for some of your men to ask questions about the cheat and the manager. The questions mostly focus on previous incidents, history, and what in god’s name grorcha is.

You know what to look for with these finance reports. Your father had you looking through them for inconsistencies since you were 12. It takes a little time to notice it, but when you do it screams at you. The manager has been skimming off of everyone’s pay. Only a little, but it’s added up over the years. No one would notice if they never got a hold of the files.

Reports from you men are starting to come in, confirming much of what the manager’s said. The cheat’s been rambling for months about how he’s being stolen from. Most of the time he was intoxicated. Turns out that grorcha is a powerful and addictive numbing agent. He’d caused public disturbances in the middle of the sleeping period.

But what to do with them? You’re sure the manager still has money that he’d be willing to pay and keep paying. Or you could expose him to the workers who’d want a word with him. Though the cheat could definitely be disposed of quietly.

>Extort the manager for a good portion of his profits (1500 credits)
>Expose him
>Leave him be, it’s not much money he’s taking
>Other?

Dispose of the cheat quietly?
>Yes
>No
>Other?

File: City.jpg (1.16 MB, 1920x1080)

1.16 MB JPG

Goin to sleep early, I'm tired as hell. I'll have it up again early morning. In the mean time enjoy this unnamed city on an unnamed planet that somehow has english.

>>1193580
>>Other?
Before doing any work on the manager bug whoever is in charge if we get bonus pay for keeping the peace and the occupation gig.

Dispose of the cheat quietly?
Once he gets questioned give him 3 days of jail and two weeks of work without pay, anything needed to survive will be provided.

>>1193580
>>Expose him
Public good will.

>>1193580
>Expose him?
or
>Other?
Tell him that if he pays most of the money back, and promises to pay everyone their fair share from now on, we won't expose him. We will just say there was a error in the accounting program that counted the smaller denominations incorrectly. Or we expose him, and let the workers deal with him.

+

>No, Lock him up for a few days for pulling a knife, but he needs rehab or something. We should ban grocha, and punish dealers/distributors, and destroy production, arrest ring leaders.

Ask Vasquez what the captain's long term plan is. Do we always have to ask Vas, or cal we like get messages from the boss? How does he get all his info.

This is hilariously stupid, you think to yourself. Turning towards him, you drop the PDA on the table with a small thump. Tough face, stern face. “So you’ve been skimming off pay from the workers. I’ve seen it before. I’ll tell you what, you’ll get off easy.” You lean closer to him. These stunts wouldn’t work in a professional negotiation, but this isn’t what you’d call normal. “Give back some of the money, call it a bonus for a good harvest, stop skimming pay, and throw in a good word about me. Do that and you’re free. Don’t do it and those workers might not be happy about you skimming pay.” You fall back into your chair.

The manager remains passive for a minute, probably thinking over the situation. He nods with a grimace, “As you say, sir.” God you hate this language, it makes you glad you speak can speak your own language with your friends. You have to filter most things from their literal translations. If it wasn’t for that and how common it was, you wouldn’t even bother using it.

“Good, you can leave now.” You guide him to the door and he leaves. That still leaves the guy in the “brig,” or fortified broom closet if you call it what it really is. He’s still out and will be for a while if you can judge correctly. You look down at your watch, Vasquez should be relieving you soon. The time you’ve spent away from Sol has been hard on it. The silver is starting to fade. If it wasn’t vacuum, water, and crack-proof it would’ve broken long ago. It’s hands still work and so does the alarm, so you’ve still got something.

It’s not long before Vasquez walks into the comms center you’ve been using for an HQ. “Yo,” you start, “there’s a guy in the brig. He’ll probably wake up during your shift and won’t be happy. Just make sure he doesn’t get out and I’ll deal with him in the morning.” Vasquez nods, “He the one who pulled knife?”

“Yep, turns out the guy he pulled it on had been skimming pay off of everyone. Though no one believed him because he was nuisance. I’ll keep him locked up for a few days then have him work for no pay for a while.” You continue, “Where do you get your information? It seems the Captain doesn’t tell us much.”

Vasquez frowns, “I get about a third from the First, and the rest from the Third and Fourth. Other times, I guess. The Captain only gives private information to the First though. Everything we don’t get in a briefing comes from him. Not much more than orders filter down to the lower ranks.”

(1/2)

The explains a lot. “Alright,” you say. “By the way, we’re also banning grorcha.” You can already see his confusion. “And before you ask, ‘What the hell is grorcha?’ It’s a drug. From what I’ve heard it’s a lot like heroin or morphine on Old Earth. It numbs you and sends you into a stupor.”

“Makes sense, I’ll back it. We don’t need that stuff here,” he responds. “I think I’ve figured out what we’re doing here. I’ve been talking to those ex-marines of yours, they know a lot about trade, and it seems that this is an effort to control some routes. Smugglers pass by within a few light years of here. Set up a state or government, and you can control where they go.”

Same thing happens everywhere. Maybe a little bit of extortion or tolls and you’ve got an instant income. One of them did mention that commercial trade is uncommonly low and the colony was unknown. It explains the arsenals too and the one radical guy you executed. In the meantime, you’re relieved from duty.

You’re probably gonna get a bonus on your officer’s commission if you can turn this place around. It’s time you got some sleep, there’s things you need to do tomorrow. The schedule will be full tomorrow, better prioritize things.

>Sweep the town for drugs
>Have you men sweep the town while you christen the new wall
>Slack off (Do what instead?)
>Do clerical work, write reports, etc.
>Other?

>>1195528
>Sweep the town for drugs
>Do clerical work, write reports, etc.
>Have you men sweep the town while you christen the new wall
A bit of everything, do a couple of house cleaning then see to the wall and when the guys are done sweeping(hopefuly they won't use the drugs they find while on duty) write the reports. If we can have someone else to do it it'd be even better.
In any case talk with our guys, it should raise morale or something.

>>1195548
This.
Throw in a little speech.

They bring crime and drugs to our planet! We will build a wall to kept the grorcha out, and make the space ayys pay for it all!

If anyone objects or say they can fly over it, tell them that "the wall just got 10 feet higher!"

Your morning starts in the dark hours before morning. There’s a breakfast of fresh food, courtesy of the town. After that is prep time and then your shift starts. You give your squad a quick briefing during the prep period, mostly about the upcoming sweep and the new wall.

When the sun starts to rise, you relieve Vasquez. He’s been helping organize the sweep as much as he could from his side. There’s layouts and routes planned. You start out the door with six of your men to start the sweep while the others keep watch. The first house is small, a gathering room, a kitchen, and sleeping quarters. It’s clean. The rest of the houses you sweep are similar in design, though different in proportion depending on the inhabitant. When you get to the cheat’s house, you’re sure there’s enough drugs to kill an elephant.

You leave your men after that, the wall is done. It’s a mix of artificial stone and metal, mostly. There’s some composites near the joints and electrified wire running where it needs to. A small crowd is gathering and some of your men are there, so you decide to entertain them. “This. This is security for the future. It’ll keep out all of the animals who try to poison your fine lives. Everything this wall represents is to better our great community. With it, we’ll make ourselves great. Enjoy it, it’ll only get higher with the more we need it.”

There’s some laughs, a couple of quiet cheers from the crowd. Or at least from your men. They disperse and you make your way back to the comms center to write reports. The main report details the new wall and the drug ban. It takes time to write because of the still arriving information. In late afternoon, the final report comes in: a whopping 3 kilos of assorted non-medicinal drugs. You attach the report to the standard dailies and send it to the First, the acting Captain while the ship is away.

You spend the next few days…
>Following your routine
>Getting to know someone (Who?)
>Resting in your spare time
>Training
>Other?

>>1195706
>Getting to know someone (Who?)
Reach out to the other lieutenants, see how they are doing (I'll bet a months rations they are terrible at it, and are massacring civvies and fighting insurgents)

How big is the settlement we are managing compared to the others? Where and how large, and how many are the population centers on this planet, and how thinly spread out are they?

>>1195815
How spread out are they population wise, outisde of the "settlement(s)"

>>1195706
>>Getting to know someone (Who?)
The hack or the bridge guy, or the redshirts

In your spare time before bed, during breakfast, and prep you start doing some research on the population. You already know that of the six population centers, this one has 226 occupants and is one of the bigger centers. A topic you think of is the rural population, those who don’t live in the towns. The most you can pin down are about 70 or so that would appear in various towns every few months or so.

You go through the reports that the other officers send in and think, I bet a month’s rations that they’re already fighting insurgents and massacring people. You’d normally skim through them, but this time you’re looking for specifics on how they’re doing. There’s a good amount of executions, about 120 as of yet. That’s compared to two that you did on the first night. At least there aren’t reports of rebellion so far, so you’ve haven’t won or lost much of your rations. After thinking about it, you reckon that your town can get about 150 militia if they took the women, old, and unfit. The rest are either too old or too young.

The hacker in your squad usually spends his time in the comms center. As a result, you’re often in close proximity. You open up a conversation one afternoon about his past. He’s more open than a lot of the sarqs you’ve seen, but he talks like a snake oil sales. It sounds like he’s always got something to sell about himself. According to him, he grew up the streets and learned to hack so he could get into shops. He’d steal whatever he needed and sell the rest for exorbitant rates to the other homeless. When he was old enough, he started joining crews and he’s been traveling ever since.

When you’re not talking to the Hackerman, you’re hitting it up with Garrote. “Why did they call you that?” You ask him. “If you must know,” he replies, “I was throttled within a feather’s width on my life. Still have the scar.” He lifts up some of his feathers, revealing a thin line about his neck. You continue to ask about jobs he’s had before, how life was before he was shamed. Apparently he had a promising future. He’d risen through the bridge staff rather quickly to a the secondary pilot. After he was ousted, he continued to pilot boarding craft and would make sure that no one dislodged it.

It’s the 11th night you’d been there when an alarm rang out. It doesn’t last long before it stops, must not be serious.

>Go back to sleep, Vasquez will handle it
>Check it out
>Other?

>>1197014
>Check it out
Fuuuuuuuu- Hates getting out of bed, grumble grumble.....

>>1197014
>>Check it out

>>1197014
>>Check it out

You shake the sleep from your eyes. God, you hate getting up early. Dragging your jumpsuit on, you make your way to the comms center. It’s not far from the barracks, which are really just houses nearby. Some of the others are going to investigate the alarm.

Vasquez’s men are running around. When you find the Fifth, he’s staring at one of the view screens. “What are you looking at?” You ask after a few moments. “Nothing, absolutely nothing. You can go back bed now,” he replies. You shrug and stick around for a little while longer. The general consensus is a false alarm and you head back to bed.

Everyone is nervous on your next shift. Your men, you, the people, everyone. They must’ve heard the commotion. It’s hard not to have heard it, the alarm was louder than you’d like. You have a sneaking suspicion that it wasn’t a false alarm. Though you could just be paranoid.

>Investigate the false alarm
>Go about your business, it was nothing
>Get to know someone (Who?)
>Train in your spare time
>Rest
>Other?

>>1199443
>>Investigate the false alarm
>Train in your spare time

>>1199443
>>Investigate the false alarm

>>1199443
>Investigate the false alarm

You go through a training session and the results of your effort are starting to show. Your body is feeling better than ever and more fit than you’ve been since college. This could be the next new fad diet, though it the “Kidnapped and Forced-Servitude” diet probably wouldn’t sell too good.

The more you think about that night with the false alarm, the more doesn’t add up. You’ve got to get to the bottom of this. It’d be two days ago now, someone had to have set off the sensors. Best start with the them, they were what triggered the alarm to go off. The reports have already called it a false, you’ve read them.

There’s visuals over all the town and one of them has to have something. All your spare time is going towards this investigation, pouring over sensor readings. Nothing, that’s what you’ve found. You check every sensor in the area where the alarm was raised, still nothing. The patrols were questioned, they didn’t see anything. Though it’s not hard to evade a patrol if you know how.

More and more you feel like calling it off, but there has to be something. Somehow and an alarm was set off without anyone around and without tinkering with the sensors. No one could’ve messed with them, that would’ve set them off and there’d be evidence. Maybe it is just you…

>Keep investigating (Roll 1d20)
>Call it off (Do what instead?)

Rolled 13 (1d20)

>>1200976
>Keep investigating (Roll 1d20)

Rolled 12 (1d20)

>>1200976
>>Keep investigating (Roll 1d20)
cloacking tech? A native monster that can blend in?

>>1201083
One of the boys may be breaking the rules smuggling that grouch stuff in for some extra on the side. Gonna have to go Judge Dredd on em if thats that case.

It’s not you just you, you’ve got an idea. You don’t know what the top level of technology is out here, for all you know they could have cloaking technology. The files you have on hand provide a brief outline of it. It’s military grade technology, mostly classified. The most you find is counter illumination to match the residual light level. They wouldn’t have it out here.

It wasn’t one of your guys who triggered it. The only reason you could think they’d do it is for some side money by selling the drugs you confiscate. All three kilos are still there, so that’s off the table.

You keep pouring through data. Everything is consistent until the alarm, routine pings back and forth. That is until just a moment before the alarm when something cancels the ping to one of the sensors, pulling the sequence out of alignment. The only thing that could cause that is a direct connection to the circuit and a computer. Either you’ve been hacked or someone is messing around with the equipment. Both of which are cause for worry.

>Search the town for electronics
>See if Hackerman can trace it, best to keep it on the downlow
>Ignore it, they can’t do anything
>Other?

>>1201607
>See if Hackerman can trace it, best to keep it on the downlow

This isn’t your realm of expertise, but you’ve got someone who can do it. You call hackerman into the comms center. He normally spends his time either on patrol or making sure the sensors work. “I’ve got a problem that I need fixed,” you say and you start to explain the backstory. Your underling readily agrees on the grounds of, “I gotta keep my reputation and catch this guy.”

It’s not before he calls you back over. “It’s right here,” he points at the anomaly, “in the strength of the signal. It’s wireless and portable, probably a PDA. The signal was targeted to one sensor but was picked up by several that didn’t go off. If you triangulate it, it’s in this house,” he points again to a map. The house he indicates isn’t far from where it went off. A record check shows that it’s owned by a pair of makkl.

You radio some men in the area to search the house and bring in the owners. Minutes later, you get a response. They’ve found the PDA and it’s the one you’re looking for. The owners will be there within the hour.

A pair of makkle lie restrained at your feet. One of them looks like he’s been beaten slightly, probably for resisting. Small amounts of blood are starting to crust on the side of his. The other is smaller and has a wider head, a female by the looks of it. Preliminary questions don’t get you anywhere, they were sleeping when the alarm went off. That’s what they claim at least.

When you bring up the PDA and go through it with them, they fail. You’ve seen it a hundred times before in negotiations: bring up a certain point and the defense collapses. “Yes,” they say. “For what it’s worth, we did it. Alone. There wasn’t anyone else involved.”

>Press them further (Roll 1d20)
>Make an example of them
>Expose of them quietly
>Let them go, you’ve got everything you want
>Detain them
>Other?

File: Ricky Master In'terror'gator.gif (1.74 MB, 248x184)

1.74 MB GIF

Rolled 1 (1d20)

>>1202457
>>Press them further (Roll 1d20)

Rolled 6 (1d20)

>>1202457
>Press them further (Roll 1d20)
Are we rolling low or high?

>>1202480
high, but the dice want us to fail on this one

Rolled 13 (1d20)

>>1202457

>>1202507
Rolled again since i doubt the next fella who comes by won't be around for hours.

Rolled 19 (1d20)

>>1201634
>>Press them further (Roll 1d20)

>>1203796
>>1202469
19 - 5 = 14
Ok success


“Tell me who you were helping,” the questioning goes on. They don’t answer. Silence for minutes on end. You repeat the question and get the same response.

“Why did you do it?” Silence. Not so much as a loud breath.

You’re getting fed up with this. You’re standing up now, pacing. They’re miniscule in their seats compared to you. “Tell me now,” you demand.

You raise your hand to strike one of them, you don’t care which at this point. “Wait,” the male says, “I’ll tell you. It was the resistance. We did it for them, they wanted to test your response and timing. I don’t know what they’re planning, honestly. But it’s going to happen soon.”

The next round of questions asks them for names, locations, anything. There aren’t any answers.

You’re left with a predicament. They won’t give you more information and you can’t get more unless you break them. But they might not crack under pressure, so you might as well get rid of them now and not waste your time.

Choose two, one for each prisoner:
>Detain them
>Make a public example
>Dispose of them discretely
>Get the to admit what you want under… duress (Roll 1d20)
>Other?

Sorry for the slow posting, apparently I've become super popular. That's combined with a bad schedule I've picked up.

>>1204018
any anons got any ideas?

>>1204724
As a bystander and not QM, I'd execute them publicly. But that's my personal preference, don't let it affect your decision

Rolled 8 (1d20)

>Get the to admit what you want under… duress (Roll 1d20)
Have them spill the beans for leniency.

If not then.......>>1205092
we just might

>>1204018
>>Detain them

>>1204018
>>1205655
Detain

New Thread
>>1209301