While the ships were getting recommissioned, Hawkins drew some leads on a continuing pool of personnel for the fleet as well as materiel, and has taken a post as the fleet's quartermaster. Shortly before they were ready to launch, the stationmaster, Vulfilas, called Owens to his office. Owens arrived to see him in conversation with a lieutenant of the Galactic Government Navy, who called for the dispersal of everyone at the station under threat of strike. Vulfilas asked Owens (introduced as "My head of security") if the forces at the station could take on a standard frontier border patrol fleet, to which Owens answered yes. To stack the odds in theor favor, Owens took the lieutenant prisoner, as well as his contingent of three guards and a pilot. (This reminds me, your brig is officially overflowing now.)

Two cruisers and seven frigates dropped in to assault the station; this was expected. What was unexpected was the GGV Aquitaine, a heavily armed and armored Government battleship. The Event Horizon and the Sunry took out the smaller cruiser and its accompaniment of smaller frigates, with the Sunry taking heavy damage; the larger enemy cruiser and its larger frigates took out the other more combat capable frigate on Vulfilas' side, damaged the Spirit of the Drill, and a single shot from the Aquitaine obliterated the Sherenneby, Vulfilas' flagship. Owens and Vulfilas called for a retreat immediately after some escape pod recovery (the Spirit of the Drill having recovered Vulfilas' escape pod); freighters that had been hanging near the station were able to evacuate almost everyone aboard.

Darius recommended an unnamed pirate world to effect repairs. Vulfilas was delivered to his own rally point, and the crew then set down to again affect repairs on the two frigates. Turns out battleships are no joke.

While most of the crew was ashore, Owens was in orbit on the Event Horizon when the CV Grassy Knoll entered the system. Praising Owens for his continued work against the Government, and for the job they did attempting to defend Vulfilas' holdings, the two met aboard the Event Horizon; the details of this meeting are known only to the two of them, as of now, and it is up to Owens to parse the events and guide the fleet forward.

Hey all, I realized that we've been doing MAD combat slightly wrong. Frigates should be harder to hit, so you get a -1 to each die on targeting. Battleships would be easier, so you get a +1 to each. Not saying we're going into combat tonight but it's good to know. /foolingnobody

I've updated the Player's Guide with a few more standard ships and I think a couple of other fixes, tweaks and rules we've come up with along the way (namely, personal armor). It can be found in the same folder as before: https://1drv.ms/f/s!Asx5s_QiXO2GkbgzFutUODUxbPVh5w

You give Anton a call. You haven't kept in close enough touch that he knew you were on a thought-to-be-destroyed ship (though news and rumors of the Ticonderoga's return are spreading quickly), so there's no uncomfortable, "I thought you were dead!" He's only a little surprised that you're no longer with the military, and marvels that crusty ol' Owens is working on recruiting. Thought you liked stuff you could get away with smacking with a wrench; obviously doesn't know how the mutiny went down. He asks you to provide a short description and mission statement of your group that he can use while pitching it during recruiting.

Saanvi doesn't recognize you by name nor reputation, and you decide to keep your military background out of sight for now. Frankly she doesn't ask many questions at all - just how many people and where should she send them. She also notes a somewhat hefty finder's fee - it's clear that she's charging with both hands to maximize profits.

Hawkins meanwhile found a good lead on an old industrial world and would like to head out there. None of the ships in the fleet are ready to fly quite yet, so you'd be chartering a ride from someone else at the station. There are plenty of options.

Because of how things may shake out for BDA, I'll NPC him a bit through here.

Hawkins has a few ideas; in searching for different conspiracy groups for the Ticonderoga disappearance, I found some less-whackjob groups that might be worth surreptitiously checking out that might be good for recruitment bases.

As for you, make up a couple of contacts and tell me who they are. (Informal version of Shadowrun's contact thing here.) Then I'll see what they can get for you.

Planning on going ahead with this Sunday. BDA may not be able to make it but I've talked with him already and will be NPCing his character if need be. Please let me know if you're able to join, and check on those that don't check the forum too much.

My wife continued my Miyazaki education last night and I watched Howl's Moving Castle and Spirited Away. (We got a Blu-Ray set during an Amazon Prime Day last year and so far all we'd watched was Princess Mononoke.

I am definitely enjoying these. Plot structure doesn't quite do what you think it will at the start, particularly in Spirited Away, but there's always mysteries you're trying to unravel. Very active watching.

No, intelligence, like persuasion.

I'm gonna give this a bump. Enjoyed it when it was posted, and when we were sharing stuff on stream a few weeks ago Faldor posted it again to my continue enjoyment.

Man that is fun to listen to now, knowing how it's evolved.

He just posted on Twitter last night for the first time since then. I sorta bounced with joy.

No problem, BDA also ducked out. I'll post later tonight or tomorrow with something a bit different, hopefully you guys will like it.

Reminder! See you guys tomorrow night.