Jam Session #8: Dunhuang Hustle

Outer System Rhapsody Arc Theme Song: “Dawn of the Dead” by Does It Offend You, Yeah? // Session Intro Song: “Pusherman” by Curtis Mayfield

If you would like a recap of the previous session, check out Jam Session #7: Hard Luck Two-Step!

The session opens up with the Heathens trying to hail the ship as Sirius hastily works to get the mining laser up and running. A message begins to crackle as the laser charges. For a moment it sounds like the Heathens want to cut a deal, but before negotiations can continue, The Mississippi Queen (II?)’s laser unleashes a line of charged particles that incinerate the space bikers almost immediately. The Crew exchange uneasy looks as the newly formed glass on Proteus’s surface slowly cools in the afternoon air.

“So… what do we do with the wreck?” Sirius asks the Crew, prompting a lengthy discussion. Back and forth they go, debating their different options: sell the ship to the Junker’s Guild, keep the ship and try to repair it, sell the ship to an independent buyer, break the ship down to its nuts and bolts and leave with everything they can carry. Kuru even goes so far as to give the Junker’s Guild a call, getting Lora Warders of all people on the phone (no doubt she was out of sick days and had to get right back to work after having been shot the day before), before finally the Crew decides to see if the Cremisi Family has any interest.

They give Aria a call and within a few hours the mobster and some of her enforcers arrive on the site to not only drop off the Crew’s hover bikes but also to appraise the wreckage and make an offer. After a bit of back and forth she offers them 5 Cred. While they could probably get more shopping the scrap to the Junker’s Guild, the Cremisi Family wasn’t currently out for blood, so the Crew took the deal and thanked Aria before parting ways.

With time ticking down, the Crew gears up and gets ready to fly into Pharos City. They have Monty keep an eye on Yapo Conglomerates and Jojang Motive radio chatter, waiting for the two corporate forces to begin fighting again, hoping they could use the battle as cover and slip into the city largely unnoticed. The Mississippi Queen II didn’t have to wait long, as Jojang Motive began bombing the city within a few hours.

Sirius took the pilot’s seat again, pushing the newly-acquired DSS-9 "Skopa” to its limits. Yapo Conglomerates’ security forces tag the ship and attempt to hail them, but the Crew ignores the message and starts zigzagging between buildings, trying to avoid the city’s defense forces and the invading Jojang Motive fighters. Enemy fire riddles the ship’s hull, disrupting some non-essential systems. As Sirius attempts to keep ahead of enemy pursuit his previous injuries conspire the the G-force of flying at breakneck speed to knock him unconscious.

The Mississippi Queen II briefly enters a freefall as Kuru Toga climbs into the pilot’s seat and takes over. He spots an elevated super highway that cuts through Pharos City and quickly flies beneath it, using the structure to hide the ship. The gambit pays off and the fighters pursuing their ship quickly break off, having more important targets to engage. No longer in immediate danger, Kuru punches in the coordinates for the Fu Syndicate’s warehouses and continues moving through the city. Meanwhile, Courtney and Scruffy tend to Sirius, administering first aid to bring the captain back to this side of consciousness, albeit in an incredibly dazed and confused state.

Kuru makes contact with one Zhao Fang, an enforcer (and initiated member of the Syndicate) serving under Yip “Shrimp Boy” An-lo and the supervisor of kumo production in Pharos City. She instructs Kuru to land the ship, directing him to a specific lot. As the former hitman brings The Mississippi Queen II down he catches sight of a half-dozen Heathens heading into a bar along the western edge of the Syndicate’s warehouses. His blood beginning to boil, Kuru takes note of the establishment’s name: the Full Throttle Roadhouse.

The Mississippi Queen II touches down and Sirius, Kuru, and Courtney walk down the gangway to meet with Fang and her associates. Within seconds of leaving the ship Kuru wordlessly veers off, making his way directly to the Full Throttle Roadhouse. Unsure what to do, Courtney looks to Sirius: “You need me here, or should I make sure Kuru doesn’t get into too much trouble?”

Figuring he’d be plenty safe among members of the Syndicate (or so completely out-gunned if they decide to turn on the Crew), Sirius nods and Courtney sets off after his brother-in-arms, hoping to catch up with Kuru before it’s too late. As his last line of defense runs toward inevitable danger, Sirius follows Fang into a nearby warehouse. They weave through countless workers prepping kilos of kumo for shipping, eventually making their way to Fang’s office. She lays out the specifics of the next leg of the run before handing Sirius a knife and offering a sample of the product. Sirius, never one to turn down a free sample, takes a taste and within seconds his worries and bodily pain melt away. The high doesn’t last for long, however, and soon he is returned to his dull, hurt-ridden world.

“How long is it going to take to load up the ship?” he asks.

“Forty-five minutes, hour tops,” Fang replies. “Assuming you and your crew don’t get in the way.”

The camera cuts away to Courtney just as he catches up to Kuru Toga, the latter of which is glaring at the trio of Heathens hanging out in front of the Full Throttle Roadhouse.

“What’s your plan?” Courtney asks.

“I’m going to walk across the street and shoot them in the face,” Kuru replies.

“Maybe we can do something a little more subtle,” Courtney suggests before laying out a plan involving a hint of subterfuge.

Kuru readily agrees.

Trouble’s Brewing for our friend Kuru Toga as he beholds the gang that destroyed his home - the original Mississippi Queen II. Revenge, as it is said, will be Best Served Cold. The soundtrack picks up, with Bill Withers’ “Ain’t No Sunshine” blaring in the background as Kuru and Courtney head across the street and enter the bar.

The place is packed with Heathens and their associates. In the corner a jukebox continues playing Mr. Withers’ hit while Kuru and Courtney take a seat at the bar and order their drinks. After a few unsuccessful attempts at small talk with the bartender, Kuru decides to cut his losses and heads into the bathroom, using the trip across the bar space to scout the situation. More than a dozen armed Heathens are lounging around, relaxing with their compatriots and taking the edge off with booze and worse. A single stairway leads into the second story - the second of five based on what Kuru saw as he initially approached the building. Tucked away behind the bar is a set of double doors leading to the Roadhouse’s kitchen. Satisfied with his scan, Kuru steps into the bathroom and nearly bumps into a man taking a piss. Almost without thinking, Kuru goes ham on the Heathen, smashing the guy’s face into the wall before ripping off his vest and dumping the unconscious body head first into the waste can.

Thinly disguised, Kuru steps back out into the main bar area and motions for Courtney to follow him into the kitchen to cause some havoc. The pair steps inside and Courtney walks over to the line cook, a mountain of a man wearing the Heathens’ colors, and shoves a knife up beneath the man’s jaw and into his brain. Before anyone else can react, Kuru brandishes his Glock 2086 Plasma Defender Pistol, ordering everyone to stay quiet. An older woman with skin like leather takes a drag on her cigarette and coolly asks if the duo knows who they’re fucking with, to which Kuru replies he knows exactly who he’s fucking with.

The doors connecting the kitchen to the bar open as the bartender steps in. There’s a tense moment and the bartender locks eyes with Kuru, who then pulls the trigger, sending 2,500 joules of energy directly into the man’s chest. The bartender staggers back through the doors and flips over the bar, quickly alerting the patrons to the situation in the kitchen. Bullets begin flying through the doorway, forcing Kuru and Courtney to take cover behind the counters. The remaining kitchen staff flee, running through the back door and into an alleyway, screaming all the way.

Kuru lays down covering fire, sending super-heated plasma into the bar while ducking down to avoid shotgun and submachine gun fire. Meanwhile, Courtney runs over to the burners and turns off the pilot lights before opening the gas lines as wide as they’ll go. One of the Heathens kicks in the door and nearly fills Kuru’s chest with buckshot, but the former hitman’s reflexes prove faster and he burns a hole in the man’s torso. As the fight between Kuru and the Heathens, Courtney stays low to the ground and makes his way over to one of the ovens and packs it full of paper towels before setting the temperature to 232.7 Centigrade and making his way to the door.

With Courtney covering him from outside, Kuru ran through a rain of bullets, narrowly avoiding harm as he moved from counter to counter. The paper towels within the over catch fire as Kuru clears the threshold and time slows down as the flames ignite the gas building up in the kitchen. The fireball slowly expands, consuming the entire kitchen before billowing out into the alleyway and the barroom. Kuru and Courtney narrowly avoid being incinerated in the conflagration while the Heathens on the first floor are not so lucky. The flames race up the stairs to the second floor before continuing to the top of the building, quickly enveloping the entire building.

As Courtney and Kuru take a roundabout path back to The Mississippi Queen II the camera returns to Sirius and Scruffy, who are assisting the Fu Syndicates laborers in getting the final crates of kumo into the cargo hold. The sound of the explosion catches everyone’s attention and all eyes briefly turn to Sirius, who quickly assures everyone that Courtney and Kuru had gone off in the opposite direction (when in fact they had most certainly not). A handful of guards are dispatched by Fang to stand watch over the western edge of their turf to make sure the Heathens don’t encroach on their territory. While the two organizations weren’t at war, they weren’t exactly friendly with one another either.

A slightly singed Kuru and Courtney return to the ship, their lust of vengeance satiated for the moment. With the kumo securely on board, the Crew prepares The Mississippi Queen II to take flight. Kuru takes the pilot’s seat yet again and brings the ship into the sky. With Monty’s help he plots a course and punches it, flying straight through the dogfights and flak clouds and making their way toward Hippocamp where they are welcomed warmly - in a manner of speaking - by Barrett, who quickly gets them moving through her Black Gate on their way to Triton.

After an uneventful trip through Barrett’s Black Gate the Crew returns to Triton space and reaches out to Shrimp Boy for their next set of instructions. As usual, the old man refuses to talk to anyone but Scruffy, but once the janitor is put on the line they are given the coordinates for six hand offs, with instruction to deliver the goods to each person - no dead drops that could be picked up by a rival organization (or worse, the cops). After receiving the different drop points, the Crew has Monty determine the best order of exchanges, and settles on the following:

• Nikos Askvig, an independent contractor who operates out of a Cosmos Diner on the 500th level of the Liwei Memorial Port in the southeastern side of Lassell City.

• Kano Tomi, a scrapyard nomad living in the vast junk fields across the river from Lassell City. Said fields are owned and operated by the Junker’s Guild.

• Yang Kui, a well-connected entrepreneur rumored (but not proven) to work for one of the System’s most powerful corporations (Shrimp Boy suspects Kumiko-Zharkov Industries). He often stays at a suit in the So-yeon Khanate Docking Station on the western side of the city.

• Bori Buki, a warehouse magnate who at one point was a sworn member of the Voyna, but who has recently retired from that life (but still maintains friendly connections with the organization). His warehouses can be found along the northen edge of the city, bordering the Lassell Sound.

• Keifer Wescott, a security officer working for Enron-Gulf Industries. He has arranged for a pickup in a parking garage near the corporate offices in Lassell City’s business district.

• And the last shipment will be picked up by Shrimp Boy himself at his club downtown.

Curtis Mayfield begins singing as Kuru Toga flies The Mississippi Queen II to their first drop, but is unable to secure a docking station close to Nikos’s place of business. While most of the Crew is content to enter a holding pattern until something opens up, Scruffy (renown for his punctuality), decides to give Nikos a call to see if the man can move some ships around and get the delivery in sooner. The man is brusque, but is able to deliver on a docking station near his business, moving one of his own ships to make room for The Mississippi Queen II.

As the Crew lands, they are met by Nikos’s daughter, the no-nonsense Naida, who oversees the unloading of product from the ship’s cargo hold. Toward the end of this rather boring process, Sirius spots one of Naida’s men trying to make off with an extra crate of kumo and decides to confront the towering behemoth of a man. The laborer laughs at the comparatively diminutive captain, brushing off threats of Shrimp Boy’s retaliation, (rightly) stating that the Fu Syndicate deputy would be more likely to take out his frustration on the Crew than on one of Nikos’ men.

“Try and stop me, little man,” the lug states.

Sirius, always one to go along to get along, acquiesces and fires a tranq dart into the man’s chest. While it doesn’t drop the brute right away, Kuru (who spotted this situation unfolding) rushes to his captain’s aid and knocks Naida’s man out with a well-placed pistol whip. Everyone stops moving for a moment as the thug hits the floor. The Crew members let their hands stray toward weapons as Naida walks up to Sirius, unsnapping the strap around her pistol as she moves.

“What is the meaning of this?” she demands.

Sirius holds up the manifest and points at Nikos’s shipment. “He was trying to steal extra product. Can’t have that.”

Naida looks at her unconscious worker and the crate on his grav lift. Without uttering another word she draws her pistol, shoots the man in the head, and walks away.

“Um… are we good?” Sirius calls after her. He glances back at the grav lift she left behind.

“We are done,” Naida replies without looking back. “Do not overstay your welcome, offworlder.”

After taking a moment to unceremoniously dump the body outside of the ship the Crew takes off to meet with Kano Tomi for their second delivery. Klicks and klicks of junk mountains and trash speed by beneath the DSS-9 “Skopa” as Kuru brings them closer to their target. Finally they land on a relatively flat patch of detritus nestled between several hills of refuse. Scruffy joins the encrypted channel they were given by Shrimp Boy and within a few moments a figure covered head to tow in homemade armor steps out of a doorway cleverly concealed within the largest pile of junk.

As Sirius walks down to meet with the individual, the rest of the Crew prepare to unload the shipment of kumo. The figure introduces themself as Kano Tomi, a lead of a local nomad band living in the Junker’s Guild scrapyard. As the kumo is unloaded and transported to the bunker hidden within the trash heap, the Crew talk with Tomi, asking about the nomads. Tomi explains that they were formed decades ago, shortly after the Junker’s Guild arrived on Triton and began using this stretch of land as a landfill. They live in the scrapyard, avoiding Junker’s Guild patrols and laborers, salvaging smaller items to build vehicles, tools, and shelter. Their main source of income is the running of drugs and other illicit goods and selling salvage that they “borrow” from the Junker’s Guild. Shrimp Boy and individuals like him often use the nomads to move product across Triton without having to rely on ships and spacers.

With the kumo delivered, Sirius shakes hands with Tomi (and is slightly surprised to find that it’s a homemade cybernetic constructed of recycled parts) and parts ways. Tomi lets the Crew know if they’re ever looking for work or discount parts to reach out - they have an adequate supply of both.

With two deliveries down, it’s time to move to So-yeaon Khanate Docking Station and drop off Yang Kui’s shipment. Scruffy gives their contact a call, but the line rings out without an answer. Annoyed, the Crew contact the docking tower’s air traffic center and get permission to dock a few levels above Kui’s residence, but first they have to submit a manifest. Sirius pulls up an old forgery and sends it to the tower, but after a few minutes the Crew is informed they will need to submit to a scan before they can dock at the tower. Before they’re given the proper chance to respond, an Imperial Khanate security ship de-docks from one of the upper levels and descends, stopping a few meters above The Mississippi Queen II.

Monty lets the Crew know that they’re being scanned, and after a few minutes the ship is hailed by the security team.

“This is Major Bat-Erdene with the Imperial Khanate Mardet Corps. I’ve noticed a few… anomalies in your cargo hold that need addressing.”

There’s the slight sound of inference in the background, at which point Monty lets everyone know that they’ve been switched to an encrypted comms channel.

“Alright Mississippi Queen Crew, I know you’ve got something on your ship,” Maj. Bat-Erdene says. “There are three options. One, you give me 2 Cred and I look the other way. Two, you tell me who you’re working for and I look the other way. Three, you try to get away with this and I arrest you and have you each shipped off to mining colonies in the Belt where you’ll live out the rest of your short, pathetic, and brutal lives before dying of radiation poisoning or cancer. What will it be?”

After a brief discussion the Crew figures they may as well pay the 2 Cred, at which point Maj. Bat-Erdene wishes them a lovely visit to Lassell City and sends them on their way.

Their ship docked and Kui’s shipment already prepared, Scruffy takes Kuru and Courtney with him to secure an suitable object to transport the goods. The trio settles on an old dumpster, which they liberate from its location in the docking bay and wheel back to The Mississippi Queen II on a pair of grav lifts. Scruffy leads the two tough guys through some maintenance corridors, flashing his maintenance credentials whenever someone stops them. While his inconspicuous nature makes it easy to infiltrate and sneak about, the fact that the System at large rarely gives a man like Scruffy a second glance weighs on the man. He’s just Another Brick in the Wall, and the thought fills him with Blues and melancholy. But, ever the professional, Scruffy bucks up and continues leading his compatriots through the docking station with the dumpster in tow before finally arriving at the designated location.

They knock on the door and receive no response. Scruffy hums and haws about the attitudes of young people these days while Courtney and Kuru, both men with histories deeply intertwined with the shadier parts of the System’s underworld, notice a few details about the door. The keycode pad was clearly pampered with and the pneumatic door isn’t quite resting in its train properly. Both men draw their weapons and wordlessly prepare to breach. Courtney tries the door and finds it’s open, then waves Kuru ahead.

The former hitman clears the first room - a small entryway with a closet containing four dapper suits. Kuru makes a mental note to bring the suits back with him if their owner is no longer in need of fine clothes. Satisfied that the entry way is clear, he waves Courtney into the suite before moving into the kitchenette. Scruffy, not familiar with the intricacies of sweeping-and-clearing, sticks with the dumpster and serves as a lookout. Back inside, Courtney and Kuru clear the kitchenette, which is connected to both a bathroom and a small living room. Kuru posts up by the living room, keeping his Plasma Defender trained on door connecting the living room to what he imagines is the bedroom while Courtney checks the bathroom.

As the bathroom door is opened Courtney is hit with an all too familiar metallic tang. Something almost, but not quite, entirely unlike pennies. He opened the shower stall and found the well-dressed corpse of a man whose tongue had been pulled out through a hole in his throat. A common tactic for the Calavera Cartel, a member of which served as Courtney’s former employer (although Courtney was never formally a member of the group himself). He passes the information along to Kuru before stepping closer to the body to inspect it. Fingerprints burned or melted off. Most of his teeth pulled. ID stolen. If it weren’t for an engraved watch that had fallen behind the toilet, Courtney may not have ever determined the man’s identity. Following a short poem on the watch was a message: “I’m so proud of you. - Yang Dal.”

Their customer likely dead, Kuru and Courtney check the bedroom to find that it had been ransacked. Bed thrown against the wall, a screen shattered, assorted papers scattered all about. With no one to receive the kumo, the trio decides head out, but not before Kuru grabs a suitcase and packs the suits away. Four quality suits? In this economy? You gotta take them where you can! With the suits secured and a quick wipe down, Scruffy and his boys return to the ship and move along to the next drop off.

The fourth stop is with Bori Buki, a known affiliate of the Voyna, a powerful mafia family based primarily out of Venus but with safehouses across the System. The Mississippi Queen II, capable of water landings, lands with a splash near Bori’s office. As the Crew begin unloading the shipment, a mountain of a man steps out to greet them. Despite the relatively balmy weather, Bori is dressed in a voluminous fur coat and wears his beard long, giving him the appearance of a barbarian version of Santa Claus, whose jolly persona the warehouse master imitates.

Shortly after the shipment is unloaded, Bori invites the Crew inside for a drink and to finish the fieldball playoffs game between the Zhuzong Longshoremen and the Tanegashima Titans, the latter of which he admits to having a rather large sum of money riding on. Not wanting to upset a well-connected gentleman such as Bori, Sirius agrees and the Crew relaxes for a few hours with Bori and his men, shooting the shit and enjoying a very close game of fieldball. As they chat, Courtney mentions to Bori what had gone down in Kui’s hotel. Never one to pass up an opportunity, Bori immediately calls up Shrimp Boy, explains the situation, and offers to buy Kui’s unclaimed stock. Equally opportunistic, Shrimp Boy agrees and lets the Crew know that they’ll be well-rewarded for handling the situation so well.

With the game wrapped up (the Titans lost, knocking them out of the playoffs) the Crew borrows a truck and driver from Bori to deliver their fifth shipment to Keifer Wescott, whose parking garage is inaccessible via ship. Sirius helps them load the kumo into the truck before returning to The Mississippi Queen II a little worse for wear from all the activities of the past few days. He had been shot out, knocked out, shot at again (this time by a ship), blacked out from the G-force of a defensive maneuver, and subjected to Scruffy’s first aid not once, but twice. It was a lot for a body to handle in a short period of time. Hoping to take the edge off, Sirius let the Party Animal inside of him take the reigns and helped himself to a bit of kumo. Surely Shrimp Boy wouldn’t notice, especially since they had secured him an extra payday…

Kuru rides shotgun, sitting next to a quiet man named Yuri, while Scruffy and Courtney sit in the back of the cab. As they close in on the garage, Kuru spots a familiar looking vehicle in the sideview mirrors. Someone in a Kaiser Automotive Destrier (a heavy-duty muscle car) was taking a keen interest in their truck. His hairs standing on end, Kuru gives Wescott a call as he has Yuri do a lap around the garage, which appears a little too busy for two in the afternoon.

”Hey, it’s the friend of the Crab Man,” Kuru says. “Things are looking a little hot. I think we’re going to need to reschedule.”

There’s a faint clicking sound in the background, which Kuru recognizes all too well. Someone’s listening in.

“What?” Wescott says, a little too loudly. “It’s just the lunch rush, I promise.”

“Sorry my man, I don’t think we can do this.”

“We worked so hard to set this up!” Wescott exclaims. “Can I meet you somewhere else?”

Courtney leans forward from the back seat. “You should hang up now.”

*click*

With Wescott clearly compromised, the Crew has Yuri take the scenic route back to The Mississippi Queen II before giving Shrimp Boy another call. The Fu Syndicate directs them to their final drop off point where he’ll have a car waiting for them while his men unload the remaining kumo. Quite pleased with their work, Shrimp Boy pays them 6 Cred for their job and leaves them 10 kilos of kumo for their own use - “Sell it, indulge, it’s yours, boys. You’ve done me a great service!”

“Dawn of the Dead” begins playing as the credits roll, bringing the Outer System Rhapsody Arc to a close. Join us next time, space cowboy!

You can listen to the full Orbital Blues: The Mississippi Sessions playlist on Spotify.