[ EPU Foyer ] [ Lab and Grill ] [ Bonus Theater!! ] [ Rhetorical Questions ] [ CSRANTronix ] [ GNDN ] [ Subterranean Vault ] [ Discussion Forum ] [ Gun of the Week ]

Eyrie Productions, Unlimited

Subject: "GA: Blue Harvest"     Previous Topic | Next Topic
Printer-friendly copy    
Conferences Mini-Stories Topic #153
Reading Topic #153
Gryphonadmin
Charter Member
19446 posts
Nov-11-13, 04:14 AM (EDT)
Click to EMail Gryphon Click to send private message to Gryphon Click to view user profileClick to add this user to your buddy list  
"GA: Blue Harvest"
 
   Friday, February 2, 2221
Arteira system, Terminus sector

Outwardly, the only really peculiar thing about the Kowloon-class freighter drifting in the outer reaches of the Arteira system was that it was drifting in the outer reaches of the Arteira system. This was not exactly one of the galaxy's best-traveled areas; Arteira was uninhabited and not on any of the major hyperspace routes. The only regular traffic the system saw was the routine visit from the Royal Astrographic Society's survey vessels, as that august organization carried on its endless cyclical survey of the known galaxy, and that happened no more than once every ten or twenty years.

As such, today might well have been the busiest day in the history of the system, since there were not one but three starships within the heliopause today: the freighter, a United Galactica Navy Patrol Command vessel, and now - arriving in a flash from its miniature spacefold drive - one of the Wedge Defense Force's Broadsword heavy bombers.

Standing at the freighter's portside airlock observation port, a woman in the uniform of a UG Navy commander watched the Broadsword maneuver alongside and lock on. She had never seen one of these ships before, and she regarded its lines with a professional interest. They were called bombers and carried on the WDF's tactical TO&E alongside such other light spacecraft as starfighters and attack ships, but they were really small gunboats - a more liberal spacecraft taxonomist might have called them corvettes - with a crew of five and heavy weapons for their size. So adaptable had they proven that they were used for all sorts of tasks, both by the WDF and the Royal Salusian Navy - including the capacity this one was now serving in, carrying a fast-response investigator to the scene of an anomalous shipwreck.

A few moments after the Broadsword finished locking on, the airlock ran through its short pressure-on-both-sides cycle, and the inner door opened to admit a single individual in a grey-and-blue WDF field uniform.

"Commander Hutchins," said the UG officer, saluting. "Commander Bryce Tarquini, UGS Chasseur."

The man she was addressing - stocky, brown-haired, faintly in need of a shave - looked slightly bemused to be addressed with such formality, but his return salute was respectable as he replied,

"Pleasure to meet you, Commander Tarquini. What've we got?"

"We received an EPSRB transmission at 0231 hours this forewatch," Tarquini replied, nodding for him to follow her into the ship's interior. She pronounced it as a series of individual letters, as was the fashion in the UGN; in the WDF they'd have said "ep'serb". Either way, both officers knew it stood for Emergency Positioning Subspace Radio Beacon, the standard locator technology for starships in distress these last two centuries and more.

"Chasseur responded at best speed; we were on the scene by 0944," Tarquini continued. "We found this vessel drifting, powered up not under way, and unresponsive to hails. After making fast to the starboard entry port, my executive officer and a standard distress response team effected entry at 1017."

At least she didn't say "made ingress", Gryphon remarked to himself with an inward wry smile. Tarquini was a young woman to hold the rank she held; assuming she had a normal human lifespan, he would have guessed that she was in her mid-twenties, no more than five or six years out of San Francisco. She had the dark hair her surname implied, drawn back in a severe French braid, and was already developing a frown line between her dark blue eyes; clearly she took her job as one of the UGN's patrol captains very seriously. Gryphon made a mental note not to joke around with her. She was probably being as formal as she was because his reputation, and WDFers' generally, had preceded him.

As such, he didn't interrupt to tell her that she could save the precise details for her after-action report to her own Admiralty. Instead, he just kept quiet and let her get on with it.

"Lieutenant Makra and her team found the ship void of atmosphere," Tarquini reported. "They made emergency repairs to one of the pressure bulkheads to render the vessel safe for further investigation, which took approximately two hours."

"Quick work," Gryphon remarked, restraining a perverse urge to ask her to be more specific about the repair. No doubt it would be timed to within a minute in the eventual report.

"Thank you," Tarquini replied. "As you no doubt know, damage control is among the Patrol Fleet's primary tasks when rendering aid to a starship casualty."

"Of course."

"Subsequently, we were able to determine the ship's name and port of origin. Her identity transponder code resolves to the CanVar Carrier, belonging to CanVar Industries, an independent freight haulage firm out of Omega." Tarquini glanced at him, cracking the first hint of a smile she'd shown. "So I think we both know what that's worth."

"Quite," Gryphon agreed.

"We would probably have been able to work our way through the layers of obfuscation on top of that record by now anyway, but as luck would have it, we didn't have to," Tarquini continued. "Lt. Makra was able to ID one of the bodies from personal experience, and a genescan of the remains confirmed it." The UGN officer paused before the closed hatch to the after cargo hold, turned, and looked Gryphon in the eye to take in his reaction as she told him, "This is the Blue Harvest."

The Wedge Defender did not disappoint; both his eyebrows went up in surprise. "Vandal Carondan's ship."

Tarquini nodded. "The same." She keyed the hatch.

"What's old Vandal doing way the hell out here?" Gryphon wondered rhetorically, and Tarquini showed him another flash of dark humor as she swung the hatchway open and replied,

"From the looks of things, finally biting off more than he could chew."

The after hold, revealed by the opening of the hatch, was a shambles. It looked like a pitched firefight had been waged down here; burn scars and streaks of blistered thermocoat marred every flat surface in the compartment, and what few containers of cargo there had been were smashed, overturned, and/or melted outright. The deck was strewn with tools, weapons, and a half-dozen corpses, all men, human or humanoid. On the far side of the compartment, an emergency patch panel marked PROPERTY OF UNITED GALACTICA NAVY, braced with hydraulic struts, covered an entire section of bulkhead.

In the center of the hold was a large piece of machinery whose purpose was not immmediately apparent. It looked a bit like a biosculpt or crystorage tank, a clear cylindrical tube about six feet long by three in diameter, leaning back at a 30-degree angle in a metal cradle and surrounded by hoses, pumps, and other vaguely-ominous-looking machinery. Large tanks stood on either side of it, but they bore no markings to indicate what they might contain. The tube itself was empty, its base gaping open above a shiny-worn metal chute that led straight to an opening in the deck, though this was presently blocked by a hatch that showed signs of having been installed by hand.

Gryphon advanced into the room, his face thoughtful, and regarded this curious apparatus for a few moments.

"I'm not sure what that is," Tarquini admitted, sounding as though the confession pained her slightly. "We're looking into it."

"It's called a vitrifier," Gryphon said. "It's used to enclose volatile or delicate cargo in a durable transparent containment medium."

Tarquini raised an eyebrow. "What, like clear carbonite?"

Gryphon nodded. "It's called crystallite," he said. He checked the control console standing next to the tube. "Probably used fairly recently... supply tanks are empty." He considered the handbuilt hatch in the floor. "Whatever they sealed with it might still be down there."

Then, discarding that train of thought for the moment, he turned and crouched next to one of the bodies. It had been that of a human male in late middle age, scar-faced and white-bearded. Now, sprawled full-length on the plasma-scorched deck with his hands outstretched like claws, he was fully and unmistakably dead.

"Well, Vandal," Gryphon said, his voice quiet and not unkind. "What did you get yourself into this time, hm?" Then he peered more closely at the corpse before looking up at Tarquini. "He didn't die in the fight, he's been spaced."

Tarquini nodded. "Only three of the bodies we found have obviously fatal battle injuries," she said. "The others all died when the ship lost hull integrity. The fight was probably over by then." She nodded toward the braced bulkhead patch.

Gryphon rose, dusting off his knees, and regarded it. "They must not have noticed how badly compromised this panel was until it failed," he said.

"There are signs that they were busy with other matters," said another voice from the far end of the hold, and another woman approached them. This one wore a UGN EVA excursion suit, sans the helmet and gloves, having evidently not bothered to change after restoring the Blue Harvest's air supply. Her spacesuit's shoulder pods bore the stripes of a lieutenant. Slightly older than Tarquini, she had dusky skin and bleach-blonde hair, cut very short, and her face wore a slightly sardonic little smile as she saluted.

"Lieutenant Corinna Makra," she introduced herself. "You must be Gryphon."

"I must," Gryphon replied, returning her salute a trifle less professionally than he had Tarquini's.

"I've just been down in the orlop," Makra reported. "You guys have gotta see this, skipper."

Too intrigued to bother remonstrating with her exec for displaying this informality in front of the Distinguished Visitor, Tarquini followed Makra to the back of the hold and down a narrow companionway with Gryphon right behind her.

"When we rocked up on this scene initially," Makra explained, "we thought there were no survivors, but we were wrong. There's one. Barely."

She led them through a twisting passage threaded amid the guts of the ship, in places so narrow that she had to turn sideways to get her spacesuited shoulders through, and then out into a cramped, low-ceilinged compartment. This was nominally part of the ship's machinery space, not meant to be inhabited for any length of time, but in his day, Gryphon had known the operators of starships like this one to use it as anything from a punishment cell to super-cut-rate steerage accommodation to a sort of quaternary cargo hold.

On the Blue Harvest it was dominated - almost filled - by a single bulky object, which stood in the center of the tiny room and gleamed softly under the harsh overhead glowtape. At the sight of it, Tarquini pulled up short with a gasp, her hand dropping automatically to her sidearm.

It was a column of some transparent material, like glass or very clear ice, with roughly the same proportions as the empty tube on the cargo sealer Gryphon had explained upstairs. That was, perhaps, not so surprising. She had paid attention to the path Makra had led them on, and knew they would be directly beneath that apparatus. What was sealed inside the column, though... that was surprising, surprising enough that Tarquini had nearly drawn her weapon at the unexpected sight of it.

Gryphon didn't seem surprised, though. His face was grave and thoughtful, as it had been when he regarded the machine. He walked slowly up to the cylinder, gazing at what lay sealed within it, and placed his left palm against the clear surface without seeming to be entirely aware he was doing it.

"Of course," he murmured softly, his voice almost inaudible to the two UGN officers. "Vandal, you son of a bitch, of course you did."

The item inside the crystal column was a woman - well, a girl, really; apparently human, probably in her mid-teens, petite and athletic. She wasn't looking her best. For one thing, she'd been shot; there was a livid, bloody wound low on her left side, the blood frozen in weird ribbons around it, as if in a still frame of diffusion in water. For another, she was dressed in the ragged remains of what looked like they might have been rich garments once, and her long, coal-black hair was disordered, part of it escaping from an elaborate knot high on the back of her head, her long, centrally-parted, face-framing bangs in frazzled disarray.

Even so, there was no denying that she was beautiful. Even smudged with the grime and soot of a recent firefight, her white skin was clear and porcelain-perfect, her facial features - composed in the artificial solemnity of unconsciousness - delicate and pleasingly regular. Her eyes were closed, so there was no telling what color they were, but she had long, dark eyelashes and her eyebrows, in contrast with her hair, were perfectly groomed. The nails of her long, elegant fingers were short and practical, but neatly manicured. Recent hard times or no, this was plainly a young woman who was in the habit of looking after herself.

"You said she's alive?" Tarquini inquired.

Makra nodded, gesturing to a status display fused into the cylinder near its base. "In stable hibernation. She'll need a medic stat when she's thawed or she's liable to bleed out from that GSW, but everything else looks nominal."

Gryphon paid the byplay little mind; he was still standing with his palm against the crystallite column, gazing intently at its contents. "How did someone like you end up here?" he inquired softly, almost under his breath.

"... Do you... know her?" Makra wondered.

Gryphon blinked, as if surprised to be addressed, then looked away from his contemplation of the girl's face and shook his head at Makra.

"No," he said, "I've never seen her before. But I know what she is. Or rather, why she's here." He turned to Tarquini. "Vandal and his crew must have decided to try their hands at 'decorating'. Have you heard anything about that in PatCom?"

Tarquini shook her head. "No," she said.

"Well... you know how bounty hunters like to freeze their captures in carbonite, to make delivery easier? The usual thing is for the client to thaw out the captive after delivery, and then proceed to... whatever the next step is going to be. Judicial proceedings for the legitimate authorities... other stuff for the underworld boss types."

"Right. That I know about."

"A few years ago, it suddenly became fashionable in underworld circles to just keep their victims carbon-frozen and... display them. Like bizarre objets d'art. It started with the Hutts, we think, but nowadays all the best lowlife kingpins are into it," Gryphon added with grim sardony.

"That's some sick shit," Makra said.

"It gets better," Gryphon told her. "And by better I mean worse. The next weird twist was that certain enterprising scum started catering to that market directly - which is why they call themselves 'decorators'. They're going out and bagging complete strangers, people who don't owe the bosses money - who have nothing to do with anything - just because the decorators figure they'll make pretty wall hangings. Problem is, carbonite isn't much to look at in itself, and it obscures a lot of detail." He put a hand against the crystal column again. "Crystallite, on the other hand... "

"OK, I take it back, that is some sick shit," Makra said. "So this girl... whoever she is... was destined to be some Hutt's paperweight?"

Gryphon nodded. "Something like that."

"I guess it beats being a concubine," Makra said after a moment's consideration, "but only just."

"What happened, then?" Tarquini wondered. "Did someone storm the ship trying to rescue her? If so, why isn't there any sign of them? If they were killed, we should've found their bodies, but there's no one on board who isn't a known associate of Carondan. And if they lived, why didn't they take her with them? This compartment isn't exactly hidden."

"That's the other thing I wanted you to see," Makra told her. "I found a retrofit security surveillance computer down here. It's got camera feeds from all the holds. Why they installed it down here I couldn't tell you, but you're not gonna believe this shit."

The three of them barely fit into the tiny room abaft the orlop, where the security console had been rather haphazardly installed. Tarquini was put in mind of her academy days, when the perennial collegiate fad of stuffing public commo booths had come back into fashion. Rammed in shoulder-to-shoulder, the three stood before the console's display and watched the playback Makra cued up for them... and what they saw banished any thought of their cramped, uncomfortable surroundings.

The Blue Harvest had not been stormed from without by anyone, trying to rescue their unwilling cargo or otherwise. Rather, Vandal Carondan and his crew had discovered to their dismay that not every pretty teenage girl in the galaxy is as harmless as she looks. The sensor logs only went back a few hours, but it was evident from the scene when they began that the "decorators" hadn't frozen this one when they first acquired her. Probably they had assumed there would be no need, or they'd been hoping they'd get a higher bid for an unfrozen specimen. Instead, they'd locked her up in one of the larger containers in the after hold, rigged up as a makeshift cell.

Which had probably worked fine for a while, but by the time the surveillance holo's buffer began, it had plainly ceased to work at all. As that evidence showed, Vandal's latest find had taken violent exception to her situation - and, contrary to the old miscreant's expectations, she'd had the chops to file her grievance in the most forceful style possible.

"You know, I always hoped in the back of my mind that someday, one of these assholes was going to target a vacationing Kryptonian or something and get exactly what was coming to him," Gryphon mused as, on the screen before them, the dark-haired girl demolished the three biggest, toughest members of Vandal's crew.

"Guess you got your wish," said Makra.

"Mm," Gryphon agreed absently.

An adept martial artist, evidently pyrokinetic, and so stratospherically furious that her gas-flame-blue firebolts melted bulkheads, the girl had shown Vandal's crew exactly as much mercy as she must have expected from them, which was to say none at all. There was no sound on the recordings, so they couldn't hear what she was saying, but she'd obviously been speaking - or more likely shouting - as she threw herself headlong into battle against the outlaw crew. Presently it appeared that she had even begun to enjoy herself a bit: By the time the second of Vandal's enforcers had fallen before her, she was smiling. It was a hard, cruel smile, the smile of someone indulging a long-cultivated taste for rough justice, and it had more than a slight edge of mania in it. Gryphon found it disquieting, particularly on a face like hers.

Eventually, though, her luck ran out, or perhaps she got a bit sloppy. Vandal himself was the one who finally stopped her. Gryphon recalled that he'd always been a dab hand with a pistol. Then, in a near-frantic hurry, the pirates dumped her into the vitrifier and froze her. Gryphon chuckled darkly and shook his head at that.

"Vintage Vandal," he muttered to Tarquini's questioning glance. "Even under those circumstances, he was still thinking about the bottom line. Damaged and dangerous is worth less than intact and docile, but a corpse isn't worth anything at all."

"You almost sound like this guy was a friend of yours," Makra remarked dryly.

"Hardly," Gryphon replied. "But he was an old, old enemy."

On screen, the freezing process finished. The automatic mechanism had just delivered the crystallite column to the orlop and closed the hatch behind it when one of the damaged bulkheads, just visible off to the right of the shot, gave way.

"The rest... goes pretty much like you would expect," Makra said, stopping the playback before they had to watch Vandal and his crew suffocate.

"Well," said Tarquini, backing out of the room - there was no space to turn around - and then turning to regard the crystal-frozen girl. "I guess we'd better treat this as potentially hazardous cargo."

"Based on what we've just seen," Gryphon said thoughtfully, walking slowly around the column with his hand trailing across its smooth surface, "I suspect this young woman needs medical help on a couple of different levels."

"I wonder who she is," mused Makra.

"We'll find out when we get her back to Earth," Tarquini said. "Unless you want to take her to the SDF-17, Commander," she added, sounding as if she didn't think it was likely.

Gryphon regarded the girl in the crystal column for a few more moments, then shook his head.

"No, she'll get the best care on Earth," he said. "I don't have a problem releasing this case to you guys. I'm curious, though. Keep me posted."

Tarquini nodded. "Will do. Thanks for checking it out."

"It's what we do."

From: hotspacer381423!samizdat.ort
To: Cmdr. Benjamin D. Hutchins (gryphon!wdf.mil.zc)
Subject: Blue Harvest
Date: Friday 16 Feb 2221 10:19:23 -0000 GST
Encryption: Yes

I almost titled this message "sons of bitches!", but I thought that might fall into your spam folder, especially coming from an Outer Rim anonymizer address. Corinna Makra here, from the Chasseur.

The Naval Strategic Intelligence Office took the Blue Harvest case away from us! As soon as we got back to Spacedock and Bryce filed her report, we had the men in black coming out our asses. They took all the logs, intercepted the salvage on the ship itself, and whisked the mystery girl in the glass pillar away without so much as a thanks-for-all-your-effort. We're under orders not to mention the matter to anybody, especially you. My ass would be in a pretty big sling if they found out about this message, but you know what, screw 'em. Goddamn suits. Most of 'em wouldn't last five minutes in a real space posting. You know what they say, those who can, do, those who can't, join the secret police.

Bryce just about hit the ceiling. I was outside her ready room and heard her reading the guy from SIO the riot act, but you know how those guys are, butter wouldn't melt, he's just like, "I assure you, Commander Tarquini - " Assholes! On her own ship! Captain, if you please! I digress, sorry, pretty drunk - "I assure you, Commander Tarquini, we're putting our top men on this case. TOP. Men." I didn't stick around for the next part, I figure that was probably about when he would start threatening her, and if I had heard that there would have had to be a fight, and then I'd be in the brig instead of on leave getting snockered in a Glasgow pub. So there's probably gonna be a fight anyway before too much longer.

Anyway, don't be offended when you don't hear from Bryce bout it, she's a much lawer-abiding citizen than I am. Orders are orders, amiright? Some days I wish I had joined the WDF even though my momma warned me about you guys.

Speaking of which, my momma warned me about you. You wanna go out sometime? I'm on leave until next Saturday, assuming I don't end up in the hospital tonight.

Gotta go. Some dude's giving me the stinkeye over in the corner and I think I'ma go see what the hell his problem is.

Later, cuteness,
MAKRA

This message anonymized by SAMIZDAT.ORT the Outer Rim's favorite privacy service!

"Blue Harvest" - a Golden Age Mini-Story by Benjamin D. Hutchins
special to the Eyrie Productions Discussion Forum
© 2013 Eyrie Productions, Unlimited


  Alert | IP Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top

  Subject     Author     Message Date     ID  
  RE: GA: Blue Harvest BZArchermoderator Nov-11-13 1
     RE: GA: Blue Harvest JeanneHedge Nov-11-13 2
         RE: GA: Blue Harvest jonathanlennox Nov-11-13 3
             RE: GA: Blue Harvest BobSchroeck Nov-11-13 4
             RE: GA: Blue Harvest Droken Nov-11-13 5
                 RE: GA: Blue Harvest Gryphonadmin Nov-11-13 6
         RE: GA: Blue Harvest Mercutio Nov-11-13 7
             RE: GA: Blue Harvest Gryphonadmin Nov-11-13 8
                 RE: GA: Blue Harvest JeanneHedge Nov-11-13 9
  RE: GA: Blue Harvest Mercutio Nov-11-13 10
     RE: GA: Blue Harvest Nova Floresca Nov-11-13 11
         RE: GA: Blue Harvest SpottedKitty Nov-11-13 13
     RE: GA: Blue Harvest Gryphonadmin Nov-11-13 12
         RE: GA: Blue Harvest Peter Eng Nov-11-13 14
             RE: GA: Blue Harvest Gryphonadmin Nov-12-13 15
                 RE: GA: Blue Harvest Mercutio Nov-12-13 17
                     RE: GA: Blue Harvest Gryphonadmin Nov-12-13 18
         RE: GA: Blue Harvest twipper Nov-12-13 19
             RE: GA: Blue Harvest Gryphonadmin Nov-12-13 20
     RE: GA: Blue Harvest drakensis Nov-12-13 16
         RE: GA: Blue Harvest Bushido Nov-13-13 21
  The Metafictional Afterlife of Vandal Carondan Mercutio Oct-06-17 22
     RE: The Metafictional Afterlife of Vandal Carondan Gryphonadmin Oct-06-17 23
     RE: The Metafictional Afterlife of Vandal Carondan Mercutio Apr-20-18 24
         RE: The Metafictional Afterlife of Vandal Carondan Lime2K Apr-20-18 25
         RE: The Metafictional Afterlife of Vandal Carondan Gryphonadmin Apr-20-18 26
             RE: The Metafictional Afterlife of Vandal Carondan Star Ranger4 Apr-21-18 27
             RE: The Metafictional Afterlife of Vandal Carondan Mercutio Apr-21-18 28
                 RE: The Metafictional Afterlife of Vandal Carondan Pasha Apr-23-18 29

Conferences | Topics | Previous Topic | Next Topic
BZArchermoderator
Member since Nov-9-05
1672 posts
Nov-11-13, 09:23 AM (EDT)
Click to EMail BZArcher Click to send private message to BZArcher Click to view user profileClick to add this user to your buddy list  
1. "RE: GA: Blue Harvest"
In response to message #0
 
   Uh-oh...

---------------------------
Matt "BZArcher" Wagner
@BZArcher / bzarcher at gmail
"Here's an itemized list of 30
years of disagreements!"


  Alert | IP Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
JeanneHedge
Charter Member
933 posts
Nov-11-13, 10:43 AM (EDT)
Click to EMail JeanneHedge Click to send private message to JeanneHedge Click to view user profileClick to add this user to your buddy list  
2. "RE: GA: Blue Harvest"
In response to message #1
 
   >Uh-oh...

O-kay... what universe is being added here? Give the title "Blue Harvest," I was expecting "Star Wars" - and there are those elements (but it's not new to UF) - but "Uh-oh" makes me think I'm missing something important. Again <g>


Jeanne


Jeanne Hedge
http://www.jhedge.com
"Never give up, never surrender!"


  Alert | IP Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
jonathanlennox
Charter Member
233 posts
Nov-11-13, 12:09 PM (EDT)
Click to EMail jonathanlennox Click to send private message to jonathanlennox Click to view user profileClick to add this user to your buddy list  
3. "RE: GA: Blue Harvest"
In response to message #2
 
   >>Uh-oh...
>
>O-kay... what universe is being added here? Give the title "Blue
>Harvest," I was expecting "Star Wars" - and there are those elements
>(but it's not new to UF) - but "Uh-oh" makes me think I'm missing
>something important. Again <g>

Given "pyrokinetic", "long, coal-black hair", "elaborate knot high on the back of her head", and "long, centrally-parted, face-framing bangs" -- and the recent thread in the Source Material forum -- I'm assuming this is Azula.


  Alert | IP Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
BobSchroeck
Charter Member
2198 posts
Nov-11-13, 12:59 PM (EDT)
Click to EMail BobSchroeck Click to send private message to BobSchroeck Click to view user profileClick to add this user to your buddy list  
4. "RE: GA: Blue Harvest"
In response to message #3
 
   > I'm assuming this is Azula.

That was my immediate conclusion as well.

-- Bob
-------------------
My race is pacifist and does not believe in war. We kill only out of personal spite.


  Alert | IP Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
Droken
Member since May-6-08
343 posts
Nov-11-13, 01:19 PM (EDT)
Click to EMail Droken Click to send private message to Droken Click to view user profileClick to add this user to your buddy list  
5. "RE: GA: Blue Harvest"
In response to message #3
 
   Which of course brings up the question of how a bunch of "decorators" found her, but given that Zipang was among the first wave of Earth colonization (if my memory serves) and random cross-overs from Zipang to Diqiu and vice-versa are uncommon but not unheard of...

-Man- talk about picking the wrong target. That's an even worse call on the immediate side than would be Gryph's take on "Taken" where they try and nab Juri.

-Droken

"If at first you don't succeed, bull-
riding is not for you."


  Alert | IP Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
Gryphonadmin
Charter Member
19446 posts
Nov-11-13, 01:34 PM (EDT)
Click to EMail Gryphon Click to send private message to Gryphon Click to view user profileClick to add this user to your buddy list  
6. "RE: GA: Blue Harvest"
In response to message #5
 
   >given that Zipang was among the first wave of Earth
>colonization (if my memory serves)

Probably more like the third - Zipang was first settled in 2190, mainly by colonists from Tomodachi (itself a second-wave colony). In the early 2220s, it would've been just on the verge of reaching stage two, the stage at which a colony will have more than one major city and the beginnings of really serious infrastructure (as opposed to the prefabs and whatnot that characterize stage one).

>and random cross-overs from Zipang
>to Diqiu and vice-versa are uncommon but not unheard of...

I'm not going to go into detail now, because I hope to fill it in later, but it's worth noting that, when last seen by anyone in Diqiu, Azula was wandering off into a Spooky-Ass Wilderness Area called "Forgetful Valley". Now, it isn't an exact science like, say, petroleum exploration, but if you were going to lay bets about where in Diqiu you might find a natural Veil nexus...

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


  Alert | IP Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
Mercutio
Member since May-26-13
915 posts
Nov-11-13, 06:35 PM (EDT)
Click to EMail Mercutio Click to send private message to Mercutio Click to view user profileClick to add this user to your buddy list  
7. "RE: GA: Blue Harvest"
In response to message #2
 
  
>Give the title "Blue Harvest," I was expecting "Star Wars"

I think, but am not sure, that Ben is using the title the same way Lucas was; that is, the ACTUAL title would give too much away, so it's a code name instead.

Either that, or it's a Dashiell Hammet reference too baroque even for me to unpack.

-Merc
Keep Rat


  Alert | IP Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
Gryphonadmin
Charter Member
19446 posts
Nov-11-13, 06:58 PM (EDT)
Click to EMail Gryphon Click to send private message to Gryphon Click to view user profileClick to add this user to your buddy list  
8. "RE: GA: Blue Harvest"
In response to message #7
 
   LAST EDITED ON Nov-11-13 AT 07:01 PM (EST)
 
>>Give the title "Blue Harvest," I was expecting "Star Wars"
>
>I think, but am not sure, that Ben is using the title the same way
>Lucas was; that is, the ACTUAL title would give too much away, so it's
>a code name instead.
>
>Either that, or it's a Dashiell Hammet reference too baroque even for
>me to unpack.

I think Blue Harvest as the codename for Return of the Jedi was itself an offhanded reference to Red Harvest, so...

Anyway, it's Blue Harvest! It's horror beyond imagination!

... also, it might just be a pun. Because on a meta level, I'm, you know... harvesting something... blue. Sort of.

That's OK, though, the next episode's working title is a reference to an Ellis Peters novel. Bet nobody saw that coming. :)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


  Alert | IP Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
JeanneHedge
Charter Member
933 posts
Nov-11-13, 07:52 PM (EDT)
Click to EMail JeanneHedge Click to send private message to JeanneHedge Click to view user profileClick to add this user to your buddy list  
9. "RE: GA: Blue Harvest"
In response to message #8
 
   >... also, it might just be a pun. Because on a meta level, I'm, you
>know... harvesting something... blue. Sort of.

Saurian brandy?

Jeanne


Jeanne Hedge
http://www.jhedge.com
"Never give up, never surrender!"


  Alert | IP Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
Mercutio
Member since May-26-13
915 posts
Nov-11-13, 08:22 PM (EDT)
Click to EMail Mercutio Click to send private message to Mercutio Click to view user profileClick to add this user to your buddy list  
10. "RE: GA: Blue Harvest"
In response to message #0
 
   >Friday, February 2, 2221
>Arteira system, Terminus sector

What, they couldn't have waited a year just so all this could happen on 2/2/2222? :)

>Outwardly, the only really peculiar thing about the
>Kowloon-class freighter drifting in the outer reaches of the
>Arteira system was that it was drifting in the outer reaches of the
>Arteira system.

Ah, the Kowloon-class. The Galaxy's first choice for derelict spacewrecks in which something just awful happened. When you think "space zombies" or "explosive decompression", think Kowloon!

Although really, if you'd wanted to truly capture the zeitgeist of the Golden Age, where there was never a Wing Commander reference to small or obscure to make it into the text, this thing would be a Drayman-class. :)

>As such, today might well have been the busiest day in the history of
>the system, since there were not one but three starships within
>the heliopause today: the freighter, a United Galactica Navy Patrol
>Command vessel, and now - arriving in a flash from its miniature
>spacefold drive - one of the Wedge Defense Force's Broadsword heavy
>bombers.

Good'ol Broadsword. I spent many an hour frenetically switching back and forth between turrets as I waited for the goddamn torpedoes to lock on.

This is the one Corwin was talking about when he gave Utena the nickel summary of FTL drives in Christmas Rose, right? The fold-capable bomber the WDF used to run until it got way to expensive even for them?

>"Chasseur responded at best speed; we were on the scene by
>0944," Tarquini continued. "We found this vessel drifting, powered up
>not under way, and unresponsive to hails. After making fast to the
>starboard entry port, my executive officer and a standard distress
>response team effected entry at 1017."

I love how you're Mass Effect accurate on these things down to even the smallest detail, such as the fact that every Kowloon you board in the games, you do in fact enter on the starboard side.

It's the little things.

>"Thank you," Tarquini replied. "As you no doubt know, damage control
>is among the Patrol Fleet's primary tasks when rendering aid to a
>starship casualty."
>
>"Of course."

This is a bit to "As you know, Bob," I think. If I might suggest, rather than having Tarquini tell Gryphon a basic fact that both she and he know he's been cognizant of since probably before she was born, if you really want to convey that information to us the readers (which I imagine was the point here), it might be best to have her brag about the competency of her particularly ship at this job. Something like "Thank you, sir. The Chasseur took last year's Fleet Engineering Excellence Award in her class."

I'll have more to say on that topic in general in a bit.

>On the far side of the compartment, an emergency patch panel marked
>PROPERTY OF UNITED GALACTICA NAVY, braced with hydraulic struts,
>covered an entire section of bulkhead.

On the other side of the patch panel: FRONT TOWARD VACUUM

>The item inside the crystal column was a woman - well, a girl, really;
>apparently human, probably in her mid-teens, petite and athletic. She
>wasn't looking her best. For one thing, she'd been shot; there was a
>livid, bloody wound low on her left side, the blood frozen in weird
>ribbons around it, as if in a still frame of diffusion in water. For
>another, she was dressed in the ragged remains of what looked like
>they might have been rich garments once, and her long, coal-black hair
>was disordered, part of it escaping from an elaborate knot high on the
>back of her head, her long, centrally-parted, face-framing bangs in
>frazzled disarray.

... I was not expecting Azula in this context. Not one bit. Well now!

>"Well... you know how bounty hunters like to freeze their captures in
>carbonite, to make delivery easier? The usual thing is for the client
>to thaw out the captive after delivery, and then proceed to...
>whatever the next step is going to be. Judicial proceedings for the
>legitimate authorities... other stuff for the underworld boss
>types."
>
>"Right. That I know about."

This infodump seems much smoother and more natural to me than the one I commented on earlier.

>Rather, Vandal Carondan and his crew had discovered to their dismay that not >every pretty teenage girl in the galaxy is as harmless as she looks.

Poor bastards had just no idea what kind of universe they were living in.

>"Vintage Vandal," he muttered to Tarquini's questioning glance. "Even
>under those circumstances, he was still thinking about the bottom
>line. Damaged and dangerous is worth less than intact and docile, but
>a corpse isn't worth anything at all."
>
>"You almost sound like this guy was a friend of yours," Makra remarked
>dryly.
>
>"Hardly," Gryphon replied. "But he was an old, old enemy."

See, the way you handled Vandal throughout this short? That's... hell. There's a technical term for this, I wrote a whole paper on it once, but I'm blanking on it. There's a term that refers to "normalizing" information presented within fictional works, not with respect to the reader, but with respect to the internal universe itself. The "As you know, Bob" phenomenon I mentioned above is part and parcel of that. It is generally considered better, when at all possible, to have things flow naturally and let the reader draw their own conclusions as they slowly assemble history, nature, and technical specifications from the natural in-universe flow.

Military sci-fi is usually a huge offender here, with it's endless litanies of technological advances and weaponry and kinds of starships. (The relatively hilarious parody of that style, In Ovens Baked, is a good example of the phenomenon.)

This is a roundabout way of saying I really liked what you did with Vandal. There's very clearly a history between him and Gryphon, and in fact between Vandal and the majesty of the law in general. We know that he's not below freelance slaving, probably a little piracy and general blaster-and-blade action aimed at maximizing his quarterly margin, things of that nature. But it all flows nicely smoothly. When Tarquini first IDs the ship as belonging to Vandal, she and Gryphon don't spent four paragraphs having a back-and-forth where they voice out loud all this information about the notorious raconteur they already now. Nor do we cut to an expository inner monologue on either of those parts that would probably have run just as long.

It was good writing and I enjoyed it, which is probably what I should have just said without the folderol, but, well, me.

>Gotta go. Some dude's giving me the stinkeye over in the corner and I
>think I'ma go see what the hell his problem is.
>
>Later, cuteness,
>MAKRA
>!

Oh my god, Makra's entire letter. Her ENTIRE letter. "Sorry, I digress, pretty drunk." That was nothing but pure gold all the way through.

>"Blue Harvest" - a Golden Age Mini-Story by Benjamin D. Hutchins

So I'm pretty stoked about Azula's presence just in general. She might have worked better kept as a villain (I mean, lets face it, she would be motherfucking running Muspelheim within about ten minutes of arriving there. We're talking a rise to power that makes Akio look like he took his time) as UF often has a paucity of smart, sharp, evil people. There's Akio and... I want to say MAYBE two members of the Magnificent Ten? On a good day? but I've read all of the famous "Azula becomes a tolerable human being" fanfics (big shout outs to Broken Dragon and the Heart/Path/Soul of Fire Azula Trilogy) and there is always, always room for one more on the pile.

-Merc
Keep Rat


  Alert | IP Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
Nova Floresca
Member since Sep-13-13
347 posts
Nov-11-13, 09:04 PM (EDT)
Click to EMail Nova%20Floresca Click to send private message to Nova%20Floresca Click to view user profileClick to add this user to your buddy list  
11. "RE: GA: Blue Harvest"
In response to message #10
 
   >>"Thank you," Tarquini replied. "As you no doubt know, damage control
>>is among the Patrol Fleet's primary tasks when rendering aid to a
>>starship casualty."
>>
>>"Of course."
>
>This is a bit to "As you know, Bob," I think.

It struck me more as Tarquini is a very regs-oriented type of captain, and she's trying to say, in official language "Honest to Kirk we know our jobs and aren't just cocking about out here." Also consider that she's seeing Gryphon the Legendary Wedge Defender, not Gryph the Somewhat Quirky Guy In Charge of the Somewhat Quirky Do-Gooders.

Tangentially, if she is still active during the Symphony era, I'm wondering if Azula is going to do one of her long, hyperactive and awkward expositions on what she would have done had she been in charge of the Psi Corps et. al., complete with genuine "Muahaha" villain laughter.

"This is probably a stupid question, but . . ."


  Alert | IP Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
SpottedKitty
Member since Jun-15-04
509 posts
Nov-11-13, 10:29 PM (EDT)
Click to EMail SpottedKitty Click to send private message to SpottedKitty Click to view user profileClick to add this user to your buddy list  
13. "RE: GA: Blue Harvest"
In response to message #11
 
   >Tangentially, if she is still active during the Symphony era, I'm
>wondering if Azula is going to do one of her long, hyperactive and
>awkward expositions on what she would have done had she been in charge
>of the Psi Corps et. al., complete with genuine "Muahaha" villain
>laughter.

I wondered for a few minutes if the UG getting their hands on someone with Azula's abilities might lead to a black-budget agency that would be the remore precursor of the Symphony-era Psi Corps we all know and love... to see step on a rake.

Although of course what we end up getting will be even weirder and a much more fun read...

--
Unable to save the day: File is read-only.


  Alert | IP Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
Gryphonadmin
Charter Member
19446 posts
Nov-11-13, 09:35 PM (EDT)
Click to EMail Gryphon Click to send private message to Gryphon Click to view user profileClick to add this user to your buddy list  
12. "RE: GA: Blue Harvest"
In response to message #10
 
   >This is the one Corwin was talking about when he gave Utena the nickel
>summary of FTL drives in Christmas Rose, right? The
>fold-capable bomber the WDF used to run until it got way to expensive
>even for them?

Yes, yes it is.

>>"Thank you," Tarquini replied. "As you no doubt know, damage control
>>is among the Patrol Fleet's primary tasks when rendering aid to a
>>starship casualty."
>>
>>"Of course."
>
>This is a bit to "As you know, Bob," I think.

That is at least partially deliberate; it's meant to emphasize how stiff Tarquini is being at first. She's in a strange position; part of her is intimidated by the fact that one of the WDF's founders drew this case, and another part is cringing slightly inside and waiting for him to do or say something unprofessional. The convergence of the two is why she's so rigidly numerical when giving her initial précis, for instance.

Ironically, I decided not to explicate that inner experience in so many words in an effort to be less expositional and keep the story clipping along. :)

>"Thank you, sir. The Chasseur took last year's Fleet
>Engineering Excellence Award in her class."

Not a bad notion, although she's very carefully not calling him sir. They're nominally equivalent in rank, and although he's very much senior to her, he's also a member of a different service, so she's not obligated to do so. At first she's sticking very close to the formal niceties for reasons aforesaid, and once she warms to him a little it just wouldn't have crossed her mind.

>... I was not expecting Azula in this context. Not one bit. Well now!

No one expects Azula; her chief weapon is surprise. Surprise and fear - her two chief weapons are surprise, fear, and ruthless efficiency. Amongst her chief weapons are such diverse elements as fear, surprise, ruthless efficiency, an almost fanatical devotion to the Fire Nation and nice red uniforms, oh damn.

>This is a roundabout way of saying I really liked what you did with
>Vandal. There's very clearly a history between him and Gryphon, and in
>fact between Vandal and the majesty of the law in general.

Thank you. That was more or less exactly the effect I was going for - the idea that Vandal, now a grizzled old space criminal, had been tangling with the WDF a/o 3WA, with Gryphon often finding himself involved, since he was a rakish young striver looking to carve out his niche in the underworld. Gryphon cannot be said to have been fond of him by any stretch, but there was a certain pleasure to be had from crossing metaphorical swords with him. He was far from the worst foe they had back in the day.

It's a little like that scene in whichever Superman/Batman story arc that is where Superman and Batman, both wounded, are trudging through the Gotham City sewers to the Batcave, talking about villains who have died.

"What about Magpie?"

"She's dead."

"Are you sure?"

"Pretty sure."

"Damn. Why do the good villains always die?"

"Clark, what in the hell is a good villain?"

>Oh my god, Makra's entire letter. Her ENTIRE letter. "Sorry, I
>digress, pretty drunk." That was nothing but pure gold all the way
>through.

Heh, yeah, I enjoyed that. Corinna is one of those characters who just sort of drop out of the sky. Sort of a spiritual precursor of Rina Dragonaar, I should think.

>She might
>have worked better kept as a villain (I mean, lets face it, she would
>be motherfucking running Muspelheim within about ten minutes of
>arriving there. We're talking a rise to power that makes Akio look
>like he took his time)

"Heaven doesn't want me and Hell is afraid I'll take over"? :)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


  Alert | IP Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
Peter Eng
Charter Member
1508 posts
Nov-11-13, 11:38 PM (EDT)
Click to EMail Peter%20Eng Click to send private message to Peter%20Eng Click to view user profileClick to add this user to your buddy list  
14. "RE: GA: Blue Harvest"
In response to message #12
 
   >
>>This is a roundabout way of saying I really liked what you did with
>>Vandal. There's very clearly a history between him and Gryphon, and in
>>fact between Vandal and the majesty of the law in general.
>
>Thank you. That was more or less exactly the effect I was going for -
>the idea that Vandal, now a grizzled old space criminal, had been
>tangling with the WDF a/o 3WA, with Gryphon often finding himself
>involved, since he was a rakish young striver looking to carve out his
>niche in the underworld. Gryphon cannot be said to have been
>fond of him by any stretch, but there was a certain pleasure to
>be had from crossing metaphorical swords with him. He was far from
>the worst foe they had back in the day.
>

I imagine something like, "Okay, Vandal was a murdering bastard without a single scruple in him, but at least he didn't engage in mindless carnage. Can't say that about this guy."

Peter Eng
--
Insert humorous comment here.


  Alert | IP Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
Gryphonadmin
Charter Member
19446 posts
Nov-12-13, 00:09 AM (EDT)
Click to EMail Gryphon Click to send private message to Gryphon Click to view user profileClick to add this user to your buddy list  
15. "RE: GA: Blue Harvest"
In response to message #14
 
   >I imagine something like, "Okay, Vandal was a murdering bastard
>without a single scruple in him, but at least he didn't engage in
>mindless carnage. Can't say that about this guy."

As Hunter S. Thompson is reputed to have said of his simultaneous friend and archfoe, Nixon staffer and all-around neocon asshole Pat Buchanan, "Pat's a goddamn Nazi, but you always know where you stand with him." :)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


  Alert | IP Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
Mercutio
Member since May-26-13
915 posts
Nov-12-13, 01:25 PM (EDT)
Click to EMail Mercutio Click to send private message to Mercutio Click to view user profileClick to add this user to your buddy list  
17. "RE: GA: Blue Harvest"
In response to message #15
 
  
>Nixon staffer and all-around neocon asshole Pat Buchanan,

Pedantry: Pat is a paleocon, not a neocon. He in fact regards neocons suspiciously as possible commies. :)

-Merc
Keep Rat


  Alert | IP Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
Gryphonadmin
Charter Member
19446 posts
Nov-12-13, 01:29 PM (EDT)
Click to EMail Gryphon Click to send private message to Gryphon Click to view user profileClick to add this user to your buddy list  
18. "RE: GA: Blue Harvest"
In response to message #17
 
   >>Nixon staffer and all-around neocon asshole Pat Buchanan,
>
>Pedantry: Pat is a paleocon, not a neocon. He in fact regards neocons
>suspiciously as possible commies. :)

And there's our nothing-can-kill-the-Grimace moment for this thread.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


  Alert | IP Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
twipper
Member since Jan-8-03
278 posts
Nov-12-13, 03:15 PM (EDT)
Click to EMail twipper Click to send private message to twipper Click to view user profileClick to add this user to your buddy list  
19. "RE: GA: Blue Harvest"
In response to message #12
 
  
>No one expects Azula; her chief weapon is surprise. Surprise and fear
>- her two chief weapons are surprise, fear, and ruthless
>efficiency. Amongst her chief weapons are such diverse
>elements as fear, surprise, ruthless efficiency, an almost fanatical
>devotion to the Fire Nation and nice red uniforms, oh damn.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tym0MObFpTI

Because someone had to give a link. :)

Brian


  Alert | IP Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
Gryphonadmin
Charter Member
19446 posts
Nov-12-13, 04:41 PM (EDT)
Click to EMail Gryphon Click to send private message to Gryphon Click to view user profileClick to add this user to your buddy list  
20. "RE: GA: Blue Harvest"
In response to message #19
 
   LAST EDITED ON Nov-12-13 AT 04:41 PM (EST)
 
>>No one expects Azula; her chief weapon is surprise. Surprise and fear
>>- her two chief weapons are surprise, fear, and ruthless
>>efficiency. Amongst her chief weapons are such diverse
>>elements as fear, surprise, ruthless efficiency, an almost fanatical
>>devotion to the Fire Nation and nice red uniforms, oh damn.
>
>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tym0MObFpTI
>
>Because someone had to give a link. :)

TY LEE
I can't say it. You'll have to say it.

MAI
What?

TY LEE
The bit about "our chief weapons are".

MAI
(shocked)
I couldn't do that!

A frustrated AZULA hustles them all out again.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


  Alert | IP Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
drakensis
Member since Dec-20-06
327 posts
Nov-12-13, 02:19 AM (EDT)
Click to EMail drakensis Click to send private message to drakensis Click to view user profileClick to add this user to your buddy list Click to send message via AOL IM  
16. "RE: GA: Blue Harvest"
In response to message #10
 
   >So I'm pretty stoked about Azula's presence just in general. She might
>have worked better kept as a villain (I mean, lets face it, she would
>be motherfucking running Muspelheim within about ten minutes of
>arriving there. We're talking a rise to power that makes Akio look
>like he took his time) as UF often has a paucity of smart, sharp, evil
>people. There's Akio and... I want to say MAYBE two members of the
>Magnificent Ten? On a good day?

I'm not seeing anything here that couldn't lead to her having a long and happy career as a problem for the UGN Intelligence or whoever it was who requisitioned her off of the Chasseur with the WDF occasionally providing assistance but always with a snark of whose fault was this anyway?

Hell. Maybe Azula is Carmen Sandiego. (She'd be pushing 200 but there are ways). What's an alias here and there? Marty would probably have fun with that.

"So now I've cuffed you, are you going to come quietly?"

"On reflection, Inspector, no."

"Oh squaq. Since when were you a pyro."

"2207 on your calendar." Flips him a credstick. "For the cost of the handcuffs."

"Err... thanks."

"I believe that you'd say 'Let's get dangerous.'"

"Hey! Give me back my schtick! (And the World Wide Building, Corwin has his stuff in there)!"

D.


  Alert | IP Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
Bushido
Member since Apr-8-10
348 posts
Nov-13-13, 05:02 PM (EDT)
Click to EMail Bushido Click to send private message to Bushido Click to view user profileClick to add this user to your buddy list Click to send message via AOL IM  
21. "RE: GA: Blue Harvest"
In response to message #16
 
   Carmen Sandiego is good enough that she could have easily stolen a dose of Omega 2. If Kasumi Goto is ever imported from Mass Effect to UF, I'd assume the same from her.

--------
Wedge Defense Force General Order 12: "Try to avoid freaking the mundanes."


  Alert | IP Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
Mercutio
Member since May-26-13
915 posts
Oct-06-17, 00:13 AM (EDT)
Click to EMail Mercutio Click to send private message to Mercutio Click to view user profileClick to add this user to your buddy list  
22. "The Metafictional Afterlife of Vandal Carondan"
In response to message #0
 
   I recently began running a Star Wars RPG using Fantasy Flight Games most excellent ruleset for it. (I almost said "new ruleset" but it's only new in comparison to, say, the creaky old WEG system; FFG has been putting out books for four, five years now.) And I have resurrected Vandal Carondan to fulfill a needed narrative role as an NPC within it.

For those who care:

  • He's a Corellian, because of course he is.
  • The Blue Harvest is not a Kowloon-class, which doesn't exist in this context, but is rather a heavily modified Corellian Engineering Corporation YV-666 medium freighter.
  • Likes to sing. Every good NPC needs a quirk, Vandal's is song. He has a fondness for old galactic folk songs that are cheerfully upbeat but also sightly sinister and/or disturbing when you think about their lyrics. So far he has regaled the party with "L'homme arme," "Jolly Old Hawk," and "Bring Me My Big'ol Knife" which isn't a real song but whose lyrics are far too Vandal Carondan NOT to use. Up next on the playlist sometime soon is the violently sectarian Northern Irish remix of "Lillibullero," "Protestant Boys." Which will be remixed in the context of Star Wars to "Separatist Droids."
  • Maintains a variety of cover identities. "Vandal Carondan" has a lot of paper on him and is wanted by the Empire for, oh, far too many crimes to count. "Vanton Coranado" is a perfectly legitimate trader operating out of the southern rim and certainly hasn't smuggled an awful lot of ryll and slaves off of Ryloth, oh dear me no.

So far, he has:

Nearly gotten into a gunfight with the PCs on their first meeting, being as how they looked pretty likely to renege on their deal to transport him and his unfortunately marooned cargo off Ryloth. Note to aspiring entrepreneurs: don't try and swindle Cham Syndulla out of his cut. He takes it personally, and you will find yourself marooned in the Rylothian badlands and needing to make alternate transportation arrangements.

Assisted the PCs with a spot of bother they were having with an Imperial customs inspector by simply straight-up bribing the man. Which had not occurred to anyone in the group as a thing you could even do at all. Vandal is tolerant of the mistakes of amateurs, though, especially if his life depends on it.

Currently, he is working as part of a large crew with the PCs to run the classic long con "The Queen of Ranroon," in which they attempt to sell the location of Xim the Despot's legendary treasure ship to a couple of well-heeled marks. In this case, it involves gussying up the wreck of an ancient Tionese warship to look like it was one of the Queen's escorts and then convincing a pair of Imperial Senators (Orn Free Taa, who is deeply gullible, and Lux Bonteri, who is... not) that they "found" the wreck and need to "fight" their way past a bunch of "uncontrollable war droids" to get the sweet booty from its navigation computer.

Vandal may or may not betray them and cut his losses if the con goes sideways. We'll see! To quote one of the PCs:

"Vandal ain't loyal and true for all his bonhomie. What he is is patient. I bet a whole lot of people have confused the one for the other and not lived long enough to regret it."

So yeah. Vandal has been coming in handy. I needed an NPC of his specific type, and he really, really stuck with me; he technically had no lines and has never appeared as anything but a corpse and a recording, but he resonated with me. So now he resides a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, at least until such time as he makes the wrong enemies.


-Merc
Keep Rat


  Alert | IP Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
Gryphonadmin
Charter Member
19446 posts
Oct-06-17, 01:57 AM (EDT)
Click to EMail Gryphon Click to send private message to Gryphon Click to view user profileClick to add this user to your buddy list  
23. "RE: The Metafictional Afterlife of Vandal Carondan"
In response to message #22
 
   >So yeah. Vandal has been coming in handy. I needed an NPC of his
>specific type, and he really, really stuck with me; he technically had
>no lines and has never appeared as anything but a corpse and a
>recording, but he resonated with me. So now he resides a long time ago
>in a galaxy far, far away, at least until such time as he makes the
>wrong enemies.

This pleases me. I've often thought it would be nice to rewind a bit and do something more with Vandal, but the right opportunity has yet to present itself. I'm glad a version of him has found a niche.

Also, I will award you 45 bonus points if you find an excuse to have him tell a group of Imperial officers that they will always remember the day they almost caught Vandal Carondan. :)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


  Alert | IP Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
Mercutio
Member since May-26-13
915 posts
Apr-20-18, 01:49 PM (EDT)
Click to EMail Mercutio Click to send private message to Mercutio Click to view user profileClick to add this user to your buddy list  
24. "RE: The Metafictional Afterlife of Vandal Carondan"
In response to message #22
 
   Vandal Carondan update:

Vandal, displeased with the cut of the proceeds from the con they were all working, thought it would be a great idea to take the PC's ship hostage, using gravity-clamps to lock it to the Blue Harvest and pointing a bunch of weapons at it until they agreed to what, in his eyes, was a more equitable cut.

It was a decent plan and it might have worked, except for the part where the PC's subverted his (daughter in this continuity) Vandi, promising her not only Vandal's cut, but an EXTRA cut just for herself, and one for the Blue Harvest's crew as well.

("It's not about the money. It's about not letting every vapor-sucking piece of fringe scum from Kessel to Corellia know that Vandal Carondan, who has a big fuckin' mouth, can push us around. Once word gets out everyone'll want a piece.")

Vandal Carondan was last spied in an escape pod that was MEANT to get him to his backup plan but was instead rigged to deposit him on a remote island on the planet Felucia. Hey, Vandi isn't above a little mutiny, but she's not gonna KILL her old man.

Further updates as events warrant.

-Merc
Keep Rat


  Alert | IP Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
Lime2K
Member since May-4-04
121 posts
Apr-20-18, 02:08 PM (EDT)
Click to EMail Lime2K Click to send private message to Lime2K Click to view user profileClick to add this user to your buddy list  
25. "RE: The Metafictional Afterlife of Vandal Carondan"
In response to message #24
 
   He ran afoul of item 19 on the Evil Overlord list: "I will not have a daughter. She would be as beautiful as she was evil, but one look at the hero's rugged countenance and she'd betray her own father."

While it is not quiiiite what happened, the principle is sound.

Also, I somehow missed your earlier post in the thread, so this is great, and may be getting ganked for NPC purposes as well...
--------------
Lime2K
The One True Evil Overlord


  Alert | IP Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
Gryphonadmin
Charter Member
19446 posts
Apr-20-18, 02:48 PM (EDT)
Click to EMail Gryphon Click to send private message to Gryphon Click to view user profileClick to add this user to your buddy list  
26. "RE: The Metafictional Afterlife of Vandal Carondan"
In response to message #24
 
   >Vandal Carondan was last spied in an escape pod that was MEANT to get
>him to his backup plan but was instead rigged to deposit him on a
>remote island on the planet Felucia.

With one charge for his blaster pistol? In the pirating trade, this is known as the Hector Barbossa method.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


  Alert | IP Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
Star Ranger4
Charter Member
2230 posts
Apr-21-18, 10:35 AM (EDT)
Click to EMail Star%20Ranger4 Click to send private message to Star%20Ranger4 Click to view user profileClick to add this user to your buddy list Click to send message via AOL IM  
27. "RE: The Metafictional Afterlife of Vandal Carondan"
In response to message #26
 
   >With one charge for his blaster pistol? In the pirating trade, this
>is known as the Hector Barbossa method.
>
Huh. Never knew that was his first name.


Of COURSE you wernt expecting it!
No One expects the FANNISH INQUISITION!
RCW# 86


  Alert | IP Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
Mercutio
Member since May-26-13
915 posts
Apr-21-18, 03:30 PM (EDT)
Click to EMail Mercutio Click to send private message to Mercutio Click to view user profileClick to add this user to your buddy list  
28. "RE: The Metafictional Afterlife of Vandal Carondan"
In response to message #26
 
   LAST EDITED ON Apr-21-18 AT 03:30 PM (EDT)
 
>>Vandal Carondan was last spied in an escape pod that was MEANT to get
>>him to his backup plan but was instead rigged to deposit him on a
>>remote island on the planet Felucia.
>
>With one charge for his blaster pistol? In the pirating trade, this
>is known as the Hector Barbossa method.

Real talk, I'm still trying to work out whether this was a REAL mutiny, or if Vandi went back to her dad and told him "hey dads, these idiots are offering me DOUBLE what you're demanding from them if I just get you out of the way" and Vandal decided "time for the 'ol fake mutiny scam."

My players surprised me. I thought they'd do one of two things; either pay Vandal off, or concoct an elaborate scheme to painstakingly discover and disable every trap in the box Vandal had surrounded them in before kicking his teeth in.

I did not expect one of them to go "my twi'lek has a silver tongue and our slicer also has the Jedi mind trick. Let's suborn his daughter!"

And then they rolled super well.

Social skills, man. Sometimes they're worth more than hokey religions OR a good blaster.

-Merc
Keep Rat


  Alert | IP Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
Pasha
Charter Member
977 posts
Apr-23-18, 05:49 PM (EDT)
Click to EMail Pasha Click to send private message to Pasha Click to view user profileClick to add this user to your buddy list Click to send message via ICQ  
29. "RE: The Metafictional Afterlife of Vandal Carondan"
In response to message #28
 
   >Social skills, man. Sometimes they're worth more than hokey religions
>OR a good blaster.


--
-Pasha
"Don't change the subject"
"Too slow, already did."


  Alert | IP Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top

Conferences | Topics | Previous Topic | Next Topic

[ YUM ] [ BIG ] [ ??!? ] [ RANT ] [ GNDN ] [ STORE ] [ FORUM ] GOTW ] [ VAULT ]

version 3.3 © 2001
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited
Benjamin D. Hutchins
E P U (Colour)