"The Prisoners"

The USS Tomahawk

**"The Prisoners"** is the first session of the first chapter of Convergence, and the first session overall. After awakening imprisoned, six individuals go about what they believe is the first day of their mysterious prison terms. However, incarceration would be short as the group find themselves in the middle of a battle.

## Synopsis

### The sentence begins

A party of six are being transported from Harvest Prison Facility to Mimosa III, a Scrapping Consortium planet, to serve out their sentences. They awaken confused, wondering why they have been imprisoned in the first place, with a few of them noting how they are loyal law abiding citizens.

After some time, the transport arrives and Mimosa III and the party are escorted off. They are taken to a cell block where they will spend their first night. The party introduce themselves to each other and share their frustrations. One member of the party, H0W-D33, attempts to escape by disassembling and going through a small air vent on the roof of the cell. However, due to security within the cell block, he is electrocuted and stunned. The party sleep for the night.

### Beaching duty

The party are awakened the next morning. A group of guards begin to enter their individual cells to inject them with a "tracker chip", which the guards explain will explode and kill them if they attempt to leave the Mimosa system. H0W-D33 attempts to hide underneath the bed by again disassembling. This does fool the guard, however, his supervisor notes that he shares traits with the Unified, and a simple shock will get him back into his form. H0W-D33 is then injected like everyone else.

The guards then lead the party out into the hangar bay, where Warden Vask informs the prisoners gathered that they have been transferred from Union custody to the Scrapping Consortium to serve out their sentences by carrying out manual labour. There are several groups of prisoners in the room, with Dr Arbo noticing a group of Kesshyk who look particularly abused, as several of them have been forcibly shaved.

Vask explains that Mimosa III is "the planet where great ships come to die", and that all prisoners will be serving their terms inhaling dangerous fumes and cutting down starships. He then begins handing out assignments.

The party are assigned to "beaching" duty. Where they must successfully de-orbit a starship and land it safely so that it may be scrapped. They are introduced to Overseer Jacen Ourelios, an Empathi male, who is put in charge of their group. Jacen leads the party to the shuttle that will transport them to the ship in orbit. He tells them to prepare themselves since the shuttle is old and unreliable.

The party accelerate into orbit. The shuttle's inertial dampeners are not functioning properly, making the journey a bumpy one. A few members of the party come out of the seats and injure themselves. Eventually, the shuttle transports the party onboard the ship.

The ship, A Crusader-Class explorer vessel, the USS Tomahawk, is old and in poor condition. Jacen gathers the party and informs them that he has a tradition on beaching duty of giving the ship one last trip before beaching, as a mark of respect, and so that they do not have carry out any other duties. He gives the party tasks, and heads to the bridge.

### The final frontier

The party take their various stations, and Arthur Steele, a former Navy Engineer, begins to power up the ship. After a few faulty relays are repaired, the ship powers up. H0W-D33 takes the pilot's seat, and Jacen orders that the ship be taken to the nearby Mimosa II, which is two beacon jumps away. After jumping a couple of times, the party arrives at Mimosa II. Calli scans the area to find out more about what might be nearby, and Dr Arbo performs a science scan of the planet to determine the composition of the atmosphere. After spending some time there, they decide to move on. Jacen decides to test out the weapon systems, he asks Calli if there is anything that can be shot nearby. Calli notices an asteroid field at the next beacon. Jacen takes the ship there.

Upon arrival, the weapons are powered and Bunka targets a nearby asteroid and gets a direct hit. The remnants of the asteroid however, cause damage to ship that requires a repair.

Eventually, Jacen laments that it is time to leave. Before departing, the party go for a look around the ship. Several of them gather in the medical bay and discuss how they can escape, while Jacen is distracted on the bridge. Eventually Jacen comes down, knowing full well what is happening. He tells them that he wants to get away from the consortium too, and says that having a ship with people who can operate it will be his chance. He tells them that he has connections on Mimosa III and can get their tags deactivated. The party agrees. They set a course back to Mimosa III.

### The attack

After arriving back at Mimosa III, the party discover it is under attack. The ships attacking are from "The Red Hand", and there is an entire fleet. Jacen immediately hails Orbital Control to get some answers. In a garbled transmission, the individual replying tells them that the Red Hand has attacked for unknown reasons. Jacen uses his leverage to get the party's chips deactivated. However, as they were preparing to depart, the party realised that they did not have their personal belonging. Some were unwilling to part with these items, and Jacen informs them that they are likely being stored on Orbital Control. Jacen hatches a plan to beam the party over to retrieve their items while the ship hides from the fleet.

The away team readies itself and they beam over. Jacen, H0W-D33 and Bunka remain on the Tomahawk to keep it concealed. The remainder of the party trek through the battle damaged station to search for their items. After Steele accesses a terminal, he discovers where the items are and the party head there.

They finally retrieve the items, but are approached by two Damaskan mercenaries from The Red Hand, who immediately attack them. After a firefight, the Damaskans are killed, and the party request an immediate evacuation. The Tomahawk moves itself into position and transports the away team back over. H0W-D33 pilots the Tomahawk away from the doomed Mimosa III.

The party discuss where they need to go next. They collectively decide to head for the nearest Union starbase to inform them of the attack, hoping it might clear their names.

### The transmission

As the Tomahawk is travelling, they recieve an incoming communication. The transmission is from an unknown individual with a robotic voice. The individual warns the party to stay out of his way, and seems to be excited that a former "peon" of his is onboard, much to the confusion of everyone.

The party, still attempting to digest what they just heard, are suprised by yet another transmission. This one however is much different. It is not from any particular person. When the transmission is played, it sounds much like a garbled waveform unlike anything the party have heard before. Calli attempts to scan for where it is coming from, only discovering that it is far beyond the range of the sensors, which exceeds 100 light years.

Confused about what has just happened, the party find comfort in the fact that at the very least, they have more to tell the Union now in the hopes of their sentences being revoked.

Jacen informs the party that the nearest starbase is Starbase 35, a Navy outpost. The party set a course, and hope that the Union will listen to them.

## Featured characters

### The Party

* Dr Arbo Star-Seeker (First appearance)
* H0W-D33 (First appearance)
* Bunka (GM controlled) (First appearance)
* Arthur Steele (First appearance)
* Junk (First appearance)
* Calliamarianna (First appearance)

### New

* Vask
* Malware (Voice heard)

## Story elements

### Key story notes

* The party are accused and sentenced for crimes that they did not commit. Jacen mentions that the orders for their arrest and sentencing are in the consortium database. This begins the mystery of why the party are together in the first place.
* Jacen notes that he was tortured for years on his homeworld of Tyrene.
* H0W-D33 is implied to be a Unified by two guards and Jacen, H0W-D33 seems completely oblivious to this fact and insists that he is not a "damn robot".
* Arthur and Dr Arbo are revealed to have both been in the Navy. With Arbo ranking as a Lieutenant Junior Grade and Arthur being an Ensign.
* This is the first time Malware makes an appearance (albiet as a voice).
* This session sets up the Red Hand's story

### Secrets

* The party had the opportunity to find out about their imprisonment and who gave the order, but neglected to look up the information at Orbital Control.
* Malware has a known associate onboard. The identity of this individual was not revealed until "Dual Calling", with the individual being Junk (now known as Petra).
* Dr Arbo, despite treasuring all life, got the killing blow during the fight.
* Bunka did not speak during this session, and this is continued during next session. She speaks for the first time in "Dual Calling".
* Jacen implied that he has some sort of hidden ability.