Ship's Log

007-1106 - Regina/Regina (1910) - The Argon Gambit (conclusion)

The crew are enjoying the early evening melange of cultures in the local market. Noodles with exotic spices from a street vendor seem to be a favourite this evening.

From behind, four thugs warn them off the case. "This is bigger than you can imagine. Leave off investigating Kashkunan or you'll get hurt." Hal tests this theory by kicking the guy in the face. By the end of the fight, the crew stand over the bruised and bloodied thugs as demand to an audience with Laura Chin. Too stunned to refuse, the head thug agrees to make the arrangements.

In the meantime, the crew wait for their meeting in a local diner where they meet up with their long-lost buddies, Emilana and Pandora. The two women have their own story of betrayal at the hands of the Marquis Laurence Chevalier and Brigid Svenson.

Together, they meet Laura Chin, a small woman with hard, calculating eyes. She tells them that she will give them both ships if they retrieve the information about Samuelson's racial lineage from Kashkunan. She also tells them that Grant told her that the crew will be breaking into Kashkunan's villa tomorrow night. She also knows that the police are aware of this. She figures that Grant's plan is to have her team attack the crew coming out of the villa with the police around to arrest the lot and release the documents to the public. This would leave him free to take over the running of the Solomani Party in the Spinward Marches.

The crew decides that they must break-in tonight rather than wait until tomorrow night as suggested by Grant. They start planning and preparing immediately.

Late that night and after gathering their fake security uniforms, a ground vehicle and all their electronic and computer gear, they head out toward Kashkunan's villa. They hook themselves into the back-to-base security data cabling and release pandora's animal into Kashkunan's villa compound to trigger the alarms. They intercept and respond to the call.

Posing as members of Kashkunan's security firm, they make a tour of the house and grounds, ostensibly looking for the source of the alarm, while Hal jumps on the security console and tracks down any security measures which may indicate the safe. She finds it in the office attached to the master bedroom suite.

Benito Courleone tours the grounds loudly and asking for assistance in order to distract guards and look like a proper security patrol. Dom stands behind Hal while she operates the security console to protect her from interference. Ed Mosley keeps Kshkunan happy and out of the way while Emilana distracts the guard posted outside the master bedroom suite. Inside, Pandora tries and fails to crack the safe. She and Mosley swap roles. Pandora blathers a corporate speil to an increasingly impatient Kashkunan while Mosley defeats the electronic lock of the safe. He takes the documents and head for their vehicle.

As the crew are retreating to the van, Kashkunan slips back into his office and discovers the documents missing. His warning brings his guard running and ready to shoot. Hal kills the power to the villa and the lights go out. he and Dom run for the main entrance to the villa and their van parked in the driveway. Pandora and Emilana take care of two guard and Kashkunan in the corridor outside the master bedroom suite. Benito takes down the guard shadowing him around the ground of the villa. Ed Mosley, firing up the vehicle, is shot at by a guard. The guard misses but Mosley does not. The guard crumples to the ground as the rest of the crew leap over his body and into the van. They hit to road at high speed.

The next day, the crew and Jellico meet with Laura Chin and turn over the paperwork they retrieved from Kashkunan. Jellico refuses to let Chin out of his sight until the transfer of ownership of the two ships is completed. Once satisfied, the two groups part with caution.

Over the next three weeks, they sell the yacht for scrap and make enough to buy a decrepit but working jump drive. Currently, the drive can only perform at jump-1 even though it is rated for jump-2 in a 200-ton hull. Like the rest of the safari yacht, some assembly is required.

The news service carries a story about change in leadership of the Solomani Party in the Marches. Laura Chin now rules unopposed. Her erstwhile rival, Arlen Samuelson was disgraced when information about his mixed blood lineage emerges. Zimmermann and Grant are arrested for the illegal trade in anagathics but somehow Jason Grant manages to escape town before the police raid his apartment.

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