3 – Under the Dome

The crew spend a week in jump space as they travel into the Ralhe system. During their week of jump space, Bradley focuses on flying simulations, Wade spends his time working on his fighting form with a punching bag and Jexa does some training with a combat sim to develop her Gun Combat. As they enter into standard space, they travel inward into the system to arrive on the planet, Ralhe, which is a small world with a thin, tainted atmosphere, most of the population living in domes. They are directed to land in a staging area on-planet in a half-built dome, pack some equipment and travel to a local bar, called the Republican’s Rest nearby. They encounter a hardy, middle-aged man drinking in a corner, being edged on to continue drinking by a few other patrons. He introduces himself as Phillip Summers, and invites the Travellers to sit down for a drink. 

A few rumours circulate amongst the other patrons regarding some recovery jobs being available, which Wade asks the bartender who points him to a man called Landon. They use an underground train line, named The Grond to travel between domes and arrive at Landon’s residence. They introduce themselves via his apartment speaker system and Landon, a young man with ginger hair, welcomes them up into his apartment. He explains that there is suspected to be a high volume of credits to be made from containers which were left in the now abandoned starport dome, named Viram-Theta, which was sabotaged by the terrorist group called the Free Sons of Syrannid. He hands them a half-dozen radio transmitters which need to be placed onto a few containers containing the most valuable goods, and offers them 12,000 credits to perform the job. They accept, and contact a friend of Phillip’s, a mechanic named Nathan Graves who lives nearby. Graves offers them a sealed, ground-car for use for a few days for a small charge, which they agree to loan. Jexa drives them to the edge of the dome to reach their destination. A border guard stops and questions them on their reason for leaving. Wade manages to convince the guard they are performing surveys for a scientific matter, and are permitted onto the planet’s surface. 

A few hours later, they arrive at the collapsed dome, and drive through the mechanical airlock. They see that much of the roof of the dome has collapsed in, with the system’s Star encompassing the dome with light. They drive past multiple small shipyards, loading docks and landing pads, which have gone into disrepair. A short time later, they arrive at a container yard that Landon directed them towards.The crew look around and notice what appears to be a few unknown scouts watching them from a distance and moving between collapsed buildings. They park the groundcar, and move to locate a number of serial numbers which are marked on containers in the yard, some reaching a few stacks high. Bradley and Wade work on getting to a crane in the yard to make it operational, while the others work on locating the other containers. One container they find contains a number of cybernetic implants. 

They climb up the rings of the crane. Wade uses his Mechanical skills to get the Crane online. Phillip and Bradley search for parts to partially pay back Nathan Graves, and find a container brimmed with an assortment of narcotics. They decide their best-bet for searching through these containers is to check a shipping manifest in an administration building nearby. Phillip uses his Admin skill to search through an old computer system, which prints out a manifest of what they are after. They find two of the three containers they need to mark for Landon are accessible, while the last needs to be accessed via the crane.
Wade and Jexa see a vehicle progressing towards them from the far side of the dome, and begin to move the crane into position. A short time later, with the crane lifter in position, they work to coordinate the containers around. In his haste, Wade damages the top-most container in a stack, which collapses onto the ground below. Jexa assists Wade with the next pickup, and the container they are after is brought down onto a clearing in the yard. 

They begin to consider how to deal with the approaching vehicle. Wade picks up another container and moves the crane towards the main access road into the yard. Minutes later, several vehicles approach in white and red marked lines. Wade times his release of the container, which plummets onto the first groundcar. A number of now-broken chairs and tables pile out from the interior of the container and onto the road. As four armed figures emerge from the other groundcars further up the road, Phillip confirms for the crew that the markings and vehicles are typical of the Sons of Syrannid terrorist group. The crew regroup as the armed figures approach. From the crane tower, Wade prepares a stun grenade and watches the figures head towards the base of the crane tower. Wade throws a grenade, and hits two of the climbers who become disorientated. Jexa aims her pistol at the remaining lead climber, which misses, Wade then follows suit also taking a shot which lands. Bradley and Phillip arrive closer to the crane tower, and takes a shot at one of the disorientated terrorists on the ground, who collapses onto the ground, bleeding. Phillip runs to one of their vehicles which has a mounted gun turret on the roof. Without experience, his bullet spray spreads widely, grazing one of the remaining terrorists on the ground. 


One of the climbers takes a shot at Bradley, which deals some damage through his armour. With the climbers directly below the ladder, Wade drops the stun grenade down the ladder shaft, hitting the lead climber and knocking him out completely, who then collapses onto the second climber. Jexa shoots down the shaft, which hits the lead climber again, who goes entirely limp and collapses. Back on the ground, Bradley shoots at the remaining target still active on the ground. Phillip takes aim with his turret at the now stuck climber, and fires wildly, decimating the target. Both climbers plummet down the ladder shaft to the ground. All targets now defeated, they begin cleaning up, affixing the remaining transmitters and get the cargo ready for Landon’s agents.

They pack some of the supplies they found into the boot, including an assortment of cybernetic parts and travel back to the main dome. With additional weight, the groundcar they borrowed from Nathan takes some damage on the journey back. The crew arrive at the main airlock to the dome again, where they are inspected by a lone customs and security officer. Wade strings along the official with an indication they were directly confronted by the terrorist group Sons of Syrannid, but, suspicious, the officer inspects the vehicle and finds the assortment of supplies they scavenged from the container yard. Jexa pulls the officer to the side, and indicates that they had found the cargo on the Sons of Syrannid groundcars when they were ambushed. Meanwhile, Wade launches an attack on the officer from behind with his Stun fist, knocking him to the ground. He and Jexa then manage to place him into the boot of the groundcar, alongside their cargo. 

They travel back through the dome and back to Nathan’s garage. Shocked to see the state the vehicle is in, Nathan agrees to sell them the groundcar for 10K credits and the parts they scavenged. They organise to get the groundcar into a carriage on The Grond, the underground train line, and get the groundcar is brought up and parked into the ship’s cargo bay. Wade begins to close the ship’s ramp, takes out his spear gun from his locker onboard the ship and opens the boot of the groundcar. He threatens the officer they kidnapped, tells him to not speak a word of today, and kick him off the ship.

Phillip decides to stay with the crew for now, and Bradley pilots the ship out of the atmosphere. They plan their next jump and decide on Iderati as their next destination, jumping out of the system.