Pulsars and Privateers

On the fringes of known space, the three great Empires of the Core clash in a cold war. The Argent Empire with its well armed ships stand-off against the Magellan Confederacy with its well armoured star ships. Controlling the star lanes are the decadent Caliphate, whose fast ships and stranglehold over the Hyperspace beacons enable the uneasy balance to be maintained. Buffering the core from the fringe are the Guild worlds that provide the economic glue that helps hole the universe in place.

There are no Aliens in Pulsars and Privateers.

Questions in the dark.

Starring:
Ammar – the Captain of the Khanjar, a refitted frigate of a lost empire. Highly privileged but still a pirate, a member of the Caliphate royal family.
Zeb – the Magellan weapon. A man altered to be able to jack directly into computer networks, rescued from the ruins of a fighter and gives the Khanjar the agility to be an outstanding fighting ship.
Talia – a Decados Guild member – a guild that specialises in genetic engineering and working with the Magellan Confederacy. She fled and has trained with a group of Philosopher Scientists who had discovered that human consciousness creates the reality and it can then be manipulated.
Marcus – a member of the Argent Empire Secret service, who is also the ship’s engineer. His assignment to track the movement of ships has led to his specific interest in the military developments in the Magellan Confederacy.

And introducing:
Ambassador Caribdis – a member of the back benches of the Magellan Confederacy but a supporter of the old republic regime.
Samono – a priest whose world, the Fifth Creation, has a unique belief that each creation has been destroyed and remade and that this creation will end in fire and be remade in fire. With a crisis of faith and a scroll that told him that his cherished history was wrong and that he was the correct heir of Fifth Creation. Running in fear from his homeworld, he is currently adrift.

Scene 1
The Khanjar is flying through hyperspace towing an ice-asteroid and a backwash from a ship suddenly leaving hyperspace nearby drags the frigate into normal space. The Khanjar discovered an unmarked Magellan diplomatic yacht under attack by three nimble pirate corvettes, which were subsequently destroyed by our pilot Zeb. The ejected pod containing Ambassador Caribdis was captured and brought into the hold but the important information he carried, his purple files, were lost in the crash.

Scene 2
The pod opening is met by Talia and Marcus, with Caribdis recognising Talia. The antipathy between them racked up the tension and Caribdis was assigned to quarters 4 a.k.a. the brigg. The Ambassador called upon his diplomatic immunity and was able to be reassigned to better quarters, thus a greater position in the ship.

Scene 3
On the planet below, Ammar and Talia were meeting with our contractor who is also responsible for Samono. The negotiations over payment ensued with our contractor insisting on paying less due to ‘the disruption that letting a large ice-asteroid float through shipping lanes’ and the Captain reminding him, at pistol point that a contract was a contract. Samono is added to the contract as a favour and Ammar agrees to take him. Whilst collecting his stuff, Samono spots the Blessed Guard [robed and hooded in blue, with hoods down in battle and blasters drawn] who have pursuing him for the scroll that reveals the true history and gem (heart of fire) that is supposed to bring about the end of the universe. In the ensuing fight the three flee but Samono loses half of the scroll to the Blessed Guard captain.

Cut Scene:
The Black Magellan troopers arrive and search the crashed ship, recovering the lost files of Caribdis.

Scene 4
In the virtual world of Zeb, his girlfriend who was trapped in his head when he was uploaded and she has quietly gone mad, intensifying her hatred of the Magellans. She identified that Caribdis deserved to die and when Zeb was distracted she shut down the life support to his rooms. Waking Zeb identified that she had done this and chose not to forgive her and fled the neural network. He no longer trusts her. Caribdis was saved by overrides from engineering [spotted by Marcus’s independent spy cameras].

Scene 5
In the Captain’s lounging room, Ammar and Caribdis discuss the political situation in the Magellan Confederacy and that there is not total support for the military junta controlling it. Caribdis persuaded Ammar to trust him and give him more freedom and incidentally better quarters.

Scene 6
Ammar calls a crew meeting in the lounging room, he discusses what to do with Caribdis. The Argent Empire demands that he is handed over and numerous organisations have contracts after him from the simple ‘an ambassador is missing’ from the Magellan Confederacy to ‘he must be obliterated and every particle scattered across space’ from the Decados guild, which is balanced against his Caliphate responsibility of Diplomatic immunity. Ammar says he will hand him over but actually chooses not to.

Scene 7
In the fighting room, the fencing between Marcus and Talia enabled him to establish a little of the relationship between her and the Caribdis. More importantly he gathered that the Magellans are trying to make faster and more agile ships by networking pilots into their ships and to reverse engineer the Caliphate hyperspace technology. Marcus compiled a report on this information and hovered briefly over the delete button before sending the information off to the Argent Empire, betraying his friends.

As we cut to the ads the Khanjar is being chased by a Magellan ship that is skipping in and out of hyperspace {a reveal}.

To be continued after the break ....