Narrator – The Narrator
Bo Juke – Heir to House Juke
Templar Wrathbone – The leader of the Templars of Lothar
Admiral Jarvis – A scientifically inclined officer in the service of House Lothar
Panthro – Cat man adventurer and former Knight of Orion
Narrator: The original Kingdom of Orion is in flames. House Otto and House Mason are at one another’s throats. The Confederation of Sleetak is chipping away at the edges of civilization, making inroads against all the other royal houses. Proud House Juke is nearly defeated by House Lothar, their single core world protected by a thick blockade of warships.
Bo Juke: Sheeee-oot! Good thing those shooty guys can’t just teleport past this blockade. We’d we cooked for sure!
Narrator: Meanwhile, somewhere within Lothar territory a mysterious space station is being fixed up. Within it, the Templar Wrathbone surveys all the work going on. Technicians rush about making adjustments to imposing looking machinery, while commanders bark orders to soldiers and pilots marching back and forth. Coffin sized pods filled with men, women, and children held in a painful state of suspended animation are wheeled off ships by the dozen.
Wrathbone: Admiral Jarvis. I’m becoming impatient. The promise of this space station has not been completely realized. I’m sick of only using it to support our Mavorian allies with their terrorism. I want to use it to crush everyone who resists our rampage of awesomeness! When will the station become fully operational?
Admiral Jarvis: Well, as you can imagine the power required to operate the “Flying Dutchman” is unique. Psionically powered equipment is touchy and capricious at best. You would best be advised to back off!
Wrathbone: What did you just say to me?
Admiral Jarvis: Ahem. I’m doing my best, sir.
Wrathbone: I understand that we should be able to harness the raw souls of these sentient beings and force them to serve as a power source whether they want to or not. Why is that not happening?!?
Admiral Jarvis: I assure you it is not for lack of brilliance on my part.
Wrathbone: I don’t want to commit the bulk of my forces crushing the Juke fleet. I want to teleport past them, and wreck House Juke from within. The “Flying Dutchman” should be able to do this. Why can’t you complete Von Blinken’s vision?!?
Narrator: Admiral Jarvis swallows hard and looks Templar Wrathbone straight in the…facemask. Admiral Jarvis: My Lord. The Rakashans had a more detailed version of Von Blinken’s plans, but they were encrypted and stolen by that hacker. I need those plans! Get them for me. Our sources indicate that he was recently captured on Chilbert. We have pictures and some of his equipment and henchmen. Some say he was part of the Knights of Orion. Find the knights, and we find the hacker!
Wrathbone: Finally! I’ll see to it. Continue your work. I’ll get you the Rakashan’s plans.
Narrator: Light years away, floating weightlessly in a nameless unmarked freighter, Panthro has had the time to make out the encoding on the plans he stole so long ago that forced him to change his name and hide his identity. Flushed with success, he opens the schematics and starts glancing through the plans. This space station described within not only has the ability to teleport itself instantaneously light-years through space, but it runs on the souls of sentient beings. Panthro opens a final schematic, displaying the entire space station from its command deck, to the spinning gravity section, to the reactor end where the psionic power of sentients is harnessed for power. Panthro croaks out loud to no-one…
Panthro: This thing looks exactly like Wellfleet.
Two points for anybody else that read Templar Wrathbone with a speech impediment like I do when I read him at the group.
ReplyDelete