The Highway Men - Stars Without Number Game - Episode 5 Actual Play

The Stars without Numbers game went very well tonight with the PCs moving their salvage into the position from the system that they were in to the hyperspace gate. After 6 piloting rolls to keep correcting for mass, position & pitch. They keep seeing shadows & sensor ghosts in their weapon/science suite.
It turned out to be a hyper space drone belonging to the Martian Alliance. The Alliance are a group of genespliced humans built for living in the failed Martian Colonies of Old Earth. The colonies were left behind when the fires of the Atomic Wars engulfed Earth. They used their remaining star ship designs to reach the stars decades ahead of man. There were ancient aliens already there some of whom they call master. They are mercenaries & pirates without compare who use dread naughts to extend their reach across the stars.
The PCs played hide & seek for 10 rounds or so until they were able to hack & destroy the drone.
The PCs entered the hyperspace gate & used the momentum of the ship that they had salvaged to sling shot themselves into the none existence of hyperspace while dodging a the Alliance fleet. 

The PCs rolled well or this might have happened to the Stoneback system!

Once through they began to slow the ship down before breaking through to the Stoneback home worlds in the Talon sector.  Many piloting rolls later they exited the gate.

As they approached the system & knew that something wasn't quite right. 

The stoneback home system is 12 worlds some of which featured relic technology dating back to the First Empire of  mankind. The systems worlds were surrounded by Dillon-Wagoner Graviton Polarity Generator units capable of moving large bodies of stellar size. 
There were however several fleets of Martian Alliance Dreadnaughts. The PCs were directed to another space station as the codes they gave were received & followed by a seven second delay. The whole affair put the PCs on edge.. The system was under a blockade by the Alliance. 
The stonebacks are a warrior culture & the fact that there was an occupying force was very odd indeed. 
The PCs were guided to a salvage yard where they were greeted by One GRee & his family of salvagers . The PCs were wheeled & dined for the ship, locations, & coordinates for several more jobs.
They unloaded their salvage & learned one of the secrets of the stone backs. They had been occupied but the he Dillon-Wagoner Graviton Polarity Generators  in orbit were used to tear the ships of the Alliance apart. The ships would then be sold as scrap to other alien races in the Talon system.
 The Alliance in the meantime had their own ships upgraded some of which were already being bid on by several alien races.More information about the  The Dillon-Wagoner Graviton Polarity Generator can be found Here
The Alliance didn't have a chance. The whole affair was interrupted by the appearance of a dreadnaught & its pirate crew which began by insulting the PCs. 

 There were about 9 Alliance pirates & after a bit of horse play between the PCs & the pirates. The PCs quietly dispatched pirates grabbed a few items & left just as another ship landed.


The following items were recovered from the unconscious Martian Alliance Pirates  : 

1. A Letter of Marque to the Alliance granting unlimited  raiding rights upon the Stone Backs & their worlds. 
2. Star Maps of  a nearby system where a city of fantastic wealth was waiting guarded by a dangerous set of deranged gods. This is a dungeon crawl waiting to happen. 
3. A chip with 1 million credits in storage for upgrades & a nasty computer virus guarding it. 
4. The location of  another fleet belonging to Commander Ylla  more information about her can be found Here 
5. A secret communicate describing the powerful warlords of Endor who are behind some of the technology of the Martian alliance & their Brain_Men_of_Mars Slaves 
6. There was also mention of an occupied First Empire City & the progress of a super weapon to wipe out the inhabitants of several Human colonies 

   

   Who knows what fiendish plots the Brain Men are working on or what strange alien technology will be appearing soon!? 

   
    

The musical inspiration for tonight's game!  The Sword