Final Frontier Episode 4 Spies and Whistleblowers

 This is my Scum and Villainy campaign called Final Frontier. It takes place in a rather surreal universe. It's a space opera type of campaign, so imagine a sort of Cowboy Bebop/Firefly vibe. It's not extremely serious.
If you want, my blog has the first episode. click here

Characters are as follows.

1. Beavis "Nuts and Bolts" Redwood, an anthropomorphic cybernetic beaver person, a hardened criminal. Lost his legs because he decided to blow himself up. Formerly Sawdust
   
2. Gloukrosh, a Spectre, a former religious fellow who has been ostracized from his chapter.
   
3. Saul-Lano "Juggler", a human mechanic with an affinity for juggalos and clowns.
   
4. Audrey "Selina" Dunn, a human doctor with a love for the finer things in life.
   
5. Victor "Gambit" Tarkin, a human pilot of Galactic Union descent, looking for adventure on the rim of the GU. Former Military.

The players, after some run-ins with the law, are hiding out on Pegasus. They’ve been hiding for about two weeks now and it's been tough. First their mechanic was arrested for assault and then their pilot suffered some injuries that put him out of commission. They are currently wanted in the GU.

Rakka, a GU diplomat and a contact of the crew, decides to help them out after hearing about their exploits, but not for free. The crew is enlisted to find some ADE spies hiding out on Rin that have been stealing data from a research base. The crew is not paid for this mission, instead Rakka promises them that she’ll help get the GU off their asses. They are told to keep this all quiet and not to tell anyone who doesn’t already know. The crew, tired of hiding, accept and they travel to Rin, a jungle planet filled with alien life. They are told to find Dr. Dremel and they’ll receive any further orders from him. Upon arrival they talk to an admissions agent, who confiscates their weapons, due to a recent incident involving poachers . Using SKULK, Ghol hides his weapons inside of his spectral body and passes through. The crew asks a pack of smoking lazy GU soldiers where they can find Dr. Dremel and they are directed to building B. They find Dremel’s accountant, where Nuts and Bolts attempts to SWAY her into believing they have an appointment, but fails. He decides to claim it was all a joke and she peers over her glasses at him, narrowing her eyes. She checks with Dr. Dremel and the players are admitted into his office. The crew introduces themselves and tells Dremel that Rakka sent them. He provides information about the amount of personnel in the research base. They ask Dr. Dremel for more information and find out the security cameras seem to go out on the nights when these break-ins happen. They also find out the names of his main researchers. The crew asks who the captain of the base is and they are directed to Captain Brugg, right across the hall. There, the crew is told by the Captain that they are unwelcome and that he hates mercenaries like themselves. The crew ask Captain Brugg for more information and find out that civilian housing and military housing are separate. They also find out that these leaks were only discovered two weeks ago, but the break-ins have been happening over the course of three months. They decide to investigate the following researchers, Dr. Millibop, Marty Pulsar, and Dr. Dri. Selina and Nuts and Bolts ask Dr. Millibop questions, posing as students after a successful SWAY roll. They find out Dr. Millibop worked on a study about neurotoxins with Dr. Dri. Ghol SKULKS his way into Dr. Millibop’s room and finds it to be mostly empty, with only a desk and a computer inside. He HACKS the computer and finds a couple of files relating to the neurotoxin but nothing else. On the calendar, he finds that Dr. Millibop’s first expedition is in a week. The crew decide to go back to Captain Brugg. They ask for the ages and the time frame that researchers have arrived at the research station. The crew finds out that Dr. Millibop has only been here for two weeks and decide to absolve him of all suspicion. A soldier comes rushing into the office and the crew is asked to leave for a moment. Ghol decides to SKULK into a dark corner and hides while the Captain is not looking. They find out the soldier is named Corporal Pilldrake. He reports that a lookout has identified a poached plant and is commended. He is ordered to continue monitoring the security cameras and that he’ll handle the poaching. Corporal Pilldrake stares at the crew with great distaste and makes a spitting sound as he exits. The crew reenters the room and Captain Brugg asks them to go out on a patrol to examine the body of the poached carnivorous plant. They are assigned four GU soldiers and Dr. Dri. The crew is led to the body where Ghol STUDIES the body, running his gloved finger through the mouth of the plant. He finds a dark purple goo inside, indicating the body is fresh. Dr. Dri inspects it as well, noting the bullet wounds and the lack of Neurotoxin pods in the mouth. Ghol looks for footprints and discovers some heading south. The four GU soldiers are attacked by a giant tiger, killing two of them. The other two run away, with Ghol COMMANDING them to attack the tiger, but to no effect. The tiger begins to approach Dr. Dri. Ghol tosses his blaster to Nuts n Bolts, who puts the gun onto OVERLOAD and shoots the tiger in the abdomen. The gun begins smoking and is destroyed. The now angered tiger hops over Dr. Dri and bound over to Nuts N Bolts, roaring ferociously. He pounces on him, pinning Nuts N Bolts to the ground. Ghol pulls out his axe and ATTUNES to the way, imbuing his weapon with his power. He chops the tiger’s head clean off. A backup squad of GU soldiers arrive, taking Dr. Dri into safety. The crew is awarded 2 ducketts for saving Dr. Dri. The players decide to follow the footprints into the jungle and come across a small clearing. From there they can see a large plume of dark purple smoke. It is coming close to evening though and the crew doesn’t want to be left in the dark. They decide to leave a beacon in a tree stump and fall back to the research base. The crew is welcomed back by Dr. Dremel, who offers them each a separate living quarters to stay in for the night. During the night, Selina is awakened by a sound. Beside her bed she sees a silhouette of someone with a knife, quickly thinking, she grabs her own and stabs the silhouette with her knife, quickly running to turn on the lights. She discovers its a GU soldier and calls everyone over her comms. She stitches up the soldier, but his vocal cords are destroyed. He is then questioned and COMMANDED by both Ghol and Nuts and Bolts. They discover he was sent by ADE. They also find out the names of suspects. Dr. Dri, Dr. Dremel, and Corporal Pilldrake. Sawdust suffocates the captured GU soldier.  Ghol drags the body, failing a SKULK roll, he is questioned by a pair of guards. He SWAYS them, showing them evidence and telling them of the attack. 

The crew waits until the next rainy morning. Selina and Nuts and Bolts both decide to question Dr. Dri about how he's been feeling since the attack. Ghol HACKS into his room and begins rifling through his things, finding several papers concerning toxicology reports and studies. He tries to HACK into Dr. Dri’s personal computer but fails. At this moment, Dr. Dremel walks in. He stays cordial with Ghol, but soon pulls out a blaster. Ghol attempts to talk him down, but fails. Dr. Dri tells Selina and Nuts and Bolts that he's been doing alright, just a little shaken. They awkwardly stand there before Dr. Dri asks them to leave, due to him being extremely busy. Ghol SCRAMBLES past Dr. Dremel, while being fired upon, managing to make it around the corner, when he sees Captain Brugg coming through. He informs Captain Brugg of the situation. Captain Brugg pokes his head around the corner and is fired upon. Selina and Nuts and Bolts hear the gunfire and rush to the scene coming onto the hallway behind Dr. Dremel. Nuts and Bolts attempts to SKULK behind Dr. Dremel, in order to stealth attack him, but fails. He is shot in his robot leg, damaging it. Selina hides around the corner. While Dremel’s back is turned, Ghol pulls out his blaster, sets it to OVERLOAD and fires a shot clean through his shoulder and hits Nuts and Bolts as well, as part of a DEVIL’S BARGAIN. Captain Brugg is informed of the suspected spies and he launches an assault squad to the beacon left behind by the crew. As the crew is leaving, they see Dr. Dri running away with a large suitcase. Nuts and Bolts attempts to shoot him, but misses, as he runs towards a set of cars. Ghol aims his blaster and fires, shooting Dr. Dri in the leg. The crew gets their weapons returned to them. The base is put on red alert. Dr. Dri is arrested. They decide to investigate Corporal Pilldrake, heading to the security room with Captain Brugg. They find the door locked. Captain Brugg unlocks the door and they find the room empty with a window open and a rope dropped from it. Nuts and Bolts investigates the security footage and see the Corporal hopping into a Jeep and driving off. They decide to join the assault team and are brought to their beacon alongside thirty GU troops. In the clearing they decide to fan out and search the jungle for where the smoke was coming from. Eventually, one of the GU troops finds a small clearing covered by trees. There they can see vats of purple goo, huts, a ship, and caged wildlife. The crew investigates the ship, which has been shoddily camouflaged. While searching, they are ambushed by a Roger with a blaster forcing everyone to take cover. A group of Rogers come filing out of the huts and begin to attack the GU force. The crew takes cover behind the ship. Nuts and Bolts attempts to RIG an explosive on the ship, but his bomb has been soaked, rendering it useless. Corporal Pilldrake comes driving in, firing upon the GU soldiers as he drives to the ship. He begins throwing a couple suitcases onto the loading bay of the ship when Nuts and Bolts attempts to shoot him, missing. A Roger appears and tells Nuts and Bolts to relinquish his firearm. He complies. Selina comes around the corner and shoots at the Roger, but misses, the Roger turns around and fires upon Selina, hitting her in the shoulder. Ghol points his gun at the back of the Roger’s head, before he hears the cock of another gun. Dr. Dremel is behind him and reveals that he too is a Spectre, pulling off his disguise. Ghol attempts to SCRAMBLE away, but is promptly shot. Selina, getting up from the previous injury SKULKS up behind Dr. Dremel and stabs him multiple times. Nuts and Bolts SCRAMBLES onto the ship, following Pilldrake.  He follows Pilldrake up a ladder and once on board is fired upon, though Pilldrake misses after Nuts and Bolts dives for cover. Pilldrake hops into the cockpit, but before he can start the ship Nuts and Bolts readies his blaster and pops out from beyond the corner and shoots Pilldrake in the chest, knocking him down. Nuts and Bolts approaches the now downed Pilldrake and utters the words “This is the end of the road for you”, before shooting Pilldrake in the head, shattering his skull and coating the cybernetic beaver in blood. The GU forces finally begin to overtake the ADE troops and an investigation is launched. Dr. Dri and Dr. Dremel are both charged with espionage. Rakka manages to save the crew from being hated by the GU, for now.