The Debts of Jack Quincy 2: A Genesys RPG Solo Game

I think we can jump to scene two. This one I’ll jump to the end of the Unmastered Play Guide to use the Scene Mechanic, which again uses a deck of cards to determine what the scene should be. I drew the 3 of Spades, which gives the result of an Easy Skill Challenge and Adversarial. An Easy skill challenge typically uses one Difficulty die (the purple one) and Adversarial means it’s opposed by another character. I think it’ll be a Streetwise challenge against the Mysterious Stranger from the previous scene.

Remember, you can check out the first post, which has the demo play test and campaign set up, here.

Jack stands, waiting for Clyde to stagger his way out from behind the table. Ruby and Adeline remain sitting, pouring their next glasses of wine. Clyde and Jack make their way through the crowded bar, floating down the side of the bar in the low gravity before stepping into the old airlock, wheeling the hatch shut while the pressure adjusts between the bar and the main station. After a few minutes, the other indicator flashes that the pressure is stabilized, and they make their way into the main corridor.

The hall is narrow and cramped, with iron bulkheads extending from the hatchways every ten yards or so, with garbage and detritus piled along the walls, scribbled with graffiti and makeshift addresses. Some promise a good time, other promise a bad time. Clyde cringes as he walks, flinching away from everyone they pass, but Jack presses forward, tipping his helmet to the women as they pass, and nodding to the men. The hair on his neck prickles. Something feels wrong.

“Clyde,” Jack whispers, “Something’s wrong. I’m not sure what. Slow down a bit and let’s stop at the next vac-garden.” The other man freezes and almost bolts, but Jack rests a hand on his shoulder. “Stay calm.” He guides the gambler down a side corridor into a wide open room with thick glass windows facing the distant sun. Plants hang from trellises and curl through raised, wrought-iron beds as Jack glances behind them.

Well, that’s a relief compared to our roll from the last scene. Two Successes, plain and simple. It’s a very straight forward roll. It also increases our Momentum by one. Now we’re starting to make some process.

Jack recognizes the strange figure as it ducks back behind one of the bulkheads, but not fast enough to escape notice. The trench coat and scarf are distinctive and he remembers seeing the man enter the Angel Red shortly after himself.

“We’ve got an amateur on our tail,” Jack murmurs to Clyde. “Take the scenic route.”

Clyde goes pale and sweat drips down his forehead as he chews on his lip, but weaves through the plants to a service hatchway with a rusted, dog-locked hatch that he throws his entire weight behind. It creaks, shifts, and then breaks loose, revealing the small maintenance passageway behind. Clyde steps in, followed by Jack, who heaves the door hatch shut and reseals it. Dim emergency light flickers through the gloom and their boots echo on the walkway. Spider-webs hung in the corners, their inhabitants scurrying away into the recesses at the sight of the two men.

”How’d you get involved with this lot?” Jack asks after several moments. Clyde turns to look behind him, his face pinched.

”Needed to repay a debt,” the man growls, voice low and gravely. “Got an offer that would clear the debt if I found someone to do a job for them.” Jack raises his eyebrows in surprise.

”Not like you to lose big time,” Jack notes, chewing his lip thoughtfully. “Find someone who knows all the card shark tricks?” “Ruby,” Clyde grunts. “She seems all dainty and lady like, but she’s the best damn gambler I’ve ever met, with both the cash and the guns to back it up.” ”Adeline?” Jack asks, remembering the woman in the officer’s uniform.

”She’s the one,” Clyde grunted. “Not sure which of them is running this show, but Adeline runs a dragoon battalion in the Foreign Legion. Nastiest bastards I ever ran into.” That made Jack whistle. Silence fell as they wound their way through the warren of passages snaking through the station, connecting the original station to the dozens of ship hulls welded, riveted, and bolted atop each other. Heat radiates from the pipes running along the wall and the metal creaks as it expands and contracts from the ever shifting temperatures.

Let’s make another Streetwise check here, to see if they managed to successfully lose the tail, and if they know they did so. In this case, we’ll make it an Average check, with two of the purple Difficulty die.

That gives us two Successes, with one Advantage and two Threat. Advantage and Threat cancel each other out at a one-for-one ratio. That means we find ourselves with a final result of two Successes and one Threat. So, like last time, the roll is a success, ensuring that Jack and Clyde do lose the person following them, but there’s a negative outcome. Because there’s not a lot risk right now, I’ll take the easy route and use it to inflict Strain.

We’ve not talked much about Strain yet, but it’s a type of resource pool that is primarily non-physical. Characters can “take Strain” to get a second Maneuver in combat, for example, or if something is difficult and dangerous, they accumulate Strain to indicate the emotional and mental toll. Plus, since we are doing the UPG’s Structured Play, we add one Entropy for the Threat, as well as one Momentum for making the roll at all. Some Talents use threat for their activation, especially Parry (Improved). Jack doesn’t have any of those Talents (or any Talents at all), so we don’t need to worry about that for the moment.

Jack frowns as he feels the hair on the back of his neck prickle. Did they lose the man in the coat and scarf? He keeps glancing over his shoulder as a knot of unease begins to grow. Something about this job was off, but he can’t tell what.

After winding through the maintenance corridor and passing through numerous airlocks between what used to be ship hulls, they enter one of the smaller, private hangars, this one reserved for the Aldottorai Colonial Trade Company and their representatives. The access to this hangar is guarded by two Aldottorai Foreign Legionaries rather than the usual company security team, who glare at them after assessing the pass shown them by Clyde.

Inside the hangar sits an assortment of ships: several Aldottorai officers’ gigs, a cutter in for maintenance before returning out-system to the asteroid mines, a few interceptors, and in one shadowy corner, the shuttle. It wasn’t a large vessel, just large enough to carry a group of people, luggage, and emergency supplies from ship to ship or from orbit to the ground. Clyde leads them through the hangar to the shuttle, which has its hatchway open and ramp extended.

Clyde passes him the access key, a heavy steel key on a ring, before backing away. “I’m done now. My debt’s paid. The rest is on you.”

“Where am I taking the cargo? Or letting them know when I retrieve it?” Jack frowns as he speaks. The other man just shrugs.

”It’s in there waiting for you.” With that, he turns and hurries away. Jack frowns and scrathes his head in thought, before heading into the ship.

Its oily, mechanical smell stings his nose compared to the charcoal and ozone filtered air from the station. He pulls a lever and the hatch seals shut, its hydraulics echoing through the small vessel as they slam shut. The atmospheric system kicks on noisily, with the sound of a small generator running below the deck.

Jack passes through the cargo section and climbs through the hatch into the passenger section and into the cockpit, with its two pilot chairs and control panels. His eyes range across the controls, taking in everything’s location and the manila folder laying haphazardly on one of the chairs beneath a seemingly forgotten pilot’s jacket.

He leaves that for now and slides into the primary pilot’s chair, inserting the access key into the control panel before giving it a hard, steady turn. The compression cylinders at the heart of the shuttle begin to grumble as they start turning over and then ignite. The shuttle comes alive with that, vibrating and shaking under the engine movements. He watches the oil pressure gauges as they stabilize, seeing if any stick.

But the ship is in pristine condition and soon settles into a smooth purr. Jack nudges one of the side thruster controls, giving the shuttle a slow rotation on its landing gear, crawling along the hangar floor into the departure chamber. Sirens sound as the interior hatches seal shut behind him and the air is depressurized back into the station.

An alarm sounds while a light goes from red to green and the external hangar slides open, revealing the vastness of the Alathni System. He sees both Alathni Major, massive in the sky, as well as Alathni Minor, far smaller than the planet it orbits. The distant lights of ship thrusters leave glowing trails across the system as he nudges the thruster forward to launch the shuttle out of the hangar. His stomach drops as the gravity drops away, but the safety harness keeps him in place.

One final nudge on both thruster controls and sends the shuttle darting forward while Jack opens the folder and spreads the papers across the seat next to him. The journey will take several hours to get to a safe approach vector to land on Athena Proxima, so he adjusts the ship’s course and activates the autopilot, setting the calculating computer to work in maintaining a steady velocity and and course. With that accomplished, he turns his attention to the documents from the Manila folder…

I think that’s enough for scene two. There’s not really anything more needed from this scene. Technically, I could do a piloting check to get to Athena Proxima, but I don’t really see a point. Have to say, I’m really enjoying diving back into the Iron Horizons universe. It’s been a while since I’ve done any proper writing, so it’s great to get back into it.