Count Down To Doomsday (TMNR) - Episode 9 Corpse Haulers

 After leaving a ransom note for Stevie in his and Jane’s hotel room, Max returned to the lobby where Carm and Seraphina were waiting. Seraphina and Carm headed back to the ship to relieve Alex and get some alone time. After a few minutes, Alex and Max stood in the lobby discussing what to do with the documents that belonged to Stevie and Jane, along with how they could capitalize on this situation and get their money back. 

As they discussed, they overheard a man at the front desk asking about Stevie and Jane, thinking nothing of it, they continued their conversation only to be interrupted by the graying man. The older man introduced himself as Zaphod Beeblebrox, a doctor of some renown. 

Zaphod explained that he overheard Alex and Max talking and was also looking for Stevie and Jane; they owed him money for medical aid rendered. Max reviewed the pile of documents that they had in their possession and saw Zaphod’s invoices, confirming the story. Everyone agreed that the two con artists should be apprehended, and Zaphod suggested that they steal Stevie and sell his body to the underground; a very illegal but very lucrative suggestion. 

Deciding they could trust Zaphod, the adventurers headed with him to Flopark’s Electronics to set up the rendezvous. Frank was happy to oblige and after they purchased a communicator from him so they could keep in touch, they headed off to wait for Stevie to show up for his documents. Nine hours later, they received a call from Frank, saying that Stevie had arrived and was looking for them. 

Max, Alex and Zaphod headed to the electronics store with Seraphina and Carm, hanging onto the documents, stayed at the ship. Max was convinced that they were going to be able to persuade Stevie and Jane to join the crew of the Maelstrom Rider and wanted to make sure that no matter what Stevie had planned, his and Jane’s documents could only be retrieved through an agreement with them. 

On the way to the store, the group of adventurers saw a gang of young men who were all dressed alike and similar to Stevie. The adventurers approached the young men and asked if they had seen Stevie. The young men said they didn’t know what the adventurers were talking about and told them to get lost. Alex coerced them to move along through intimidation and as they walked away, Zaphod threw a box of condoms at the back of one of their heads, striking the man, who stopped and did pick them up before moving on. 

Once at the shop, Frank was occupied with a few patrons while Zaphod looked at things and wiped boogers everywhere. Buzz stayed at the front door, while Max headed to the back door. Ale walked right up to Stevie and told him that he wanted the money that was owed to Max and Zaphod. Stevie said the money was gone and wanted to know what he needed to do to get his papers back. Max approached and told Stevie that he could get his documents back, by working his debt off on their ship. 

Stevie became irate and demanded they stop wasting his time. He would not agree to work on the ship and when Alex indicated he would inflict harm on Stevie if he didn’t change his tone, Stevie became even more upset and drew a Needle gun. As Stevie did this, the three other ‘Partons’ in the store drew their own weapons, while Alex drew both of his guns. In the middle of a real standoff, Zaphod, completely unperturbed by the situation, told Stevie that he could use some help finding a body, which they could sell and all make a profit on. 

Stevie hesitated for a mere moment, but when Alex appeared to be lowering his weapons, Stevie and his boys did as well. Frank did not want to hear anything about the trafficking of corpses and insisted they all leave the store to continue this business. Once in the alley in front of Frank’s shop, the adventurers continued their conversation with Stevie, ultimately getting him to agree that he would trade a decent corpse for his papers. The two groups parted ways agreeing they would meet in no more than two hours to settle the situation. 

After the adventurers parted ways, Zaphod attempted to reach his contact that would purchase bodies and was unable to do so, but alas he knew more than one person who trafficked in the deceased, and so called his second contact Chompy. Chompy was more than happy to receive a body from Zaphod, knowing that in the past, they have had a robust and good mutually lucrative trade and agreed to meet in an hour, at “the usual place”, with Carm and Seraphina meeting in a different place to receive the funds from Chompy’s men. 

Sure enough, an hour later behind a grocery store, Stevie was waiting with a body in a large cooler for Chompy and the Adventurers. Chompy arrived with a truck and when the back came up, there were two men there wearing light body armor and carrying bolt guns. 

Chompy asked Zaphod to inspect the corpse, while Max, holding the documents, hid behind a dumpster nearby. Zaphod climbed onto the corpse and looked it over. The young corpse was of a fair haired man who had no obvious signs of injury. With a few simple scans of the body, Zahod concluded the man had died of a heart attack. With the body being good to go, Max came out from hiding and Chompy ordered the money to be given to Seraphina. When Seraphina and Carm were on their way back to the ship with the funds, Chompy told Alex and Buzz to load the body onto the truck. 

Alex did not want to do this, so eventually Stevi agreed and as they finished loading the body onto the truck, Luna PD came rushing into the alley way. The detective ordered everyone to get down on the ground, which the adventurers complied with. Stevie’s boys ran for it, but Stevie was behind the truck and took a blast from the cops falling to the ground rolling under the truck. Chompy blasted the detective, and his soldier finished him off. 

Alex and Buxx jumped the corpse cooler and dove into the truck, then Alex kicked the men off the back of the truck, while Buzz settled into the driver’s seat. Zaphod claimed he was an innocent bystander, but the cops were hyper focused on the illegal weapons and were paying no attention to Max and the others. 

Max ran into the back of the grocery store and then unfortunately did not see the young man carrying the large pot of tomato soup. Max ran head long into the worker and got covered in the soup, before continuing to the front of the store. Meanwhile, in the alley, Zaphod got into the truck so Buzz floored it and began to try and get out of the alley with the truck, while the Luna PD started to box the roads with cars.

As Buzz rounded the corner, he screamed onto the road in front of the store, but Max was unfortunately right in the middle of the road. Max dove for the sidewalk and Buzz slammed on the brakes; The truck came to a stop with the wheel just inches from Max. Max got up, dusted themselves off and then got into the truck. 

Zaphod instructed Buzz where to park the truck, thinking he was telling Buzz to park in a garage near a hospital, but they ended up smack in the middle of the entertainment sector. Heading from the garage, they saw many people enjoying themselves and dancing in the streets. The bars were well patronized and people were just everywhere. The adventurers, as nonchalant

as possible, carried the corpse cooler out into the road and to a local haberdashery.

Here, Max transformed into a young rave girl, while Buzz trimmed his hair and the others changed clothes. Zaphod attempted to get ahold of his primary corpse dealer and was successful this time, arranging to have them picked up at a nearby intersection. A few moments later, a non-descript truck showed up and everyone hopped into the back. 

The driver brought them to a business in a very nice part of town, where the houses were obviously very expensive and the cops were ever present. Once underground, a couple of men in industrial clothing unloaded the corpse and indicated that the others should scan their credentials and enter a secure area. Zaphod had no hesitation scanned his id and headed inside, and the others after a brief moment of consideration, also scanned and headed inside. 

Once inside, the area was clean and obviously well maintained. The man who was in charge looked at the assembled people and immediately mentioned that this was not the crew of the Maelstrom Rider. The adventures explained they had bought the credentials and that was all that was said about it. 

The man in charge looked the corpse over and then explained, though he would like to offer them a reasonable price for the body, it was obviously the one that had recently gone missing from a morgue not too far away and had a paper trail. After some hemming and hawing, the man offered 12k for the corpse. Agreeing to the terms, they collected their chest of money and the driver offered to take them wherever they asked to go. Not having any more business on Luna, they asked to be taken to the docks. 

As they traveled, Buzz watched the news on his new pocket TV, seeing that the adventurers were now wanted for corpse trafficking. The new report mentioned the death of the detective, but also mentioned he died protecting the entire dome, as they apprehended a group of dangerous criminals with illegal weapons. 

While they traveled, Max created fake recipes for the large quantity of money they had accrued and once at customs, paid the taxes. With nothing left to do, the adventures blasted off and were headed to Ceres to continue their mission. 

Buzz put the ship on course and then accelerated to a hard burn. While drifting he had to do his best to correct the course a few times, but deftly did so. On day two the Maelstrom Rider was accosted by a pirate cruiser, but with a single shot, Alex managed to destroy the ship’s life support system and the pirates seemed to lose the appetite for the fight. 

A day out from Ceres, they encountered the rusting hulk of a freighter that had obviously been on the wrong end of a pirate attack. Max salvaged some components and felt that with them Seraphina could easily repair the ship if need be, while Alex and Zaphod looked through the Cargo Buzz discovered a full reload for the missiles on the ship, and Alex discovered most of a suit of battle armor; needing only to replace the arms and the helmet. Zaphod found some chemicals and they moved on. 

Once they were in the vicinity of Ceres, they hailed the station they were supposed to be from on a public channel. The station seemed confused but told them to dock anyway. On the way into the dock, Buzz and the others saw a ship that had markings from every government other than RAM. 

Once in the dock, the party disembarked and headed into the station. They were confronted with a base administrator and a group of soldiers in heavy armor. The base administrator introduced himself as Milo Philips and asked what happened to doctor Williams? The adventurers explained most of the truth, which was that the ECGs had escaped containment and killed the original crew, and they were the salvage crew. The administrator seemed to accept this, explaining that this explained why they had no knowledge of the private channels or the local base password. 

Milo was convinced and explained that something happened and that experimental combat gennies had been released on the base. Max asked if they had tried Argon gas, and Milo said no he was not aware of what that would do. Milo asked the group of what he believed to be RAM specialists if they would be able to save the children that were lost in the lower level of the base. After admonishing Milo for having kids in a place like this, the adventurers agreed it was a good idea to try and save the children. 

Count Down To Doomsday (TMNR) - Episode 8 The villains of Luna

 As Buzz familiarized himself with the ship’s controls, Scott explained it was a spy ship from RAM named the Maelstrom Rider. Scott then explained that it was currently transponding a distress signal that it appeared RAM was responding too. A light Cruiser was fast approaching.

There was not enough time to flee, so when the ship hailed them, Max did their best to bluff their way out of the situation. Max relayed to Buzz what to say, and so explained the Maelstrom Rider had been flying dark for a while due to a mechanical issue, however everything was fine now. The other ship seemed to be convinced and as a parting question asked them how the weather was on Earth. Seraphina, listening to her instincts, told Buzz to respond that it was about to get a lot more cloudy with a chance of rain. This seemed to placate the RAM ship and it went on its way, saying that the Maelstrom Rider should return to base and check in; RAM was concerned it had been out so long. 

Buzz expertly piloted the ship toward Salvation III, giving a hard burn to get moving and then once again shutting down the reactor so they could not be followed. Once back at the station, Carlton was excited to see them again and explained their new situation. 

The NEO engineers repaired and cleaned the ship, restocked the ammunition and then handed the proverbial keys back to the adventures. Carlton explained they were full agents now, and their first mission was to take this spy ship back to the secret Asteroid Base in Ceres that it hailed from. Carlton told them that they were forfeiting their rooms, because the Maelstom Rider was their new home. 

Down in the cantina, Seraphina was elated to see Carm again and explained their change in position. Max met up with D’Zargo and explained they would be heading out on a mission and not be back for a while, while Alex found out that Ron “The Swan” had managed to get a position as a captain of a heavy cruiser in orbit around Venus. Buzz said his goodbyes to Rex and then the adventurers collected their belongings and moved into the Maelstrom Rider.

Once they determined who’s room was who’s, the new crew of the Maelstrom Rider started to plot a course for the Secret base near Ceres. Carm suggested that before they got too far away from civilization, perhaps they should stop in at Tycho on Luna and stock the ship as best they could; he simply could not live with all the prepackaged food that was in the galley and insisted they get something fresh. The rest of the crew decided this was a good idea and so they headed toward Luna. 

Scott.DOS advised them to impersonate the previous crew of the ship, as they were documented RAM citizens. Scott and Max worked together to alter a few personal data pads to ensure that the biometrics matched the people they were impersonating, which would comfortably provide them enough documentation to get into Tycho and through customs, but would certainly not hold up in the event that RAM was contacted to confirm that the crew was who they said they were. With this in mind, they landed and were told they could charge their RAM account for the docking fees.

Getting through customs was easy enough, but came once again at the cost of a few hundred credits, and the group was forced to trade some of their hard currency to the Lunarian Pfennig. Once in the market district though, any inconvenience was forgotten.

Carm was able to purchase everything he wanted and there were plans made to have it delivered to the ship, where Alex was waiting to receive it. Knowing they were done and eager to get on the road to Ceres, the adventurers thought to leave, but Carm asked for one more stop; he wanted hot chocolate. Agreeing a decent beverage before they were stuck on the ship for three days was a good idea, the adventurers asked a few locals where a decent cafe was and they were directed to an establishment with a punny name that was half bar and half cafe. 

As the adventures sat enjoying their beverages, Seraphina and Max overheard someone having a good cry at a table near them. A young mousy haired woman in dirty clothing sat collecting tears in the bottom of an empty cup. Seraphina invited the girl to join the adventurers at their table, and the young woman was initially hesitant, but then agreed to enjoy some of the adventurers hospitality. 

A drink was ordered for the young woman, who introduced herself as Sheila Matthews and explained that she was distraught because she had nothing. Apparently, Sheila had been living with her grandmother and trying her best to find work, however all of her skill sets were in fields that were classically very male dominated and no one wanted to give the little girl a job that they thought young men would struggle with. Sheila explained how she could weld, and turn a wrench with the best of them, but since she did not look the part, she was unable to find work. 

Sheila’s grandmother, who was independently wealthy, had been supporting the both of them, but had taken ill and very suddenly passed away. No sooner did this happen, then the bank came and explained that Sheila was unable to collect her inheritance, which included the home she had been living in, unless she cleared up a matter at the bank to the tune of 5000 credits. Sheila, having not been working for an extended period of time, simply did not have the money, but also did not have the money to go anywhere else, so she was staring down homelessness and starvation. 

The adventures decided there and then, they could use another crew member on their ship and offered her a job. Sheila was willing to accept and was ready to go, but Seraphina was unwilling to let her inheritance rot in a bank, especially since the adventurers could pay the fee, and Sheila could immediately reimburse them. So, the group headed a few blocks away to a branch of a very prestigious bank. 

As the adventures approached the bank, they saw a young man that Sheila waved to. Sheila told the adventurers that the young man was her cousin John and that he was also waiting for some money in the inheritance. This raised a few eyebrows, but looking the man over, he was dressed cleanly and looked to be doing better than Sheila was, so they didn’t think anything of it.

Once inside the bank, Sheila walked to a counter and presented the teller with some kind of paperwork, which Max was able to see confirmed that it was for a Matthews account. The teller also confirmed the name on the account and then asked who was paying the fee to release the funds. As this was happening, Sheila began to get light headed and make a scene. Patrons and bank security came to her aid with Seraphina at her side. Max presented her RAM credentials as Dr. Donna Conchitez and the teller began whatever process was necessary. 

Buzz noticed the young man John in his bomber jacket and industrial clothing, leaving the bank at this point, and tried to follow, while Seraphina stayed close to Sheila as bank security whisked her outside where an ambulance had been called and was waiting. The paramedics would not allow Seraphina to go with Sheila, but indicated that if Seraphina was family, she could find her at the local hospital a few minutes card ride away. 

Back in the bank, the teller processed the 500 credit payment, and then explained to Donna (Max) that she was now responsible for an overdraft fee. A lot of confusing conversion later, it was explained that once the payment to release the funds was processed, 110k credits had been withdrawn as a cashiers check which landed the account overdrawn. Max explained the confusion and the teller indicated they had fallen for a rather classic con, and the police would be summoned so they could file a report, but unfortunately Dr. Donna Conchitez  was now the legal and rightful owner of the bank account, and was responsible for the fees; there was simply nothing that could be done about it. Seraphina convinced Max that they did not want to be in the bank when the police arrived and to let the bank bill Dr. Conchitez, so they left.

Out in the main road, Buzz observed that there were dozens of young men dressed exactly as he knew John to be dressed as, almost as if John had purposefully dressed to blend in with a crowd. Not sure what else to do, and wanting to collect their 500 credits from the guts of the two con artists, the adventurers asked around the market to see if anyone knew anything. For an hour or so they were unable to find anything, but eventually they found themselves inside Flopark’s Electronics, a small consumer electronics store. 

Frank Flopark, the sole proprietor seemed to know something about the two con artists, but was happily Bugs Bunnying the adventurers, waiting for them to catch on that he wanted them to pay him for his information. Max had little patience and eventually pulled a gun on the man, but that just made him get cockier and eventually Buzz ended up buying a small portable TV for more than market value, but the man then told them where to find Jane Matheson and Stevie Heart. Frank said they lived in the Marriott a few blocks away. Max exchanged some more in appropriate words with Frank, realizing that they actually enjoyed the man’s demeanor, and they headed to the hotel.  

At the hotel, Buzz got the unwanted romantic attention of the young man at the front desk, which provided them with the room number for the con artists. Max quickly bypassed the lock on the door and once inside began to look around. Buzz followed in while Carm and Seraphina waited in the lobby, with Carm pointing out that the hotel offered hourly rates while winking at his blushing wife. 

In the room Buzz picked up whatever money he could find and Max was able to break into a small concealed safe. Inside the safe was a bit more money and all told, the managed to recoup 130 credits of hard currency. More importantly, Max discovered a sheaf of very important documents that indicated that Jane and Stevie were attempting to gain full citizenship, but owed some half a million credits to various authorities as part of that process. The documentation was all kinds of official papers with raised seals proving births and marriages, but was also the paperwork required to have children and own property on Luna. Max, in a somewhat heartless moment, hatched a plan. 

Count Down To Doomsday (TMNR) - Episode 7 Digital Personalities

 Watching the halls, it became clear that the monsters were no longer overly interested in the adventurers since they left the bridge. So once everyone was healed and they grabbed some medical supplies, the group of adventurers cautiously headed to the gantry once more to see if the creatures were still around. 

Though the monsters could be heard in the distance, the adventurers did not see any and so decided to make their way through the ship to see if they could discover a different way to gain entry to the bridge. 

As they entered the gantry, Seraphina and Buzz began to try and figure out if they could secure the doors behind them. As they did this, Buzz noticed that the ship was equipped with a failsafe and that the Bridge module was currently remotely controlling the entire ship. The bridge could likely operate like this with the rest of the ship shut down for quite a while, and if the hull of the bridge module were to be damaged, it would jettison leaving the rest of the ship behind. Seraphina determined that the only way to rectify the situation would be to reactivate the reactor and get the ship running again.

Not sure what else to expect, the group of adventures continued down the Gantry toward Engineering and stopped on the floor that they had entered the ship on. The only room they had not explored was opened and they discovered a hydroponics setup containing a quantity of known plants as well as a bunch of others that they did not recognize. As Seraphina, Max and Buzz looked around, they were struck with an overwhelming lethargy and passed out. 

Alex saw everyone passing out around him and realized that a very large plant with many vines was descending from the ceiling and wrapping up his now sleeping colleagues. Thinning quickly, Alex shot the plant and managed to get it to drop the adventurers. Max, Seraphina and Buzz woke from dreams of fond embraces of lovers and family members, only to see Alex now wrestling with the plant. With everyone awake once more, the group quickly killed the predator and shook off the last of its effects. 

Max took a look around and discovered there was a data pad which contained a description of the plant, indicating it was yet another experimental combat genie engineered by Dr. Williams and designed to use specific sounds to incapacitate its victims. There was also information here about how the other ECGs they had been encountering were partially engineered to mimic grass seeds and burrow into mammalian brain stems. 

Continuing their investigation of the ship, they next found the captains quarters, where Max was once more successful in hacking into and searching Captain Vilkinov’s personal records. Here there was a short audio log where Vilikonov questioned William's about the veracity and ability to control the ECGs he was getting ready to unleash on Earth. Williams was tight-lipped, but indicated there was indeed a chemical gas that was inert to mammalian creatures, but which would poison the ECGs; though he failed to mention what that was. 

As the group continued down they entered the security level and discovered the Security robot control center. Here Max was able to hack the system to shut the robots down, after failing to initially adjust their targeting parameters. There was another room to the side that appeared to contain a large .DOS server, which the adventurers decided it would be better to avoid for now. Max was able to unlock the rest of the ship’s doors from here, but the bridge remained inaccessible. 

Finally they reached Engineering and discovered the reactor and environmental controls. Seraphina worked with the others to make a few quick repairs and then reboot the reactor. Reviewing the log, someone named Scott.DOS apparently had remotely shut the reactor down. With the ship’s reactor humming once more, they began the trek back toward the bridge. On the way back up, they decided to stop on the security level once more and see if they could find out who Scott.DOS was.

When they approached the .DOS server, they discovered a digital personality named Scott who was very willing to help them. After he confirmed they were from NEO, he indicated that he was looking to defect to NEO and no longer wanted to belong to RAM. The adventurers agreed to these terms and asked what could be done about the monsters and whatever was on the bridge. Scott explained that Dr. Williams was going to attempt to sterilize Earth and Scott could simply not abide, which is why he shut down the reactor, which inadvertently released the ECGs on the ship. Once security realized what was happening, they disconnected Scott from the ship’s computers and then attempted to regain control of the situation. Since Dr. Williams died quickly, the rest of the crew, now cut off from Scott, had no way of knowing that the creatures could be killed with Argon gas. 

Scott helped the adventurers find some canisters of Argon in the cargo hold, which had likely been brought on board for just such a situation. With the gas in hand, Scott instructed the group on how to interface them with the environmental controls, but it was going to take Seraphina manually overriding the intake to accept something other than oxygen.

Seraphina began to fight the controls, realizing that whatever was on the bridge was actively trying to inhibit her attempts to do this. Max, Buzz and Alex stood guard at the door to the control room, because once the gas began to flow, what had to be the rest of the living ECGs flooded Engineering, throwing their lives away to stop Seraphina. 

A few tense moments of shooting and collapsing ECGs, and the ship’s atmosphere contained the few parts per million of Argon gas required to kill the creatures, letting the adventurers relax for a short moment, before heading up to the bridge to finally seize control. 

When they arrived at the bridge, the ECGs there were in the process of trying to fire up the engines. There was a shoot out with a few of the adventurers taking some hits but ultimately the ECGs were shot dead. Standing on the bridge of their new ship, the group took a collective breath and hoped nothing else would go wrong before they could get back to Salvation III.