Date: January 30, 2015
Characters in attendance: Hex, Lady Paladin, 99, Quantum, Shimmer
Experience awarded: 2

The aftereffects of the Seattle Event are still being felt. The world, or at least the Pacific Northwest, is changing in its attitudes towards superheroes. They are welcomed more than they ever were, seen by most as the only way to deal with superpowered or supernatural threats.

The acclaim for the Rose City Five is huge. Many interviews, stories, and articles discuss the group and what they did in Seattle. Amazingly enough, long- range video from a drone caught the ending conflict between the RC5 and the Technomancer, and most importantly, Shimmer using his own body from stopping the bomb from exploding, and his transformation. He was in hospital for a few weeks, but there was always a group of fans and well-wishers outside of the hospital.

Finally, Shimmer is out of the hospital, and different; his powers transformed.

The city schedules a celebration for the team at Pioneer Courthouse Square. The governor and the mayor are there, as well as other dignitaries. It seems as if half the city had turned out. Everyone gives speeches. Brought out at the end to give a small speech is Daniel Dunlap, the sponsor of the group, who talks about how great the team is, and how lucky Portland is to have them.

Afterwards, back at headquarters, Mr. Dunlap talks privately with the team, again thanking them for their service. But he asks them for a favor. He goes on to describe a problem that might affect the whole world. He tells them that a friend of his, “Mr. M”, had recently launched a large number of small satellites to provide world-wide internet access. But Mr. M had discovered that somebody else had hijacked the satellites, and were planning on using them for disrupting communications across the globe. They were able to track the source of this hijacking signal, and it was coming from orbit. Daniel Dunlap was asking the team to go into orbit and investigate the signal, and stop it. The team agreed.

Mr. Dunlap met the team at a remote location outside of North Plains, where he had the capability to get the team into orbit and back. Out there, the heroes see a space capsule big enough to hold all of them, but no rocket. They realize that it is a prototype SpaceX Dragon capsule, and the mysterious “Mr. M” is Elon Musk. The team is given a quick overview of the capsule workings, and each given a spacesuit. When they ask how they will get into orbit, Mr. Dunlap says “She will” and Super Star shows up. With a pair of boot jets to help her, she is capable of getting the capsule into orbit and back down again. So the team straps in and she takes off, carrying them into orbit.

After fifteen minutes or so, the heroes are in orbit. Super Star guides them to the source of the signal. They can't see much, but can barely make out the dim outline of a black alien spacecraft.

There is a ramp on the lower side, with a human-built space capsule docked to a bulkhead built on the ramp. There is another docking clamp on the bulkhead, and Super Star maneuvers their capsule onto it. Pressure holds, the lights are green, and the hatch swings open.

The heroes have had no experience in zero gravity, and have difficulty in moving around. Inside the ship, they enter a large cargo hold, which has several pieces of human-type equipment, electronics for transmitters, and the necessary supplies and oxygen tanks. Also there are three villains tapping into the satellite network, and ready to attack the heroes: Tronix, a female gadgeteer; Cosmonaut, a mysterious person? in a Russian space suit, and Catosphere, a spherical beast that slightly resembles a cat, with nine cat heads and nine sets of claws. The fight commences.

The heroes are hampered, because they have no skills in zero-gravity combat. Tronix has power over machines as well as over minds, and the Catosphere can devastate with its many claws, and the villains are skilled in zero-G combat. But the cat-beast is incapable of sustaining its high number of attacks, and Lady Paladin takes aim at Tronix, and eventually the heroes win the fight. After securing the prisoners and disabling their electronics, the team investigates the ship.

The spaceship is not of Earth origin, and appears to be completely powered down, until Quantum is able to communicate with it, apparently through his nanobots. The ship is old, broken, making its own repairs, and communicates via simplistic icons and images. The rest of the ship is empty, no people, bodies, or anything organic. The previous owners appeared to be humanoid. The group discovers a small landing craft on a lower deck, which does turn on and is able to communicate with the heroes (but still in the simplistic icon method). The team jams the captured villains in the capsule, jettisons the docking structure to burn up in the atmosphere, and Super Star takes the villains in the capsule down. The rest of the team comes back to Earth in the landing craft, and discover that it can be cloaked, or present an image of a normal aircraft, so that they can use it for their own purposes without raising questions.

This game was somewhat based in reality. Elon Musk actually wants to put up a bunch of small Internet satellites, and that gave me the idea. I wanted to try a different environment, and zero gravity sounded interesting. But mostly I felt that it was time for the team to get their own flying vehicle, and this was a good excuse. I was getting a little tired of figuring out the details of how the team gets to the villains, and a flying vehicle fixes that.

The spaceship was actually one I had drawn up over thirty years ago for a Traveller game, but I never used. I figured, why come up with something new? Here's the original drawing, but I will tweak the interior a bit eventually.

Characteristics Total: 239 |||||

Characteristics Total: 213 |||||

And finally, since I said those words during the game, and regretted saying them the instant they came out of my mouth, here's a little something from Jim:

All Out of Love–Air Supply (placeholder–because I, Jim the Lesser, am Evil)

I'm lying alone with my head on the phone Thinking of you till it hurts I know you hurt too, but what else can we do? Tormented and torn apart I wish I could carry your smile in my heart For times when my life seems so low It would make me believe what tomorrow could bring When today doesn't really know, doesn't really know I'm all out of love, I'm so lost without you I know you were right, believing for so long I'm all out of love, what am I without you? I can't be too late to say that I was so wrong I want you to come back and carry me home Away from these long lonely nights I'm reaching for you, are you feeling it too? Does the feeling seem oh so right? And what would you say, if I called on you now Saying that I can't hold on There's no easy way, it gets harder each day Please love me or I'll be gone, I'll be gone I'm all out of love, I'm so lost without you I know you were right, believing for so long I'm all out of love, what am I without you? I can't be too late to say that I was so wrong What are you thinking of? What are you thinking of? What are you thinking of? What are you thinking of? I'm all out of love, I'm so lost without you I know you were right believing for so long I'm all out of love, what am I without you? I can't be too late, I know I was so wrong I'm all out of love, I'm so lost without you I know you were right believing for so long I'm all out of love, what am I without you? I can't be too late, I know I was so wrong I'm all out of love, I'm so lost without you I know you were right, believing for so long I'm all out of love, what am I without you I can't be too late to say that I was so wrong I'm all out of love, I'm so lost without you I know you were right