50 Years Later
The Federation scout ship drew closer to the mysterious black hole, which seemingly appeared out of nowhere a few months prior. Professor Zina Marks studied her instruments as she tried to analyze the enigma.
"Can you get closer?" she asked the pilot, Lt. Zach Hunter.
"Not unless you want an inside view of the hole." he quipped. "I'm already struggling to keep us in position!"
Zina scowled. Zach's flippant attitude grated on her stern professionalism.
Suddenly, alarm bells went off.
"An Imperial destroyer has warped into the system." Zach announced. "It's heading right for us. Let's get out of here!" He began to rev up the rocket engines.
"Hold!" commanded Zina. We are here on a lawful, peaceful mission. They have no right to interfere."
"Professor. the Imperials don't have any respect for rights. We need to go!"
"No, let me speak to them."
Suddenly, the Imperial rocketship let loose with its blasters. The scout ship was struck, damaging the engines.
"I'm losing power! I can't maintain my position; the black hole is sucking us in." Zach announced as he struggled with the controls. Zina raced to the engine room and tried to repair the damage. But it was too late. In a flash, their ship was sucked into the void.
The black hole was like a tunnel, with swirling lights outlining the boundaries. Within the tunnel asteroids and meteors whirled about.
Zach tried to reverse course, but he could not get enough power from the damaged engines. "Professor! Hurry up with those repairs!"
Zach managed to avoid one meteor, but another struck the ship. Alarms rang out.
"Now we have a hull breach! Get on it!" Zach commanded. Technically, Zina was in command but when it came to operations of the ship, his word was paramount. He liked these opportunities to boss her around. He just wished it was under better circumstances.
"Blast it!" Zach cursed as a meteor whizzed by his viewport.
Then another one glanced of the rocket. More alarms!
"I can't make any progress with the repairs if you keep damaging the ship." Zina commented.
More meteors approached.
But with some fancy flying, Zach avoided them.
Then suddenly, they were out of the tunnel and in a new area of space. It glowed with the soft hue of ambient radiation.
"Strange." Zina announced as she glanced at her instruments. " We're not in a vacuum. There is a thin atmosphere."
"Ship of the port bow!" Zach declared as he too checked his instruments. He set course. Soon he made visual contact.
"It's under attack!" Zach said as he saw a smaller ship grappling the larger. Armed men wearing breathing masks swarmed through a breach in the hull.
"We need to help!" declared Zach as he rocketed toward the battle.
"No!" commanded Zina. "We can't get involved!" But Zach ignored her. Instead, he energized his atomic blasters, aimed at the smaller ship, and squeezed the trigger . . .
Will Zina and Zach defeat the attacker? Find out next time!
OOC Notes:
- I'm now taking a different approach to my Slipstream campaign as I switch to RPG style with my new characters. I will be jumping back and forth between battles and RPG adventures, but in both cases I will be using the FU rules.
- I am beginning Death Clouds, a ten "episode" plot point campaign provided with the Slipstream rules. The campaign assumes that the characters already live in the Slipstream and are on board a merchant ship that is attacked. I wanted my characters to come from outside the Slipstream so I added some backstory, which I played out as narrated above. Instead of being on the merchant they will come to its rescue.
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