The Vagrant - Letos II

Previously: Winston and team took a transport job to take a Hishen investigative reporter to Letos II, in the 5th ring.

Month #4
There were no more events during the trip and the Vagrant landed on Polara -- the one and only settlement on the planet. Letos II was an independent planet and Polara served as a trading post and headquarters to a few corporations. Due to the weather and radiation, most of Polara was built underground.

The spaceport of Polara on Letos II.

Keorn paid the rest of the credits for the trip and left them on the spaceport. Winston decided to go looking for information traders in the pub & rec area of the settlement.

Late in the night, Pingh sighted him entering the cheap hotel in a hurry. "What's up?" he asked in the usual reproving tone. "Maybe we should get out of this place..." Winston sounded tired. He told about the Xeog corporate executive who picked a fight with him for no reason, and ended up bleeding in an alley, and the Razor who tried to rob him on the way back. "And of course, you couldn't find any broker," Pingh finished, shaking his head.

Still, the pay for the transport job was good, and he was alive and without any bullet holes. [This month, Winston accumulated 3 increasing Rep dice, which added to his lifetime total. He also increased his Rep to 6, thanks to a good roll.]

Month #5
Convinced that the planet was more trouble than it was worth, Winston decided to go to Zetaris, a Zhuh-zhuh class 1 world on the fourth ring, sixth sector. Thus they took off from Letos II and on to the jump gate.

On the way, they avoided contact with another Hishen ship, and then were approached by a Zhuh-zhuh cutter on patrol, who inspected the Vagrant but did not find anything unusual.

Month #6
Before they could reach the jump gate, the Vagrant was attacked by a pirate ship. The pirates came in firing their lasers and demanding that Winston and crew surrendered. Instead, he was able to outmaneuver and cause extensive damage to the enemy ship.

Seeing that their ambush did not work, and unable to escape due to his damaged ship, the pirate captain surrendered. Despite Pingh's suggestions, they put all the pirates on life pods, sent them to a nearby planet and destroyed the ship, gaining some contraband.

After this, they met a Xeog named Virka, in command of a trader ship. They traveled together to sector 6 and then parted ways. Zetaris was now near, and Winston had high hopes of finding buyers for both the data pack and the cargo gained from the pirates. [This month, Winston gained 1 increasing Rep die because of the combat with the pirate ship. It rolled a 6, causing another increase in Rep!]

Conclusion
These three months were very good for Winston, although he still has a long way to go if he wants to retire comfortably. Now, at Rep 7, he can take more risks.

This time I had my first ship to ship combat in Fringe Space. The rules take a bit to get used to, as the battle flows from table to table (like in Red Sun Black Moon, for instance) but they work well and do not require setting up a board, especially if there are only two ships involved.