The Expanse Title Card
The Expanse
05 Sister Moon
Last time on Scheherezade Tales…
Kazuo Khan, Detective of Scheherezade Safety and Security Concern (S3C) of asteroid colony 643 Scheherezade a.k.a. Zadi was authorised to be transferred from the settlement to Keris Gangsa, the asteroid’s only armed patrol boat for a trip to Ganymede. His old friend Captain Furaha Ding was the commander of the patrol boat. Kazuo also made friends with the brand new pilot Batbayar Gray. En route, XO Sasithorn Fawzi was killed by a micrometeorite fragment. Weapons officer Greg Farnsworth during an EV repair job on the hull exposed himself as a traitor. He shot engineer Zoë Mufolosi, but Kazuo mmanaged to successfully incapacitate Greg with a bullet.
Here’s a short synopsis, because Irfan and I made an actual play video of our The Expanse RPG session last night. Check it out, embedded at the end of the page!
The City on Uruk Sulcus
Before the patrol boat Keris Gangsa lands at Uruk Junction on Ganymede, a minor explosion wrecks the thruster guidance systems. Captain Furaha Ding orders Batbayar Gray to stabilise their descent while Kazuo Khan and engineer Zoë Mufolosi try to repair the systems. The autodoc mended Zoë as they decelerated toward the Jovian system.
One wrong move and they either crash into a ridge, other docked ships on the landing pad or even Uruk Junction’s Dome B. Rushing to save the ship, Zoë replaced cabling for the thruster guidance system and Kazuo replaced an avionics box. Batbayar succeed landing the gyrating patrol boat safely 150m before touchdown!
Kazuo reminiscences with Captain Ding about his missing sister Jirou Khan. She used to call him Bushido while he called her Kitsune. Ding informs him she has a lead about Jirou. The name Jirou Khan had showed up once at the Shakespeare Dwellings in Dome B. Before Kazuo sets off in search of Jirou, Captain Ding mentioned Kazuo has always been like a son to her and return to the docks before they take off back to Zadi in two nights.
No one in the vicinity of Shakespeare Dwellings wants to help a pomang, but a little Belter girl tells Kazuo a Martian woman lived at 5B… for a price. Thankfully the payment is not expensive. The girl has not seen her for months. Kazuo descends into the apartment building constructed deep in the Ganymede ice. He finds apartment 5B and breaks into it.
Breaking and Entering
Luckily, his S3C hand terminal has a door lock cracker app.
Kazuo detects a secure cloud storage in the apartment with military-level security. Kazuo types BUSHIDO and breaks the encryption. He discovers that Jirou had been recruited by some shadowy organisation on a mission to 643 Scheherezade! Was this why he had been hearing Jirou’s voice in his head back in Zadi?
Then a man in a black helmet and tactical suit tries sneak onto Kazuo but the assailant isn’t stealthy enough. Kazuo hides and distracts the assailant with a throw of a coffee cup. In the ensuing firefight, Kazuo puts a bullet into the man’s his thigh, rushes and then knocks him unconscious in the kitchen.
Unsure what to do next, he calls the local Star Helix office. One Detective Kessler arrives, and then arrests him immediately upon seeing the unconscious assailant. No questions. No investigations. Kessler and his men cuffed him, then dragged him to a nearby Star Helix precinct.
Video
Actual play video of The Expanse RPG – Scheherezade Tales episode 5: Sister Moon:
Notes
- The last time I ran for Irfan was 8 months ago. Teaching language online during a pandemic takes a lot out of you.
- This takes place just before the Eros incident in the novel Leviathan Wakes.
- Not sure what real date this occurs, but 643 Scheherezade from the Cybele region of the belt is 8 days from Ganymede, requiring 4 days of acceleration, flip and then 4 days deceleration.
