Nick King - Aboard the Manifest Destiny

Fuck, Nick thought. I'm too gorram rusty to stretch this shit out.

Nick quickly slapped the button for the intercom to the engines. "Sam! Level off this damn boat for long enough for me to hit the bastards! They've got an edge on weapons, we need to finish this shit fast!"

Alright, nothing but him, some triads, and some rutting heat seeking missiles. Think, Nick! You can can figure this out; you've worked on shit like this as engineer, and they teach it in combat piloting back on Londinium... How do you beat heat seeking missiles? Mind racing from the combat, it came to him [15]; overcharged laser blasts were hot enough that they would draw the missiles for a fraction of a second. The missiles weren't going to follow the shots into the black or anything, but if he could get damn close with his shot, he could manage to make one impact a blast, maybe. It was purely theoretical; he'd never seen anyone manage it. Then again, Nick was about the best in the 'Verse, and he really didn't want to take that hit.

"Alright, let's see a miracle," Nick said, more to himself than to anyone. He'd need to try and position himself to where one explosion would blow the other one up too first, though. That was simple enough, albeit a bit rough on the passengers - they were going to be pissed about this. Ahh well, they could be pissed or dead! He soared forward a distance, then flipped and spun a 180 to end up staring back at the heat seekers, now flying a tight little pattern. Perfect.

Let's do this shit, Nick thought as he started overcharging the cannons. Sure enough, the missiles' patterns perceptibly changed, as they broke from their beeline for the engine area to head directly for his laser cannons. Here goes nothing! [19, +2 JINX, -1 PP, -1 BDHd8, step up Unreasonable Demands]

 

William Davis - Aboard the Manifest Destiny

It was one of those days for everything to go wrong. First the trojan and now the damn door while they were about to be ambushed by some unknown assaillant.

"I'm alright, I'm alright. What about you?"

At least their guest was still in one piece. Stuck in the cargo bay, but in one piece.

"Grab on to something! We're probably going to," he never got to finish that sentence as the ship suddenly took the air and made him stumble right into the door, banging his head solidly. He was going to have a some bruise on his forehead.

"You ok in there?" he asked. "I'm going to try and get this damn door open! Just stay low!"

Alright Will, nothing you've never done before.

He put his tablet on the floor, making sure to keep it in his line of sight. No way this thing was going to act up again without him noticing first. That done, he set his mind to the task ahead. He would've preferred to get Sam to open the damn door, but the lift and stairs were on the other side and remove that option for him.

He had to pry open the control panel. With luck, he'd be able to override the system lockdown playing with the electronics component of the panel. The lack of proper tool was a problem. Turning around, he looked over the corridor, trying to find anything that could've helped him to unlock the door. Seems like his luck hadn't run dry after all for William found an hair pin on the ground. Probably a result of their other guest passage earlier today.

Armed with his new tool, he set himself to the task. ( 8 ) [+1 JINX]

 

Aboard the Manifest Destiny


Sam

You're quicker on your feet than anyone could have possibly expected, and you spray a plume of white powder over the flames, making short work of the flames [2 - 17]. You're just about to congratulate yourself on a job well done when you realise that perhaps shooting potassium bicarbonate into a running engine wasn't the greatest move.

Your fears are confirmed a second later as the Nuclear Feeder Jams [D8] and, after a horrendous grinding noise, explodes, sending sparks and flying pieces of hot metal flying across the engine bay.


Take a D8 BDH die, a PP and there's an opportunity if you want it.


Nick


You do indeed see a miracle [15 - 19]. The blast from the cannon actually directly hits one of the missiles and the resulting explosion actually destroys the other in mid-air. However, who knew flying toward an explosion at incredible speed was a bad idea? Pieces of shrapnel pepper the front of your ship, actually getting sucked straight through one of the stabilising engines. There's a momentary groaning and then your Hennison Drops Out [D8] sending you into a violent spin.

The Light of Osiris evidently takes this as their cue to abruptly depart [13] and flee in precisely the opposite direction to the one you're travelling in. Apparently they weren't expecting resistance of your evidently suicidal nature.

Take a PP.


William

You manage to pry the panel open with your fingers, but you immediately realise that you're on entirely the wrong side of the door for this to be an easy task. Whoever designed this prison ship knows precisely what they were doing and you groan as you see the steel coated cables and the welded casing that shields the electrical components. Not to mention all this shaking and rocking from side to side is making you feel more than a little unwell.

Still, the Manifest is an old boat and there's a rusty hole on the back side of the panel and you're able to weaken it enough with your fingers that the pin slides through easy enough. You're just about to start prying it bigger, so you can get a better look when you hear an angry voice behind you.

"What in strewth's name is going on?!" demands Virginia Anderson from behind you. "Why is this door closed?!"

You're so surprised you drop the pin inside the panel [15 - 8] and you hear an unpleasant jolt as two components that were never supposed to interact are bridged and short circuited. There's a dull zap through the entire ship and the lights in this section of the ship all drop out, leaving you in the dim red glow of the emergency lighting.

If this wasn't bad enough, a dull, computerised voice speaks out through the entire ship. "Life support disabled in Section C. Approximately 5 hours until complete asphyxia."

Even in the semi-darkness, you can see Virginia gaping at you.

"What are you doing!?" she demands. "Turn it back on!"

You have to admit, that probably isn't the most Unreasonable Customer Demand [D8] you've ever heard.


Take a PP.

Unless you guys are going to chase the fleeing ship. Describe where and how you manage to land The Manifest and we'll call that on the scene.

Also, this blast door is now firmly shut until something significant occurs.

 

Nick King - Aboard the Manifest Destiny

"Hell yeah! That what I'm talking abo- Brace for impact!" Bloody hell, Nick thought. It's completely unfair that the 'Verse lets me pull off a shot like that, and then still take shrapnel damage. Maybe it won't be anything more than a few scratches.

As he finished his thought, Nick felt shrapnel get sucked in a turbine. There was an awful, agonizing moment... and then his Hennison completely dropped out. Fuck me! "Hold on! I'm going to bring us down as gently as I can on the outskirts of Hidden Acres, but this is going to be a bumpy ride!" Hah. Bumpy ride. Even before the Hennison went down, something was wrong with his engines; Nick could only assume losing the stability of the Hennison would further exacerbate those existing issues. This could be a mess.

Still, fighting the controls, he managed to level out the old girl, albeit without any of his characteristic smoothness, and aim their involuntary descent towards the little town. He didn't want to overshoot and crash in the town proper, so he nosed down early and went in to land [11, -1PP, +2 JINX].

 

Aboard the Manifest Destiny

Nick

By wrestling at the controls with all of your available strength, you bring the ship 's spinning under control and get it into a vaguely upright position, still sloping slightly to one side and under constant threat of tipping over.

However, your moment of triumph is averted at the last possible moment as you find the ground rising up at you far too quickly [11 - 11]. You wrench again at the controls, pulling yourself into a much shallower decline, but you can't stop yourself from ploughing into the ground entirely.

With an almighty bang The Manifest Destiny hits the ground, skidding along in a cloud of dust, smoke and dislodged hull panels. The engine turns over once or twice more and then everything is still.

Somehow, rather astonishingly, aside from some superficial cuts and bruises each member of the crew seems unhurt. A glance over the instrument panel tells you that aside from some fairly minor hull damage the ship has managed to come down in one piece.

However, unfortunately, your crash landing has taken you straight down the middle of main street and there's some Mighty Angry Locals [D8] spilling out to get a better look at you.


On Main Street

It's the small hours of the morning before Gareth, Momo and Chang arrive at the Doctor's surgery. Having been warned by the local Sheriff that he's still in pursuit of answers and that they shouldn't attempt to leave town, they've come to check on their wounded leader.

The street opens straight into the office, decorated in what would have been optimistically termed as 'classic' on Earth-That-Was, let alone post 2500. It's dirty too, with a thick layer of dust laying on the surfaces not in constant use. Before the door a harried looking secretary sits behind a large wooden desk, the stress lines beneath his eyes telling of a man on the verge of breaking, he waves you in the direction of a door to your left.

The building is a two-room affair, with the office opening into the treatment room. The moment you poke your heads in you realise that the facilities pale in comparison with even those available on The Manifest Destiny. Jo sits on a treatment table in the middle of the room, her skin the same colour as the white-washed walls.

A woman stands beside her, making the final adjustments to the swathe of bandages on her arm.

"You'll have to be careful with it," says Ruth Morgan, the town doctor. Then looks up as the three of you enter. "Your friend has a Bullet in the Shoulder [D12], I've stabilised her, but there's not much more I'm going to be able to do with it. Barring a genius surgeon falling out of the sky, she's going to need to go to a core hospital to get it removed."

Before any more words can be spoken, you hear the approaching thunder of engines and then an almighty bang that shakes the instruments in their trays and shatters the front windows of the surgery.

Whatever it was, sounds like it came from main street.

 

Momo Phan - Doctors office

"Son of a Nǚwū de hòudài. Next time, grenades. All of them." Momo muttered in a moment of startling emotion for himself. He glanced at the window and door.

"Doc, run. Just, run." He marched towards the window and promptly smashed one of the panes of glass. He focused on the shop across the street, trying to make out the commotion in the windows. [9] (if I've got this finally figured out). He tried to distinguish shapes in the mirrored glass but he wasn't sure of what he was seeing.

 

Nick King - On Mainstreet

"...ugh..."

With a groan, Nick gingerly pulled himself upright, and looked for the Captain. Miraculously, Long appeared to be, if anything, in better shape than he was. Excellent.

"Sorry, Captain. I have to admit, I was not expecting the missiles. Who the hell was that?"

Looking outside of the cockpit to the street ahead of him, Nick saw the horde of locals, and couldn't suppress another groan.

"Ahh hell, we can discuss that later; it looks like we have a welcoming party, and the instrument panel says we have power down to the passenger section. What do you say we split up? I'll go check on Sam and if he's okay we'll see what the kid and this new passenger of ours have gotten up to, and you can keep us from being overrun. After that we can gather back up and go find the GTs, and get the hell off of this rock. With any luck, we can find our new 'friends' after that. You have a better plan?"

 

On Main Street

I come to with a jolt as what sounds like a meteorite strike greets my ears. A moment later I bite back a scream as my wounded shoulder voices its complaints. I grasp it with one hand, but all that does is send another wave of pain through me.

"Hē chù sheng zá jiāo de zāng huò I hate being shot!"

I take my first look around, seeing my employees and the doctor staring out of the windows. I swing my legs off the side of the bed, though my balance is wobbly enough that I don't feel very confident in being able to stand. I try it anyway, using the bed to steady myself as my shoulder sends a new set of demands to me and my legs debate on whether to fold or not.

"Hey," I say, picking out one of my subordinates at random. "Clark, what the gǒu shǐ is going on?"

I take an uncertain step towards the window, realising as a draft blows past that my clothes had been replaced by a bland, open backed hospital gown. I clinch it closed with one hand and take another step, trying to see through the press of bodies to what was outside.

"Hey! Knuckleheads! Somebody give me a damn update before I shove my boot up your ass!"

 

Chang Stevens- Main Street

Chang is uncertain what to think of the sherriff. He isn't some typical backwoods grunt with a gun and a master holding his leash. There is some intelligence, some plan lurking there. And his seaking out of Oberon specifically...What exactl does he know? Best to let Jo know of his suspicions first. And hopefully get his hand looked at.

At the office, Chang is glad to hear the news, "Thank you Doctor." he says politely and gratefully. It was very very good news, shoulders can be fixed. If it had just been a few inches closer to center...Chang dismisses the thought. That would not be good for his long term hopes and dreams.

He looks around at the doctor's office, and notes the true lack of much of anything in the way of supplies. Perhaps she would appreciate a donation to help with her predicament. His examination though is cut short by the sound of engines and an explosion in the main street. "Oh sweet buddha, haven't we gotten enough today?"

He stands next to Jo, as anything involving explosives or engines automatically makes him much closer to dead weight. Maybe he should volunteer to carry her? Right, still likes not having more bones broken. Best to keep that thought to himself.

 

Sam Bose - Main Street

"Dà xìang bào zhà shì de lā dù zi" spits Sam as he pushes himself off the ground. The landing had been hard, and engines were in bad shape, but at least they were on the ground and the engines were off.


As he picks himself up he takes a quick look [7] at the engines to see if he can get an idea of what's wrong with them.


Then he clears the smoke out of his eyes and heads down to check on the crew and passengers.

 

Gareth Clark - On Main Street

I finished scrawling in my journal as me, Morris and Chang walked over to the doctor’s office. It was a little pocket-sized thing, bound in leather and with a good chunk of the pages filled with notes from previous cases. It helped to keep things organized.

Wished I’d had something better to write down. Oberon was dead, that gut-shot doing him in as we'd been arresting the woman, and along with him our lead on this painting we were supposed to be finding. Still had my doubts as to whether he even had it in the first place, which was another matter. Lot of other little loose threads still hanging too, and tying them up after that fiasco in the saloon wasn’t going to be easy. That sheriff had been willing to cooperate in a firefight, but cooperating with an investigation was another matter.

There was also the outstanding issue of Chang's little lynch mob. I glanced over at him. I wasn't quite as angry as I was earlier, but that just meant I'd gone from wanting to shoot him somewhere sensitive to kicking him. Not that I'd do it. Well, probably. It'd be up to Jolene to really discipline him.

I put the journal away and automatically raised my wrist to check the time, only to find once again that no, my watch had not teleported itself there from where I’d forgotten it in my room back on the Manifest Destiny. I sighed and scratched at my beard, irritated, as we walked into the doctor’s office.

I listened as the doctor explained she couldn’t do much more than bandage Jolene up. She looked better than she had back in that saloon, but that weren’t saying much. She was lucky she didn’t bleed out, or get her shoulder joint shattered or something. Thankfully, we did have access to a doctor with more at his disposal, back on the ship. It’d be a pain to get her there, but--

From outside, there came a whining sound, and then a massive impact that had me grabbing the counter to stay upright. Rutting hell.

Momo was moving toward the shattered windows and Chang’d moved closer to Jo, who had been jostled awake and was already swearing up a storm. I myself had drawn out my gun again, joining the others in looking out the window.

“Glad you’re awake boss. We were lost without your calm and supportive leadership,” I drawled. I remembered hearing the whining sound before the impact. That brought to mind two things: missile, or a ship. Since we weren’t dead, that probably ruled out a missile. “Thought I heard engines, maybe. Think a gorram ship just crashed.”

There weren’t a lot of ships out in a place like this. Only one I knew for sure was around here was the Manifest Destiny, and what were the chances that they’d be crashing right in the middle of town in the dead of night? Last I knew they were just picking up a passenger around here.

I noticed Jo was still in a lot of pain. Also noticed her, ah, wardrobe malfunction, and thought better of responding to that barb about asses with one of my own. I instead discretely looked over to the doctor’s supplies, then started for the door. “I’m going outside. You probably shouldn’t move around too much. Maybe see about some painkillers.”

I paused and looked back at Chang. “Don’t do anything stupid,” I warned him, before walking out the door.

 

William Davis - On The Main Street

William didn't have much time for anything. No time to swear for the life support deactivation. No time to answer Ms. Anderson's question. No time to brace himself. No time for much as the ship suddenly shook violently, momentum making him stumble as if he had drunk all night long. The missus wasn't much better, and he had the time to think that Mr. Wolfe better had find something to grab on on the other side of this door.

Suddenly, the ship came to a halt and brought them sprawling on the floor in a tangle of limbs. A bit dazed, it took some time to get up and assess the situation.

"Are you all right Miss Anderson?" He asked. A quick look assured him there was no serious injury, but one might never know. Walking up to the door, he knocked on it two times to attract the attention of the man on the other side.

"Everything o.k. in there Mr. Wolfe?" He yelled to make himself heard.

 

Momo Phan - Main Street

Momo stared out the window, noting the ship. He turned to Jolene, absently noting the gown and wisely ignoring the unbidden remarks that came to mind. He just nodded at her and sighed.

"How exactly are we going to handle this one, ma'am? I'm not exactly well-versed in the art of ignoring a giant ship's crash landing."

He laid his hand on the Whisper Pistol as he turned to the door, looking out towards Gareth.

"Hey, who is that?"

 

On Main Street

Goldmund-Teller

As the dust settles, you realise it doesn't take keen eyes to figure out what's happened here— a gorram ship has crashed right into the middle of the town. It's ploughed right down the middle of main street, leaving an enormous trench and an awful lot of angry locals in its wake. As Gareth steps out of the Doctor's surgery, he's confronted by an awful shiney nameplate two feet above his head that reads 'The Manifest Destiny' in all fanciful lettering.

Looking at the trail of devastation if nobody's been hurt, then it'll have been a real miracle. And judging by the reaction of the local populace, they feel that perhaps someone should be held accountable.

"Gǒu niáng yǎng de!" yells the Sheriff, striding down the street toward you. "If I find that you gorram feds are involved in fucking up my town, I will—"

But whatever he's going to say is lost beneath the hollering of the crowd. It's pretty evident to you that they're comprised of mainly the same faces that Chang had convinced to take up arms before and it seems like all the events of the night have stirred people up into a torch-wielding furor.


Sam

You've not got long to examine the engines [9 - 7] on your way out the door, but you're pretty sure that you can figure out what's wrong with them, just from a single glance over. You reckon that first blast of laser fire actually damaged the external heatsinks for the Resonant Catalyst, the resultant fire damaged the Nuclear Feeder and the combination of spraying the fire extinguisher into it filled the delicate machinery full of powder, entirely jamming the damn thing.

However, knowing what's wrong, and knowing how to fix it are two entirely different problems. It'd be easy to pull out and replace, if you had the parts. But you don't, and the chances of this podunk town on this backwater moon having a part that specific— the odds don't bear thinking about.

You step out of engineering and begin to pass through the top deck of the ship, but despite the crash, as far as you can tell the top deck of the ship seems deserted. Though the door between you and the galley is closed, blocking the cockpit from view.


William

"I— I'm okay— I think," says Virginia, sitting up and rubbing the back of her head. "What just happened?"

She watches as you walk over and bang loudly on the door, to no response. Then stands and gingerly makes her way toward you. Your knocking elicits no response from the other side, you're pretty sure that Barnabus would've had absolutely nothing to hold on to on that side of the door, you've no idea how well he might have fared from the sudden jolt.

"We're going to be okay, right?" she asks, taking you by the forearm and fixing you with a panicked look. "They're going to get us out of here before we run out of air, right?"

 

Captain Long Sinh - Aboard the Manifest Destiny

Sinh recovers from the crash with the swiftness of one who's never afforded herself the luxury of complacency.

Taking in the state of her ship, she feels her tempestuous temper reach a strange, calm plateau, where she realizes she's never been more furious than she was that second -

- at least, never while she wasn't actively trying to murder someone -

- and then seeing a horde of rim-worlders clamoring outside the already battered form of her pride and joy, seemingly intent on causing even more damage.

And then, she smiles beautifically.

"Fix the ship, King. I'm going to go say hello to our lovely hosts."

A short minute (and trip to her cabin later) later, she opens the cargo bay doors, still smiling...

...and slams the point of her dadao, a great, menacing blade with jade rings hanging from holes in the blade for balance, and an embossed hilt like the maw of a dragon opened wide to breathe a flame of broad wave-pattterned steel.

"How about we all fucking settle down!" She says, almost a snarl through her mirthless smile. (13, 1 JINX)

 

Nick King - On Mainstreet

"Yes ma'am!"

As Long swept out of the room, Nick pulled himself slowly over to his chair, and gave it a quick check. Satisfied that the only issue was the blown gasket that he already knew about, he pulled the chair upright and sat down in it, then made his way out of the cockpit and towards the engine room to check on Sam.

As luck would have it, he was spared the trip. As Nick opened and made his way through the galley door, he saw Sam coming up the hall. "Sam! Looks like you made it through fine, you stubborn bastard," Nick exclaimed with a half-smile. "Anything terrible happen to my baby's engines?"

As Sam explained the damages, Nick moved over to the blessedly still operational lift, and gestured for Sam to accompany him down to the lower deck. As they waited on the doors to close, Nick saw Long charge down the stairs, with that fucking sword of hers in hand. Please, please don't let her stab anybody... well, anybody important, Nick thought. Or one of us, for that matter. She gets a little crazy about the ship. Definitely better the lynch mob than me. He shot a glance at Sam, who pointedly not acknowledging her brief appearance at all.

"Well, clearly the Captain is fine. Business as usual, I guess. At least she's not swinging the damn thing at the passengers this time!" Nick said, still half-smiling.

All his half-hearted attempts at humor aside, though, inwardly he was seething. Who the fuck didn't consider where the shrapnel from an explosion was going to go? Sure, he was hyped on adrenaline, but that was inexcusable. It didn't matter if he was the best pilot in the 'Verse; but thinking got you killed. But only that, but those Triads, if indeed that's who they were, never made a demand, no contact, nothing! They tried to ram him, then shot gorram tracer missiles at him. Those sons of bitches were going to get theirs, and Nick was going to deliver.

Finally, the elevator made it down. He rolled into the bay, looked at the flashing lights that indicated a prison lockdown of the refurbished quarters, and stopped short. Looking around [11], he said, "What the fuck is going on?"

 

Jolene Ang - On Main Street

I look around at the people carefully avoiding looking at me. "Not a word. Not a single, damn word or I will make your lives a hell from which you will never wake up. Clear?"

That sorted, I stumble my way over to the doctor, grab her by the arm and turn her to face me. "Doc. Where are my clothes?"

I try to maintain my calm, as difficult as it is, but by the look on the doctor's face I can tell I'm not managing it very well. I force myself to smile, this woman has just stitched me up, after all. "Please?" I grunt in pain at the effort. "And what he said about the painkillers. I'm a mite sore at the moment."

Leaning against the counter again, I take a moment to catch my breath. 'Zhēn dǎo méi why did this have to happen now?' This wound is sapping every bit of energy I have and I hate it. 'Gotta get back to the ship. Get to Will. Get this shoulder fixed.' I rub at it lightly and wince at the pain again. Luckily there doesn't seem to be any blood coming through the bandages. I make a note to be careful with it though. Don't want to rip the stitches.

I turn to Momo and give him a long look. "You and I are going to have words later, but for now I need to know what's going on with the ship. Go give Clark some cover. I'll be out in a moment.

"Chang, sort out the payment for the doc will you? Charge it to the business account."

 

Momo Phan - Main Street

Momo stared at the ship for a moment, lamenting the destruction laid upon the beautiful symbol of freedom. He tried to sort out what was happening within the crowd as well.

He slipped his Whisper Pistol away but left the coat pulled back for a quick draw. As he heard Jolene speaking to the doctor, he turned back to her to see her glaring at him. He smirked a little but remained silent for the time being.

Momo sauntered up next to Gareth and raised an eyebrow, the implicit question of "what the hell do we do" shown brightly.

He patted his trusty pistol and whistled an aimless tune while gesturing for Gareth to lead the way.

 

Sam Bose - Main Street

Sam quietly explains to Nick what exactly was wrong with the engines, and how parts might be a problem.

Sam is relatively sure that he can whip up something to tide them over until they get some real parts, but you never know how things go in the Black. Especially if they are going to be getting into any more dogfights.

As he follows Nick down the elevator, making sure to stay out of the Captain's way, he observes the carnage downstairs.

He curses softly as he surveys he prison lockdown, and then gets to work. Maybe he can override the lockdown somehow (17; -1 PP).

 

Gareth Clark - On Main Street

I didn’t say anything as I read the name of the ship off the plate above me. Hell I didn’t even need to read the plate to know what ship it was. Weren’t many like it. Hades-class prison transport, renovated and spit-shined into a respectable-looking luxury ship. The Manifest Destiny. Otherwise known as home.

First our operation is humped, now our ship crash-lands in the middle of town. What the blue fuck was going on tonight?

The sheriff stomping towards me and yelling drew my attention from the ship, but the crowd of townspeople started making a clamor and drowned him out. I glanced over at them and saw a lot of familiar faces from that saloon mob earlier. Seemed like now they had a new target. Christ. The only law that was being respected tonight was Murphy’s.

I felt Momo walk up next to me and convey that he’d follow my lead. But I was coming up short on options.

Then the cargo bay door opened, and all eyes were on the figure that walked out. It was Captain Sinh. And if that weren’t enough to form a pit in my gut, she was carrying her gorram sword. You know how many people I’d seen carrying swords around out in the ‘Verse? Even counting the few formal duels I’d seen, not more than a handful. And hers wasn’t some dueling saber, no, this thing had a big thick blade, with a gorram dragon head carved into the guard.

Something had to be done. None of the options that came to me were ideal, but there just weren’t time now. As the crowd took Sinh in, I gestured for Momo to follow me as I quickly approached the sheriff.

“Sheriff I’ve got no idea what’s going on here, but lawman to lawman, I stress that we’ve gotta settle this reasonably. That crowd’s gotta go. I don’t know what she’s gonna do but if that mob reacts badly then we’ve gotta put a stop to them quick, and you’re the only one here with the kind of authority to make them listen. Once that’s settled, we’ll work on getting everything sorted out.”

[Rolling to Influence the sheriff to help disperse the crowd. Got a 12.]