Pirates and Bounty Hunters. But no ninjas.

Maria was checking her vidMail when an old friend of hers, Captain Strauss of the CPH Military gave her a buzz. It turns out that her name was found on The List of potential targets in the possession of a bounty hunter they had apprehended. Her name, as well as Aerick and Jacques. The Crew of the Rubato then lit upon the clever plan of obtaining a copy of the list for themselves to see if they can track it to its source.

But how best to do this you may ask?
It always comes down to a seedy bar on Ceres. You'd think someone would nuke that rock.

Eventually Maria managed to corner a guy – who knows what his name was, but distinctive due to his mohawk. He tells her that the man to see is Spike, owner of The Pit.

The Pit is one of the most famous, or rather infamous places in in the known 'verse. It was where Magnus's men tried to gun down Captain Platt, its where you can bet on anything for any reason. And evidently, its where you can make contact with bounty Hunters, Assassins, Smugglers, and other upstanding members of society.

Well eventually Maria, in part because of her demeanor, and her Streetwise, and most likely in no small port because of her choice of attire – well she eventually made her way into Spike's lair behind the mirror looking out on The Pit and the em field thanks to a lovely Faraday cage of some sort. Some wining and dining, a bit of cultured conversation, and 'Maria' the Bounty Hunter emerged with another copy of The List, and an offer of payment if she can prove contract competition.

No sources are really listed on The List but it tossed the Crew's operating theory of the source of the bounty into confusion. Naturally they suspected Harrington Industries. But there, number one on The List was Devon Rutard, CIO, Haddington Industries.

The group retreated to the Rubato in confusion and to regroup.

Meanwhile there was a contract to deliver! A heavy mining rig. One part space ship, one part laser extraction and one part nano-disassembler goo for ore refining. Some of the party immediately feared for their safety (probably as a result of nano-assassin bots in their past) but the machine was locked down and secured for transit. No problems. No fuss. Now worries.

Except for the Pirates besieging the mining clan's rock of choice.

The Rubato made quick work of transversing Sol system to the opposite side of the belt to Gnobu Clan headquarters, where what did thy find but a representative of the Hu-Sing Pirate clan bombarding their station for lack of payment of protection money.

Tyson took out the LAC and reconnoitered the situation. There was converted freighter of some sort, bombarding the Mining station with a light kinetic weapon (light enough to have not destroyed the station, but heavy enough to have destroyed the Gnobu Clan's Ultra Light and wreck their docking ring) with some sort of plasma cannon ready to unleash some real havoc.

Maggie, in the unarmed Rubato, decided to firstly change her vessels transponder, and secondly not get any closer to this situation. It was up to the crew to save the miners. So they took the shuttle to the far side, unloaded, and concocted a scheme – they would ride a cargo container ostensibly of tribute' to the pirate ship and take it over.

The plan worked flawlessly. They achieved surprise, and the privateers were unprepared for the havoc the party were able to unleash once in the4 cargo hold. They did run into one obstacle, the automated turret protecting the main corridor of the ship from the cargo bay. The group was able to destroy the turret, but not before James Hu-Sing and his first mate were able to escape.

Even more enemies for the crew of the Rubato to have to deal with. Some day...

Profile: Ninjasatui Hostings

prospectus: White Hat hackers and data security firm

CEO: Ninjasatui Mitsawa
Location: Sapporo, Nippon
Point of Contact: used by the party to hack into Manjasuro Consultings to determine their contacts with Haddington Industries.

Profile: Tadjusumi Industrials

Company: Tadjusumi Industrials
CEO: Nashuro Tadjusumi
Location: Sapporo, Nippon
Interests: material sciences, quantum coupled computing, bio-electronics.
Person of interest: James Tadjusumi - son of Nashuro, tried to replace his father by sabotaging future materials contracts.

Profile: Everard Schmidt

Current Location: Unknown
Current Goals: Unknown
Point of Reference: Unhealthy interest in the Rubato. May have been responsible in the previous 'change in ownership' according to Maggie.

Profile: Magnus Securities

A known subcontractor of Haddington Industries, with possible contracts with CPH System Defense.

CEO: Richard Magnus
HQ: Arcology 3: Terra Orbit.
Other known facilities: Oor Fab1, Ceres Transshipping (defunct).
Goals: Security and Defense subcontracting firm providing individuals and equipment of exceptional quality to their employers.

Profile: Haddington Industries

Profile: Haddington Holdings, LLC
Founded: 2278, Mars Office of Incorporation.
CEO: Diane Mitchell
CIO: Devon Rutard
CFO: Niles Perthington VI

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Profile: Project Purity

A Political Action Committee with the stated goal of removing the taint of Xenological Genetics from the human gene pool.
Leader: Nigel Kenmore
Active areas: Mars, Europa, Procyron, Nippon, Chung Kuo, Barnard
Current Activities: Project Purity is known to be actively engaged in the politics of all major human governments in Known Space.