Pirates of Drinax
Session 0 (part2)
The characters emerge, more-or-less fully formed:
The weird guy from Techworld, who failed to graduate from university because he was too busy learning to control his psionic powers. He may or may not be called Song Ma. He became a field researcher for a few years, then quit after having to do some research (on the effects of Marine ground assaults on planetary populations, it seems) that was against his (presumably rather flexible) moral code. He gets the pilot's chair of the Drinax Harrier, and probably has to work the communications as well.
Freek, the nomad Vespexer from Drinax, who ran away to space and lived the dangerous life of an interstellar pirate for eight years before being recruited into the King of Drinax's scheme. He too was caught up in the aforementioned ground assault, using it as cover for a daring raid. He's the astrogator and gunner.
Marcus Pinkerton, the other nomadic Vespexer who is in fact the foretold messiah, went to medical school and became a doctor before joining the Marines. He was busy trying to keep alive the Marines attacking a fortress during the assault that links them all. He is (as unlikely as it sounds) the ship's engineer, and of course medic.
Joshua Peray, the peasant from Asim who was forced into an arranged marriage while at university, went on to serve in the Marines for twelve years (I wonder what happened to the spouse?). As a star marine, it might have been his forced participation in the ground assault that lead him to quit. In any event, he managed to get TAS membership out of the deal. He is the captain of the Drinax Harrier (for lack of more suitable candidates).
Session 0.5, the teaser...
Our 'heroes' are summoned by Princess Rao, and informed of a wonderful 'opportunity' to advance the cause of Drinax in the local area. All they have to do it track down and capture/kill a bunch of pirates that raided the worlds of Clarke and Torpol, and they get 2.5 MCr bounty and the good will of the local systems. The crew agree to carry out this simple task...
...however, on reflection, they realise that they are short a few credits for the operating costs of the Harrier (a whip-round netted a total of 5 KCr cash against monthly maintenance of 8 KCr), so start to think about ways to generate cash on their travels. After an initial offer of 'Here's a grand, who wants to go gambling?' was rejected, the option of passengers and cargo is under consideration. Slightly hampered by the lack of stewarding skills...
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I have no idea where the campaign will go from here, although I suspect it will not be a heavily military bent.
I'm a little frustrated by the layout and formatting of the adventure book. One of the key pieces of information that the characters should have (and are assumed to have) at the start of the first adventure is only actually stated on the last page. Not all that helpful for me with my limited prep time. And despite the core book being the only one listed as 'strictly necessary', I guess a copy of High Guard might explain what that holographic hull on the Harrier actually does...