Researching Raptors

Aeryn wants to learn more about raptors and their commercial applications.  The best time to search will be once that the CAMEROON comes out of jumpspace and synchronizes its data packet with Terra (Expert resolution@18). The cached version is only high resolution @14.

Generality


She is not versed in academic research (Research-9), but her Biology(garden worlds)-11 certainly can support. Furthermore, the ship's onboard AI can provide a +1 as well. This gives her a Research-11. She rolls a 5, a margin of success of +6: an unusual level of detail is revealed.

• The raptors encountered are NOT real raptors, but hybrids of Terran ancient genes and Prometheus reptiles. Their size altered using gene editing to make them more prized game. Aeryn has a Bioengineering book on the topic, actually.
• Raptor products are LC4 such as meat, skin and bones. Regulated usage on Terra and Prometheus.
• Raptor germ material (eggs, clone cultures, genomes) is LC3. Restricted to research under strict ethical guidelines.
• Live raptors are LC2. Banned under most jurisdictions. (Terra and Prometheus are CR4, but Brethrow seems to be a more relaxed CR3).
• Aeryn has the contact information of 4 leading research groups in Terran universities on raptor engineering. 
• Breton-Lewis group at the Museum of Natural History, London, Terra. 
• Qi group at Xerces University, Mars.
• Inagaki group, University of Tsukuba.
• Shurmed group, Nusku Institute of Natural History.
• Aeryn knows that there is a market for raptor products on Terra in Asian markets. She has a list of restaurants that allegedly serve such products. 
• Mainly institution in mainland China, Japan and Vancouver, Canada.
• Aeryn knows that Promethean authority would shutdown a raptor farm if they knew about it, and would prosecute if said farm was located on the main continent. 
• One such farm was dismantled in the lowland near the north pole a few years ago.
• Aeryn knows that raptor hunt and bait rescue hunts are very lucrative. Raptor hunting may be legal in Brethrow, but certainly not bait rescue hunts. A week probably bring in ~200K to the operators. 
• Aeryn knows about another eminent scientist in Saurien behavioural sciences, and has a list of recent graduates from her group.
• Prof. Dean Harrow-Smith, MNH (London), currently on sabbatical with the Qi group on Mars.

Molly Pepper

Engineering is pretty swell!

Molly Pepper is a cheerful, big-boned gal from British Columbia, Canada, Terra. She’s quite bright and has learned that she loves getting her hands dirty. Due to some careful mentoring from a dear uncle, she has emerged from her backwater roots to explore the stars!

Attributes
IQ: 13, DX: 10, ST: 10, HT: 10;
Per: 13, Will: 12, HP: 11, FP: 10;
Overweight [-1] 5’9", 160 lb.;
TL: 10 [ 5];

Trait: Polite; Ambidextrous

Social
Status: 2 (Municipality Sheriff mother, doctor father)
Wealth: Comfortable (1)
Rank: navy spacer/1, paramedic/1, college graduate/1



Languages
AnglicN/N
Quebecois N/N
Salish A/-

Social Network
Patron: Undersecretary of Terran Affairs Cole Pepper (uncle), 2128- [ V. powerful, CR12] [ 30]
Reputation: +3, inventor of the Pepper Spanner, navy jumpdrive engineers, rarely

Skills
Engineer(jumpdrive)-14, Engineer(drive)-13, Engineer(mechanical)-13
Research-13, CompOps-15, Writing-13, Mathematics-13
Mechanic-13, Driving(ground)-14, Piloting-10, Free Fall-10
First Aid-15, Psychology-11
Survival/Beach-12, Freight handling-14, Administration-12, Fishing-13, Crewperson-13, Boating-13, Brawling-10, Swimming-10

Social
Carousing-10, Streetwise-12, Leadership-14, Savoir Faire (military)-13

Knowledge
AK/Terra-15, AK/Sol System-13,AK/British Columbia-14,AK/BC Coast and waters-16, AK/Toronto-15, AK/L4 Colonies-13, Current Affairs(Events)-13

Biography

Molly Pepper was a bright girl stuck in Prince Rupert, BC, Canada. Her mother was a big wheel in local government, while her dad was a doctor. She enjoyed a good life, but was bored. She was a sturdy girl, not attractive, but always had a smile on her face. She spent a lot of time on her computer playing video games, where she made friends easily. One was an Asian college student named Sum Gai, who joined her guild and was always available for raids or gaming world gossip.

Getting her hands dirty
Molly has a very powerful uncle who saw in her some potential. But she was stunted from a comfortable life in a rural backwater. He arranged for her to get a job to teach her the value of hard work, and she ended up on a fishing boat off the BC coast. She discovered that she liked working with machinery and her hands. She also realized that she agreed with him, and that her intelligence was wasted in manual labor. She decided to go to college. She worked double shifts for the rest of her stint on the boat and managed to put away a small nest egg for school.

No college? No problem!
Her uncle was called away on important Terran business, and missed the deadline to gain Molly admittance into college. Her hopes of getting into college dashed, she decided to enlist. She chose the Navy, so she could work on engines more. She ended up posted in a rough section of space patrolling for pirates. One battle ended with a bioweapon breach on her ship. She saw a crewmate get infected and eventually they died. She served her term and cashiered out as a Navy Spacer (Rank 1) with some good engineering skills under her belt.

Now college, no problem
With the help of her patron as well as the gold star on her application from her service, Molly throws herself into her studies. She bonds closely with her roommate, Mandy Pepperidge. She studies hard and learns a lot about engineering, both formal and informal. She also learns to socialize, although she prefers the blue collar bars to the preppie ones near the college. For her final project, she invents a tool that she saw a need for while in the navy. The Pepper Spanner. It makes a few of the tasks maintaining the jump drives much easier. This earns her a +3 reputation (inventor of the Pepper Spanner) only with Navy jumpdrive engineers, who rarely recognize her.

Padding her resume
Molly finished her bachelor’s degree and was not interested in more school. She missed the excitement of the Navy, but wanted something a little less lethal. She applied and was accepted as a rookie paramedic on one of the space colonies at Terra’s L4 collection. As a paramedic, she was pushed to improve her medical skills, as well as her ability to get around the station. She almost got in trouble with L4Sec when her partner was caught dealing in illegal drugs, but managed to demonstrate that she had nothing to do with his activities. She lost contact with her roomie from McGill when her roommate got married right out of college (she had made no secret of pursuing an MRS degree.)

Tom Anders

And yes, I kiss my mother with these lips.

Tom Anders joined the Marines at the age of 18 - it was that or continue working on the family farm and getting in drunken fights with the other young men in the area with too much time on their hands. He was a natural fit, big and barrel chested, but with a quick mind as well under all the muscle.

He fit in well, and found his niche quickly. He was competent with a rifle but actually flourished in handling the mounds of red tape that any military organization creates as a waste product. He was quickly made company clerk and found his way almost indecently fast to the rank of Staff Sergeant where he stayed for fully half of his time in service. But he wasn't so entirely changed as to be able to keep out of trouble entirely, and his bull headedness got him into trouble a time or two along the way. His CO found an outlet for Tom by assigning him to training duty, specifically with unarmed combat. he became and instructor and taught young Marines how to handle themselves when they were disarmed.



Everyone knew Tom was a lifer, and he did his 20 years in service before he was finally cut lose. At 38 and in the best shape of his life, it seemed like he had the whole world in front of him, but after just six months out of the service he was ready to pull his crew cut hair out. He got out of the lease on his apartment and stowed his meager possessions at his parents' farm, a footlocker full of memories - uniforms, citations for good conduct, his shooting medals, pictures of himself and his fellow Marines, mostly. And a tricked-out grav car he'd bought with his mustering out money.

He started travelling the world at this point, taking on odd jobs, visiting his friends from the service who had managed, somehow, to find the sort of stability that he never found and now realized he'd never wanted. He made trips to all of the major cities - and the casualties of the atomic strikes that had scarred the earth so badly.

He was in Giza, at a bar that catered to military types, when he heard through the grapevine about a job possibility on a ship. A chance to not just get away from home but escape the bounds of gravity and get away from Terra - that sounded like just the thing. Flush from his most recent job, and with Kcr 10 in his pocket, he made his way to the promised interview site, only to find himself surrounded by the most unusual collection of people he'd ever laid eyes upon. Thank god some of them were Marines...

Diane Ayatou

Diane Ayatou

152 points

female, 31 y.o. Cameroonian
ST 10 [0]; DX 10 [0]; IQ 10 [0]; HT 10 [0].
HP 10 [0]; Will 12 [10]; Per 10 [0]; FP 10 [0].
Basic Speed 5.00 [0]; Basic Move 5 [0].

Social Background

TL: 10 [0].
CF: Terra [0].
Languages: Anglic (Accented) [4]; French (Native) [0]; Portuguese (Broken) [2]; Low Vilani (Broken) [2].

Advantages

Academic Rank 2 [10]; Charisma 1 [5]; Fitlhy Rich [50]; Free Trader Rank 1 [5]; Status 4 [15].

Disadvantages

Debt 2 [-2]; Obsession (market a pop culture fad) (12) [-10]; Odious Personal Habit (Incessant Optimism) [-5]; Overweight [-1]; Secret (Faked my own death) [-10]; Unfit [-5]; Xenophilia (12) [-10].
Quirks: Distractible [-1]; Dreamer [-1].

Skills

Administration (A) IQ+1 [4]-11*; Area Knowledge (Terra) (A) IQ+2 [8]-12; Area Knowledge (Prometheus) (A) IQ+2 [8]-12; Area Knowledge (Junction) (A) IQ+2 [8]-12; Area Knowledge (Lagash) (A) IQ+2 [8]-12; Computer Operation (E) IQ [1]-10; Cryptography (H) IQ+1 [8]-11; Economics (H) IQ-2 [1]-8*; Electronics Operation (Comms) (A) IQ+1 [4]-11; Electronics Operation (Sensors) (A) IQ+1 [4]-11; Finance (H) IQ [4]-10*; Freight Handling (A) IQ-1 [1]-9; Intelligence Analysis (H) IQ+1 [8]-11; Market Analysis (H) IQ+2 [12]-12*; Merchant (A) IQ+1 [4]-11*; Propaganda (A) IQ [2]-10*; Research (A) IQ+1 [4]-11; Savoir-Faire (Business) (E) IQ [1]-10; Writing (A) IQ+1 [4]-11.

Equipment

• Small, Fast, Hardened, Rugged computer with integrated datapad. Complexity 6, $8,016, 1.68 lbs., 2B/18 hr. LC4.
• Stylish Nanoweave undersuit [Torso, Groin, Arms, and Legs]. DR 12/4*. $2,320, 3.87 lbs. LC4.
• Stylish Nanoweave cape [Torso]. Covers back only. DR12/4*. $400, 0.67 lb. LC4.
• Rugged Tiny radio communicator earpiece [Ear]. Basic encryption. 2-mile range. $100, 0.06 lb. each. 2A/10 hr. LC4.
• Rugged mini laser flashlight. Can Dazzle targets (Blindness for 1 minute x MoF) in a 1-yard cone (p. B413). HT-5 aff, Acc 6, Range 170/500, Shots 3600(3), Bulk -1. $20, 0.3 lb. B/3600 shots. LC4.
• TL10 Nursebot. Non-volitional AI. Sculpted body. Fast Personal computer. Complexity 8 (IQ10). Skills (Diagnosis-12, Electronics Operation (Medical)-12, First Aid-12, Pharmacy-12, Physician-12, Surgery-12). $504,000, 150 lbs. 2D/24 hr. LC3 (Licenses).
• Crash Kit. +2 to First Aid, improvised equipment for Surgery. $200, 10 lbs. LC4.
• Medical Supplies. 500 man-days. $5,000, 50 lbs.
• Rugged Pocket Medic. Automatically bandages a wound and treats shock with First Aid-13. $2,400, 2.4 lbs. (each). B/10 hr. LC4.
• Good Software Tools for Finance, Market Analysis, Merchant, Propaganda for me and Jane. $8,000.
• Fine Software Tools for Finance, Market Analysis, Merchant, Propaganda. $20,000.

Background

Diane was born into a very wealthy Cameroonian family of mixed European and African descent. While pursuing her MBA, she met and fell in love with an Industrial Designer from Spain name Rosa, and the two married soon after graduation.

Early in her business career, Diane made some questionable deals that resulted in a few units of He3 being redirected away from a spaceport in Ecuador to a research lab in Peru in which Diane had invested. This drew the attention of the IAEA, who spent the next several years hounding her and her ventures across the Terran system.

Her feud with the IAEA put a terrible strain on Diane's marriage. In the end, to avoid a drawn-out divorce and further government interference, Diane paid a mercenary group to stage her death in a shuttle accident. She then signed on with the TCIV Cameroon, looking to get out of the system for a while and seek her fortune among the stars.

Anika Kaprescu

Anika Kaprescu, female, 30 y.o., born on Mars.

Traits: IQ9, Will10, ST11, HP12, HT11, FP12, very fit, Status -2 (unwanted orphan), TL10, illiterate, Talent 2 (Brawling, Soldier, Scrounging, Streetwise, Guns(rifle), Tactics), honest face, Killjoy.
Courtesy Rank: Sergeant/2 (military, UWO Marines)
Skills: Anglic (N/-), Rumanian(A/-). Computer Use/TL9-9 (must use non-text based interface), Driving(ground)-10, Survival(desert)-10. Soldier-13**, Savoir-faire(military)-8, First-aid-8, crewman-10, free fall-10, Powersuit-11, Guns(rifle)-13**[2cp], Tactics-11**, Free Fall-10, Powersuit-9, Leadership-11, streetwise-12**, intimidation-9, scrounging-9

Area Knowledge: 13: Nusku; 12, Terra; 11, Aggida, Barnard; 10, Dingir.
Patron: Captain Stein (powerful individual, CR15)
Contact: 1 Childhood contact to allocate.

Social: Social stigma (ex-convict) -1, Terran, CR6.
Starting Wealth: 50 KCr ( 10 KCr as hard cash )

Biography

2156: Enlists in the space marines (infantry) as the 2nd IW comes to an end. She is assigned to a company providing humanitarian relief to stranded community of Nusku as the Imperials abandon the planet. Her hard work (soldier) and markswomanship gains her the favour of her Company commander. She is promoted to Corporal/1 and get under the wing of Captain Stein (powerful individual, CR15). Duration: 2 years. Time decay: very fit -> fit. Buys TL10 with outstanding points!

2158 (18 y.o.): She persist in the Infantry, but the missions goes from humanitarian to low-intensity conflict. The mission lasts 4 long years and gets somewhat dreary. Her patron keeps her out of the worst assignments.

2162 (22 y.o.): As the UWO marine corps downsize, Anika leave the service and struggles to find mercenary work until her patron gets her a gig. However, things turn sour very quickly and she lands in jail for battery and assault. She spends the next 4 years in jail with violent offenders. There she hardens quite a bit and serve her full 4 years sentence.