The Heroes easily take the Tsroth pirate ship Righteous Claw, but keeping their prize is another thing. The Tsroth captain has anticipated just such an eventuality. The Siberia System
The Siberia system is a dirty one—a red dwarf sun with a smear of dust and asteroids cocoons it like a glowing coal buried in hot ashes. There are three separate asteroid belts: the Inner, Middle, and Outer, all of which have a large admixture of dust and debris, making for a tricky and dangerous transit. There are no planets in the Siberia system, but there are literally scores of big planetoids throughout the belts, most of them settled by mining companies. The inhabited ones are Novosibirsk, Irkutsk, Dushanbe, Samarkhand, Tashkent, Ferghana, and Omsk. Samarkhand
Samarkhand is a hollowed out, nickel-iron planetoid, foamed and expanded to eighty kilometers in diameter after the mines were exhausted. Now it is a huge, spinning globular shell, with port facilities at each pole. A ceramic spire runs from each pole a third of the way towards the center, and at the tip of each is a tiny artificial sun. In a belt about the center of the planetoid is a broad greenbelt of farms and woodland, and towns lie on the sloping verges, where the shell curves up to meet the spires. The suns burn together for ten hours, followed by the north one burning alone for two hours, leading to darkness for 10 hours, and then the south sun burning alone for two hours, making up the Samakhand day. Some 500,000 people of various races call Samakhand home, and most live in The City, tucked up on the slope up to the south pole. Samarkhand is the political and population center of the Siberia system, and supplies the rest of the system with foodstuffs and finished products, receiving metals and rare earths in return, which Samarkhand processes, uses in manufacture, and sells. Samarkhand is a rich world, with freighters plying the system to the other planetoids, and shipping out to other systems. The Tsroth Prize
The heroes have caught a Tsroth ship, the Righteous Claw, in the act of piracy. While the pirates are intent on looting their prize ship, the Coelocanth, the heroes boarded and took both with stunning ease. Some eighteen pirates are captured, and though they refuse to talk, they were caught in the act, so the heroes anticipate no problem with their catch. The pirates are disarmed and locked in the prize’s hold, and a prize crew set aboard. The Righteous Claw: the Tsroth pirate ship
The Righteous Claw has been subtly altered by the ship’s captain, Horrik Tsik, to take care of the possibility that the ship might be captured. By growing hollow interior walls and hidden entrances and exits, the captain created a maze of secret passages inside the ship, connecting various important points like the bridge, engineering, weapons control, and the like. Using these passages, Horrik and four of his crew are hidden in the ship, having bolted to the passages as the ship was boarded. Unfortunately for him, no direct route into the hold exists, so to liberate the rest of his crew, he has to somehow overcome the prize crew. The heroes can be with the prize crew, on the Typee, or a mixture of the two.

speed

handling

sensors

frame

shields

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3

2

Weapons: 2 hunter-killer missile turrets (5 missiles each), 4 rocket batteries
Gimmicks: bio-architecture, hyperspace generator (0), cargo hold Horrik Tsik (Tsroth)
Horrik Tsik is a grizzled veteran captain, white about the mandibles and with one eye punctured, though it has long since healed. He is partially blind on the left side in consequence. He has learned caution, and is a wily opponent.

	fitness			awareness			creativity			reasoning			influence
	3			3			3			3			3

Skills: brawling 3, firearms 4, melee 5, investigation 2, composure 2, scanning 3, astronavigation 4, negotiation 5, interrogation 3
Gimmicks: toughness (3), clumsy, claws, scent trail, color-blindness, criminal Tsekla Mish (Tsroth)
Tsekla Mish is Horrik Tsik’s young nephew, and a true annoyance. He is untried, bloodthirsty, and hungry for glory. He is resentful of his uncle keeping him on a tight rein, and is feverishly longing to be the hero.

	fitness			awareness			creativity			reasoning			influence
	4			3			2			1			1

Skills: brawling5, firearms 3, melee 3, athletics 5, scanning 2
Gimmicks: toughness (3), clumsy, claws, scent trail, color-blindness Kikith Jak (Tsroth)
Kikith Jak is the third in command. He has been recently promoted to fill a spot vacated by the death of Kekka Tott, Horrik Tsik’s best and oldest friend. They are still on awkward terms.

	fitness			awareness			creativity			reasoning			influence
	3			3			2			2			5

Skills: brawling 3, firearms 3, melee 5, investigation 3, composure 2, pilot (starships) 5, astronavigation 3, negotiation 3, interrogation 3
Gimmicks: toughness (3), clumsy, claws, scent trail, color-blindness, criminal Higgag Skrits (Tsroth)
Higgag Skrits is the ship’s skut worker, a rather dim intellect who gets the worst jobs. He was lucky enough to be with Kokith Jak when the ship was boarded, otherwise he would have never made it into the tunnels. He wants desperately to prove himself, so that someone else can do the skut work.

	fitness			awareness			creativity			reasoning			influence
	2			4			1			3			1

Skills: brawling 1, firearms 6, melee 2, investigation 3, composure 5, scanning 3, astronavigation 4, negotiation 2, interrogation 2
Gimmicks: toughness (3), clumsy, claws, scent trail, color-blindness, criminal Kletris Tsauk (Tsroth)
Kletris Tsauk is a gunner on the Claw. He was wounded in the firefight, but managed to escape into the tunnels unseen in the chaos of the boarding. He is currently Stressed.

	fitness			awareness			creativity			reasoning			influence
	4			3			1			2			1

Skills: brawling 6, firearms 4, melee 5, investigation 2, composure 5, scanning 3, gunnery 6
Gimmicks: toughness (3), clumsy, claws, scent trail, color-blindness, criminal Written by Clash Bowley