I need a story justification for taking a Katana

[thedavid]

As most players know, when you start as a Terran Cadet at the end of Essential Work after you defeat two Xenon a Katana rolls up. This Katana only has a pilot and no crew.

What I see a lot of people on YouTube doing is attacking this Katana because the pilot will bail. This has become much more difficult with the new flight model but I wanted a challenge so I did it. Free Katana and it came with maeson streams.

But now I'm thinking about it from a story point of view. Why would Raibu do that? He's loyal to the Terrans. Maybe he wants a promotion so he's trying to show his boss that he's the better pilot.

Anyone else have any ideas?

[vvvvvvvv]

But now I'm thinking about it from a story point of view. Why would Raibu do that?

IMO, he wouldn't, as simple as that.

Stealing this ship is action of "outsider", meaning a player who does not live in the world, has no stakes in it and sees the world as playground/doll house. Bunch of pixels, polygons, etc. The reason why player steals anything not nailed down is because the player is free from consequences, immortal, and can also rewrite history with save/load.

Terran Cadet protagonist, apparently spent a LONG time working with the system, being law-abiding and trying to earn reputation, so it makes no sense for him to suddenly snap, risk his life and attack much bigger ship in hopes to steal it. It is highly likely that the only combat action he ever saw by this point was simulator and those two xenon ships he just fought. If protagonist was a pirate, that would be another story.

[Blaze1st]

Apologies in advance I don't know if it's the same Katana you are given later by Delilah. You could just wait to be given it if it is...

[Targ Collective]

You wanted a bigger ship and were prepared to steal it. This could be the beginning of a spiral of criminal activity. Your expertise with Terran technology allows you to conceal the digital trail, and allows you to claim ownership - all the digital traces show you legally purchased this ship, and the loadout.

But there's a price to pay. You live in fear that someone will recognise the licence of your new ship and will call the Law down on you.

You resolve to use the ship for now, then sell it somewhere far away, and use the credits to get a ship which doesn't have a criminal trail. The Vigor Syndicate, if you can find them, may be interested in using the ship, in which case the licence plate would no longer be your problem, or better yet may scrap it for parts.

Then you can use the credits to get a ship without a trail.

Or you can turn criminal, and join the Vigor, but that's a great way to get stabbed in the back and no longer welcome in Terran space.

Decisions, decisions...

[vvvvvvvv]

Or you can turn criminal, and join the Vigor, but

Would he even know that Vigor exists? IIRC at the beginning protagonist only has knowledge about a few gates and knows next to nothing about outside world. He could hear of "pirates somewhere", but I'd expect that to be the extent of it.

[rudi_pioneer]

As most players know, when you start as a Terran Cadet at the end of Essential Work after you defeat two Xenon a Katana rolls up. This Katana only has a pilot and no crew.

What I see a lot of people on YouTube doing is attacking this Katana because the pilot will bail. This has become much more difficult with the new flight model but I wanted a challenge so I did it. Free Katana and it came with maeson streams.

But now I'm thinking about it from a story point of view. Why would Raibu do that? He's loyal to the Terrans. Maybe he wants a promotion so he's trying to show his boss that he's the better pilot.

Anyone else have any ideas?

Idea: that katana doesn’t notify police, so we already know it’s unique. Maybe it’s enemy spy that player discovered, and military would not want ship back because it could be compromised

[LameFox]

Invent a complex backstory in which your personal animosity toward the Katana pilot led you to seek assignments that bring you into contact with them where nobody is watching?

lol idk though it seems like a lot of effort to go to for that specific Katana. They're not really hard ships to come by, legally or otherwise.

[GCU Grey Area]

My Terran Cadet would have stolen a Katana without a second thought, if he reckoned he could get away with it.

That particular game was planned from the outset as a Terran Defector run. Role-playing justification was simply a deeply held resentment that, for generations, his family & everyone he knew had been restricted to the outer solar system as oppressed 2nd class citizens, never being able to even visit Earth & breathe non-recycled air (essentially a militant Belter in Expanse terms).

Signing up with the Terran Protectorate as a cadet was just a means to an end for whatever anti-Protectorate activities he could get away with (ended up triggering the war with ARG/ANT, sided with the Yaki & sent a Xenon fleet to Earth).

Although the real reason was simply that I wanted to play with the Yaki ships (which had been against a TER/PIO ships only rule in my previous game) & try out the alternate endings to the Terran plot.

[Axeface]

In my Split campaign I pirate other ZYA ships because if I defeat them I am more worthy of using their ships than they are I'll bring glory to Zyarth using their stuff, they were just dead weight.
Doesnt work for the terran protag though.

[thedavid]

I decided to go with this story in my head.

Raibu had recently happened to walk past a police station where a poster had been put up with the faces of wanted criminals. He didn't think too much of it at the time except for a little joke in his head that there was no way he'd ever recognize any of those people if he saw them in real life. Who ever does?

Then, when out on repair duty he responded to a distress call and was attacked by Xenon. He destroyed them before Cinnamon could even realize what was happening. After the fight Cinnamon was going on and on about something brewing. To be polite, Raibu made a comm to the Katana to check in and see if there was anything they needed.

The guy in the Katana seemed shifty. Something was off. No way. Suddenly the memory of that poster with the faces of wanted criminals came to Raibu's mind. NO WAY! What to do? What to do? If he called for backup it might be too late. The Katana could run. But what if Raibu was wrong. Thinking quickly he did a quick check without sending a signal out.

AGI sympathizer. It was him. Had to be. It was him. There was no time to waste. Raibu didn't know why the pilot of the Katana was playing along with Mission Command but that was besides the point. Raibu had to take action.

So, the epic fight between a Kukri and a fully kitted out Katana takes place with the new flight model making the engagement MUCH MORE difficult than it used to be. But in the end Raibu gets the pilot to bail and he takes over the ship.

With the pilot of the Katana running away in an escape pod Raibu comms mission command. The Katana's actual crew were in fact on board and all dead. The actual specialists pilot was stuffed in the cargo hold next to some Echani girl. Mission Command freaks out. They have some huge project they were just about to kick off and they can not have this kind of problem right now. Mission Command tells Raibu to NOT call the police about this or report this incident. Let the criminal get away and mission command will have him picked up by their own people when the criminal gets to a station. As for the Katana, it will not become evidence. In fact, mission command needs this Katana to disappear. They tell Raibu to GET RID OF IT.

Yeah, but ... it's a Katana. Plus, they didn't tell Raibu how to get rid of it. Or when. So, maybe Raibu taking ownership of it can count as getting rid of it. How about that?

And so I get my free Katana.

[rudi_pioneer]

I haven’t thought about it, and love the idea, that Terran police and mission command are separate entities. Could write entire spy novel from that!

P.S. would love to hear how Terran player would justify getting specific station later

[vvvvvvvv]

I decided to go with this story in my head.

Raibu had recently happened to walk past a police station where a poster had been put up with the faces of wanted criminals. He didn't think too much of it at the time except for a little joke in his head that there was no way he'd ever recognize any of those people if he saw them in real life. Who ever does?

Then, when out on repair duty he responded to a distress call and was attacked by Xenon. He destroyed them before Cinnamon could even realize what was happening. After the fight Cinnamon was going on and on about something brewing. To be polite, Raibu made a comm to the Katana to check in and see if there was anything they needed.

The guy in the Katana seemed shifty. Something was off. No way. Suddenly the memory of that poster with the faces of wanted criminals came to Raibu's mind. NO WAY! What to do? What to do? If he called for backup it might be too late. The Katana could run. But what if Raibu was wrong. Thinking quickly he did a quick check without sending a signal out.

AGI sympathizer. It was him. Had to be. It was him. There was no time to waste. Raibu didn't know why the pilot of the Katana was playing along with Mission Command but that was besides the point. Raibu had to take action.

So, the epic fight between a Kukri and a fully kitted out Katana takes place with the new flight model making the engagement MUCH MORE difficult than it used to be. But in the end Raibu gets the pilot to bail and he takes over the ship.

With the pilot of the Katana running away in an escape pod Raibu comms mission command. The Katana's actual crew were in fact on board and all dead. The actual specialists pilot was stuffed in the cargo hold next to some Echani girl. Mission Command freaks out. They have some huge project they were just about to kick off and they can not have this kind of problem right now. Mission Command tells Raibu to NOT call the police about this or report this incident. Let the criminal get away and mission command will have him picked up by their own people when the criminal gets to a station. As for the Katana, it will not become evidence. In fact, mission command needs this Katana to disappear. They tell Raibu to GET RID OF IT.

Yeah, but ... it's a Katana. Plus, they didn't tell Raibu how to get rid of it. Or when. So, maybe Raibu taking ownership of it can count as getting rid of it. How about that?

And so I get my free Katana.

I like the "Burn the heretic, destroy AGI sympathizer and take his stuff for the glory of mankind" attitude here.

But let's be honest. Mission Command doesn't call, there are no bodies in lockers onboard and all the crew was bailing during the fight. Of course, Raibu could THINK that there were. But that would be Disco Elysium territory. Or X4, Malkavian playthrough.

[thedavid]

I haven’t thought about it, and love the idea, that Terran police and mission command are separate entities. Could write entire spy novel from that!

P.S. would love to hear how Terran player would justify getting specific station later

I've often thought of Raibu as a spy type character and play him that way. I have fan fiction I've written just for my own enjoyment. Most of it actually uses Val Selton as secretly descended from Terran military personnel who were stranded in Black Hole Sun during the shutdown. Over time the Terrans were rooted out by a fanatical governor. Val had to grow up in hiding after his parents were taken. When Argon prime reconnected to Black Hole Sun that governor was taken into custody for his crimes but Val still never was able to trust the Argons.