by Tony Mitton and AJ SMith

"So what's the gig, Cap?”

"RV with a small luxury liner under cover of a passenger drop. Break into the military-grade safe in the captain's quarters. Get out clean. Same as usual."

"Why does a civilian liner have a military safe aboard?"

"Decommissioned missile boat. According to the brochure the main bay is now a zero-g spa pool."

"Smooth. Where's the RV?"

"Interesting part. Bleeding edge of the outer rim. Beyond the far edge of nowhere. No place anybody would ever go."

"And how dark is the green?"

"Top credit. We won't starve."

...

Two ships rendezvous far out on the edge of the Rim. This is empty space, yet somebody has specified the coordinates precisely. Passengers and crew of both ships have their own secrets and agendas, and not everybody will make it back to inhabited space.

The Kouros Intercept is a system-light, fairly hard science fiction game inspired by a long-cancelled Joss Whedon show, and is the fourth game in the increasingly diverse Kestrel Series. Some of the characters are from previous games, but many are not - and no prior knowledge is expected or required.

The game background has some dark themes, but this episode is reasonably light.