Ship's Log

[mdavis]

The Ekhaghgaen

The Ekhaghgaen was a Vargr Corsair which occasionally entered Imperial space to engage in raids and acts of piracy.

After an incursion into Imperial space, and fleeing Imperial pursuit, the Ekhaghgaen jumped to the Yorbund system in search of something more to fill its cargo bay before returning to the Vargr Extents.

Unusually, the Ekhaghgaen ‘s sensors picked up a craft in a solar orbit and decided to investigate. On approach, it could be seen that the ship was of unusual design:

Sensors revealed that the ship has a 600 ton crystaliron hull. Searching the Ship’s Library turned up little additional information. The type and manufacture of this ship is unknown. However—a ship matching this description had been observed several years ago in the Kaets system (Uthe/Gvurrdon 2338).

The Ekhaghgaen set a course for the mysterious ship to investigate. Sensors now picked up an Imperial Scoutship which appeared to be docked on the dorsal airlock on the bottom of the hull. The Scoutship also sensed the approach of the Corsair and detached from the larger ship. The Ekhaghgaen fired a warning shot across their boughs. The Scoutship accelerated away, obviously seeking to reach Jump distance. The Ekhaghgaen fired one of her pulse cannons to disable the Scoutship’s engines, but she evaded damage by using her sandcaster. The Scoutship jumped away.

However, the prize of the larger ship remained. Captain Rrolroerzuengaegzhe set course and ordered a boarding party to get ready. As they approached, they could see the markings on the nascelles:

A search in the library data revealed that markings like these are used by a group of nomadic spacers in the Vargr Extents known as the Dhoerrkaenfaek. The Vargr consider them unimportant, and largely ignore them.

The Ekhaghgaen docked with the Annic Nova, and the boarding party entered the vessel. Suddenly and without warning, the ship Jumped. The Ekhaghgaen was hit with a gravitic shockwave which damaged the ship and burned out its Jump coils.

With Jump drive inoperative, there was no choice but to try to land on Yorbund’s mainworld and try to effect repairs. The ship avoided the starport. A scan of the planet’s surface revealed a pyramid structure in the jungle, and the captain decided to put down there.

On the landing approach, an energy beam from the pyramid struck the Corsair, causing it to crash in the jungle. Captain Rrolroerzuengaegzhe ordered the ship’s turrets turned on the pyramid, but every shot was met with another blast from the energy beam. The port turrets were destroyed, the manoeuvre drive was taken offline and the hull was ruptured.

Finally, there was no choice but to take a G/Carrier and try to enter the pyramid to disable the beam. Captain Rrolroerzuengaegzhe took all of the crew except for the three gunners: Uzkueguek, Aezroe and Dzuerukarroug, who were to attempt to free the ship’s modular cutter. Contact was lost shortly afterwards. Yorbund has a corrosive, insidious atmosphere, so there was no easy way to leave the ship. The last three crewmembers continued to try to free the cutter but with slow progress.

Salvation came in the form of a Far Trader crewed by humans with one Vargr crewmember aboard. The Vargr crew were forced into an unlikely alliance for their common survival. Two of the Vargr crew accompanied the newcomers into the pyramid in an attempt to disable the energy beam.

[mdavis]

Date 197-1105

(197th day of the 1,105th year of the Third Imperium)

The Travellers entered the three pyramids on the surface of Yorbund. Novae took over the atmospheric testing equipment as Zana and Kaal decided to return to the ship. After testing the pink gas that was flowing out of the pipes in the corridor, the testing equipment showed the following values: xxx-1 (Kaal) and xxx-3 (Zana): high concentration of halogens while xxx-2 (Novae) measured a flickering green light. As the remaining rooms to investigate didn’t seem to contain anything the party moved further north into the pyramid.

They arrived in a larger chamber with a dome similar to the first large chamber with the pyramid entrance hole. This dome had no entrance, but instead a rope hanging down (approximately 95m) that was swinging slowly. When passing by on the platform along the side of the dome Novae decided to shine down a light and unleashed four flying lizard creatures that started attacking the party. It was a mess of shooting, clawing and biting. Savas started getting hurt but the fight was luckily soon over. Kerry the vargr spotted a concealed door with a small square-shaped indentation that could possibly fit something. Novae and Henry found that they could open the door using their robotic hands and some more flying lizards came out to attack.

In the middle of the fight Henry fell down from the platform but managed to grab the rope at the expense of dropping his rifle. One of the injured lizards decided to flee down and escape the fight. Henry bravely climbed to the bottom floor to recover his rifle and found a large metal sphere (1m diameter) attached to the rope. It looked like a pendulum and moved in a pattern between inscriptions on the floor. At the bottom there was a vargr body in a vaccsuit. It looked like they had fallen down and hit the floor as the suit visor was smashed. The face was melting in the corrosive atmosphere. As the fight upstairs was now dissolved the party followed Henry down.

The bottom floor had a similar layout with 3 circular rooms. One of them had a step that didn’t seem to do anything. Another room had 3 groups of 33 bar dials. The first group fluctuated, the 2nd group had more constant and low values with two values at zero and the 3rd group similarly had constant low values (except the last bar which was high up). Under each chart there were 3 circular indents that could fit a round object. The room also had a leaking gas pipe with pink gas. The atmospheric testing gave the same results as before (halogens). Blocking the pipe with duct tape didn’t seem to change the bar values.

In the last room the injured lizard was sitting together with 4 smaller flying creatures, possibly children. They swiftly got killed by the Vargr, Kerry, Arrgh-julie and Fnurgh-bobby. That room didn’t seem to contain anything specific. It did have a similar set of bar charts but they were all off and the lights were broken. The atmosphere measurement was showing red on all three devices. The party moved forward into the corridor that looked similar to the one upstairs.

In another room there was a pile of rubble with a collapsed ceiling. After some digging a skeleton of a reptilian humanoid creature appeared. Novae dug more and found a leather pouch with 36 golden coins with different patterns. The party moved forward and entered a room with 3 circular rooms. There were pieces of the statue that covered the entrance on the floor. High up there was some light. It was very likely that the dome with the entrance was above.

In one of the other rooms a crackling noise of static electricity was heard as Kerry entered. Henry followed into the passageway. As Kerry and Henry passed through the corridor into the room they were hit by a sudden electric discharge. Henry was now unconscious on the floor of the room. The room contained a mural that depicted the surrounding landscape outside the pyramid. It didn’t seem to be anything except a mural. Kerry decided to carry Henry back through the corridor to get help, but was again struck by a static discharge. Henry Andersson was now dead. The party stared in shock at the smoking vaccsuit and the brave fighter that they now lost.

They proceeded to one of the other rooms. It was completely dry inside with no gas, all atmospheric sensors still showing red lights. The last room (16) to be investigated was locked but Novae managed to pry the door open. The floor was covered with dirt and debris, something was moving under the floor. As there was nothing more to see the party returned to the room with the bar charts and started experimenting with the coins. Fnurgh-bobby discovered that the bars could be manipulated by inserting something in the middle hole and pushing the upper or lower hole to raise or lower the light in the bar. It seemed like a good idea to turn all bars down in order to turn off the pyramid laser system.

Moments later the party was shook by one of the earthquakes that regularly occurs on the planet. Apparently the pyramid had a protection system that was now turned off. Some members managed to stand on their feet while others fell and took damage. The party began to try to get back to the upper level of the pyramid. Savas managed to climb up the rope to the top floor dome while the rest either slipped or fell down on the bottom floor as they lacked the required strength to climb up. In a second try Kerry finally managed to climb up but the rest of the party remained helpless on the bottom floor waiting for the next planetary tremor.

The Travellers cut the heavy knobbled cable using Arrgh-julie’s Chaindrive Sword, then attached the cable to the plastisteel cable running out to the Air/Raft. This was dropped down the second shaft and used to airlift the Travellers up the shaft one-by-one. Once everyone was safely aboard the Empress Nichole, Kerry took one of the Vargr vacc suits to the Ekhaghgaen (the downed Corsair) and rescued the last Vargr crew member. With no way to repair their ship, the Vargr wanted to salvage their cargo before leaving. The Air/Raft was used to shuttle cargo boxes back and forward to the Empress Nichole. (1 ton cybernetic parts, 12 tons ore for rare earth metals, 16 standard missiles, 1 antimatter missile). They also brought their G/Carrier on board (a kind of military Air/Raft with a plasma cannon on the back). The Vargr insisted that these items belong to them.

As the frequency and intensity of seismic disturbances was increasing, and the vacc suit seals were perishing in the insidious corrosive atmosphere, it was time to leave. The ship lifted off from Yorbund’s surface and achieved orbit.

[mdavis]

Where to next?

The local cluster around Yorbund, showing all world’s reachable by Jump-2.

[mdavis]

The three rescued vargr join the party together with their cargo that was picked up from the damaged vargr ship. The journey continues back to Yorbund, Marion Spaceport. There are a lot of vaccsuits to repair. Skott’s shady contact offers special goods for sale, but the party doesn’t have enough credits (255k) to buy it or even see it.

A famous galaxy-renowned archaeologist seeks to visit the planet Heya, where the party coincidentally is headed. The archaeologist is interested in researching the chirper race that lives there. The party fills up the ship with mail and passengers and take off towards Heya.

During the trip the passengers complain about the bad service on board. Shora is offended as the captain demands that she pays for the refund of the passengers tickets, but complies, knowing that her zero-knowledge in stewardship might be too obvious.

Date: 214-1105

After the spaceship lands, the famous archaeologist immediately heads to the university to learn more about the chirpers. They live in small communities on the planet, having been pushed away by human colonizers to the outskirts of the planet. They can communicate in simple terms, however they are not well seen by humans, as they like to sneak around and steal shiny objects. The archaeologist is fascinated and gives a guest talk at the university about his research interests and networks with other researchers.

Later this evening as the party heads to a bar for refreshment a small chirper approaches the archaeologist and asks for help. They say they were kidnapped in a ship that took it to a prison on the planet. Apparently slavers took them and their nestmates. The nestmates are still left in the prison. The kidnappers wore imperial uniforms with a silver circle logo. The prison contains several races of species and is guarded by metal monsters, presumably robots. There are no humans inside the prison. The chirper managed to escape and swam through icy waters and walked several days to reach the city. No human wanted to help them, but instead threw stones on them. The barkeeper seems to harbor similar sentiments towards chirpers and makes a phone call as the party exits the bar. The party plans to take the chirper to the ship to keep them safe.

On the way to the ship the party bumps into the local law enforcement who is looking for a gang of thugs with a chirper. As the archaeologist points out that he just met a chirper and they are somewhere around, the chirper disappears. The party insists that the archaeologist is a bit drunk and seeing chirpers everywhere. The local police is not pleased and instructs the party to call 77777 if they see a gang with a chirper around. The party continues towards the ship and the chirper appears again.

At the ship the party tries to figure out where the prison might be. Looking at a map showing the icy regions they deduce that it could be in one of the southern regions. Novae recalls that the description of the kidnapper’s uniforms seem similar to the imperial naval intelligence officers. The archaeologist reaches out to his contacts at the university to find more information about the chirpers and any kind of genetical research that someone might be conducting. Instead he finds out that the university has an expert research group focused on metallurgical engineering and fiber reinforced metal struts. There are some chirper nests in the north but the university does not seem to have a lot of information on that topic.

Finally Novae reaches out to some contacts and meets a gossipy young man who knows that there is an abandoned naval station and research base in the southern part of the planet. Some tens of years ago it was a strategical location due to the ongoing 3rd frontier war nearby. It brought good business to the planet but after the war finished it was abandoned. The inhabitants of the planet are slightly bitter as they lost the ongoing growth of technology as the imperials left. It seems like a good idea to research this base more and head there to investigate whether that’s where the poor chirper and their nestmates were taken.

[mdavis]

After speaking to Novae’s garrulous contact and researching local history, the Travellers learned that Heya regressed to Barbarism (TL2) during the Long Night. It remained at low tech levels until 980, when the world was contacted by the Imperial Navy who wanted to establish a base there. This was during the Third Frontier War (979-986). The local feudal rulers granted permission for this in return for technological assistance, which allowed the world to progress to TL5. The Imperium established a Naval base on Heya which was instrumental in winning the Third Frontier War.

Shortly after the war (in 995, 110 years ago), the Navy abandoned their base and it subsequently became the Starport, Atarishii Down.

Date 223-1105

By gathering information and rumours from various sources, the Travellers determinted that the likely location of the Imperial Research Station was on one of the islands in the antarctic region.

As this remote location was beyond the range of the ship’s Air/Raft, the Travellers booked passage on a submarine trader which was carrying cargo under the ice floes to the eastern part of the continent. The Air/Raft came along in the cargo bay.

Date 237-1105

After debarking on a rocky island with a small human settlement, the Travellers were able to determine the location of the research station by scouting in the Air/Raft. At night, it emitted a bright light like a lighthouse. The Travellers used the Air/Raft to ferry everyone onto the station.

The upper platform was unoccupied, apart from an Air/Raft with a slightly unusual modification. Instead of the usual open seating behind the driving area, it has a covered compartment, which looks like an animal containment cage. This Air/Raft rested on an elevator platform painted with red and white stripes. Nearby were a set of three more elevator platforms.

The main door was unlocked and opened into a reception area. Casual furniture was scattered about, and wall decorations showed views of the station in various seasons. The far wall was a holographic image of a constantly rippling waterfall. The door from this reception area into the main station was locked, but Cpt Skott made quick work of picking it. On the other side, the way was blocked by an intimidating-looking robot.

The Travellers hastily pulled the door closed and decided to look for another way in. They headed around to the Air/Raft elevators and descended into what was obviously a maintenance workshop. This area contained three Air/Rafts, one of which was partially disassembled. The other two bear the Imperial crest, and appear to be standard models. The garage was extremely cluttered with crates and boxes of supplies and spare parts.

While exploring the garage, a door slid open and one of the security robots entered. It approached the Travellers and after scanning them, issued a warning, “Intruders detected!” Kaal attracted the attention of the robot from across the loading platform. As it continuted to advance, the pulse laser cannon at its waist swivelled around and took aim. Kaal jumped behind a pile of crates as an energy beam blasted them to pieces. Seeing that the droid was on wheels, Savas rushed for the platform controls and hit the lever to go up. The platform began to rise. The Travellers took shots at the robot but the bullets pinged off its heavy armour plating. Lt. Zana, realising that her Static Axe could pierce the armour, leaped onto the platform and took a swing. The axe buried itself in the side of the robot, disabling one of its arms. The pulse laser swivelled again—Lt. Zana leaped from the platform but could not avoid the lethal blast of the pulse laser. Her smoking corpse twitched once and was still.

The platform continued to rise. After the droid’s laser was safely above the top of the deck above, Savas hit stop on the controls, trapping the robot. There was a brief pause, then the platform began to move down again! By wrestling with the controls, piling boxes below the platform and cutting the hydraulic pipes, the platform was disabled with the robot stuck between decks.

Moving quickly through the garage, the Travellers came across a booth with a computer terminal. A window looks out onto the station’s central shaft. The vertical shaft is about 25 metres in diameter, surrounded by a guard rail at waist height. Outside the shaft is a walkway about 5 m wide, with corridors leading off in various directions. On the opposite side of the shaft there is what looks like an open-plan dining area. On one side of the shaft there is a bubble-shaped capsule about 6 metres in diameter.

Dr. Sam, the archaeologist, is good with computers and starts trying to figure out what systems can be accessed through the terminal…

[mdavis]

Dr. Sam manages to hack the computer terminal in two minutes. He figures out that it can operate doors, operate an elevator, monitor robots and operate the globes sticking out on the side of the building. There are also maps. Sam focuses on trying out robot commands and manages to show them on the map. There are three different robot types: green (cleaners), red (guards) and blue (specimen care robots). There is a room full of robots near the party and a few roaming around the levels of the research station. It seems like a good idea to learn how to operate the doors. In five minutes Dr. Sam has figured that out. He locks the doors to the room that contains several robots. Perhaps it’s a robot repair bay. The upper deck has three terminals more, however they are difficult to reach now as there is a guard robot on the upper floor.

Kerry, Kaal and Skott head to disable or jam the locked doors to the robot repair bay while Dr. Sam, Savas and Shora stay at the terminal. While disabling one of the doors, there is a noise and one of the guard robots is alerted. The robot unlocks the door and rolls out. Skott is hiding. Kerry and Kaal try to make the robot trip using the plasteel cable. They fail. Kaal begins to fight the robot and manages to hit the power unit to shut it down. The rest of the doors are disabled. The party gathers near the terminal again, in time to see one of the blue robots moving and approaching them. The specimen care robot is as unfriendly as the guards and seems to try to catch the chirper. As the robot pulls out a tranquilizer the party starts a fight and manage to shut down the robot. The tranquilizer dart is picked up for future use.

The party inspects the terminal again. Dr. Sam figures out that the globes correspond to different environments and the numbering system reflects what type of planet it mimics. Shora tries to remember the identifier of this planet to see which room might hold the chirpers. It seems to be 687, five floors down from this floor. Most of the party takes the elevator down leaving Savas to guard Dr. Sam at the console. Five floors down there is a large blast door and a platform with a window to observe the environmental globe. Inside there are the chirpers. Dr. Sam opens the door and the chirpers happily reunite. There is not much time to celebrate as Dr. Sam sees one of the guard robots moving and exiting the repair bay. The party tries to go down two floors as the robot approaches. At this floor there are teddybear-like creatures locked up. The party goes back to the elevator, but the robot calls up the elevator. The elevator stops in front of the robot and opens the door. The robot tries to enter. Kaal gets shot by the laser, Dr. Sam manages to close the door. Skott disables the remote controls for the elevator and steers the elevator towards the top floor. With the remote control disabled the robot cannot follow but is stuck behind the elevator.

Back in safety Dr. Sam starts to heal Kaal as he took quite a hit from the robot’s laser. Savas continues to guard. Kerry, Skott and Shora begin to explore the second floor. There is a communication center and a locked door that Skott picks. However, it seems like the door needs something else to open. There is an IT terminal, an office area, and some electronic equipment with a radar screen. There is a recreational area with furniture and some lockers with games and movies. In addition they find an observation deck, and a cafeteria with one table with a place set for dining. The party realizes there might be someone else on board the station. They also find an elevator and a long corridor with some rooms. Minutes pass while exploring the floor.

Meanwhile, near the security station, a blast door opens and a man emerges, very confused at the sight of broken robots and intruders in the lab. He looks like he is in his mid-thirties. He is seized by the party and interrogated. He gives his name as Professor Sir Gnetus Jerrold Vicervis, and says he is responsible for taking care of the Imperial research facility.

When Professor Vicervis tells the story about his background, there are some attempts at lying that are spotted by Kerry and Shora. He offers the party to take some things from the research platform but leave him unharmed and they reach somewhat of an agreement.

The professor begins by opening the locked vault. Inside there are a lot of boxes—123 000 credits and some equipment. The travellers realise that the professor can turn off the robots and intimidate him to join them with the elevator to the upper floor to use the terminal. However, it appears that one guard robot was alerted by the vault opening and the party is attacked again. Kerry uses the professor as a shield while Shora and Skott try to find cover. Savas hears the fight and joins in from cover. Kerry is grabbed by the robot but manages to shoot it into the laser and break the power unit. The professor is now more scared than ever as his last chance to escape is gone.

Savas, Skott, Kerry and Shora continue upstairs with the professor who agrees to shut down the robots from the terminal. The professor is tied up with duct tape as the party begins to load equipment from the station on board the Air/Rafts. They find the key to the professor’s Air/Raft in the Air/Raft reception area and begin loading equipment onto it too. Among the equipment there is a box with two gold coins similar to the ones from the pyramid. The chirper recognizes them as belonging to their people. Perhaps the Droyne and chirpers are indeed related.

As the party gets ready to leave they discuss the options for what to do with the professor. They agree that it could be a good idea to use the tranquilizer on him, moving him to his room to sleep, destroy the radio by removing a part, leaving for the shore and then anonymously alerting some officials to go save the professor as the party leaves the planet.

[mdavis]

Purpose of the Research Station

Kerry interrogated Professor Vicervis about the purpose of the research station, but his answers were evasive. The cursory search of the Lab Deck did not reveal the station’s purpose.

Contents of the Vault

The vault unlocked by Professor Vicervis contains multiple boxes, including the box full of Imperial credits (Cr. 123 000) mentioned above. There are numerous boxes full of miscellaneous items of little apparent value.

One curious find is the two solid gold coins in small plastic holders. An accompanying information sheet indicates that they are Coyns, an artifact recovered from an Ancient site on Knorbes (Regina 0207 E888787-2 I Ri Ag Ga Lt G). Coyns are used, it says, for some sort of function similar to tarot cards.

Chiree seemed to recognise the Coyns and said they are from his people.

Dr. Sam’s knowledge of the Droyne language and culture indicates that Coyns are commonly found in areas of space inhabited by the Droyne, and have some ritual significance to the Droyne. (For further information, consult the Starship Library Data program). Dr. Sam is interested in finding out more about the Knorbes archaelogical site. Knorbes is 8 parsecs from your current location.

[mdavis]

The party continues to investigate the research platform. Sam finds a small computer in the lab and picks it up. The lab has two more locked doors, one contains tranquilized white beaked monkeys and another one monkeys accompanied by a species care robot. There are some UV lights in the last room.

The vault contains some medical equipment that nobody is sure about what it is for, but the party takes it. Savas removes the robot that was stuck blocking the elevator. Kaal, Kerry and Savas go down with the elevator to inspect the environmental globes while Shora stays to guard the professor and Sam operates the terminal.

At the bottom of the shaft there is only a sealed-off concrete part of the wall. Apparently the power plant is somewhere there. They pass by each floor from the bottom up investigating the areas to make the following list:

1. Offices and control systems
2. Recreational area, robot bay, lab…
3. (572) Mud, swamp, looks empty
4. (686) Winged creatures that fly away
5. (556) Dense fog
6. (98A) Water and leaves, Kaal experiments with the controls
7. (687) Chirper area — matches UWP of planet Heya B687754-5
8. (476) Forest with twintail monkeys
9. (888) Teddybears
10. (000) Submarine bay
11. (no environment), no light and empty
12. (140) Desert
13. (FA0) Humanoid bipeds, Kaal irritate them and they seem to have psionic powers
14. (no environment) Empty area/Power plant`

Back on the second floor, the party contacts the ship and asks them to find a pilot so that they can fly them off the research station. Novae and Xantippa start looking around offering 10 000 credits for a contract (no questions asked). They end up in negotiations and preparations with a captain who wants 16 000 credits. The negotiations and preparations will take almost two days.

Meanwhile the travellers on the research station continue to loot. They find some cold weather clothing in a storage and a 100m cable with two devices at each end. Kerry picks up the device with the cable. The professor doesn’t seem to know what it is. The party packs the cold weather clothing in the pile of things to steal. There are still the upper floors to investigate.

Savas, Kerry and Kaal proceeed to the upper floor. A janitor robot attacks Kerry who blows it to pieces. Shora is called up to investigate some accounting documents while Kerry takes over guarding the professor. Apparently the professor is stealing a fixed sum of money each month, around 20 000 credits. There is also a map room with some map chips that the party pockets. Another room is full of papers. Kaal and Shora spend hours going through it. The research is about information transfer. They continue to a library room. Most books are about sophonts and intelligent beings. There are books about the zoology, biology, history and sociology of the Zodani people. The books and research seem to focus on psionics in the government. There are some illegal psionics instruction books that the party picks up for further research.

240-1105

After two days, the starship arrives. The air traffic control from the spaceport is wondering why the ship is approaching the area it was forbidden to enter. The hired pilot manages to approach the research station from a side that is not covered by the ATC radar. The party starts loading the ship with everything they will take from the research station (see list below). When they are ready to leave they tranquilize the professor and carry him to one of the guest rooms near the cafeteria. They disable the radio in an inconspicuous manner.

The spaceship takes off and lands at the north part of the planet to drop off the chirpers. They are happily reunited with their families and one chirper offers a gold coin in a leather pouch as a token of gratefulness. It is a coyn with a human picture on it.

The ATC contacts the ship again and wants to understand why the ship disappeared from orbit for a while and requests that the ship should return to clarify what happened. Kerry responds that that’s unlikely to happen and prepares to take off.

The party decides to split. Kerry and the Vargr (and the Vargr pilot) will take the Empress Nichole and head across the border into the Vargr Extents. Those who will stay on the planet take their belongings, load their share of the loot onto the Air/Rafts and watch as the ship slowly disappears.

241-1105

They return discreetly to the spaceport and start looking for a new ship to join. Conveniently they find a large safari ship whose pilot recently disappeared. After some administrative tasks the crew is hired. The party packs their goods onto the new ship. Agent Novae identifies the found medical equipment as anagathic (anti-aging) drugs. Some passengers board the ship and it heads out to the Jump boundary.

244-1105

The starship jumps 2 parsecs to Kinorb.

List of items taken from Research Station Gamma

• Small computer from lab (7). It’s a TL12 Computer/3 (0.5 Kg). Taken by Sam.
• Anagathics (anti-aging drugs), sufficient dose for 1 month.
• Books about Psionics. Includes psionic instruction texts and other books banned by the Imperium. Stored on the ship in the hidden compartment.
• A container with red warning stripes on the outside. Inside the container is a coil of 100 metres of cord, a few mm in diameter. There is some kind of electronic device moulded into the two ends of the cord.
• Heatsuits (TL8). Skin-tight head-to-toe covering with gloves and transparent faceplate, which provides complete protection against extreme cold for 12 hours.
• Cold weather clothing (TL5). Head-to-toe garment and boots made from layers of fabric around an insulating layer of fibres.
• A crate of five automatic pistols, with empty magazines but no ammunition.
• Map chips from 1st floor map room. The chips contain maps of a number of worlds in Regina and Aramis subsector.
• Accounting documents from 1st floor

[mdavis]

251-1105

Jump into Kinorb system.

252-1105

Spinward Marches/Regina 0602 A663659-8 I Ri NI G

Arrival at Kinorb mainworld. The ship docks at Kinorb Highport, which is in geostationary orbit above the downport. Kinorb High is a mid-sized facility with twelve large docking bays and forty small bays. Freight is offloaded here and transported to the Downport by shuttle or bulk hauler.

The Highport has the offices, bars, restaurants and hotels typical to any class A starport. One notable organisation is the Kinorb Development Corporation (KDC).

While passengers and cargo are being offloaded, the Travellers head for a well-earned drink at The Wolf Run, one the many Highport bars. There seems to be an argument taking place in the far corner. The ambient noise level is loud enough to make hearing difficult, but two men are raising their voices and start shouting at each other. One man, wearing the uniform of the IISS (Imperial Interstellar Scout Service), stands up and insists that there really was a Twilight’s Peak, and the epic was true. The other man, dressed in the uniform of an Able Spacehand in the Imperial Navy, also rises to his feet and says that it was all the rantings of a drug-crazed scout. The two spontaneously decide that while logic may not convince the other, perhaps fists might. They head for the door to settle the matter outside.

A quick check-in with the starship’s Library program reveals the following:

Twilight’s Peak

An epic poem of execrable quality, about the legendary or apocryphal story of lost starfarers on an unknown world who discover fantastic structures and devices while surviving a terrible winter.
The story is notable only in that it is partly based on fact. A task force was lost in the time period specified, and it has not been recovered or accounted for.

[mdavis]

252-1105

Kinorb Highport

The Travellers are on Kinorb, a wealthy retirement planet—like space Florida—observing a fistfight between an Imperial scout (Zon Avalon) and a navy officer, in a maintenance alley outside a bar, The Wolf Run.

Zon gets punched, the party helps him and asks about more details about the Twilight’s Peak poem that was the main reason for the fight. Zon said that the lost expedition in the story was a Subsidised Merchant ship and its escort of three Type-S Scout/Couriers. Apparently, one of the escort ships from the story had been found about 25 years ago. The ship that was found had empty powerbanks, a wiped ship computer and the crew were all dead. But the second officer, a scout called Wen Livern, had written down the entire history of the task force in the form of an epic poem. The poem is the story of Twilight’s Peak and it is all true.

The scout gets patched up a bit and leaves. Later Novae meets an insurance investigator who hands over a business card to organise a meeting about potential work.

260-1105

Marie Curie (@katta) spends a few days unsuccessfully trying to find a buyer for luxury consumables.

To take the Air/Raft down to the planet, the party needs to create a flight plan that is accepted by the local authorities. The planet is very careful with where visitors fly as it is a well-preserved environment. The planet is governed by the Kinorb Development Corporation (KDC), which settled 125 years ago buying some land from Baron Ottivilia (living on Regina) to create a space for attractive retirement opportunities.

Novae meets with the insurance investigator Liam Hofstatter. The investigator wants to extradite retired commander John Pickles. He needs someone to do it since he himself was banned from the planet after trying. The reward is 5000 credits.

Commander Pickles apparently claimed damages for a lost ship that actually was sold and is still operating in the Vargr Extents. Liam has a contact who can sell weapons on the planet (weapons are banned). The target lives in the town of Spacer’s Rest and can be picked up by a hired pilot in an agreed upon location.

261-1105

Spacer’s Rest, Kinorb

The party heads down to the planet and takes a local shuttle to Spacer’s Rest. It is a wealthy neighborhood with fancy apartments, some of them have landing pads big enough for starships. The party rents an electric minibus to drive around and investigate.

First, they meet up with the Vargr arms dealer, Gurvach. The area is a suburb with an industrial area and a lot of Vargr hanging out. Colonel Gustav gets a suitcase full of guns: 4 auto pistols, magazines and a stun pistol. It appears that the Vargr here are clan warriors, not refugees. Shora scouts around for an anagathics dealer to potentially get more information about the young-looking commander Pickles (in case he is a customer) but only finds expensive drugs for KCr.30/dose. The party heads back to the commander’s house.

The building is walled, it has a nice view over a cliff towards the ocean and some CCTV monitoring. When ringing on the doorbell to the house, a woman in her 30’s responds. Commander Pickles is away but the party manages to set up a meeting in the nearby restaurant The Cockpit. Later in the evening they meet. Colonel Gustav mentions the ship and insurance fraud. Apparently the commander bought a merchant trader ship together with four friends and they started shipping merchandise for an illegal syndicate. They got caught by the navy who offered them the choice of informing on the syndicate or going to prison on Pixie.

The syndicate was the Scarlet Brotherhood with whom Novae had had some dealings (his brother was maimed by them). To solve the situation, the colonel sold the ship with its contents to some Vargr, faked the ship blackbox recording and pretended that the ship crashed. Some rescuers brought him back to society where he could claim the fake insurance case.

After hearing this story about what happened in the insurance fraud, the party tries to offer protection services to the commander. He doesn’t seem to be very interested, covers the expenses of the party until now (a few thousand credits) and leaves. The party decides to dump the contract and throw the gun suitcase into the sea to not get caught with illegal guns. On the shuttle up to the Highport, they see a news report of guns found in the sea.

268-1105

Kinorb Highport

Back on the Highport, they return the Cr.5,000 to Mr Hofstadter and load the ship for leaving the planet.

While loading up the ship with goods and fuel the party also meets Zon (the fistfighting scout) who provides some more details about the poem. The events of the poem took place during the 3rd Frontier War, over 100 years ago. The Scout/Courier that was found was in a cometary orbit and was found in the Treece system in Lanth subsector. The main expedition ship was the Giro Cadiz, that was supposed to go from Rhylanor to Regina. The scoutship that was found contained the crew diary of 2nd officer Wen Leveren that wrote a diary in form of an epic poem. It tells the story of Twilight’s Peak (the wintery place with advanced technologies).

269-1105

Abraey (gas giant)

The party leaves the planet and sets course for Boughene. Because it is a Jump-3 journey, refuelling is a complex operation requiring mutiple scoops from the gas giant to fill the collapsible fuel tanks. In total it takes a week to scoop and refine all the fuel and one week to jump (Jump-2).

283-1105

Empty space

The ship refills its main fuel tanks from the collapsible tank and makes a second jump to arrive at Boughene (Jump-1).

290-1105

Boughene: Spinward Marches/Regina 0304 A8B3531-D S I Fl Ht NI G

Boughene is a corporate-run world with a bad atmosphere and low hydrographics. The tech level is D (13). The inhabitants live on a space station that used to belong to General Products before some shareholders sold it to themselves and joined the Imperium. Only a few workers set foot on the planet. One branch of the planet’s industry is to extract chemicals from the organisms living on the planet surface.

[mdavis]

On the way to Boughene, one of the passengers, Breialeia Jeiz starts discussing withe the crew. She is a researcher from Regina. She works with professor Ujinka who was highly respected until 12 years ago when her reputation suffered due to her eagerness to explore an ancient archaeological site. More specifically, the site on planet Inthe (near Treece). The archduke of Deneb refused to open the site to civilians but she still went there to do research. Now professor Ujinka is working on a new method to discover ancient sites, by correlating them with disturbances in the G-band signal spectrum. The research seems promising and she found an ancient site on Yori. At the moment, there is a Dr. Jinni Volsang on Beck’s world working on the sensor.

The reason Breia was traveling to Boughene is to find an ancient articfact, a pillar with wings. She has a picture from an auction that took place on Boughene and wants to track down where it comes from. The party agrees to help her investigate. The spaceship docks at Hoog-Katherine station. There is a starport and startown side of the station. The main local law is that anything that obstructs fair trade is to be punished. Breia heads off to her hotel while Marie starts an equipment shopping and repair tour lasting several days, e.g. to get vacsuits fitted with magnetic boots. Sam and Skott do some shopping while Novae and Shora meet with Breia at the TAS the next day. Apparently there is an auction house called “Hoarding House” where the item might have been sold. Shora and Novae head there to investigate.

The item was indeed listed about half a year ago, and sold for Cr. 50 000. However, the personnel refuse to share any information about the buyer. The lot however contained some magnetic tapes describing how the item was found. After failing to get more information they meet with Breia and Sam to share the information. Breia and Sam head to the auction house to try to find out more. They try hacking the auction house using an item listing terminal but fail. Everyone heads to the local library to search newspaper clippings about the item. With some luck they find an article about the auction mentioning the buyer: Harlan. The item itself was found on a moon of Komesh by a retired scout. Sam finds another related article about the Red Queen shipping company with offices both in the starport and startown sides. Harlan was a former scientist for Caldea Research and is now the head of the shipping company. The party tries to visit the starport offices of the Red Queen shipping company but the office seems to be closed.

Meanwhile Marie is still shopping. Shora uses some street contacts to helps Marie find some illegal cybernetics. They will be delivered as a shipment of microwave ovens in 1-2 days to the starport. The smuggler (Ben) tells the team to speak to Mr “Exceedingly Discreet” to set up a meeting with Harlan. Apparently Harlan also has a base somewhere in orbit around Boughene. The party visits the startown offices of the Red Queen shipping company which seem more like business offices. The greeter doesn’t seem to want to connect the party with anyone “Exceedingly Discreet”. Meanwhile Novae is contacted by a shady person, Odoy, who claims to be an Imperial Agent. They want to set up a meeting in the Flotsam bar to discuss business. He is looking for Ven Yasha, a thug working for Harlan.

300-1105

The party decides to fly around a bit to see if they can find Harlan’s space base. There is a scrapyard that looks suspicious, and some gigantic cargo containers floating near the scrapyard. Marie and Novae detect signals from the containers. As the ship approaches a turret comes out and starts shooting. Marie tries to negotiate over the radio and manages to set up a meeting with Harlan. The containers are the secret base. Skott ships Marie over to the entrance of the base. She is the only one allowed to enter. She is led away into the station by some guards in vacc suits.

Inside there are a lot of cables hanging around, the interior perhaps looks like a space-CERN experiment. Marie meets Harlan and immediately spots the pillar and data tapes on the desk. Harlan does not seem keen on giving away any information regarding his interest in this item. Marie negotiates a deal to get a copy of the tapes for Cr. 10 000 and leaves. As she returns to the ship, the party turn back to the planet and investigate the tape recordings. They contain the description of how the pillar was found on a metal-rich asteroid/moon near Boughene’s gas giant, Komesh. There seems to have been a G-band disturbance around the gas giant and not only on the asteroid, so there might be a larger ancient site around. Perhaps the party can get a prototype of the G-Band sensor installed by Dr. Jinni on Beck’s world to continue the investigation. Breia is very pleased with the research progress.

The party decides to move to Feri to sell the cybernetics and cargo, as well as deliver some mail. From there they will continue to Beck’s world.

[mdavis]

306-1105

The ship scoops fuel from the Komesh gas giant at Boughene and is preparing to jump. Novae checks the sensors and notices a hot object nearby in space. It’s 50 000 Km away and approaching. The ship jumps and spends 1 week in space.

317-1105

The ship jumps to the Feri system and arrives 250 million Km from the mainworld. Novae checks the sensors and sees the hot object again. It seems like it’s a starship that is following the party.

There is another smaller object in front of the ship. Marie tries to communicate with the smaller ship. It has a recording — it’s an escape pod from the starship Dark Star. The party slowly approaches. The starship that was following is approaching. It’s transponder reveals that it is called the White City and it is heading for Feri.

The party focuses on the escape pod. Savas pilots the ship and manages to approach the pod after a few orbits. Shora dresses up in a vacc suit and manages to fetch the pod into the cargo bay. Inside the pod there is a passenger in a vacc suit. It’s a middle-aged man with thinning blond hair. Kaal searches the pod and finds some standard survival supplies (food, medkit, etc.). The party heads for the planet and leaves their patient to rest in the medical bay.

Feri is a low gravity temperate planet with approx. 900m inhabitants. It’s a rich pleasure planet with tourism and tech level B (11). The party heads to a bar and meets Tris, a sublieutenant from the navy. Also Jackie is there, looking to find passage to the planet Alell. Marie spends 6 days trying to sell the ATV and finds a buyer that gives 60% of the cost. The passenger in the medical bay wakes up. He was on a trading ship that was attacked and had to be abandoned. It happened a few days ago. The party searches newspapers for more information on this story.

Apparently the planet Feri was divided by the Fexit referendum, for and against Feri leaving the imperium.

327-1105

There are differing views on the attack on the trading ship. Some think it was an innocent trader whereas other think it’s an arms trader that got attacked by terrorists fighting for the opposing side. Kaal and Xantippa proceed to sell the implants cargo shipment. They find a buyer who wants to receive the goods in Falstaff. Novae finds out that the city is supporting to remain with the Imperium but there is a group of separatists that want to leave. Shora asks around about the White City ship and finds out that it’s registered to Bay Venchar. He is a collector of ancient artifacts. He is using anagathics and looks like an adolescent child despite being 100s of years old.

The party proceeds to Falstaff with some extra cargo and the two buyers on board. Nine tons of their cargo is hidden and one ton is placed in the cargo bay. They instruct the ship to land a few hundred kilometres outside the city of Falstaff. There are some vehicles around and it seems like a military base in a valley with a flat area. The buyers try to communicate with their comrades but get no response on the radio. The party gets a transmission from the government of Feri telling us to stay where we are as authorities are incoming. Tris tries to do an emergency takeoff. Some helicopters arrive and try to shoot the ship with lasers for six points of hull damage. The ship takes off and escapes.

330-1105

The passenger in the medical bay wakes up. Marie talks to him. He wants to go to Uakye on the Spinward Main. It’s in the opposite direction of where the ship is heading. The two smugglers on board ask to land in Khur city that is more friendly towards their political views. They pretend to be asylum seekers to gain landing rights. With the help of an illegal broker, the party manages to sell the goods and take a share of the selling price for the smuggled goods. Maria and Kaal broker a good price and negotiate with the separatists. The passenger Zaros Jin thanks us for saving him and leaves to find a passage towards the Spinward Main.

The party packs the ship with cargo and goods, and repairs the ship. After a while Sam realizes that Zaros Jin had a Zhodani accent (meaning that he might know psionics). Tris and Jack join the crew on board the ship. Also Breia stays as she wants to continue to Beck’s World.

333-1105

The ship is taking off and notices the White City. Marie contacts the ship by radio. A vargr responds and Xantippa takes over the communication to set up a meeting. They agree that someone will meet the party in 1h in the starport to discuss trading. Jack, Kaal and Xantippa head to the starport space bar for the meeting. A woman in her 30’s approach them representing Bay Venchar. The party tries to sell anagathics (1 month supply) and a copy of the tapes found with the winged pillar. None of these seem interesting for Bay Venchar’s representative. As the party prepares to jump to the next destination the White City seems to not follow us according to the sensor check (but probably they do). The party spends 7d 6h preparing to jump to Beck’s World.

[mdavis]

340-1105

The ship arrives at Beck’s World and transmits the mail. The planet is of average size, with breathable atmosphere. It is a volcanic wilderness and a lichen-like plant is the only native lifeform. A survey determined it had no commercial viability. The population is around 10k people who live in a small outpost. It is named after the pirate Beck. Before Beck, the planet was called Frizini. Fedy Jochen is the political representative of the duchy of Regina. The planet was surveyed 85 years ago. Jara Gelabi, a geologist, theorized that the volcanic activity was created by a dwarf star passing by and gravity ripping the planet.

It is somewhat difficult to land. Volcanic ashes fill the air. At the space port a customs agent enters the ship and investigates the cargo. It is not allowed to wear armor or bear weapons on the planet. The starport is more of a flat field with a large dome, Beck’s Dome. There are smaller domes with shops, one of them with a turret and missile rack on the roof, and a newer settlement further away. Xantippa, Kaal and Jack head to a local bar to find out more about the place. Sam, Marie and Shora follow Breia to the University research institute at the newer settlement.

The bar has some strange food and drinks. Xantippa and Kaal get some drinks and find out that there is “legitimate” business going on at Assassin’s Alley nearby. At the university building, some workers are fixing a comms relay on the roof. Breia meets Kenton Wild, one of the geophysicists at the university. They discuss Dr. Jinni Volsang’s theories about the ancients. One theory is that there had been a war near Beck’s World and one side had been able to move a celestial body into the solar system to destroy the planet.

Apparently the university can’t contact the research expedition anymore and is trying to fix the radio. Dr. Jinni is currently at the excavation site testing the sensor. Breia stays at the institute to help with the ongoing research.

The party hears ship engines as a ship lands. It is Bay Venchar and the ship’s boat from the White City. He enters the bar, so Xantippa, Kaal and Jack enter the bar again. It’s Bay Venchar and his vargr bodyguards. As they exit the bar, Xantippa, Kaal and Jack follow them. One of the vargr notices them and approaches. Jack tries to put a microphone bug on him and fails. The vargr curses them and Bay Venchar continues with his bodyguards into a smaller group of domes.

Everyone from the party returns to the ship and proceeds to Assassin’s Alley. There are smaller domes, armored airlocks and a lot of graffiti. The customs officer and four colleagues appear. They kick the party out of Assassin’s Alley. The party returns to the bar, Jack talks to the bartender but doesn’t get any significant information from him. Everyone returns to the ship for a good night’s sleep.

342-1105

Marie is woken by the ship’s sensor alarm. One of the other launches that were parked in the starport takes off. Marie goes back to sleep but shortly afterwards, the party is woken up by more alarms. There are explosions outside on the mountain. The research outpost is being buried in stones falling from the exploded mountain. Some people from the city are approaching the rubble to loot. The party runs there to help. Shora and Xantippa keep digging and manage to get out Breia. There is a strange person walking around the launch pad, Marie and Sam go to check him out. He has a briefcase chained to his hand and is asking for the captain. He says the Zhodani are attacking and seems a bit drunk. It’s Fedy Jochen, the representive of Regina. As Breia is rescued from the rubble the customs officer approaches and orders everyone to get away.

The party travel to the archeological dig site, which is situated some 1000 Km away, using the shuttle. Savas lands nicely. There is a landing site with some crates containing survival equipment. Jack checks some electronics crates. Sam doesn’t know what it contains. Marie understands that it’s a comm relay. The party heads into the cave. There is a route marked by fluorescent light. There is a body on the ground. Breia recognizes him as Johnny. The party continues on the narrow road. Jack squeezes through and ends up in a larger room on the other side. Kaal joins. Marie decides to return to the ship to not get hurt. Sam gets stuck, 4pt damage. Breia passes through. Xantippa is stuck too, 4pt damage. Shora passes through easily.

The large room has a circular piece of technology on the wall. Breia doesn’t know what it is. Marie sets up communication with the party. The room is illuminated by a large sphere. There are tents, crates, and the light splattered by blood. There are some bodies with laser weapon wounds. There are two or three bodies torn apart. Breia cannot identify them. The party finds some footprints of two vargr and two humans with smaller feet. Sam tries to commmunicate and hears Dr. Jinni on the radio. Breia talks to her and warns here about Bay Venchar and his henchmen. Dr Jinni tells us to take passage B to the top of the Big Stair and follow a 1 Km descent to meet her and her colleague there. The party follows the passage for 100m and finds a steep cliff. Shora sees 4 lights down below. Sam warns Dr Ginny over the radio and she turns off communication.

Bay Venchar shouts out to Dr Jinni to give up and give him he device. He also threatens to blow up some explosives that he has rigged in the cave. Jack uses her shriekerbox augmentation to pretend to be Dr Jinni. Two vargr start climbing up the ropes. The party cuts the ropes, one vargr falls down, Shora shoots the other vargr. Bay Venchar is angry and detonates the explosives in the corridor leading to the research camp. Sam and Jack get partially buried in the rubble. Bay and someone else start climbing. We cut the ropes again and a female voice screams as she falls. Bay climbs back down and threatens to blow up the cliff that the party is standing on if Jinni doesn’t immediately surrender.

[mdavis]

Dealing with… Vecna?

Bay Venchar is at the bottom of the cave, shouting up to the Travellers and threating to blow up the cliff, if Dr Volsang doesn’t come down.

Jack, posing as Dr Jinni Volsang, offers to come down peacefully and hand over the (delicate) detector, in exchange for her life. Jack then belays down. Followed by Kaal and Shora.

Jack gets flipped up by some anti-gravity force, then smacked down, but armor protects him. Shora manages to cling to the wall and be safe; Kaal as well.

500m descent, sense of being watched. Panic starts to rise, but Jack fights it off. Jack keeps descending. With his enhanced eyes he can see well, but no sign of BV. The rest of the descending party are affected also by growing anxiety (Shora, -2 check penalty; Kaal is ok).

Jack keeps getting BV’s name wrong (VarChar, Vergar, Vecna, …?), which is irritating him greatly. Jack still can’t see him and stays 15m above the floor. Finally, he spots him on the floor, hiding behind strange objects that litter the space. He’s holding an energy rifle.

Jack arrives at the bottom. BV encourages ‘her’ to approach him, waving a light. He doesn’t want to get closer and dissembles, while Shora starts to take aim. They discuss their obsessions with The Ancients, which is far stronger in BV, who wants to ‘reveal their secrets and obtain their power’. BV finally starts to walk towards her.

Shora, who has been taking aim with her pistol, fires, she manages to hit, but also falls from the rope. The shot bounces off BV’s armor. Jack switches off his light and runs forward, drawing his stunner. BV shoots at Shora, but misses in the dark. Shora gets lowered to the ground by Kaal.

Jack aims and shoots his stunner, hitting him and shocking him, despite his vacc suit. BV throws away the rifle and takes out an energy pistol and threatens Jack, calling out still for Dr Volsgang to surrender.

Shora takes aim carefully at BV as Kaal drops to the ground. BV advances on Jack. Jack activates the shrieker box to distract him, causing him to shoot wildly. Jack shoots again with the stunner, but misses. Shora continues to aim, fires, and hits, but it bounces off his armor. Kaal draws his axe and closes the distance. BV shoots his pistol at Jack again, hitting, causing 23 damage (-8 armor, 15 effective) seriously injuring her.

Jack closes and grapples BV, seizing his weapon. Kaal swings with his axe, hits for 13 damage, cutting through the vacc suit, slicing BV in two, leaving him ruined on the floor.

The party recovers the laser rifle, the laser pistol, a detonator, a high tech gravity belt; the vacc suit is ruined. Jack throws up from the gruesome remains.

Shora searches and finds the bodies of those thrown off the cliff (2 vargr, 1 human female — the woman from the bar on Feri). Their equipment is mostly smashed, but she finds a rucksack which has a rod, with a handle, controls and a conical end; plus the power pack for the laser rifle.

Sam now arrives at the bottom and starts to look for Dr Jinni, shouting to her. Jack uses the shrieker box to shout much louder. Jinni Volsang replies on the radio. Dr Volsang is found and Breia brings her up to date with events; she’s deeply shaken to hear of the damage and deaths.

Sam applies first aid to Jack, but ineffectively.

Leaving the Outpost

There are many buildings and structures in this cavern, with many tunnels leaving the main cavern. Sam examines things, but finds nothing of interest.

Dr Volsang realises that with the tunnels collapsed, the only way out is by the Big Stair. There is a mechanical hoist, with which the travellers can re-ascend. Dr V tells them that the anti-gravity areas are an Ancient defence against anti-gravity use. They were on the point of having useful readings from the anomaly detector, but says they cannot continue without a research team. She wants to return to Regina and speak to Prof Ujinka to inform her and discuss with her.

Prof Ujinka was in the previous campaign, known to that party (specifically Jack), but was killed in an attack while the party was with her; they never found out why.

An awkward conversation between Jack and Jinni ensues. Jack doesn’t tell her Ujinka is dead. Jinni mentions an ‘incident’, that damaged her reputation, but does not elaborate at first.

It takes 40 hours for everyone to get to the surface. Jinni says that Prof Ujinka was faculty at Uni Regina (Archaeology and History). 12 years ago there was an ancient site on Inthe (6 parsecs anti-spinward from Regina), which was formally a secret, but widely known. Ujinka fought a legal battle with Scouts to get the site opened up. The legal challenge ultimately failed, losing her reputation.

349-1105

Return to Beck’s Town

The subsurface travellers emerge 10km away, Allia flies the launch to pickup them up. Novae looks for the White City (BV’s ship) using the sensors, but the conditions are difficult and nothing is found.

The ship returns to Beck’s Town.

Skott tries to identify the strange spade. It’s a static shovel, which can be used for tunnelling and excavations.

Customs make contact and want to know where we have been. Officer comes to the ship and boards. Asks where we have been. Marie explains that we have been rescuing people at the excavation site. Officer asks what people, then spits in the airlock and questions who gave authority for this. Marie says she didn’t understand that permission was needed. The officer demands we hand over the rescued people. Marie offers Cr. 1 000 instead, which the officer accepts, but says the party should leave the planet. Marie offers another Cr. 1 000, looking for a broker. He gives the Travellers 24 hours to load up and leave, and recommends The Syndicate for trade.

Allia offers Ginny and Breia a drink and a quiet time to reflect. “I lost people too,” she says. Ginny and Briea start to process and grieve their loss.

Novae presses Ginny for information about sensing equipment, but Jinni didn’t take any equipment from the site.

Jinni asks for middle passage to Regina, which she can pay on arrival.

A route to Regina is planned via Feri, but Allia says she will not get off the ship if they do that. Jack doesn’t want to go to Regina, as Ujinka is dead, but she still doesn’t want to tell Jinni. Finally, she does tell her that she heard that Ujinka was assassinated. Jinni is even more devastated now. Allie takes Jinni aside and, alone, says she knows what she’s going through, but that the research is the most important thing — she should go back to the university. This is the worst day for her, but Allia says she needs to carry on. Allia insists with Marie that we take Jinni to Regina for free. He points out this is KCr. 100 passage. Allia says that what Jinni is researching could be worth infinitely more. She agrees to give her passage for free.

Marie, Shora and Kaal go to see The Syndicate, looking to buy illegal cybernetics. They have 3 tonnes, which the travellers buy (will be labelled “Agricultural Machine Parts”). Look for illegal drugs, but there are none. They ask for illegal luxuries, of which they have 2 tonnes. These are bought as well.

Shora tries to join a gambling game with the vargar, but they refuse to let her in.

The ship also picks up 4 high passengers and 1 mail cannister, 6 pieces of incidental cargo x2 tonnes.

The Battle of White City

The ship takes off and finds the White City starship in orbit. The travellers think there is probably one Vargr still on board. Jack has a plan to pretend to be BV, held as hostage, to board the ship and capture it. Allia says we don’t need to make them believe BV is a hostage — just pretend to be him and say he needs to board his own ship.

Jack calls the ship, pretending to be BV. The vargr answers. Jack says the professor is dead and his team injured and asks them to come alongside. Jack is extremely convincing and the White City draws alongside. The travellers prepare with vacc suits and weapons.

A docking tube will connect the ships, but it is not pressurised. The travellers plan to send over a team as they are expected, then take the ship by force. Team is Kaal, Novae, Shora, Marie, Skott. The team make it to the other ship, which pressurises its airlock, the vargr crew member is looking in on them through the inner airlock door.

The vargr becomes suspicious and asks who the people in the airlock are. Jack, still impersonating BV, berates the vargr over comms to open the airlock, which he does. There are two vargr in the White City ship.

Shora shoots with the laser rifle, seriously injuring one vargr. Marie tries leadership, but only confuses Novae who misses with his gauss pistol, shooting Shora by accident; fortunately it bounces off her armor. Kaal swings his axe, but, in the cumbersome vacc suit, misses. Skott fumbles his shot, also hitting Shora a glancing blow. The vargr attack with their corsair swords, the injured one misses, the other hits inflicting 8 damage on Novae.

Shora fires again, hitting the other vargr, and badly injuring him. Marie again adds to the chaos, confusing the party with unclear instructions… Novae, hurt, runs into the ship’s corridor. Kaal again swings wild with the static axe, hitting Shora and wounding her. Skott also shoots, hitting one vargr and taking him down. The remaining vargr hits Shora a vicious sword blow, ripping through her vacc suit and fatally wounding her. She falls. Enraged, Marie slices at the vargr with her axe, killing him instantly.

Novae rushes to the fallen Shora, unwrapping the trauma pack in an attempt to save her. He presses the pack into the wound. Shora’s eyes flicker open again, she gasps, revived. Novae knows he must treat her further to really stabilise her. Sam comes over to the White City to assist with his computer. There are no slow drugs anywhere, but there is a medical kit (TL10). With Novae’s care, Shora is stabilised. The travellers breathe a collective sigh of relief to have saved Shora.

Two Ships, One Pilot

The travellers debate how to deal with the White City, trying to work out how to get it to Feri to sell. Searching the ship it’s clear there were 4 vargr and 2 human crew; the ship is luxuriously equipped. Anagathic drugs are found (6 months supply), as well as art works, platinum bars and imperial credits. Roughly MCr. 0.5 in transportable items. The ship has twin turrets with pulse lasers and civilian standard sensors.

Sam tries to hack the ship’s computer, but it’s going to take a long time. (Without access to the computer, the ship’s standard manoeuvring programs are unavailable, penalty to fly the ship.) The travellers think to hire a pilot to take the ship to Feri.

The injured Shora gets taken back to the Traveller’s ship and the battle mess is cleared up.

The Travellers decide to take the time to hack the White City’s computer. They make excuses to the passengers and drop them back onto the planet, along with the mail, claiming a technical issue with the ship.

Jack tries to hack the White City computer, which takes 4 days, but he fails. Meantime the wounded party members rest and heal. Eventually the computer is hacked by Jack, after several attempts.

The Travellers hire a pilot and an engineer from Beck’s World and pay them to fly White City back to Feri. The Travellers stay in their ship, with the White City piloted by the hires.

353-1105

The jump to hyperspace is made…