Who let the dog out?

The story continues...

The party are at an old decrepit space station investigating a distress beacon. This episode takes place in the Borite system.

On the space station the away team opens the door leading to the heat signature that was detected when they first scanned the station. As the light from their torches plays over the room they notice a figure crouched in a far corner. It appears to be wearing a battered vacc suit and holding a large piece of hull plate as a shield. Upon noticing you enter a male vargr looks up, and in weary and confused tones asks "who are you?"..

After advising the figure that they are here to save him, Lady Nitrane asks him a number of questions. Why is he here? How long as he been here? What is his name? At first the figure only says that they must all leave before the Chamax gets them, but on a command from Silent Unter, who is used not only to giving orders but having them obeyed, the figure responds to questioning.

The castaway is called Krrsh, the former captain of an 'honest merchant' vessel, cruelly abandoned here by his crew. He has been here for 5 and a half days, and is tired, hungry and unarmed. More questions, relayed over comms from the ship, are answered honestly as far as the party can tell. Krrsh does not deny that he was involved with the attacks on Torpol and Clarke and that he was left here to die by a mutinous crew who disagreed with an order to attack a merchant in the Torpol system. An attack that went badly wrong.

Krrsh stresses again the need to leave before the Chamax gets them. Prompted by this. Senior Pilot Sparrow on the ship initiates a search of library data for information on the Chamax that might be useful. There is not a lot of information:

Chamax are hostile xenomorphs from a world deep in the Foreven sector. They resemble a tarantula the size of a large dog, and possess the ability to secrete a powerful molecular acid from they jaws. On their native world they are an unstoppable marauding horde that sweep across the planet, devouring everything in their path.

Advised of the dangers that Chamax may present, the away team start heading back to the ship. Lady Nitrane and others search for signs of the Chamax, but in the vacuum, and in suits, hearing anything is almost impossible and the torches do not provide enough light to see large areas clearly.

At this moment the comms are once again blocked by a hissing, cracking noise.

Back on the ship the sensors show more heat signals - at least four - converging on the away team. Frustrated by their inability to communicate, the Captain prepares a maintenance drone in order to remotely disable the distress beacon just in case that has something to do with the comms issues. Senior Pilot Sparrow searches for information on biologicals that can interrupt comms channels in case there is information that can be used.

Oblivious to the danger, the away team carefully make their way back to their entry point.

Re-calibrating, the Captain abandons the idea of disabling the dish as it will take too long. Sparrow finds nothing that can be used about comms-blocking biologicals and together they come up with a plan to shed light on the situation - literally. They decide to re-position the ship relative to the station and turn on the cargo bay lights so they point to the entrance into the station. As this is where the away team are heading for, it may be useful for them to have more light in order to see the Chamax more clearly (assuming that is what the heat signals are).

On the station all hell breaks loose.

The Chamax attack the party from all angles and with total unpredictability. Many attacks glance off armor, but from time to time the Chamax bites penetrate. These cause little physical damage but the acid that is injected is a big problem,

As the party fight back it is clear that Lady Nitrane is very skilled and dangerous with her arc-sword. Time after time she slashes at the Chamax causing terrible wounds. Silent Unter and his marines fight back valiantly as well, but the damaging Chamac take their toll.

The ship aligned and lit up, the Captain tethers himself and launches out to connect with the station. Upon arrival he sees the first of the away team - Ben Parr - exit the station. The Captain prepares himself in case a Chamax follows, which one does. A slash of his monofilament sword and the Captain drops one.

Inside, Ramsay Grog is overcome by the acid damage from multiple attacks and Golim Gryer finds himself subject to a great many attacks also. Krrsh and Silent Unter are wounded, but the dervish Lady Nitrane finds herself unharmed.

Battle continues and in a lull the Captain enters the station to assist, Just as this happens Lady Nitrane finishes off the last of the Chamax and the party are free to make their way back to the ship. Deceased are Ramsay Grog and Golim Gryer, with Ben Parr very badly wounded and in need of expert medical help.

As the bodies are placed in low berth, and a specimen of the Chamax also put into a  cryoberth, the crew ask questions of Krrsh.

Krrsh is very grateful to the party for his rescue, and latches onto the Captain as the 'pack leader'.He confesses to everything over a bowl of food. His account is rambling and slightly confused, the result of his long period alone on the station, but covers the following major points:

• He was the captain of Misery’s Company, and part of the retinue of a human pirate called Ferrik Redthane. The party recognise Ferrik from the description given by the person revived on Clarke - a strutting man in an Imperial Navy uniform.
• Krrsh was a recent recruit to Ferrik's organisation and was given no time to recruit his own crew, instead given people misfits and those not wanted by the other captains.
• His crew abandoned him at the station. They turned on him after he ordered an attack on a freighter that turned out to have more guns than expected. One of his crew was killed in the attack. Being left on the station is a death penalty as pirates in the sector know of the Chamax that inhabit it, and awake when they sense sentient beings.
• He was part of the raiding party that hit Clarke. Ferrik's orders to attack the warehouse to steal ancient computer parts was unusual to say the least.
• Ferrik Redthane was formerly part of the pirate gang commanded by Admiral Darokyn, one of the pirate lords of Theev. Krrsh does not know what happened, but Ferrik and Darokyn quarrelled, and Ferrik now has a price on his head.
• As a result, Ferrik needs the protection of one of the other pirate gangs. He launched the raids on Torpol and Clarke to show how dangerous and competent he is.
• As Ferrik dare not set foot on Theev, he's probably sent his trusted lieutenant Miria Silverhand to negotiate with the other gangs on his behalf. Krrsh and Miria hate each other, and Krrsh does not know which gangs she will approach or where she is on Theev.
• He knows the secret routes to Theev, and will gladly hand them over. Not only does he know a safe landing code, he also knows the location of a refuelling station in an empty region of space which means the characters can use the jump-2 to get to Theev.

Asked about the Chamax and the station Krrsh is able to pass on the following knowledge that seems to be well known to pirates in the sector;

• The old Sindalian station was used by pirates as a refuge and refuelling station for many years, until His Grace showed up. His Grace was a pirate who claimed to be the illegitimate son of the Duke of Tobia, and amused his crewmates with his lordly airs and graces. In keeping with his noble heritage, he was a collector of art and curiosities from across Known Space. One of his most prized acquisitions was a sculpture that he believed to be a petrified Hiver specimen (and when he found out that Hivers look nothing like folded-up tarantulas, he began to claim it came from a semi-mythical ‘Hiver Queen’). In fact, the sculpture came from Foreven Sector.
• Every traveller knows what happens when you bring a mysterious alien artefact onto an isolated space station, especially if the merchant you bought it from swears that it is completely dormant and harmless.
• His ‘sculpture’ awoke, drawn by the heat of human bodies and the psionic trace of their emotions. It unfolded, insectoid limbs stretching out obscenely like chitinous origami. Deposits of petrified acid flaked off, revealing razor-sharp mandibles. The gravid Chamax fulfiled its biological urge and produced offspring in the dark reaches of the station. As they young feasted on the body of their parent they too became aware of the other inhabitants of the station. They hunted.
• The first victim was His Grace. They stalked the rest of the crew through the space station, killing them one by one until the last survivors escaped. Deprived of fresh prey the Chamax brood slumbered.
• Since then, the space station has been almost completely abandoned except for a few pirate crews who use it as a means of ceremonial execution. If the crew decide that one of their number has failed or betrayed them, they bring the unfortunate victim to the Borite system and abandon him on board the nameless station.
• It happen immediately, or it may take several hours, but the presence of heat and life awakens the Chamax..

It is not clear if he party have killed all the Chamax, or if others slumber, still to awaken.

To be continued...