Nitrane's Arunisiir Shindig

Lady Nitrane looked at the fuel technician, looked at the rest of the party then turned again to the technician and told him that she'd forgotten that they had already refuelled at a gas giant and therefore did not need any fuel. He shrugged and walked away.

(What your ships look like compared to other ships)

Heaving a great sigh of relief the travellers considered their situation. They needed to get lots of supplies for their ships, and still thought that they should get out of Arunisiir spaceport as quickly as possible. However, seeing as many of the Harrier crews had been 8 weeks or more since their last shore leave, and there was cargo to sell, it seemed likely that they would stay on Arunisiir for a few days. Lady Nitrane kept an eye on the treasure ship along with Unter, and decided that the imperials were back to a normal level of security.

As it was approaching evening when they arrived the crew of all three Harriers went to the bar to let their hair down. Lady Nitrane took the role of hostess and entertainments officer, keeping the men and women of the crew occupied. Unter kep order, ensuring no rowdiness broke out, and Slayed wrapped up proceedings and ensured that everyone returned to the ships in good order.

The next day, Captain Slayed went with the other two ship captains to resupply the ships, and to buy additional supplies as a contingency against needing to stay on station some more. After than he went to the trading station and sold the cargo that had been in the Harriers' cargo bays for the past three or four months.

Meanwhile, continuing the efforts to give the crew a short but intense break, Lady Nitrane decided that a party would be in order. She arranged the bar to provide staff and alcohol for the party, and organised food, cookers and tables for the evening. The three ships were positioned as they had been on Paal, with all three cargo holds arranged in a three sided triangle. One would hold the bar, another would be where food was cooked, and the third for tables and chairs.

As things were being arranged, Nitrane saw First Officer Jagad heading to the bar and asked if she and the officers from the treasure ship would be interested in attending. Jagad's eyes immediately widened in pleasure and she gushingly accepted. She had been so bored on this uninteresting planet and this would be a delightful send off. Nitrane asked about what had happened while she and the travellers were 'away' and Jagad told her about the escorts being downed by an unknown assailant. Nitrane told her that the party were from Drinax and flew the flag from time to time, even this far out, and also were pirate hunters. Jagad accepted this and was impressed, although not as impressive as the Imperial Navy of course. With that she thanked Lady Nitrane for the invitation and with a much more lively stop started toward the bar, then changed her mind and returned to the treasure ship, waving at Nitrane on the way past.

The evening approached and the crew that had volunteered to be cooks and waiters for the guests were put through a trial run and everything went smoothly. Selecting appropriate music (something bluesy and rock and roll-y seemed the most appropriate) the travellers returned to their Harrier to dress for the evening. Captain Slayed wore his admiral uniform now that the cat was out of the bag. Similarly Sparrow wore his officer uniform. Unter and Nitrane decided that he'd wear his bodyguard tuxedo while Lady Nitrane picked out an elegant but not too dazzling number befitting a hostess.

The guests arrived, most of the treasure ship officers were there; First Officer Jagad, Second Officer Halbinar, Astrogator Osho, and Chief Engineer (Acting) Polo were known the travellers. Lead Pilot Smirh, Cargo Chief Niven and Tactical Officer Grimbold were not. In addition a number of crew from the treasure ship also came. Lady Nitrane greeted everyone and saw too it that people were having fun. Unter took up a position near the cooking area and supervised. Unter was located near the bar, supposedly supervising but more often than not testing. And Captain Slayed was to be found at one of the tables talking and laughing with whoever came and sat near him.

After a while Jagad and Osha came to see Lady Nitrane to give thanks and to tell her that they had to go back to the ship. Jagad was very keen to speak with Nitrane again and hoped she could so so before the treasure ship left.

A little later, after night had fallen and the party was in full swing, a solitary figure was seen approaching. It was Captain Torsa, marching proudly up to the party. Lady Nitrane immediately noticed and went to meet him. Torsa was wearing his dress uniform and identified some personal marks of nobility amongst the imperial navy insignia.

Torsa greeted Lady Nitrane civilly and proceeded to walk to the bar, where a colourful pyramid of cocktails was being poured. Torsa got a small sherry. At the cooking area he observed the cooks and their delicious seared slabs of meat. He did not partake. Lastly he checked the seating area and saw that Captain Slayed was settled in talking to anyone who wanted to chat. Only then did he engage Lady Nitrane in a polite and reserved conversation.

After a short while, Lady Nitrane realised that he was looking at Captain Slayed from time to time. She adjusted her position so that Slayed was visible over her shoulder and watched Torsa intently. Expecting disgust or disdain, instead she saw envy and longing. It seemed that Captain Torsa had been informed that Captain Slayed was in fact Admiral Slayed (Imperial Navy, retired). While Slayed led a crowd of people in song, recounted tall tales, led a conga line, and was the life of the party, Torsa was not approached by anyone and got at best an acknowledging nod from one or two people.

The conversation with Torsa continued, with Torsa looking over her shoulder at Slayed, and Nitrane using her diplomatic skills to ensure Torsa was engaged. A useful idiot, he started opening up to the mission they had at hand. It transpired that their next stop would be Acrid when they left, but when she coyly asked about the contents of the vault he smiled and said that he couldn't possibly tell her that.

It was then that she realised he was looking at her more, with the longing she'd seen on his face before, and not at Slayed. He said that he would very much like to speak with her again before they left. Captain Slayed at this point came over, bejeweled admirals jacket unbuttoned and having wished many of his audience a good night as they hurried back to the treasure ship. Captain Torsa stiffened and gave a slight formal bow as a laconic and relaxed Slayed firmly shook his hand. Torsa at this point thanked Lady Nitrane for the evening and turned to go.

"Tosser" said Slayed as the captain marched away, back straight.

With the party over for the Imperials, the crew relaxed and settled in for a few more hours of cards, drinking and laughing. They were advised that due to their sterling work they could choose what they wanted to do the next day. Some wanted to go hunting, others wanted to do some damage to the stocks of alcohol in the bar.

The travellers retired to their Harrier to discuss what would happen next.

To be continued.

Return of the prodigal travellers

The Harriers returned to the sky after stripping the Patrol Cruiser of its easily salvageable items and burying the crew. The next concern was the Gazelle still in orbit above the spaceport. They didn't have long to wait to see what would happen next as their sensors picked up the Gazelle coming over the horizon with full sensor sweeps as it appeared to be searching for the downed ship.

The Harriers pulled back, allowing the Gazelle to be drawn all the way around from the starport. The Gazelle did not detect the Harriers and when the party opened fire the imperials were taken entirely by surprise. After two rounds of pounding, the party watched as the imperial ship crashed in to the planet surface, its hull falling apart, life support all but destroyed.

With nothing to salvage, and no more navy ships in orbit, the travellers decided to move closer to the spaceport, the better to keep an eye on the treasure ship.

On the first day the scout ship Whistlestop, crewed by Yan and his robot Bucket, left Arunisiir and jumped away. The next four days were uneventful, with no traffic in or out. Unfortunately the supplies on the ships were running out, leaving the option of having one ship return to the port for supplies, or to land and go hunting and gathering.

At this point the Harriers decided to go closer still to the spaceport, but one miscalculated and was detected by the spaceport sensors. Three times the ship was challenged to identify itself, but three times refused to acknowledge the request. After the third time 24 missiles were launched and streaked towards the Harriers, which were in close proximity to each other.

With barely enough time to react, the Harriers instantly initiated electronic countermeasures and all missiles were destroyed. In the explosions the ships returned to the side of the planet away from the Arunisiir spaceport, hoping that the attackers would assume that the ship was destroyed.

With supplies running short a decision needed to be made. Clearly the spaceport was on high alert, but something had to be done. It was decided that the Harriers would move away from the planet to outside the 100 diameter range and then make a long sweep around to approach the spaceport as if they had just arrived. At the appropriate moment the transponders were all turned on, and they started down to the planet.

Almost immediately they were hailed by the spaceport and asked their identity and purpose. The three Harriers were identified as yacht/traders under the command of Captain Slayed. Their purpose included that they had trade goods to sell. The spaceport control tower advised that an incident had taken place and that it would be necessary to do a full search of the ships on landing, and that permission to land was based on that being accepted.

Lady Nitrane asked what the incident was, and the person talking to her admitted that at least one ship had been shot down. He abruptly stopped discussing it, and directed the Harriers to land.

Knowing that a search was imminent the decision was made to check for suspicious goods on board. This meant jettisoning the recently acquired battle dress and FGMP-15 weapons obtained from the marines on the Patrol Cruiser. Hoping to find them again, Sparrow took note of the location, direction and speed.

Upon landing the travellers saw the repair ship landed close to the treasure ship. Also the newly arrived trader was located near the spaceport control centre. Landing close to where they had been berthed previously, the three Harriers were approached by Imperial marines and officers waiting for the hatches to open.

Lady Nitrane, incensed that there were imperials conducting the searches, contacted the control tower to find out what was happening. In short, the control tower explained that due to the circumstances of multiple ships disappearing, and the overwhelming weaponry of the imperials, the navy had taken charge of security at the spaceport. It came down to the ship not being serviced, and the travellers not being able to purchase supplies, unless they subjected themselves and their ships to a search as had been explained as they approached the planet.

Very reluctantly they agreed and opened the hatches. Captain Slayed assembled all crew and presented their papers. Second Officer Halbinar, who the party had previously met, conducted the ID checks while the marines performed searches of all three ships. They had, Slayed advised them, jumped to Exocet at an agreed time to meet with their other ships, and then as they had some cargo to deliver, returned to Arunisiir. Other  than a slight discrepancy in the cargo manifest of one ship, which Captain Slayed explained away, the crews were cleared.

Unfortunately, the need to check ID did give one vital piece of information away. As she finished the checks, Second Officer Halbinar saluted Slayed and said "thank you Admiral" and walked back to the treasure ship.

As they looked at each other and considered what to do, the Arunisiir spaceport technicians approach the party and asked "need refuelling?" At which point the realised that their tanks were full, which might be hard to explain given they had just gone to great lengths to explain that they had jumped from Exocet.

To be continued.