The travellers arrived at Theev and requested permission to land at the downport, providing the special code that meant no missiles would fire at them. They landed and the giant clam-shell doors closed over their heads. No customs or inspections were required of course, so they planned what they would do.
Nitrane wanted to meet with Lomar Fisk, an admirer of hers and provider of tricked up transponders. Unter wanted to meet Davon who was Admiral Darokyn's right-hand man. Nitrane and Slayed wanted to talk to Admiral Darokyn as they had not seen him for nearly two years. Lastly Slayed wanted to meet with Zheukvi the Corsair who had wanted to meet with him for nearly 18 months ever since asking Krrsh to pass a message on.
In addition to meeting with friends old and (possibly) new, the cargo they bought on Palindrome needed to be sold and they thought that Klim Gobbo would like to get some high tech mining drones while here.
Heading out along one of the passages and into a main hub of the space station Nitrane and Unter noticed that there was a different vibe to the place compared to the previous timed they'd been here. There were fewer people out and about and the ones that were seemed more focused, moving faster and less interested in others. There were also more of the black-clad Widows of Blacksand around. Something was up.
Nitrane got hold of Fisk who was less effusively polite than other times. He said that he was in a rush and that he was about to leave. Nitrane asked why. Fisk was astonished and asked "don't you know?". Nitrane asked to meet him and he said he'd be at the spaceport in half an hour anyway as he had a ship to catch.
Unter tried to talk to Davon but was unable to reach him. This was not unusual as he was often out on missions but it was disappointing not to reach him. Slayed sent a message to Zheukvi announcing that he was in Blacksand City and would be happy to meet Zheukvi to talk. The message was taken and a response would be forthcoming he was told.
Meanwhile, after selling the cargo and picking up some more, Sparrow, Slayed and Gobbo went to buy 20 tons of mining drones from a reputable dealer. They asked them to be delivered to the docking bay and returned.
Fisk arrived and he and Nitrane accompanied him to the docking bay that his liner was leaving from. He explained that the Imperial Navy was in the sector doing a sweep for pirates. This happened every few years but this time seemed different. They had stayed around for a lot longer than before, and were more ruthless - intent on killing pirates rather than scaring them off. They arrived and, awkwardly, he shook her hand and hoped to see her again one day.
Meanwhile Slayed had started looking for Darokyn. He had no way to directly contact him - Darokyn usually contacted you - but started asking around. He at least had some more knowledgeable contacts than last time but it seemed Darokyn was not wanting to be easily found. What he did lern though was that Hrol Irontooth, Peter Vallis and a pirate lord they'd not heard of before called Dread Ashen had all been captured or killed by the Imperial Navy. There was no mention of Darokyn. He also learned that pirate bases in Exe and The World had been compromised. Some of Slayed's leads would report back the next morning so the travellers stayed on Lady Yemar's ship overnight.
The next morning, with all cargo and mining drones, they learned that Zheukvi was on The Skull and would be leaving in six hours, but there would be time to meet if Slayed could come up to the orbiting moon/spaceport soon. They also learned that Darokyn was not on Theev and so there was no other reason to stay. They talked about getting new identities but surmised that their contact would be long gone if the Imperial Navy were getting close, but also that they didn't want to stay around waiting for the navy to arrive. So they went to The Skull.
The Skull
Arriving at The Skull the party found that they were not far from where Zheukvi and his men could be found. They all made their way there, leaving Goff, Gobbo, Tiznee and the others on the ship. They didn't expect they would be long.
Zheukvi turned out to have multiple bays at one edge of the spaceport and had taken over, to all intents and purposes, the nearest bar as his centre of operations and heavy drinking.
Slayed learned here that Zheukvi was a Vargr, as were many of his crew. Slightly unusually they were all quite well behaved, politely apologising and getting out of the way as the approached the booth that Zheukvi could be found at.
As soon as the Vargr captain saw Slayed he stood up, growled a surprisingly cordial welcome, and shook his hand. He then shook everyone elses hand and asked them to sit. This was not at all what Slayed and the others had expected. He was not the archetypal Vargr corsair at all.
Zheukvi started by ordering a round of drinks, and Slayed followed suit. It has been long established that Slayed is a charming and entertaining host and as a guest he was equal parts diplomat a d rogue. He and Zheukvi got along very well. It was decided that they'd not mention the situation on Falcon (where Zheukvi had apparently planted a bomb to extort the inhabitants) as they didn't know him yet.
The conversation unearthed some interesting facts - or brags - from Zheukvi. Among other things he let slip that his based in Exe was compromised. The Imperials had raided it while he was luckily not there, but it was close. Slayed told him about the pirate prisoners being ferried to a prison planet in an Imperial convoy. This angered Zheukvi but he sighed as there was nothing he could do. Slayed hinted that perhaps he might think about doing something and Zheukvi smiled as if that confirmed something he'd been thinking.
The Vargr then got to the point. He'd heard about Slayed for some time now. That he was an excellent tactician, a cunning pirate, and a strong leader. Perhaps, Zheukvi thought, they could join up. He'd spoken to Darokyn and Lady Yemar about Slayed and his crew and heard good things. He'd be happy to follow Slayed, at least while they got to know each other, and they'd have time to do that as Zheukvi intended to stay low for a while until the Imperials left. He also wondered if Slayed had anywhere to stay out of trouble for the time being.
Slayed looked to Sparrow, Nitrane and Unter. They talked and while Zheukvi seemed nice enough the others, particularly Sparrow, sensed a trap or deception and in the end the decision what that they should go their separate ways for the time being. Zheukvi looked disappointed but thanked Slayed for his time and stood, rousing his crew to their ships.
Zheukvi shook hands with Slayed, wished him well. He and his crew would find somewhere to lay low for a few months. Hopefully they'd see each other in a year or so when the stars aligned and their paths crossed again.
Slayed and the others headed back to the ship. They noted when Zheukvi left in his four Corsairs and were careful to leave after him and head to the 100 diameter limit in a different direction.
They jumped to Salif.
On Salif
On arrival Tiznee announced that she was on board and they had an escort of two system defense boats and priority clearance to land at the presidential dock. They had no need to pass through customs and a number of grav trucks were waiting to take them to the hangar where some of their ships were to be found. The travellers learned that the Harriers had arrived and also that the Far Scout was on planet. Goff determined that his ship was also here, having travelled here on automation and landed at the cargo docks.
They bade farewell to Tiznee who hugged each of them tearfully, and very dramatically, and wished them well.
On arriving at the docking bay they found it to be a huge covered bay for ships of around 40,000 tons. This seemed to have been set aside for their sole use and all four ships - five when Goff fetched his - fitted easily. The crew were overjoyed to see them. They'd been kicking their heels for many months but the far trader had been bringing in money and they treated it as a long paid holiday.
The covered bay had been set up for long-term occupancy. There was a bar and food preparation area in the corner. Many mismatched chairs and a holo-display were adjacent. Portable sleeping quarters had also been stacked in another corner so nobody really had to leave. Food and supplies were delivered and nobody outside the hangar needed to know anything. When they left or arrived in a ship nobody asked any questions. It was pretty ideal.
They had also brought things from the space station to repair in more comfortable surroundings but the going was slow because most of the crew had decided to leave and so it was only a dozen or so who remained on Salif and the station. The arrival of the Harriers had boosted numbers by another twenty or so.
The far trader and the frontier trader were both due in the next four or five days. The far trader, on its trading route between Number One and Salif was not as profitable as the Torpol-Drinax run, but was not harrassed by Lord Wrax and the star guard. From time to time the Salif system defense boats had escorted them when there was trouble afoot so all in all it was a nice easy trading route. So much so that they'd started a trading company, headquartered here.
The frontier trader ferried things to and from the space station. There were only a handful of people in the space station at any one time and while there were some ships docked there wasn't any real activity going on.
Learning all this the travellers were disappointed to discover that they had only a handful of marines, not the 30+ they hoped to find. This presented a problem. They needed trained marines to board the freighter and the prisoner ship to execute their plan of freeing them all. Someone mentioned that perhaps Tiznee could lend them some marines but that was a very unlikely outcome even with the relationship they had with her.
They had a couple of days while the Harriers underwent long overdue maintenance and also while they waited for the traders. They spent some of this time planning and considering their options.
Goff and Gobbo thought that the secret base in Wildeman would be relatively simple to get up and running. Some fuel and maintenance should see at least partial functionality. Slayed admitted that being in the system that they hoped to ambush the convoy would give them time to plan and prepare. Unter pointed out that there were many mercenary companies based on Theev and perhaps there ware some still there that they could hire.
With the deadline of the pirate prisoner convoy weighing on their minds they decided that Slayed and the others would take the Far Scout to Theev and see if they could fund some marines to hire. The others would travel to the space station and fetch the last remaining people and shut it all down. This would take a couple of weeks and so they could meet back here in two weeks and them proceed to Wildeman.
To be continued.
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