Much a-coup about nothing

Coup at the Palace
The travellers decided to land the ship at the main docks as instructed. They could see plumes of smoke as they approached the landing platform and there were people below running and taking cover. The palace seemed to have gone mad. Lady Nitrane tried to get hold of Lord Wrax on the comms but was unsuccessful. It seemed that so much was happening that they would need to fend for themselves.

Emerging from the ship they noticed Kasiyl and Rachando, the latter with some bodyguards, exchanging fire with a group of Prince Harrick supporters. As they watched two of the bodyguards  went down and the others ducked for cover. Gunfire and shouting could be heard coming from deeper inside the palace.

The party were wearing heavy armour and were armed with powerful weapons, but instead of attacking they shouted out that the Harrick supporters were dangerously close to committing acts of treason and that the King was alive and in the party's care. It took a little time but the Harrick supporters stopped and rallied behind the travellers.

Elsewhere in the palace Harrick supporters were converging on the throne room and on the life support section. They hoped that by taking these areas the might be in a position to negotiate a successful victory. Rao's supporters had other ideas and converged on the throne room. A pitched battle broke out and there were many casualties on both sides.

The travellers moved into the life support section where Harrick supporters had entrenched themselves behind barricades. Lady Nitrane, wielding her sword, led the charge. Under heavy fire more Rao supporters fell but the party started to overwhelm the Harrick defences. Just as they thought they might carry the day a group of androids arrived to bolster the defenders and the battle broke out again.

In the Throne Room sufficient Rao supporters arrived to persuade the Harrick supporters to drop their weapons or to join with Rao. The outcome was now a foregone conclusion and the last of the androids in Life Support were destroyed to finish the coup.

Aftermath
Lady Nitrane immediately went to the starport docks and patched into the palace-wide communications channel. She broadcast the video that she had taken on King Oleb as he was close to death down on the surface. The entire palace heard how he promised whoever found his medical kit would be made an archduke. The whole palace also however heard that the King thought the Scholar's tower were vampires for what they did to Prince Harrick, and that the King wanted to die instead.

The King was also heard saying that the floating palace was a joke, and that the party had been given a Letter of Marque and that he had instructed the party to go pirating. If they could, through piracy, bring back the kingdom they would be forgiven. Lastly he said that Prince Harrick was not the right person to be King after Oleb, which meant that it would be Queen Rao, but not without saying that she was too scheming and tool political and that she should be told to stop.

The people of the palace were shocked. Lord Wrax almost certainly smiled. Ambassador Polx of the Imperium could be heard exploding in anger. Lady Nitrane shrugged at the enormity of the thing she had done, saying "they all knew anyway".

The hunt for Rao
Neither Price Harrick not Princess Rao were to be found. Asking around they found that Princess Rao had been seen entering Prince Harrick's yacht and was not pleased about going. There were no guns pointed at her, and she was not tied up, but the observer got the feeling it was more a kidnapping than a cooperative act. That was one and a half days ago. People in the startport control told the party that the Prince had gone to Asim. The party decided to follow.

Putting the King on the hands of the Hawk Warriors seemed best, and they were instructed to have the king looked after in the Scholar;s tower and to not let anyone harm him. Lady Nitrane also instructed Lord Wrax to stay neutral but he just dismissed her.

The Harrier took off and arranged with the other two Harriers to jump to Asim. The yacht would come to pick up Kaisyl to take him to his scout, hidden in the outer reaches of the system, before he and the freighter headed to the space station. Rachando came with the party on the Harrier. His two ships were on trading missions but he just wanted to get out of Drinax.

Dull and brown
Arriving at Asim the party were reminded how brown the place was. Dull too. They scanned for any signs of the yacht but were not surprised to find no trace of it given it's lead. As they headed down to the spaceport the other two Harriers arrived and were told to stay in orbit to scan for ships leaving or arriving.

Coming in to land the party looked for a yacht but saw none. The Asim spaceport was an immense expanse of flat ferrocrete and it would be impossible to hide a ship given there were no enclosed hangars. They checked at the spaceport nevertheless but were told that no records would be given to them. The animosity of the Asim people to Drinax was strong.

Rather than go incognito they decided to contact Governor Telwax, the most senior Drinax official on the planet. She would be delighted to see the party in three hours at the Governor's Palace. The travellers had no choice it seemed but to wait.

The governor
Arriving at the palace at the appointed time they were taken in to meet the governor, her wife, and her child. Pleasantries were exchanged before they moved into the governor's office to talk about more serious matters.

Nitrane opened with a statement that the King was still alive and that the coup was over. The governor was clearly shaken at the news, although suspicious were aroused when she was interested more in why they were here rather than more news about a coup and the near-death of the King.

Nitrane and Slayed convinced the Governor that her best course of action was to put aside any misgivings and just tell them where Prince Harrick could be found, and she relented and told them he was at the Dragon Fortress in the mountains.

Dragon Fortress
After Drinax took control of Asim, primarily due to the huge technology level advantage they Drinax had, they created a fortress in the mountains that would be all but impossible for the locals to penetrate. It consisted of a large flattened area for ships to land, and a number of hundreds of metres deep vertical tubes leading down to a maze of kill zones and passages. To anyone with a grav belt it was simplicity itself to just waft downwards.

Unter and Slayed knew roughly where to look and almost immediately the landing area was spotted, along with a flight of Hawk Warriors flying protectively above. Deciding to approach as if they were permitted to be there they landed without being challenged.

Emerging from the ship, Lady Nitrane in ceramic armour and the rest in battle dress, they started towards the nearest vertical tube when three Hawk Warriors emerged upwards out of it. The warriors landed near the edge and one opened its helmet. A woman with somewhat familiar features curled her lip and looked distastefully at Lady Nitrane.

"Hello mother!" she snarled. "Hello dear" Lady Nitrane replied cheerfully.

The daughter of Lady Nitrane and Lord Wrax, Colonel Sedelti didn't have Lady Nitrane's attractive appearance and looked more like her father. Nitrane looked to be eighteen whereas Sedelti, without the benefit of anagathics, looked to be approaching middle age.

Sedelti shouted for her guards to arrest the party, but Nitrane shouted forcibly that they should not. They were representing the King, she said, and that any move against them would be clear treason. The guards faltered, and Sedelti, if possible, looked even more aggrieved.

Nitrane demanded to be taken to Price Harrick and, with little choice, and perhaps even hoping that the Prince would put Nitrane in her place, Sedelti ordered a grav-sled be raised for the party to be taken down.

Their highnesses
Led into an antechamber the party could see into the next room - a huge open space - and in there were Prince Harrick and Princess Rao, the latter sitting grumpily with her arms crossed. They appeared to be having an argument when the party arrived.

Looking up the Prince and Princess gave 'so what do you want' looks at the party. Nitrans told them that their father had gone missing but had been found and was still alive, and that there had been a coup and that it had been won my Princess Rao's forces with the help of the party.

Initially both stunned, the Princess recovered first and looked a lot more cheerful. She started telling her brother that his concerns were groundless. She told him that they should go and see the Zhodani envoy to put his mind at rest.

The party were nonplussed. It seemed that the princess had been seeing Zhodani agents for months and that the Prince had gotten wind and was concerned for the safety of the princess and for Drinax. The Princess on the other hand was entirely certain that the Zhodani could be trusted.

The travellers started arguing that the royal siblings should come immediately to Drinax but Princess Rao dismissed the idea. It would take a week to get back but this rendezvous with the Zhodani would take only a day or two as they were already in the system waiting. Perhaps King Oleb, unhinged as he is, had a point about his daughter.

As the Prince and Princess started walking out of the chambers and back towards the surface Nitrane tried again to persuade them to return immediately to Drinax, but was yet again dismissed.

Not knowing what to do, she looked to the other travellers for help.

To be continued.