Imperial Adventures

To the Imperium
The trip to Tobia progressed relatively uneventfully through Marduk, Exocet and Wildeman. A number of rumours were picked up along the way (see separate post).

Fist
On arrival at Fist, the first Imperial world on the trip, the party passed huge nickel plated asteroids in orbit around the planet, carved into glorious sculptures of imperial might. On landing they were subjected to customs inspections, and were allowed to continue with their journey.

Tobia
The sector capital was the final destination, and was an astonishing sight for those who had not been there before. The world is a planet-wide city. Traffic in orbit when the party arrived was equivalent to all the ships arriving in Drinax in a year. Huge cargo ships in convoys, capital warships, and between them smaller traders, defence boats and shuttles.

All ships arriving at Tobia are given specific flight paths and the party were directed to land at the enormous starport immediately upon entering the system. The landing systems all but taking control of the ship as it came in to land.

The landing pad was around 1 kilometre from the main building, a huge structure around 8km long and 3km wide. Customs was relatively simple (albeit thorough) for everyone except Unter. He was detained due to some irregularities with his paperwork, and as a result of a crewman being under suspicion the ship was also locked down and would be unable to leave.

The fixer
The rest of the party got in contact with Lemuel Volin, the fixer that Lady Yemar had engaged to find the scientist. He arranged to meet them in a warehouse quite close to the starport. They arrived at dusk, as arranged, and discussed with him their intention to bring the scientist back with them to Lady Yemar.

The plans and information that he had passed to Lady Yemar were, to the best of his knowledge, were up to date. Getting another person to go in and check the maps and scientist details would take months as the infiltration of such a place would have to be done carefully and slowly. The party were not willing to wait months so started devising their own approach.

News reports showing CCTV footage gave a clue that there were cameras everywhere on Tobia. Checking the cameras near the target building might be a good place to start. Lemuel could have appropriate computers at the warehouse tomorrow morning. The party returned to the starport for the evening. Unter had been released but was still confined to the starport.

Hacking computers
The next day the party arrived back at the warehouse and commenced the search for the cameras in the area around the building. The local authority had archive footage as well which meant that the travellers could go back a few days to detect patterns.

It became clear that there were relatively few people coming and going for the size of the building. The building could house a hundred or more scientists and workers but they were not being let out. Similarly there were relatively few vehicles delivering cargo which suggested a high degree of self-sustainability. Following the journey of one of the delivery vehicles showed it to be entirely ordinary.

When trawling back through the old footage did not produce any more information it was decided to see if the local authorities had any information in the building ownership or plans. After a while a picture emerged of redacted information or misleading lines of holding companies which obscured the ownership entirely. The only information to be gleaned was that there was no information.

Building plans were easier to come by (although still difficult) and a good picture of the services and pipes into the building were established, including the air (as Tobia has a tainted atmosphere).

Luckily at this time Unter was allowed to leave the starport and joined up with the rest of the party.

Making plans
When other lines of investigation dried up a visit to the building, and a possible assault or infiltration, was planned. Needing some vehicles, communications gear, armour, weapons, support crew, etc meant that it would be a couple of days for he fixer to get everything organised. The party would need new identities for this endeavour and tickets to the location where the building was located.

Unfortunately Lady Nitrane's identity caused problems and she had to get another one, which resulted in a days delay in arriving at the city hub nearest the building. Luckily this did not disrupt the plans as the fixer was still getting all the necessary equipment together.

Going in
The plans took a long time to put together, but in the end it was decided that Slayd and Nitrane would approach the building while Sparrow and Unter would wait, fully equipped in armour and weapons.

Upon entering it was found that there was no reception desk nor anyone to talk to. Slayd and Nitrane sat on one of the benches in the open entry area and just waited.

After a while a door could be heard opening and someone put their head around the corner and asked if there was anything they could help the two patient party members with?

After some conversation, and an attempt to find Jari Astor in the computer, Slayd and Nitrane were taken up to an accommodation level where it became more apparent that far from being a bustling scientific hub with over a hundred scientists, this was all but abandoned and staffed only with a skeleton crew. The person they were led to advised that the scientist had moved to a planet called Tech-World some time ago.

Thanking them and returning to Sparrow and Unter the party decided that they would return to the starport and make plans to travel to Tech-World rather than stay on Tobia any longer.

Making their escape
The return journey back to the warehouse was uneventful but as the party were getting out of their vehicle they were challenged by police and told to stop what they were doing and submit to being arrested.

After a moment's hesitation, during which time the people getting out of the car remembered that this was not a situation they wanted to be in, they jumped back in the vehicle and sped towards the starport.

Abandoning the transportation in a parking lot they hurried inside. Unter was caught in the open and had difficulty getting in - and was seen by the pursuing authorities. Splitting up - some to kaff shops and Nitrane to the toilets to change her outfit, the party stayed one step ahead. From time to time they noticed that their pictures were shown on large screens, and the pictures were getting more detailed and therefore the chances of them being identified was increasing.

After dropping in to the hotel to pick up valuables, the party headed to the ship which the crew onboard were already prepping. Slayd immediately started setting a course for New Moscow, which had been selected as the best place to jump to. While he did that Sparrow was expertly piloting the ship, taking cover from the many ships in orbit and heading to the 100d jump point.

Unfortunately the sensors picked up defence boats and other military ships incoming and it was decided, reluctantly, to jump early and take the chance of a misjump.

To be continued.