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.
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