(Navy characters) The fleet draws near

The punitive fleet headed closer to the Trojan Reaches. Next stop was Palindrome, a non-Imperial world.

Palindrome
At Palindrome the fleet remained in orbit as it refueled, but crew were allowed shore leave for 24 hours. The four friends arranged to have the same time off, and met at the launch where they had an amazing view of the planet as they came down to land at the only city on Palindrome.

There they found that many shops and businesses were closed, and there was a feeling that something was not quite right. Asking the barman of one of the only open bars neat the downport, they found out that the ruler of the planet, a Lady Yemar, had not been seen for some time. The populace feared her dead and while her council were still nominally in charge, many people had decided to shut up shop and even prepare to leave the planet.

The relative shortage of places to go meant the friends were forced to travel deep into the city to find a relatively quiet cantina where they could talk and drink and get some food.

Once finished they enquired about accommodation and were directed to a nice establishment nearby where they slept in real beds for a change before returning to the ship the next morning.

Boulder
Admiral Krond had arranged for a fuel dump to be set up in the Boulder system, and as the fleet arrived they noticed a small free trader siphoning off some fuel from the enormous tanks. The friends were on a picket ship, well in advance of the rest of the fleet, and were ordered to destroy the free trader.

The captain of the picket was less than impressed, but ordered that the guns be fired. Unfortunately the shot just missed, by choice or accident could not be told, and the trader fled. The captain sarcastically admonished the gunner.

Exocet
The next planet was Exocet, in which system an Aslan merchant fleet was detected, among which one ship was identified as having attacked an imperial registered free trader a number of years ago. It was destroyed, which caused some consternation on the fleet ships as that was a clear breach of the peace between the Aslan Hierate and Imperium.

As the fleet was jumping out a problem with a pump caused the flagship to be delayed by a few hours.

Arunisiir
As soon as they arrived in Arunisiir the rumour spread that a treasure ship had been here not long ago, and had suffered a disastrous jump drive explosion. Also three imperial ships went missing at the same time, so foul play was assumed.

Luckily for the treasure ship some small military vessels from a nearby system called Drinax had come and were persuaded out of respect for the Imperium to help the treasure ship reach its destination. Rumour had it that a retired admiral of the Imperial Navy was with them which meant that they were at least not going to be entirely useless.

The general feeling on the fleet was that at the very least the Drinax ships could be used as cannon fodder by the treasure ship - useless on the whole and expendable, but at least anything attacking the treasure ship would be distracted by the additional ships. They had left not long ago. It seemed that the final destination of the treasure ship was the same as the fleet - Byrni.