Needs some work

Secret Wildeman Base
After returning to the ship after the initial look around the hidden base in Wildeman, the travellers, with  Goff, Gobbo and Lady Yemar, discussed what might happen next.

Everyone was keen to have more of a look around, but the party were keen to head back to their Space Station as quickly as possible to be back in tie for the Imperial prisoner convoy. Spending another day or two looking around wouldn't be too much of a delay so that's the time limit they game themselves.

Before that however was the matter of why they had come here in the first place. Lady Nitrane turned to Gobbo and told him that they had need of an expert miner/belter as they have an old base, near an asteroid field, that needed raw materials to bring it up to working order. She answered his questions, without giving anything away of where or what the station is. He asked to speak with Goff, whom he trusted and knew, and returned with another question - what were they offering?

Lady Nitrane advised him that they'd obtained Goff's services on the understanding that he'd get 10% of the manufacturing output for one year. Gobbo thought about it and asked for 5% and that the travellers provide him with the tools he needed - namely a seeker ship equipped in the manner that he needed, which would remain theirs after he completed the job.

The travellers agreed to this and he said he'd just need to return to Wildeman itself to pack and pick up his wife. His ship would be put into storage as it did not have a jump drive and nobody had any means of getting it to the space station.

Having agreed terms, and with the group rested and vacc suits recharged, they returned into the secret base. Wary at first about booby traps, and possibly critters, the base turned out to be devoid of traps and was just as it appeared, an abandoned base that people had apparently expected to return to. Nothing appeared to have been hastily left and there were no signs of struggle, explosions or dangerous activities of any sort. If things were quiet now it was just because they'd run out of fuel or battery life.

Base Description

The base comprised of:

• Residential - the rooms were all cut out of the asteroid rock but were appointed as staterooms. The fresher, beds, storage and other furniture and objects were clearly brought in from different ships. Some staterooms were much more luxurious and spacious than the majority - perhaps for Tamby and his lieutenants.
• Main drag - the first large corridor that they encountered outside  the residential area stretched along  the entirely of the base. Gobbo christened it the 'main drag' and the term stuck. It was about 8 metres wide and had cargo cranes along the roof and what appeared to be a mag-lev tramway on the floor. it seemed that large amounts of cargo or people could travel quite quickly from one end to the other.
• Concourse - this area consisted of large windows (perhaps from luxurious liners) overlooking the docking area, as well as being a large gathering and socialising area.
• Commons - cafes, bars and recreation areas were in evidence at a much wider part of the concourse, and could easily accommodate well over one hundred people at a time. The machinery and appliances were all from on-board ships - a recurring theme.
• Docking area - well over 200,000 cubic meters with docking arms, airlocks and boarding tubes - all seemingly from captured craft. The airlocks were of all sizes - passenger and cargo sizes - and lead to the concourse area. No ships were currently in the docking area.
• Fuel - the massive fuel tanks were located under the concourse and were accessible through hatches. The fuel tanks were all small but there were many of them, better to avoid catastrophic fuel leaks, but mostly because the fuel tanks all seemed to be taken from captured ships./
• Commercial - adjacent to the concourse were stores (more like those run by a company quartermaster than a proper shop) as well as offices that appeared to be merchants or traders or brokers.
• Biosphere - a large area of hydroponics growing racks as well as water and air purification and reclamation. This meant that the inhabitants didn't need to go to Wildeman for supplies.
• Power Plant - many small power plants linked together, all clearly taken from captured ships. Need more power? Capture a ship. The maglev and cargo cranes extend into here as well as the biosphere.
• Cargo and Storage - Huge areas, much higher than the rest of the crew areas of the base, containing cargo racks and cargo handling conveyors. Massive hoppers of raw materials took up a corner; raw ores through to refined and smelted products. In addition there were some containers of mundane items - nothing very valuable.
• Manufacturing - Huge ranks of machines and computer terminals stood in one large chamber. It appeared as if just about anything that could be made here would be. 
• Shipyard - fully equipped for even quite large ships, this shipyard looks like it specialised in asteroid based system defence boats. Many sections of hulls and machinery from captured ships are found in a large scrapyard that is adjacent: Hull plates, stacks of turrets, manoeuvre drives, electronics - you name it and it.s probably here somewhere.
• Mining - ranks of mining drones, docking bays for recharging and receptacles for receiving the mines materials with conveyors to lead to refinery, smelters and cargo areas.
• Refinery and Smelting - large machines that could break down mined raw materials, and molecule sifters and re-combiners to create materials needed for manufacturing.
• Defences - near the entrance to then base, as ships would enter, was a control centre and missile bay. Woe betide anyone entering that chamber without permission.

Return to Wildeman
After exploring, and deciding to seal up the hatch they came in through, they left to return to Wildeman itself. Arriving they noticed a Patrol Cruiser, surrounded by Imperial Marines. Considering the options, the travellers remained on-board while Gobbo put his ship in storage and returned within the hour with his wife, Mindy.

Exocet
Leaving Wildeman as nonchalantly as possible, they jumped to Exocet, where they quickly refuelled, bought some cargo as a cover. Exocet had only a few dozen inhabitants - with more employees of the space station brought in from outside by GeDeCo than actually lived outside on the planet surface. With no intention of leaving the starport they kept to them,selves and as soon as everything was ready they jumped to Marduk.

Mindy and Lady Nitrane didn't get on very well. Nitrane, to all appearances an eighteen year old girl dressed in fancy clothes  and very much expecting things done for her, contrasted with Mindy, a miner's wife and solidly working class who got in and did things, and looked older than her years.

Marduk
Unfortunately as soon as they arrived in Marduk proximity sensors identified that they were very close (within 10,000 km) to an Imperial Gazelle which immediately hailed them and demanded that they stop and prepare for customs inspection. Discussions broke out immediately about whether to comply, but quickly it was decided to shop rather than get shot at, and everyone made sure any illegal items were hidden from sight.

The Imperials came alongside and boarded through a docking tube. Two marines, a marine commander and a imperial officer came aboard. Having decided to use their real identities, the papers for the travellers were in order, and very luckily their names, known in relation to the Treasure ship incident, didn't trigger any special response from the Imperials. The fact that the ship appeared to be a merchant vessel - some high class passengers, some low class, and many tons of cargo - clinched the deal for the Imperials, who cautioned  that there were pirates in the area and left without any in depth searches taking place.

On Marduk they sold and bought cargo and refuelled as quickly as possible. They then jumped to Palindrme.

Palindrome
Lady Yemar asked what the travellers would be doing next. If they were going to Theev she would come with them, otherwise she would leave at Palindrome and the ship would continue to Salif with Tiznee and the party. They decided that Theev would be a good idea - they wanted to touch base with some people they knew, and there might be some specialist mining equipment that Gobbo could use, and so the ship once again refuelled and departed as quickly as possible.

To be continued.