That's not a moon!

Looking for Gobbo

Arriving in Wildeman in Lady Yemar's ship the travellers made their way to the spaceport. They docked and after making their way through basic security checks, followed Goff to the dingiest, dirtiest space bar they could find because Goff figured that's where is friend would be.

After asking around for Klim Gobbo they found out he was out prospecting and that his wife, who could be found at his office, might be able to help. Goff had never met Gobbo's wife, not having seen him for many years.

Upon arriving Goff was typically blunt which put Mindy on edge, but Lady Nitrane was more diplomatic and after a little while they learned that Gobbo would likely be out for a month and that he was at the trailing Lagrange point of the nearest gas giant where six large asteroids and many smaller asteroids could be found. Because Lady Nitrane looked so honest and trustworthy Mindy gave her a special code to use in comms messages to let Gobbo know they were friends.

Thanking Mindy they made their way back to the ship and waited for Lady Yemar and Tiznee to return from what shopping they had managed to do. Agreeing that waiting a month would not be a worthwhile use of their time they decided to spend a couple of days heading out to where Klim Gobbo might be found.

Travelling to the gas giant

On the way to the gas giant, which would take two days, Yemar and Slayed imagined, for every other ship they detected, how they would capture it. Some would be hailed, others they'd open fire. In this way some time was passed while Yemar reminisced about her past life as a pirate lord.

As the two days passed Slayed took the opportunity to tell everyone about the item he'd pocketed just as everyone was leaving the vault on Vorito's space port. He'd managed to decode it and it was news - actually intelligence - that the Imperial Fleet currently in Byrni were planning to send their megafreighter and liner back towards the Imperium with all the pirates they'd captured up to that point. The convoy would leave in a few weeks, arriving in Iligan in 18 weeks or so. 

The travellers immediately agreed it was something they should do something about. Not only would they be poking the Imperium in the eye, they would also have a lot of grateful pirate crew members and possibly some new large ships depending on how things went. The timing was tight though; they'd need to travel quickly if they wanted to get the Harriers and other ships back into the Wildeman system which was the last opportunity to attack the convoy before it reached the prison planet.

Lady Yemar agreed that they should do free the captives if possible, although she herself no longer had any pirating vessels having changed career to planetary ruler some time ago. She was interested in the possibilities of the Q Ship that was mentioned as the party discussed options. A ship with so many marines and a weapon to disable power plants would be useful.

Arriving

Once near the Lagrange point they opened the comms channel and hailed Gobbo but got no response. The area was very large though, so they started travelling through the area and sending out a comms message every hour.

After a while they received a crackled response asking who they were, to which Goff said it was him and Gobbo asked who he was with. Goff gave a suitable answer and Gobbo gave them directions where to find him, which was on a medium-sized asteroid somewhere near the middle of the field.

On the surface of the asteroid was Gobbos ship and sensors showed that it was tethered next to what appeared to be a hatch. Sparrow landed the ship close by and they agreed to meet outside. Everyone was very curious but Lady Nitrane noticed that Lady Yemar was a little apprehensive for some reason. She took her aside and asked if anything was wrong, to which Yemar responded that she'd known of someone in Wildeman but not Gobbo and not anything to worry about.

Exiting the ship in Boarding Vacc Suits they made their way over to Gobbo, who turned out to be a wizened old man. He had not seen his friend in many years but their friendship was there for all to see as they shook hands and patted each other on the back, with Gobbo's face lighting up when he saw Goff.

They asked about the hatch and Gobbo said that he'd noticed it only because he was doing a fine scan of the asteroid. Anything less than a square metre by square metre search would not have found it. And when he did find it he decided to open it. He invited the traveller's to come with him into it as he said he'd found something very interesting indeed.

Into the depths

Given that the gravity on the asteroid was very small they could all just float down the passage under the hatch. About 10 feet in diameter it was larger than normal but not remarkably so. Lighting their helmet lights they saw that at the bottom of the shaft, about 100 feet down, was a large mining laser which had cut through another hatch - this one considerably thicker and vault-like.

Looking through the cut-through door a very faint glow was visible. It seemed that the lighting in the vault was powered somehow, but very very weakly. Beyond the door was a vault of some kind, with a larger door across from where they came in.

The vault was empty but Gobbo mentioned that he'd found something when he first entered, and handed them two bottles and a note. The bottles were old gin bottles that Nitrane and Sparrow recognised as a very good brand from about a century ago. The note was in very fine calligraphy and said simply...

Looking at the unopened door no controls were at first apparent, but after some searching a seamless panel was opened that had what appeared to be a DNA lock. Rather bemused by what Gobbo had found, and not being in mind to start the week or more long exercise of cutting through the next door, the party and Gobbo returned to the surface.

Going deeper

Everyone was interested to know what was behind the next door. It was suggested that power cables could be sent down into the tunnel to provide power to the door. Lady Yemar and Tiznee, who had not gone down with the others, exchanged glances. The bottles and note were also handed to the ladies who made no remark. The plan to open the door somehow by circumventing the DNA lock saw Lady Yemar and Tiznee exchange glances again, and Tiznee arched an eyebrow.

This exchange was not lost on some of the travellers. Slayed asked if she knew anything more and Lady Yemar sighed  She said "It sounds a lot like Grandpa Tamby".

Tamby Dour

A few in the party had not heard of Tamby Dour, but Unter especially had heard of him. Known as "The Kraken" he was a notorious pirate - possibly the most notorious - and attacked shipping within four parsecs of Wildeman about a century ago. The Imperial Navy finally intercepted and killed him after many years of chasing shadows and wearing his forces out. At his might he had nearly a hundred ships but by the end he had only a handful left. Nobody ever found his base of operations.

Asked what he was like Yemar said she'd never met him but had heard stories from her father. The fact that there seemed to be some hidden vault, and possibly more, here in Wildeman was something that might be related to Tamby, but the bottles and note were in her mind clinching arguments.

Cracking the door

With a possible DNA source attention changed to getting the door open in the normal manner. They went down the hole again to check that the power worked, and when it did they took measurements and returned to Gobbo's ship to make something in his workshop that Yemar could use to safely apply her hand to the unlocking mechanism. This took an hour or two and at the end of it they returned down the hole and all stood in front of the door.

The device was attached to the wall and pressurised. Yemar put her hand to the lock and a small almost indistinguishable noise was heard. Removing her hand they all noticed that a small green light was now showing and it appeared her DNA had done the trick. The panel to open the door was pressed and nothing much happened other than some grinding that was felt more than heard and the door moving a fraction of an inch.

Slayed and Nitrane decided to put their backs into it and gave the door a helping hand or four. They got the door to move a little and Goff and Slayed then had a go, which got the door open a crack. Gobbo quickly returned to his ship and got a hydraulic mine joist which he applied and eventually the door opened.

Inside
What they saw was a corridor. That corridor had rooms, looking a lot like staterooms, leading off it. Looking in some of the rooms they found that many things were well preserved due to the vacuum. Other things had not fared as well for the same reasons. The rooms contained some possessions, as if they'd been left one day by someone who intended to return. They did not look like they'd been abandoned in a hurry.

The corridors extended over a large distance, and elevators suggested there might be other floors. Tens of staterooms were on these corridors. This was no small vault.

Eventually they reached an opening to what looked like a concourse. Commercial ventures, similarly abandoned, were visible. Common areas were here too This was somewhere that many people had lived, and with commerce there was the suggestion that there was a small economy thriving here so this was not just a large hideout.

The concourse led to a massive - incredibly so - docking area. Tens of thousands of tons of ships could be docked in here along each of many concourse arms. That meant there must be huge doors somewhere on the surface of the asteroid. The docking facilities were fairly advanced too - possibly TL13 or 14. There were no ships visible, but the area was so large they could not see it all.

The whole complex was only partially explored in the two hours they set aside. They had not seen any power or maintenance or refuelling facilities, but they mist be somewhere. The complex was completely unpressurised - they had passed through normal and massive airlocks which were all open. This place appeared to have been abandoned for decades - possible a century.

To be continued.