Grand High Tum-ti-tump of the Outrim Void

Theev to Salif

Admiral Slayed and the travellers arrived at Salif with their jump-3 and -4 capable ships. There they refueled and met with Tiznee Zazzle to tell her about the liberation of the captured pirates and the seized ships. She was delighted that they were safe and that they had been successful.

Salif to Space Station

Jumping next to the space station they found it as it had been left - powered down and running silent. There were no signs that anyone had been there since they left. However, as soon as they reached the cargo bay that held the two dozen planet-buster and bio-weapon torpedoes they were shocked to find them all gone, and the word "Thanks!" painted on one of the walls. 

With all power off there were no cameras or other clues as to who had taken them. A quick check confirmed that nothing else had been taken, and there was no damage other than the forced opening of the door to the cargo hold. Nitrane, Unter and Sparrow were philosophical. They had wanted to be rid of them from the start. Slayed on the other hand was worried. Where were they, who had them, and why did they want them?

Planning Repairs
There was nothing they could do so they got to work powering up the systems that had previously been brought to the station. The longer term plan was to bring the megafreighter to the station and use its enormous power plant to run the station until the one on the station could be repaired. In the meantime they would  use what power they had to start repairs anticipating the later power that would be available.

The party spent two weeks working through the plans with Goff. The power plant from the freighter would mean that they could power the smelter and refinery and start preparing raw materials for the manufacturing plant by using the ores collected by the mining drones. The priority therefore was to get as much manufacturing, smelting and refinery machinery repaired as possible.

Space Station to Theev

After setting things in motion the party took the Sorrowful Maiden and most of the crew back to Theev. There they met up with the trading crew who had made a decent profit, and with Jaggad who reported that she had been successful with hiring new crew.

With nothing else left to do they all boarded the megafreighter and headed to Drinax.

Theev to Drinax

The trip to Drinax was uneventful. The first stop was in deep space and they transferred the fuel from the bladder to the fuel tanks with no problems. Then to Torpol where they happened to meet a local system defense boat in orbit around the gas giant and with their highly regarded reputation it stayed for the week to protect them while all tanks were filled.

Arriving in Drinax near a distant gas giant the freighter started refueling while the three Harriers and the yacht, which was to be a gift to King Oleb, headed to the main planet. The Harrier with Slayed, Sparrow, Nitrane and Unter went on ahead and as they opened up the thrusters to top speed they opened comms and were asked whether then wanted the highport, lowport or palace. The lowport was new, but they asked for permission to land at the palace, which was granted.

Man Missing

As they were on approach to the palace a new voice came over the comms. It was Lady Hil, a close friend of the party. She sounded distressed, but trying to hide it, and asked if instead of landing they could help locate a missing person. In fact it was the King, who had just gone down with a broken grav belt. Various questions that the party had were answered - Lady Hil sometimes having to ask others near here - but in very little time the ship was over one of the old bombed cities of Drinax.

The pillars of the destroyed city resembled the fingers of a blackened corpse, reaching towards the skies above. There were thousands of them, rising from the wreckage below at random angles. The metal of the pillars made the place a huge field of lightning rods, and as the bolts jumped between the pillars it made scanning nearly impossible. It was apparent now why the Hawk Warriors who accompanied the King were having difficulty finding him.

The head of Olebs guard, Brie Tollar, was coordinating the search. With the party having seniority and in a ship that would be better equipped to find the King, she flew to the ship and boarded to assist them.

Nitrane did a sensor sweep and detected nothing. The size of the city and the atmospheric conditions made it too difficult. Sparrow considered the information they had - Oleb's path, the downward trajectory that he was last seen on, and other factors, and calculated that the King was most likely in a small area a few hundred metres long that he carefully piloted the ship into.

Being much closer to the surface - and with Sparrow constantly having to adjust and trim the Harrier in he winds - meant that Nitrane finally got a reading. A small beacon that belonged to the King.

Oleb's Alive!
Landing very carefully, Sparrow put the travelers as close to the detected position as he dared. The party suited up and left the ship to search on foot. Soon they found the king, impaled on metal spikes in a small hollow. Hit breathing was laboured and Nitrane immediately knelt next to him and stabilised him as best she could with a medical kit.

‘Starcursed grav belt gave up on me,’ he muttered, ‘and I fell. I dropped my emergency medical supplies out there somewhere. Go fetch them, and I’ll make you a bloody Archduke of somewhere.’

The emergency medical pack turned out to contain a bottle of red wine.

‘Gah. I’m dying. That’s boring,’ muttered the king. ‘Listen, don’t let those vampires from the Scholar’s Tower get their claws into my carcass. I saw what they did to my boy Harrick. I don’t want to end up like the Duke of Albe, pulled out of stasis once a century to sign a form and take a dump. No, let me die. You, come up with some really good last worlds. I appoint thee Court Poet Extraordinary of Drinax, Bard of Sindal, and Grand High Tum-ti-tump of the Outrim Void.’ Oleb coughed up what appeared to be most of a lung. ‘Want to be Space Pope too, and absolve me of all my sins?’

As the wine – and the painkillers – took hold, he became less lucid, although it was hard to tell given Oleb’s usual sense of reality.

‘We can’t stay here. The Floating Palace... it’s a joke. A cage. A... stupid thing. We were dragons once. We will rule the stars again. I gave you a Letter of Marque when we started this campaign... of piracy. It’s still good. Bring back the Kingdom, and all will be forgiven.

‘Listen, listen lads, listen. Tell. Prince Harrick...no... he’s not right for it. Rao... she’ll be Queen, but she needs someone to... warn her... there’s too much of the Sindalian in her... warn her... no more...’

With that, Oleb lapsed into unconsciousness, and started to snore.

The party carefully took him into the ship and plugged him into the medical bay, which started injecting drugs and spraying his wounds with chemicals to disinfect and seal them.

To the palace
Taking off Sparrow headed the ship towards the palace, but as they got closer a flight of atmospheric flyers intercepted them and a voice came over the comms channel telling them to divert course to the main starport dock instead of the royal docks. The voice was Lord Wrax. He sounded worried. And there was gunfire audible in the background.

A coup had started.

To be continued.