Trouble on Tech-World

Tech-World
Arriving in system the travellers made contact with the starport and requested permission to land. They are given instructions and follow the virtual path provided. From orbit, Tech-World looks like a rusty wasteland. As the travellers got closer they saw the starport - a huge matt black dome, and around it the city which looked like a circuit board.

The landing instructions drew the ship towards the dome whereupon a platform formed out of the trillions of nanobots that make up the starport, and it extended out for the ship to land on. Upon landing the platform retracted, drawing the ship into a hangar sized just right for the ship. Normal robots approached the ship preparing to refuel, repair or unload the ship as required.

A female figure of steel and brass approached and waited patiently at the hatch. When Sparrow approached she introduced herself as Sophia, who could be the guide and aide for their stay on Tech-World.

Meeting new friends
With customs formalities taken care of, the party asked Sophia for information about robots. Lady Nitrane remembered that the party will need robots for the space station. Slayd asked about weapons, but the planet only makes weapons that will be used by robots.

As the party were travelling to a robot showroom, Sophia suddenly turned to Slayd and said "Admiral, do not ask questions. Behave normally. My masters wish to speak with you. Follow me.".The party followed. Leading through passages long unused, Sophia led the party to an exit that overlooked the dirt surface of the planet. Visible were two GeDeCo guards but the party nonchalantly passed by and reached the indicated building. Inside were three people.

• Dr Gerret Hodal, an elderly statesman and head of the council. Old and wrinkled, white-haired, and with a twinkle in his eye. Dr Hodal introduced himself as the head of the council.
• Archon Dreek, of middle years with a more thoughtful demeanour. He appeared more administrator than scientist, and the party did not learn of his position.
• Dr Rex Darke, dark haired and with a smile that was not entirely believable. He had a habit of rubbing his hands together and occasionally laughing maniacally. He was introduced as a roboticist formerly from the University or Regina.

Once introductions were completed, the scientists explained why they had asked to meet with the party. It turned out that Slayd's credentials were flagged for follow up as the customs formalities were being undertaken. When the considerable computing power of the Tech-World science community had performed some pattern matching it was determined what his real identity was and who he was working for.

When a representative of Drinax was known to be on the planet, and one with a good standing (through Peter Vallis' contacts) a decision was made to approach Slayd and put forward a proposition.

The Tech-World starport is owned and controlled by GeDeCo, whereas the rest of the planet is under the control of the scientific council. Because everything goes through the starport that means GeDeCo have an impressive control over the planet. The council want to stop that.

In exchange for joining with Drinax in the new Drinaxian Empire, including access to the technology and facilities that Tech-World has to offer, all they wanted was:

• Regular shipments of cheap Basic Consumables, Basic Raw Materials, Biochemicals, Petrochemicals, Radioactives and Uncommon Raw Materials.
• At least four System Defence Boats or equivalent, massing at least 300 tons each.
• Protection from any reprisals from GeDeCo.
• A contract that ensures Tech-World will be free to carry out any sort of scientific research without restrictions, even in sensitive fields like psionics or artificial intelligence.

Dr Hodal clarified that the planet has the resources to provide most of their own needs, including making robot-controlled System Defence Boats, but doing so would take many months and that in the meantime the planet would be vulnerable to GeDeCo reprisals or from pirate attack. 

Slayed agreed that while he was not currently in a position to sign anything that guaranteed these things, the terms sounded fair and reasonable. The King would be approached to ratify these conditions and thus bring Tech-World into the Empire.

It's all about Astor

Lady Nitrane asked about Dr Jali Astor, explaining that they were looking for the scientist to help with a medical situation that only he could help with. Dr Hodal checked and found that Dr Astor was indeed on the planet but that he was not currently available, being in a Do Not Disturb state (common when scientists as in the middle of research).

Meeting concluded, the party were offered accommodation for the night. This was accepted and Sofia lead them to a building where the nanobot technology rearranged the rooms to suit. Settling in and helping themselves to fine processed food, the party were interrupted by Dr Hodal who told them something terrible had happened and that they should follow him.

Arriving a short distance away the party saw a laboratory partly in flames with two or three lab technicians milling about outside. It was explained that this was Dr Astor's lab and that something had caused an explosion, and furthermore the lab would shortly immolate and cleanse itself before returning to a laboratory configuration. This approach apparently being required to ensure that any chemicals or biological agents did not escape.

Suiting up the party decided to enter the lab to see if there was anything to be recovered or that might provide a clue. They found a pad with the word "fantasy" written on it, with some numbers. They also noticed and retrieved a video recording device commonly used by scientists to record their thoughts and their activities. And finally they retrieved some of the memory core of the crucible in which Dr Astor was performing his experiments.

Exiting the lab just in time the party established that the planet Fantasy was important enough to write down and the numbers were interpreted as a location on the planetary surface. The recording device had only some vision available after being damaged but showed Dr Astor receiving a comms call, suddenly looking panicked, and then throwing chemicals and equipment into the crucible causing it to short and burst into flames, whereupon he grabbed something and left the lab. Lastly the crucible memory showed that the experiment was genetic in nature and that the fire was caused by certain volatile chemicals being thrown into it.

Where to next?
The party asked if it was known where Dr Astor had gone and Dr Hodal checked his wrist computer and advised that he had gone to the starport, so the party headed there at high speed.

Looking around for some information the party noticed the bemused Aslan male that they saw before. On a hunch Lady Niitrane asked him what was wrong. He growled somewhat reluctantly that he was looking for his ship. Being a male he was unused and unwilling to talk to robots but on Tech-World that's more or less all there is at the starport. He added that someone had offered to help not long ago bur that they had gone missing too.

Showing him a picture of Dr Astor caused the Aslan, who was called Klowaaar, to snarl and admit that it was Astor who had offered to help. Checking the computers it was apparent now that Astor had fled with Klowaaar's ship.

Returning to their ship the party got the robots to stop the maintenance activities and complete the refuelling. They them left with Klowaaar to the planet Sink, which was the stated destination of the Aslan's ship.

So we're going to Tech-World now?

New Moscow
The party emerged from jump and quickly established that they had not misjumped, and were in fact near a gas giant in the New Moscow system.

The decision to refuel from the gas giant meant a tense couple of days while the fuel was refined. Ships kept popping into the system and the party carefully and without drawing attention to themselves slid around the gas giant in the other direction. Eventually the fuel was on board and they jumped to a gas giant in the Tanith system.



(Segue #1: Navy characters face a situation on Magen where they arrive in system before the main fleet and are challenged. A stand off ensues).



Tanith
The refuelling in Tanith was much the same as at New Moscow - more or less uneventful. The next system was Tech-World.



(Segue #2: Krrsh and the Harriers encounter another pirate, called Zhuekvi, who hands him a message to give to Admiral Slayd).



(Segue #3: Krrsh finds a prey ship on which to test the capabilities of the fully repaired Harriers).

Imperial Adventures

To the Imperium
The trip to Tobia progressed relatively uneventfully through Marduk, Exocet and Wildeman. A number of rumours were picked up along the way (see separate post).

Fist
On arrival at Fist, the first Imperial world on the trip, the party passed huge nickel plated asteroids in orbit around the planet, carved into glorious sculptures of imperial might. On landing they were subjected to customs inspections, and were allowed to continue with their journey.

Tobia
The sector capital was the final destination, and was an astonishing sight for those who had not been there before. The world is a planet-wide city. Traffic in orbit when the party arrived was equivalent to all the ships arriving in Drinax in a year. Huge cargo ships in convoys, capital warships, and between them smaller traders, defence boats and shuttles.

All ships arriving at Tobia are given specific flight paths and the party were directed to land at the enormous starport immediately upon entering the system. The landing systems all but taking control of the ship as it came in to land.

The landing pad was around 1 kilometre from the main building, a huge structure around 8km long and 3km wide. Customs was relatively simple (albeit thorough) for everyone except Unter. He was detained due to some irregularities with his paperwork, and as a result of a crewman being under suspicion the ship was also locked down and would be unable to leave.

The fixer
The rest of the party got in contact with Lemuel Volin, the fixer that Lady Yemar had engaged to find the scientist. He arranged to meet them in a warehouse quite close to the starport. They arrived at dusk, as arranged, and discussed with him their intention to bring the scientist back with them to Lady Yemar.

The plans and information that he had passed to Lady Yemar were, to the best of his knowledge, were up to date. Getting another person to go in and check the maps and scientist details would take months as the infiltration of such a place would have to be done carefully and slowly. The party were not willing to wait months so started devising their own approach.

News reports showing CCTV footage gave a clue that there were cameras everywhere on Tobia. Checking the cameras near the target building might be a good place to start. Lemuel could have appropriate computers at the warehouse tomorrow morning. The party returned to the starport for the evening. Unter had been released but was still confined to the starport.

Hacking computers
The next day the party arrived back at the warehouse and commenced the search for the cameras in the area around the building. The local authority had archive footage as well which meant that the travellers could go back a few days to detect patterns.

It became clear that there were relatively few people coming and going for the size of the building. The building could house a hundred or more scientists and workers but they were not being let out. Similarly there were relatively few vehicles delivering cargo which suggested a high degree of self-sustainability. Following the journey of one of the delivery vehicles showed it to be entirely ordinary.

When trawling back through the old footage did not produce any more information it was decided to see if the local authorities had any information in the building ownership or plans. After a while a picture emerged of redacted information or misleading lines of holding companies which obscured the ownership entirely. The only information to be gleaned was that there was no information.

Building plans were easier to come by (although still difficult) and a good picture of the services and pipes into the building were established, including the air (as Tobia has a tainted atmosphere).

Luckily at this time Unter was allowed to leave the starport and joined up with the rest of the party.

Making plans
When other lines of investigation dried up a visit to the building, and a possible assault or infiltration, was planned. Needing some vehicles, communications gear, armour, weapons, support crew, etc meant that it would be a couple of days for he fixer to get everything organised. The party would need new identities for this endeavour and tickets to the location where the building was located.

Unfortunately Lady Nitrane's identity caused problems and she had to get another one, which resulted in a days delay in arriving at the city hub nearest the building. Luckily this did not disrupt the plans as the fixer was still getting all the necessary equipment together.

Going in
The plans took a long time to put together, but in the end it was decided that Slayd and Nitrane would approach the building while Sparrow and Unter would wait, fully equipped in armour and weapons.

Upon entering it was found that there was no reception desk nor anyone to talk to. Slayd and Nitrane sat on one of the benches in the open entry area and just waited.

After a while a door could be heard opening and someone put their head around the corner and asked if there was anything they could help the two patient party members with?

After some conversation, and an attempt to find Jari Astor in the computer, Slayd and Nitrane were taken up to an accommodation level where it became more apparent that far from being a bustling scientific hub with over a hundred scientists, this was all but abandoned and staffed only with a skeleton crew. The person they were led to advised that the scientist had moved to a planet called Tech-World some time ago.

Thanking them and returning to Sparrow and Unter the party decided that they would return to the starport and make plans to travel to Tech-World rather than stay on Tobia any longer.

Making their escape
The return journey back to the warehouse was uneventful but as the party were getting out of their vehicle they were challenged by police and told to stop what they were doing and submit to being arrested.

After a moment's hesitation, during which time the people getting out of the car remembered that this was not a situation they wanted to be in, they jumped back in the vehicle and sped towards the starport.

Abandoning the transportation in a parking lot they hurried inside. Unter was caught in the open and had difficulty getting in - and was seen by the pursuing authorities. Splitting up - some to kaff shops and Nitrane to the toilets to change her outfit, the party stayed one step ahead. From time to time they noticed that their pictures were shown on large screens, and the pictures were getting more detailed and therefore the chances of them being identified was increasing.

After dropping in to the hotel to pick up valuables, the party headed to the ship which the crew onboard were already prepping. Slayd immediately started setting a course for New Moscow, which had been selected as the best place to jump to. While he did that Sparrow was expertly piloting the ship, taking cover from the many ships in orbit and heading to the 100d jump point.

Unfortunately the sensors picked up defence boats and other military ships incoming and it was decided, reluctantly, to jump early and take the chance of a misjump.

To be continued.

Rumours

This page lists the rumours that you have heard. Whether you investigate them  is up to you. If you have any comments you want me to add here I will do so.

• The Space Kraken is hungry this year... (heard on Marduk)

• A mad engineer on Exocet is trying to find people to bomb his planet. He thinks that a big enough bomb in just the right place will cap some of the more active volcanoes, making the planet safer to live on. (heard on Exocet itself)

• Every ship from the Tobia Commerce Guild carries at least six trained marines on board to repel pirates. (heard on Wildeman)

• The madmen who live on the space station called The World have strange psychic powers. (heard on Wildeman)

• The Ine Givar are building a fleet of warships in the Trojan Reach. They’re going to launch an invasion of Corridor sector and cut the Marches off from the Imperium. (heard on Fist)

• The Jolly Roger hullplate from Scurrilous Dave’s pirate ship is somewhere on Pourne. (heard on Tobia)

And they're off!

Arriving on Palindrome the party make contact using their new identities. They are allowed to land and are subject to customs and entry checks.

Lady Nitrane, in her guise as Ann Drucher contacts Lady Yemar to tell her of the situation, and when the party check into the second best hotel in the city they are met with invitations to meet with the mistress of the planet.

On arriving to see Lady Yemar the plan is explained, and it is requested that her medical records be made available. She is concerned that if they should fall into the wrong hands it might be possible to trace things back to her, so Jack tweaks the data so as to be unidentifiable.

Upon being asked if she has anything more about the scientist or his whereabouts, she produces a picture of him, and some blueprints provided to her of the location where he can be found.

Thanking her, the party decide the best approach is to enter the Imperium via Fist, but to avoid Boulder (which is intolerant of visitors, and has no gas giants) which means the trip will be Marduk (over Borite), then Exocet, then Wildeman (the usual exit point from the Reaches) then Fist then Tobia. Five jumps to go.

We're off to see the scientist, the wonderful scientist of Tobia

After assembling all ships and crew on the space station it's time to work out what to focus on next, namely whether to get the scientist for Lady Yemar, or get Goff to start fixing the station properly.

Both Goff (on The World) and the scientist (on Tobia) are a  long way away. Consideration is given to getting Goff first to get repairs at the station moving, but in light of Lady Yemar's failing health it is decided to get the scientist first.

Trip to Theev
The party head to Theev with the Far Scout and the three Harriers in their fleet. Dai Kinnear is left in charge of the space station with instructions to push on with whatever repairs can be made. The trading ship is set up to fly between Salif and Homestead (to coreward) and Number One (rimward).

The trip, via Salif, Number One (where stories had to be told), Noricum and then the fuel dump, is uneventful.

On Theev
Arriving in Theev the Harriers are sent for full repairs (MCr37 worth) to bring them up to 'as new' condition. Full maintenance on the original Harrier is included in that price, as is berthing for however long it takes to repair them.

Messages are left for Lomarr Fisk (for transponders) and Devon (for new identities). Heading down to the planet the party books into the second best hotel in Blacksands. The next morning after breakfast Lomarr calls Lady Nitrane and invites her to lunch at the same place as last time; the rooftop restaurant on the best hotel in town. Devon soon after contacts Unter to arrange a meeting that night.

At lunch, Lomarr is waiting for Lady Nitrane and her 'bodyguard' Unter. He is as ever a gracious host and Lady Nitrane an excellent companion. As they arrange the next date Lady Nitrane mentions that there will in the near future be a need for a transponder.

Meeting with Devon that night the party arrives at a place bar that appears to have been booked just for Devon's meeting. Devon is there with a companion, and small talk is followed soon after by the main purpose of the meeting. The party tell him that they need identities as they want to go to Tobia. Devon knows just the man, a specialist in that field called Kagni Vasiir. In addition, he suggests meeting with Nosetter Hali, a specialist in clandestine activities. Meetings are arranged to see both of these people the next morning.

New identities
Arriving at the very fancy and up-market skyscraper in which Kagni has his offices the party are immediately ushered into a large conference suite where they are made comfortable. Moments later Kagni arrives, dressed immaculately in fine suit, and asks what the party need.

He is clearly aware of who the party are and what they want as he has a number of possible identities for each person in the party, including crew members. Each person is asked to select an identity and then temporary cosmetic changes are made, if required, to make them look as much as possible like the intended identity.

Following this, costumes are provided as well as a memory card that has a full back history for the party to memorise. Access to the ship's computers is requested to create a false trip log and cctv footage of the passengers. All told this costs MCr1.5.

Spy Master
Later that day the party go to see Nosetter, the specialist in clandestine activities. After some questioning it becomes apparent that there is too much that is unknown at this distance from Tobia. Nosetter suggests that an operative of his could accompany the party on their ship to advise them once they reach Tobia.

Harrier Shakedown
Next day Krssh approaches the group with questions about what he should do with the Harriers, and how long he should wait for the party. The suggestion is that the repairs to the ships won't be proven until they have a combat. Slaid is very careful to say that he expects that three ships go in, and three (the same three) come out.

Following the shakedown the Harriers are to report in to the Station, then proceed to Paal where they will wait for the party.

Second Dates
The lunch with Lomar Fisk proceeded as planned, with a transponder delivered to the Far Scout's hangar for installation within the hour.

At the same time Captain Slaid was meeting Admiral Darokyn from whom he had received a request to meet at the Rose Pavilion. The admiral just seemed to want to catch up, say thank you for the early return (in good shape) of the salvager, and to enquire politely as to the party's plans.

Reluctant to give too much away Slaid admitted that there was a trip to Tobia on the cards, and that the new identities were for that. He also admitted that the two additional Harriers, that the admiral knew about, were recently found - but again no specifics were given. Finally, Slaid offered to show Darokyn around a Harrier the next morning.

Two Admirals Breakfast
The next morning Darokyn is welcomed aboard the original Harrier. Overnight the most advanced of the food preparation units was brought aboard and very nice kaf and sweetmeats were served as the admiral took in the impressive sights of the Harrier.

Lady Nitrane, who had not met the admiral the day before, was particularly keen to introduce the idea of him providing men to help repair the space station. Captain Slaid reluctantly agree but in the end Darokyn was given the information. With the information about the Harriers being recently found, and the need for repairs to functions like life support, biosphere, construction and manufacturing facilities, it was obvious that Admiral Darokyn put it together quickly and surmised that the party have found a space station somewhere.

Leaving on good terms, the party prepared to leave later that day for Palindrome with their new identities, the far scout sporting a new paint job and a  new transponder.

END

(Did I forget anything?)

Trading Log for the Drinax to Torpol route

This is the log of the trading ship <NAME> travelling between Drinax and Torpol.

Month 1

• Drinax Out
• Flew out to Torpol with rest of fleet
• Torpol In
• Lord Wrax encountered flying to Torpol
• Torpol Port
• While in port a liner was escorted into port by police after it had been attacked
• Torpol Out
• HOSTILE (Aslan ihateisho scout - challenged us to duel - fought him off with some injuries). Need better ship. (REPAIR BILL 3MCr)
• Drinax In
• Ship noted on parallel path into Drinax that had damage. Asked - Aslan raiders in Pourne
• Drinax Port
• Rachando put us in touch with someone selling driods who was passing through. Bought an Autodoc as ship has no medical facilities. (COST 0.8MCr)

Month 2

• Drinax Out
• One of Lord Wrax's ships had collided with an orbital facility as Far Trader on way to 100d. 
• Torpol In
• Freighter tried to make contact. Suspicious. Ignored. Possible trap
• Torpol Port
• A ship had to leave in a hurry. Apparently a psionic on board or something.
• Torpol Out
• Torpol SDB followed us. Not sure if escort for our safety or theirs.
• Drinax In
• Princess Rao's ship incoming at same time.
• Drinax Port
• Some duel between Kasiyl ended up with a dead diplomat and a woulded Kasiyl. 

Month 3

• Drinax Out
• Unusual SDB activity. Lord Wrax up to something?
• Torpol In
• Encountered some cargo that had been jettisoned. Hold full, so left it alone.
• Torpol Port
• There's an alien zoo at the starport. Lots of interest.
• Torpol Out
• Nothing to report
• Drinax In
• Was given priority landing over another freighter. He wasn't happy.
• Drinax Port
• Some shennanigans with crew of freighter. Authorities put it down for us. Freighter crew imprisoned. That zoo has come here now.

Month 4

• Drinax Out
• Mercenary Transport noted landing on surface. Some activity in response. Don't know what happened.
• Torpol In
• Provost Falx on SDB to meet us (odd). Insisted on coming aboard to say hello. Sociable chap. Seemed worried about something though.
• Torpol Port
• Sent some cargo back. Some mixup with loading. Wrong cargo loaded. Sorted out in the end.
• Torpol Out
• Seemed like another ship followed us to the 100d. No contact but suspicious.
• Drinax In
• That ship from Torpol seen incoming to Drinax. Hmm. Didn't land.
• Drinax Port
• Autodoc a success and persuaded by Rachando to take on a Servitor to look after the crew better. Got gambling add on to pass the time (COST 0.2MCr)

Month 5

• Drinax Out
• Lord Wrax personally escorted us to the 100d jump point. Worried.
• Torpol In
• Star Guard ship encountered. Why in Torpol?
• Torpol Port
• Saw a ship with the Black Signal. Enemy of Theev. Couldn't do anything about it.
• Torpol Out
• Another ship followed us. Need another ship for protection.
• Drinax In
• Had collision with large Freighter. Jumped in at same moment. Lord Wrax came aboard to see damage and read logs. Seemed disappointed that we had no illegals on board. Some damage.
• Drinax Port
• Repairs were done in timely manner. No delay leaving but could not stay on ship in port. (REPAIRS 1MCr) Befriended a lost child who was wandering around the accomodation areas. Parents eventually found.

Month 6

• Drinax Out
• Nothing to report
• Torpol In
• Encounted Imperium Liner doing the sightseeing trip. On way to Thebus I think
• Torpol Port
• A ship that had misjumped arrived in port. Crew shaken but OK. Drives need to be replaced. Jumped from Florian League! Had some interesting cargo that we missed out on. 
• Torpol Out
• Picked up a cargo pod on sensors a little further out. Had some kind of camouflage on it. Picked it up out of interest. Contained Illegal cybernetics. Figured Rachando could use them.
• Drinax In
• Lots of SDBs around. Rachando contacted us immediately. Cargo was trap. Jettisoned and destroyed before SDB could get to us.
• Drinax Port
• Lord Wrax personally instpected ship. Incandescant when logs (which we'd tweaked) and cargo bay showed nothing illegal.

Month 7

• Drinax Out
• Lord Wrax prevented us from leaving but Princess Rao interceded to let us go.
• Torpol In
• Nothing to report
• Torpol Port
• Imperial ship landed at port. Crew bullying people everywhere. Provost Falx seen drinking more heavily that usual. 
• Torpol Out
• Saw one of Peter Vallis' ships coming in as we left.
• Drinax In
• Saw a different Peter Vallis ship leaving at speed (jumped early)
• Drinax Port
• Imperial partrol in port. Officers and marines strutting around. King Oleb turned purple. Explains why Vallis' ship was leaving in a hurry

Month 8

• Drinax Out
• Nothing to report
• Torpol In
• Caught a problem with the astrogation computer. Calcualated jump manually. 
• Torpol Port
• Got astrogation software and computer replaced. Saboutage? (COST 0.4MCr)
• Torpol Out
• HOSTILE Blockade runner attacked. Jumped early but got away with it. Damage quite bad.
• Drinax In
• Arrived in system to find Lord Wrax on a SDB. Insisted on coming on board to see logs and damage. How did he know?
• Drinax Port
• Repairs cost 5MCr. Liner arrived with half a dozen escorts. Important VIPs?