Decisions, decisions.

Getting to the Vault
Having slipped away from the starport opening ceremony, the travellers made their way through the corridors of the starport towards the vault. Lady Nitrane was able to navigation through the corridors and ensured they kept on the right track. Soon they were in areas of the station that they should not be in.

Pushing on, the party encountered occasional station crew and decided to bluff it out; walking nonchalantly past. Where they encountered locked doors the used their card and Slayed's electronics skills to open the doors. Finally they reached their destination - the vault.

The Vault
They looked up and down the corridor. There were no guards in sight, only distant construction droids welding panels. Next to the door were two security access panels; one for the DNA reading and the other a simple card access port. Nitrane put Hiver Jim's wriggling larvae to the DNA panel and a green light appeared. Then Slayed, carefully considering his approach, worked his magic and the second light lit up green.

A low clunk and whining of gears resulted, and the vault doors moved slightly in and then across, and a gap appeared. At first it appeared as if the vault was unlit inside, but a second look showed objects that could be only dimly perceived. Some kind of holographic distortion was at play.

Again looking left and right along the corridor the travellers decided they would be quickly seen if they stayed in the corridor, so they stepped into the vault.

Conversation with a Hologram
Immediately upon stepping in a huge hologram appeared of an old man - well dressed, with a thin, devlish beard. He spoke:

‘I am Professor Jaskarl. I don’t know who you are, but you fit a very specific psychohistorical profile. I can say with 89.4% certainty that you are or work for a resurgent polity within the Trojan Reach. You have used piracy and economic pressure to garner influence over neighbouring worlds, with the eventual goal of forcing concessions from a major power. I commend you on your efforts thus far. 

‘How do I know this, you might ask? I don’t know if you’re asking – my predictive methods apply only to large populations, to entire star systems and civilisations, not to individuals. I do not know anything about you, I can only know the probable shape of history. 

‘The larger the population, the more accurate my predictions. Applied to multiple sectors, probabilities become certainties. Some time ago, a consortium of concerned Imperial citizens hired me to apply my techniques to the future of the Spinward Marches. In brief, my conclusion is that, without active intervention, the Aslan Hierate will inevitably expand to conquer the entire Trojan Reach and Corridor sector, cutting the Marches off from the main body of the Imperium. Trillions will die.’

As he spoke, more holograms appeared in darkness. The stars of the Trojan Reach – neutral stars in white, the deep purple of the Imperium, the cool blue of the Florian League, and the bloody red of the Aslan. The red expanded, swallowing system after system until it crashed into Tobia and Pax Rulin.

‘This disaster can be prevented. The General Development Company’s secret purpose is to prepare the Trojan Reach. By uplifting and fortifying key civilisations, we turn them into... caltrops, into tiger traps that will disrupt and slow the Aslan advance. By labouring in secret over many generations, the company can alter the otherwise inevitable future.’

The hologram rolled back, then displayed another potential future. In this version, the Aslan advance rolled forward much, much more slowly, then stopped.

‘My predictions show an upcoming intersection between your efforts and ours. As conflicts grows within the Aslan Hierate between their trader and warmonger clans, this pressure manifests as incursions into neutral space. You may have already experienced such attacks; they are but a small taste of the conflict to come. 

‘I have a proposition for you. Let us make your polity our lightning rod. We will fortify you, lend you our aid. This will draw the Aslan onto you.

‘You will endure. You will fight bravely – but in the end, you must lose. Your destruction will have consequences that ripple out across the Trojan Reach, inspiring other systems to prepare for the Aslan assault. The General Development Company will protect you or a small few individuals of your choice, but the destruction must be otherwise absolute and... memorable.

‘Refuse this proposition... and events will transpire as the mathematics dictate. There is still an 88% chance that the Aslan strike at you, even without GeDeCo assistance.’

With that he stopped, seemingly waiting for a response.

Decisions Made
Instantly Lady Nitrane said "we accept". Before anyone else could say anything the hologram nodded and said. 'Thank you. Your response has been noted. This is the wisest course of action. You will be hearing from us.' and disappeared.

The holographic cloaking also dissipated, revealing all manner of objects on the floor and tables around the room. Most were large and impossible to carry, but there were many dozens of very small objects that could be seen. These ranged from computer datapads and cards to gems, jewelry, and credit chips. Boxes and containers might also have contained small objects although it would take some time to open them. Among the items in the vault there was nothing that particularly stood out however, especially nothing that could be pointed to as being something that might embarrass or halt GeDeCo.

Desperate to be out of the vault, Lady Nitrane declared that she would take nothing because if they were caught it would be very difficult to explain it away. Unter thought about this and agreed, followed by Sparrow and Slayed. So they left the vault empty handed.

As they stepped out of the vault the doors started to slowly close and with a final thump the vault resealed itself. The walk back to the ceremony was again relatively uneventful. The locked door was still open from earlier, and there were if anything fewer starport crew to bluff their way past.

Return to the Ceremony
Arriving back at the ceremony they went directly to where Lady Yemar and Jagad, imitating Nitrane, were deep in discussion and surrounded closely by the others they had left behind. Upon reaching the group they were absorbed as if nothing had happened. Lady Nitrane said that they should return to their quarters and that they should meet up again within an hour at the Harriers for a discussion. Lady Yemar told them that she and Tiznee would be leaving the station immediately after that and that the party should consider doing the same.

As the group went to leave Ammun Ko reappeared and escorted them back to the docking area, where Yemar and her sister Tiznee left the group and returned to their own ship. Ammun Ko then took the travellers back up to their own quarters, all the while exhorting the wondrous benefits of signing up to a GeDeCo contract, and seemed unaware of the momentous decision made in the vault. The party feigned tireness and told Ammun they wound not be needing her again any time soon.

Open Discussions
An hour or so later they left the quarters and headed to the docks to meet with Lady Yemar. Upon arriving at the Harriers they prepared for the arrival of their friends who didn't keep them waiting long. When they were alone Lady Yemar again thanked the travellers profusely, hugging them each in turn. Tiznee watched beaming.

Lady Yemar asked how their little trip had gone and what they had seem. Nitrane told them everything, including what the hologram had said and her response. Lady Yemar asked what the exact wording had been and the group between them agreed on the exact wording, whereupon Yemar went pale and said that they had perhaps been overly hasty to agree.

Nitrane countered that she had been sure that they would be trapped in the vault if she had not agreed, and that anyway it was probably not meant for them, and might have gone off for anyone who had entered. Yemar pointed out that there were so many specifics in what the hologram had said that it was not really in question. Nitrane thought that they could trick GeDeCo somehow.

As for why the party had not taken anything, even small and easily secreted about their person, Nitrane said that she thought they would be caught and anything on them would be found. Yemar seemed if anything disappointed that they had not caused GeDeCo even the slightest trouble, but if they were going to be allies up until the destruction of Drinax then perhaps it was for the best. She didn't seem very confident though.

About the Treaty
In addition to the trip to the vault, Nitrane and the others described the contents of the treaty found on the treasure ship. This meant that they had trouble on two fronts but Yemar could also see advantages in the short term. Telling the systems nearby would give a good incentive to side with whoever opposed the treaty, and may also be something that GeDeCo would approve of regardless of whether they would honour their agreement with the holographic scientist.

Yemar provided the travellers with contacts on a number of world in the reach who they could talk to about the treaty and what response seemed appropriate. Some of them the party knew already, but adding Lady Yemar's name would improve their standing she felt.

(Game mechanics - improve standing with systems by one or more steps, up to a total of 18 steps overall).

Leaving
Yemar insisted that the travellers should leave the station immediately, and that perhaps they could return to Drinax on her ship with her and Tiznee. Given that Yemars ship had jump 4 this seemed a good idea as they would want to be the ones to tell King Oleb and the princess about the deal they had agreed to rather than they find out from someone else.

The Harriers were told to return to the Space Station near Salif and the travellers bade farewell after retrieving all their possessions. Hopefully everything was still under control there, but it would be nearly a year since they left there.

Boarding Yemar's much larger ship they were impressed with the size and comfort, although Slayed noticed that with very little work a large bay weapon could be installed and the comforts quickly removed to turn it into a capable quasi-military vessel.

So they jumped first to The World, where Yemar seemed to know many of the crew, and then jumped to Drinax, all the while Nitrane wondering what she would tell King Oleb.

To be continued.

Opening Ceremony

Before the Ceremony
The party spent their first few hours on the starport resting and having a meal cooked by a master chef to introduce the visitors to the cuisines and delicacies of Vorito. After this the shops were opened and they spent some time shopping, before returning to their sumptuous quarters.

Not yet tired enough to sleep, and with at least 12 hours until the opening ceremony, Sparrow and Unter decided to have a bit of a look around. The purpose of this was twofold. Not only did they want to get a feel for the layout of the place, but also wanted to test where their cards could take them.

From their vantage point high on the outer wall of the station, they could see out over the planet Vorito, but on the other side of the immense lounge could see into the inner cavernous spaces of the port. A central sphere was connected to a number of modules, each massive in their own right, which seemed to have different functions. One looked like it might be for trade and commerce, another looked like it might be for passenger liners, a third was likely shops and entertainments, and so on. The part they docked in looked to be for VIPs, and had a few ships they did not recognise.

Moving round the station they could leave the VIP area and enter a concourse for smaller ships, and also had access to some other areas nearby. What they could not do is enter any areas under construction and some other areas for reasons they could only guess at. They did form a pretty good picture of the station although many guesses were made as to where the vault might be, and where the opening ceremony might take place.

Going to the Ceremony
At the appointed time, Ammun Ko and an honour guard arrived to take them to the ceremony. They made their way through areas already known to those who explored their surrounds, but eventually came to a door that they had not been able to pass through, and made their way deeper into the centre of the station. Their destination was the central sphere, which up close had openings at top and bottom and was hollow.

The room that the ceremony would take place in was, as with most things on this station, very large. Already many guests were mingling and there were GeDeCo employees and waiters moving from group to group. In the middle of the room, surrounded by the best buffet table in the sector, was a curious sculpture of alien design. It looked vaguely like a tree made of glowing tubes and fist-sized nodes of what appeared to be marble. It was quite grotesque, and exactly the sort of corporate-funded art project one would expect to see a starport like this; its deliberate ugliness made the rest of the place seem even more polished and streamlined.

Sparrow spent some time looking at the statue, which surprisingly did not give him a headache, but did make him wonder who would create such a monstrosity. Suddenly Sparrow felt a vice-like grip on his arm and he looked to see Jaggad staring at a person some distance away. She swore. And Sparrow recognised him as Purser Vaughn from the imperial treasure ship. Oddly Vaughn was dressed in GeDeCo uniform, but the party agreed that they would steer well clear of him.

Meeting the delegates
Taking food from the buffet and starting to mingle, the travellers were first approached by a Vargr, dressed in GeDeCo corporate uniform. She appeared to be cybernetically augmented - some seemingly to repair damage taken in more than one injury. She sniffed at the party and said in growling tones "I am" GROWL "Security Chief Brule" RRGH "Have a nice day." And with one more sniff she departed.

Next was Olais of Marduk who was a lord of one of the more powerful domes. She hoped to attract GeDeCo support to defend her people from the raiders of Oghma. Given that was all she complained about, the party quickly extracted themselves from that conversation.

Shortly afterward, an GeDeCo aide brought up the next guest for the Drinaxian delegate to talk to. The young and pretty girl was introduced as Eridani, niece to the Duke of Tobia. She turned out to be polite, in the way that someone who considers themselves very superior might behave. Upon hearing that Lady Nitrane was from Drinax she became a little less haughty - after all Drinax was important enough to have an Imperial Ambassador - but after a few awkward sentences of polite conversation she was taken away to another group. The one interesting piece of information she let slip was the presence in the Byrni system of a fleet of imperial warships.

Gerret Hodol of TechWorld approached the party. He gave a wan smile and said how wonderful it was to be on the GeDeCo space port. He looked slightly longingly at Lady Drinax and Admiral Slayed and asked cryptically if there was any progress. He smiled sadly when told no and asked the party to please keep him in mind.

Following Hodol, although possibly not literally, was Fae Borshune, who introduced herself as the highport administrator. She had a military bearing, so the travellers surmised that she had an Imperial Navy background. Slayed and Sparrow said nothing about their experiences, and after some conversation Fae left for another group.

By this time the party had moved back to near the buffet, where they saw a Hiver, who noticed them looking and, waving tentacles around, came over and introduced himself as Jim. Perhaps the most exotic guest at the ceremony, Jim added that its real name was untranslatable. He explained that he was a ‘consulting artist’ for GeDeCo and had created the sculpture. (All the while it was throwing back wine and cheese. Lady Nitrane knew that Hivers did not metabolise alcohol like humans,
but it was getting a terrific buzz off the cheddar.) The sculpture apparently symbolises the ‘invisible connections of historical necessity’ and ‘incorporated the observer into the art.’ Getting more buzzed by the minute, and starting to grope the travellers’ hands with its manipulator, Jim gave birth to a few larvae in an entirely inconsequential way, pushing them aside with its feet in an uninterested way. (Lady Nitrane remembered that Hivers treat their larvae as unimportant vermin).

An Aslan trader was next. She called herself Takhweirl of the Company of Profits That Rise Like Mist. She was not representing any planet or system, but was on the look out for trading partners in the reaches. She gave the travellers her business card and suggested they meet to discuss mutually beneficial trading agreements.

Following that was a familiar if sad face. Keeper Malos of Clarke gave his best impression of a smile before intoning that it was, even if his face did not show it, a delight to meet them. Before Malos could start talking about death another figure appeared.

Grand High Provist Falx came over with a drink in his hand and a cheery smile on his face. He was delighted to see the party, and regaled them with the news that he'd been promoted because he had been instrumental in getting a GeDeCo development contract for Torpol. He and his planet were apparently delighted with the terms and outcomes, and enthused that Drinax should do the same.

A friend is well
When Falx left a gap in the crowd showed a beaming Tiznee Zazzle, who was holding the hand of Rannib, the child-warden of Number One. Smiling, she told Rannib to wait with Lady Nitrane who would tell her a story. Fearing that this was a ploy to offload Rannib on the party, Nitrane started half-heatedly telling the story of helping an Aslan find his spaceship when a figure burst out of the crowd and gave Nitrane a huge hug. It was Lady Yemar, who looked very well indeed.

Yemar gave Nitrane kisses, then turned her attention to Slayed, Sparrow and Unter giving each in turn a huge hug and kisses. All the time she was smiling, crying, and saying "thank you, thank you" over and over. Using their powers of deduction the party guessed that the medical treatments had worked.

Drawing herself back, and smoothing her dress, Yemar told them quickly that the scientist had been able to help her, and she felt better than she ever had. Tiznee and the scientist, who had been standing a little way back, were drawn into the group. Tiznee proceeded to thank the party and give numerous air kisses to all and sundry. It seemed that she had been worried sick for years about her good friend Yemar.

After that Yemar, Tiznee and Rannib joined with the Drinaxian party. Yemar pointed out the Byrni delegates, who were apparently very upset that the Imperium had given no notice at all about the arrival of the fleet. Also the representatives from the Florian League and other systems that the party had not visited.

At that point the ceremony itself started.

The Ceremony
For those used to the wild excesses of King Oleb or the endless, dusty ceremonies of Drinax, the GeDeCo ceremony was dull but mercifully brief. To polite applause, Borshune addressed the crowd from a floating podium. She thanked all the delegates for attending, and gave a brief description of how GeDeCo’s investments and partnerships had improved trade and technology across the Trojan Reach. Holographic displays around the room echod her words with charts and friendly diagrams.

Brightly coloured arrows pointed to the future; curves climbed joyously skywards showing how the Outrim Void was slowly becoming less of a war-torn wilderness, and more of a valued adjunct to the Imperium, and a safe and secure highway for trade with the Aslan and Floriani. The re-opening of Vorito Highport, she claimed, will usher in a new era of peace and prosperity for the Trojan Reach.

She continued to say that the coming years would put an end to piracy and raiding, as GeDeCo intended to invest in more System Defence Boats and patrol ships to drive out these twin scourges. The coming years would unite the disparate worlds with trade links, and raise those planets that had fallen backwards to ever-higher levels of technology. GeDeCo Standard Development Contracts were, she claimed, the future for the Trojan Reach, and the highport was a symbol that the company was here for a very long time to come.

At this a light show outside the inner window of the hall displayed the GeDeCo logo as lasers and particle beams were fired into a gas cloud in a similar way that the party uncovered the last location of the Sindalian treasure on the planet Ace.

Contact
After the ceremony, a crowd of GeDeCo employees swarmed out of a side room and engaged all delegates in a conversation about the GeDeCo and the benefits of the contracts they proposed. Lady Nitrane's representative was engaging and cheerful, setting the right tone, but as Lady Yemar's representative introduced himself as Lando Nairr Sparrow's ears pricked up. This was Rachando's contact. Sparrow inserted himself into Lady Yemar's conversation and at an appropriate moment asked Lando about two planets; one being Rachando's homeworld, and the other Drinax. Lando clearly noticed and responded that it would be very interesting to talk about that once he was finished. Lady Yemar, noticing something had happened, said that she needed to think on the topic a little and that Lando and Sparrow should have their little chat now.

Lando took Sparrow over to the huge window overlooking the centre of the sphere. After some preliminaries in which Sparrow and Slayed, who had come over as well, made sure Lando knew they were friendly allies of Rachando, the GeDeCo man nodded out the window and asked that they consider the 'heart' of the matter, and waited them to respond.

Looking hard, Slayed first, then Sparrow, noticed that at the centre of the work going in in the core of the space station there was a cube of black metal, scarred in places as if it was once hit by laser fire, and obviously much older than the rest of the space station. A pair of robot maintenance pods were working  outside it, attaching power cables. Before the station would be opened to to other traffic, the
Vault would be walled away behind thick slabs of bonded neutronium, and no outsiders would ever know it was there.

Getting into the vault
Having seen that they had noticed what he was pointing out to them he told them that there were two keys to the vault. One was a data pass, and the other DNA that was on a register. Sparrow knew that the party had been handed Red passes, and remembered that Ammon Ko had had an Orange pass which had opened doors that they could not. Thinking back, other people they had seen had had Yellow and even a Green pass. He asked Lando who said that the Green pass would open the door easily, but others might take a little on the fly tweaking.

Regarding the DNA, Lando knew that the security chief was not on the list but that Fae and Hiver Jim were on the list. At this point he wished them well and moved to another group so as to not appear suspicious. When Lady Nitrane was told of the DNA key she remarked that Jim's larvae should have enough DNA similarities to act as the DNA key. As for the pass card, perhaps rather than steal someone's card they should trust their computer skills.

At this point Lady Yemar, who had been with them and watching their conversation, asked what they were up to. She knew them well enough to know something was going on. The travellers briefly explained what they needed to and Yemar suggested that if they needed to get away, she and Tiznee could pretend that Jaggad was Lady Nitrane, and that the scientist might pass as Slayed if they changed clothes (being approximately the same size). The party agreed and at an opportune moment went to the facilities and changed clothes. Jaggad, dressed as Nitrane, and the scientist, dressed as Slayed returned to the party. The travellers went the other way deeper into the station and towards the vault.

To be continued.

The Delegate

Recovering
Still recovering from her wounds, Lady Nitrane was confined to bed in the Harrier's medibay. A number of guards had been set, including representatives of the King's personal guard in battle dress. The rest of the travellers gathered around and considered what they might do.

Abruptly the door opened and in walked Lord Wrax, a sour look on his face. "Hello Nitrane" he intoned, and moved to the side of the bed barely glancing at the rest of the party. "I understand that you are to choose the delegate that will attend the space port opening on Vorito. Naturally, I am the most suitable candidate and you must choose me."

Lady Nitrane looked at her ex-husband and opened her mouth to reply, but he rushed on stating that he was clearly the best option to send as the delegate, and that the other three had terrible flaws that precluded them from consideration.

Lady Hil followed shortly thereafter, bring tea and cakes to help the recuperation. She also had some valid reasons for going, and some clearly overwhelming arguments about the non-suitability of the others. Prince Harrick was next, and then Princess Rao. Again, they were adamant that they were clearly the best suited, and the others not at all the right people to send.

Prince Harrick

Choosing the delegate
Lady Nitrane was reeling from the influx of arguments for and against the potential delegates when King Oleb himself entered. He enquired about Nitrane's health and was clearly worried for her. He then asked whether she'd chosen the delegate as he asked because a little birdie had told him that all the potential delegates had visited her.

Nitrane started by asking which delegate he thought should go, and he said "well clearly not the Princess", so Nitrane went through some arguments for and against each delegate. The King then theatrically hit his forehead with his palm and, putting on a show of having just thought of something, said that perhaps Lady Nitrane should be the delegate. He pondered for a second longer and then proclaimed that "Yes, that's what I'll do. You are the delegate Nitrane!" and sat back looking very pleased with himself.

With that the King looked at Count Slayed and Sir Sparrow and then to Unter. "We can't have commoners accompanying the Drinaxian delegate. You, Unter, are you a loyal subject?".Unter confirmed this was the case. "Am I your King?". Again a confirmation from Unter. "Very well, someone give me a sword. No not that one!" he exclaimed as Nitrane reached for her power sword. Looking around he saw a scalpel on a tray and said 'That'll do" before knighting Unter and flinging the scalpel away over his shoulder where it clattered into cupboard door.

Slayed and Rachando had a talk too. The trader had discovered that there was a vault on the Vorito space station which contained important information that might aid anyone wanting to thwart the expansion plans of the General Development Corporation. He'd obtained the information from a spy in GeDeCo called Nairr.

With Nitrane now the official delegate plans were put in place to create some dresses using light types of armour, as well as get suits for the men in the party and uniforms for the crew.

Nitrane approached Jagad and asked if she'd be her lady-in-waiting and after a thoughtful pause she agreed smiling. A doctor was also assigned to the delegation, who could assist Nitrane's recovery and help her with a skill augmentation for diplomacy. Also in the group would be Mr Skinner, a court diplomat in a grey suit and carrying a small datapad and a briefcase.

Before leaving the travellers sent a message to Sindal for the crew on the space station, hoping to get a status report on the station returned to them on Drinax. They also arranged for Rachando to send people to collect the daughter of Launch Pilot Henshaw, and hoped that they would get there before Hrol Irontooth's people did. Finally Goff said that he'd go to Clarke to retrieve his ship and meet them back on Drinax in a few weeks.

To Vorito
The Harriers departed for Vorito via Pourne, Paal and The World.

On Pourne Slayed met up with Navin Yarral from the Bureau of Investigation for a drink. Navin asked if the Harriers were involved in the disappearance of an imperial treasure ship but Slayed successfully diverted the conversation and gave the impression that they were not.

On Paal, it transpired that the leadership of the planet were also going to Vorito and therefore the travellers had an easier time than normal with no high ranking meetings arranged.

On The World the travellers found that the leadership there had not been invited, possibly because of the secluded nature of the inhabitants, but most likely because of a lack of opportunity for GeDeCo to build a spaceport with which to make money.

Vorito Spaceport
Upon arriving in the Vorito system the travellers discovered that one of the Harriers had not arrived with them. Possibly this was related to an error in the coordinated jump, meaning the other Harrier might arrive soon, or it could be something more serious.

The ships were immediately hailed by a system defense boat belonging to the General Development Corporation and were informed they would have to leave if they did not have official business. The party announced that they had the delegate from Drinax on board which satisfied the SDB and the Harriers were told where they could dock. The approach was almost entirely automated, with the station providing an impressively advanced set of navigation aids.

As they got closer they could see the space station more clearly. According to its designers, Vorito Highport was a rotating dodecahedron with reconfigurable docking arms extending from each primary vertex. To the Travellers, it resembled a metallic spider or maybe a squid, reaching out to strangle them. For some reason Blue Danube started playing on the comms channel to calm the travellers.

When the Harriers docked, they were met by an honour guard of security forces who accompanied Ammun Ko, a smart and perky, and very enthusiastic, GeDeCo representative who explained that she was the Drinax delegate's personal liaison. She carried a datapad and referred to it from time to time when answering questions. She was from the Imperium and very excited to be in the wild and perilous Trojan Reach.

Ammun Ko

After the formalities of presenting credentials, the travellers moved from their docking bay into the station itself. The interior of the space station was hugely impressive. The hallway from the docking bays was large, but when the party reached the main concourse for this small area of the station it was clear that it could handle many millions of passengers a year.

The station was still some way from being completed though. Lots of activity was in evidence, visible even from a distance thanks to the sparks of welding, and including assembling, painting and polishing done by sophonts and robots. While operational in parts, it would be a few more months until it was fully open for business. In the meantime, what was operations was still better than any starport in the reaches.

They reached a set of elevators and Ammun Ko gave each of the Travellers a passcard, and explained that it would be needed to open doors, and could also be used to purchase items and track their needs on board the station. As a courtesy, their passcards had been pre-loaded with Credits, so anything they purchased on board the station would be free (within reason – it was to cover drinks and souvenirs, not a new starship).

Rising up the private elevator the party emerged into a luxurious VIP area. They passed through a huge lounge, restaurant and bar, past a small but exclusive row of a dozen or so shops, to a suite of six bedrooms and other living areas that were set aside for the Drinaxian delegate. Their crew, they were advised, would be getting accommodation nearer the docking bay, but still luxurious.

Amman Ko advised Lady Yemar that the reception for the opening of the starport would be in approximately 18 hours. The first event however would be a special dinner for the Drinaxians cooked by a master chef up in their VIP restaurant. Following that the shops would all be open for them to peruse and purchase whichever Vorito-made goods took their fancy. A period of rest and recuperation would then be appropriate before preparing for the opening ceremony.

Members of the crew were escorted into the VIP area to bring their baggage, and then the travellers took some time to look over the computer terminals. Unsurprisingly the information that could be accessed was just information about the starport and some brief bits of information about the schedule that had been created for the delegates.

To be continued.

Trader trouble

As the princess and King Oleb returned to the sitting room where the travelers were waiting they could hear him loudly saying that he didn't want to go. To what they could not guess but he sounded adamant. As the royals entered the princess was saying "but you have to go, it's important."

The King was dressed in water polo costume with a protective hat tied under his chin. It became clear that with the opening up of relations with Torpol again the King had been made aware of Torpolian water polo, and fallen in love with the game. So much so that he was building a water polo pool on the under-plinth of the floating palace.

The princess turned talk to more serious matters. The king had been invited to attend the opening of the space port at Vorito. This was to be the General Development Corporation's pride and joy in the sector, opening up Vorito's industrial might after the previous space station was blown up a decade ago. The most powerful people in the sector were being invited to the grand opening but it coincided with the opening of King Oleb's water polo pool so he would not be going.

To work out who should go as the Drinax delegate, the king asked Lady Nitrane to choose from Princess Rao, Prince Harrick, Lady Sil and Lord Wrax. The king was also delighted with the gift of the two strongboxes. As they were not yet opened he ordered that someone from the scholar's tower be sent for who might be able to get into them.

After the king left, Nitrqane turned to Princess Rao and asked her who she thought should go. The princess immediately said that she herself should naturally go.

Following the audience with Princess Rao, the travellers, minus Sparrow who returned to the ships, went to visit Rachando.

Upon entering the offices of Rachando the party noticed two people entering before them, so sat in the waiting area to wait their turn. Moments later they heard gunfire and jumped up to see what was happening.

Turning the corner from the waiting area into Rachando's large sprawling office, they saw the two people they had seen earlier with gauss rifles aiming down at a place behind the main desk. Slayed spring into action and fired off a shot to distract them, he then moved closer, taking up a position behind a conference table. The shot hit, but did minimal or no damage as the two gunmen seemed to have some kind of armour.

Next up Unter took aim with his slug pistol and fired off two shots at the other. He too moved into a closer position but his shot too seemed to barely scratch the armour of the assailants. Then it was Lady Nitrane's turn. She was without a ranged weapon so decided on the spur of the moment to run up to one of the attackers but had no time to attack with her blade.

Then the assailants fired. One fired at something on the ground behind the desk, the other at Nitrane. Nitrane was hit and badly wounded but could continue.

Slayed fired again but didn't damage his target. It seemed as if he would have to draw his own blade to be effective in the fight. Under, without his huge unwieldy axe, was reduced to hoping his shots might at least distract his target.

Then Nitrane ignited her blade and took a swing at her target. The arc-field weapon cut through the armour as if it was not there, doing terrible damage to the surprised assassin. In response however the target swung the gauss rifle around and pulled the trigger, dropping Nitrane like a sack of potatoes.

The other assassin, having taken no damage to speak of, fired again at the floor, spraying their target with gauss rounds. If that was Rachando back there then he was almost certainly dead.

Slayed unsheathed his monofilament blade and jumped to the attacker and swung, doing damage. The blade cut through the armour in a most satisfying way. Unter fired too, but it was clear he would not be contributing much in this fight.

The attackers now decided to flee, one fired off another burst at the floor while the other fired at Slayed, missing him only because he swing his blade at the rifle to parry it.

Slayed got a swing in on the assassin passing by him and dropped him while Unter fired at the other one who had a clearer run to the door. A brief chase ensued but Slayed finally got a swing in as the assassin turned the corner to the waiting room dropping the last assailant.

They immediately turned their attention to Rachando and Nitrane. Miraculously they were both alive - just. Slayed knew where Rachando kept some trauma packs and both of the wounded were stabilised sufficiently to get to the Harrier which was not far from the office. There they underwent surgery by the automed in the sick bay and the palace guard were summoned.

After some medical care the two still remain confined to bed, with Rachando refusing to tell what he knows with other people present.

Homecoming

Paal
The travelers jumped to Paal where they were welcomed by high ranking officials and attended functions where they met more high ranking officials. They found time to see the radioactives and luxury consumables, making over 30 MCr.

Pourne
After Paal they jumped to Pourne. Deciding to look for news of Drinax, in case anything had happened, Nitrane found news reports of an Imperial treasure ship that had gone missing, possibly hijacked. Apparently the Imperial Navy had already sent a fleet into the reaches in response. More details were expected to follow in the coming weeks.

Drinax
Refueling and leaving as quickly as possible, the ships jumped to Drinax. Originally the plan had been to just arrive in one Harrier, with the other two out at a distant gas giant, or possibly not having them jump to Drinax at all. At the last minute though the realisation that the powers in Drinax might hear about three Harriers anyway turned the plan on its head and all three arrived and requested landing permission at the king's private landing pad.

When they landed they immediately requested to see the princess, who granted them an audience inside an hour. Having discussed what to say to the princess many times over the past few weeks, then arrived at just bringing her the treaty that they had found in the treasure ship vault. After that they would just play it by ear, but not volunteer any information.

Princess Rao was very pleased to see them, and had then sit and take tea with her. The party presented the treaty and said it was so important that they broke their rule of keeping their distance from Drinax to bring it to her. She looked at it, agreed it was important, but wanted first to hear everything that they had done since they had seen her last.

Exchanging glances with the rest of the party Nitrane began talking.

The travels started with the hunt for the Treasure of Sindal. The journey went from Noricum (where they found someone who declared themselves to be the true descendant of the Sindalian Emperor), to Thebus (where they made diplomatic contact with the Proactive Recycling Company) and then Number One (where they met the Warden, a young girl). At this point they realised they needed a number of particle cannons to solve a complex problem which should give them the whereabouts of the treasure.

They went to Salif, where they hoped they could get the weapons. Unfortunately the government realised who they were and in exchange for access to the weapons they wanted were asked to stage a mock hostage-taking of Tiznee Zazzle so she could go to an Imperial planet for medical procedures. This complete they created some self-contained particle cannons, loaded them in their ships, and continued to Ace.

On Ace they determined the final location of the treasure and after jumping to the secret location they found an old derelict station that had two Harriers, which were repairable only because they had been mothballed and packed away for storage.

Rao clearly knew who the Warden was (she described Rannid as a dear) and Tiznee (pursed lips and a nod). She asked about professor Haut-Belzoni and was told that he was being looked after by a friend. Also she wanted the location of the derelict station as there may yet be some items of interest to be found there, which the party gave her after exchanging glances once again.

Nitrane continued.

Getting the Harriers repaired meant utilising the resources of Theev and they left them there and continued on to Palindrome. When they arrived they made contact with Lady Yemar who needed some help getting a scientist to cure her of a long-standing illness. If the party could get the scientist who could cure Lady Yemar then she seemed open to the idea of aligning herself to Drinax. With details about the scientist they made their way into the Imperium and followed his trail until they eventually found him and sent him to Palindrome.

While Nitrane was telling the princess this she looked concerned, and then at the end remarked that she hoped poor Anastasia would get the cure she needed. It was clear that the princess knew and regarded Lady Yemar highly.

After that Nitrane mentioned that they had established diplomatic relations with Tech-World (in exchange for system defense boats) and Paal (who were very pleased to just be visited). Rao wished the travelers well with getting the system defense boats and thanked them for their diplomatic attempts to far.

Talk then turned to the treasure ship, which Nitrane described as too good an opportunity to miss. She briefly described what happened then broached the subject of the treasure that the party obtained. This included the two unopened strongboxes as well as the goods on Sink and the diplomatic papers, one of this was the important one in front of the princess.

Princess Rao turned more serious and admonished the party that the idea had been to not implicate Drinax in these acts of piracy. Unfortunately the description of the Harriers and the fact that they were accompanying the treasure ship was widely known. This was good for the purposes of stirring up the Imperium but not for the overall plan to have systems turn to Drinax to resolve the piracy menace.

Not all was lost however and that was because of the treaty the party had brought her.

The treaty stated that the Imperium agreed that the Aslan could extend their borders to within 6 hexes of the Imperium instead of the 10 that was currently in place. In exchange the Imperium would get improved trading terms. This deal meant that Drinax, Torpol, Clarke, Tech-World and many others in the Drinax belt would be engulfed by an Aslan horde.

This was clearly bad news for Drinax, unless that is they were already working towards bringing planets under their influence. As yet the treaty was not ratified - the physical copy in front of them was required for that. Until then the Drinax royal family and the travelers could spread the word about the treaty.

Lady Nitrane then mentioned the strongboxes again and Princess Rao asked that they fetch them. In the meantime she would go and get the king, now that the important discussions had taken place.

When the party returned the princess had not arrived so they waited. Not long later they heard her voice in the corridor saying "but you have to go" in an exasperated tone. At that the princess and King Oleb entered,. the latter in a waterpolo uniform.

To be continued...

To Byrni, and beyond

Tech-World
Finally reunited with the Harriers the travellers spent the rest of the week ensuring that the ships were refueled, that the Harriers had their overdue maintenance, and generally kept a low profile. From time to time they would visit Luddites, the only bar in town with a real person as bartender, and visited the automated shops, but other than that they stayed on their ships and planned what to do next.

Ergo
After the week was up the fleet jumped to Ergo, where a navy fuel dump had been set up. There they quickly and uneventfully refueled before making the jump-2 to Byrni.

Byrni
The ships emerged from jump near the most distant gas giant in the system. The aim was to avoid being detected while opening the vault, extracting what was in there, then refueling and jumping out as quickly as possible. Because arriving at the 100 diameter radius would mean a 17 hour journey just to get to fuel-scooping orbit the party went to the vault to open it.

Using the key and the drugged captain's DNA the party triggered the opening sequence on the door fairly easily. What they did not expect was a 10 minute light show and fanfare that made up the opening ceremony. Intended to be opened with the huge cargo bay clam-shell doors open, the sight and sound show was overwhelming, which meant they did not immediately hear the call from the bridge.

While the vault was being opened the crew on the bridge had detected an Imperial Navy carrier with escort in orbit around the gas giant. Shortly thereafter  the treasure ship had been hailed by the navy ship and welcomed to Byrni. However they were also asked why they had not arrived at the inner planet where the spaceport was and where the people who were expecting them would be.

Lady Nitrane picked up the comms and was quickly advised by First Officer Jagad in what to say. Nitrane said that they had jump difficulties and they and their escorta needed to refuel immediately.
To that the navy ship asked "What escort?" and then "Why not just proceed to the spaceport where you are expected?". Apparently the navy had not detected the Harriers, with their stealth jump and hull coatings preventing them from being picked up.

Nitrane persisted with the line of reasoning that they and the escorts needed refueling, at which point the navy advised that fighters were being sent to provide them with an escort.

Quickly calculating that the fighters would be with them in about six hours the party quickly got to taking everything out of the vault and into the normal cargo bays. They already knew that the ship could not jump with the vault open, so this was vital if they wanted to be able to jump at short notice.

In the vault they found the following:

• Four 5-ton mail drums of secure electronic communications, presumably from the Imperium to the Aslan Hierate. These were known to be incredibly hard to crack, but the contents could be very valuable.
• Various legal and formal documents laid out on presentation shelves under spotlights. These document represented the actual proof of agreements and deals, with seals embedded with chips proving provenance and authenticity. At a glance they were mostly diplomatic with some mercantile ones as well. The contents of these were not closely checked while emptying the vault.
• 40 tons of Luxury Goods, clearly marked with Imperial seals and signs. Apparently these would be used as gifts, reminding people of the wealth of the Imperium.
• 20 tons of Pharmaceuticals, clearly marked with Imperial seals and signs. This more humanitarian cargo would be to appease or curry favour with local worlds.
• 20 tons of Radioactives in heavy protective crates. With a wide range of uses such as medical, research or weaponry their intended use could only be guessed at.
• Two small strongboxes which were locked and looked to be difficult to get into.

Moving these out in to the normal cargo bays took a good two hours but that left the travellers time enough to complete the task.

The decision was made to have the Harriers, which still had not been detected, leave the treasure ship and head at speed to the gas giant to refuel and purify fuel in secret. In the meantime the treasure ship would jump to Sink, the only world within jump-1 that the ship could reach.

After all astrogation calculations were complete the ship jumped, leaving the Harriers to their fate.

Sink

Arriving in Sink the ship immediately headed for the planet to land. Just as last time they were here, the huge cranes and machinery near the starport reminded the crew that this strange outpost of an obscure religion dropped objects into the swamp. Whether as atonement or to appease one or more gods the party had not yet established.

The Senior Brother in Charge of Star Ports welcomed them, but did not seem to recognise them. They asked for their huge ship to be refueled, to which he went white but nodded and quickly gathered together some novices to commence the task of manually refueling the ship.

The crew looked anxiously towards the sky, not expecting to see the Harriers before the sensor operators did, but it seemed to help.

Eventually, 40 hours after the treasure ship arrived, the Harriers radioed in that they had arrived. A slight altercation with some fighters that got too close was brushed off as inconsequential and that any damage was purely superficial.

Two Harriers landed, leaving one in orbit to provide better sensors cover for those on the ground. These were given refueling priority. As soon as one Harrier on the ground was refueled, it went up and took station while the orbiting Harrier landed for its refueling.

A day or so later, after the Harriers had been refueled and the monks resumed fueling the treasure  ship, the orbiting Harrier picked up the arrival jump signature that turned out to be an Imperial Navy escort. Whether this was the same one that they detected around the gas giant they did not know.

The Imperial ship started in towards the planet and the decision was made to immediately launch the treasure ship and Harriers as they would be detected easily once the escort got close.Rather than be fired on from above, the only plan that made sense was to head towards safety.

As the treasure  ship lumbered up out of the atmosphere the Imperial ship got closer. Suddenly it veered off directly towards the orbiting Harrier, and fired two particle cannons. The ship was damaged, and the crew took some radiation damage, but they responded, hitting the escort with their single particle cannon. The damage done was less that the two that hit them, but for whatever reason the radiation damage was much higher, and the escort's crew was clearly affected. No further shots were fired from the escort as it spiraled slowly down to the planet. 

With the damage on the orbiting Harrier causing a little concern the decision was made to land again, leaving a fresh Harrier in orbit once again. On landing the damage was assessed and found to be repairable. Refueling was competed and the ships prepared to take off.

Suddenly the party had a thought. The treasure ship would be a tremendous liability, but what if they sank it in the swamp? After quickly agreeing to this course of action they hired some storage space at the spaceport and offloaded all the Advanced Electronics, Advanced Machine Parts and Pharmaceuticals put them in the storage area. The remaining plunder was split  among the Harriers except the mail drums that were left on board the treasure ship.

Then Sparrow grinned terribly. What if the captain went down with the ship? The rest of the party thought about it and eventually agreed. The captain was drugged into unconsciousness and placed in the captains chair while the treasure ship was put down at a spot agreed with the monks. The party watched it sink below the surface, and the monks cheered.

Quickly boarding the ships they chose Paal as their next destination.

To be continued...

(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.