Jump-space between Byrni and Vorito
Hanz Waltz and Tipper, both recently of the Imperial Navy but now on the run, found themselves separately travelling to Vorito. Tipper had followed the instructions given to him by GeDeCo as he had been a spy for them for many years. Hanz was simply following a path of self-preservation having only very recently discovering that he had psionic abilities which would get him in deep trouble if he stayed in the navy. He had used those abilities to find out where Tipper had gone and had taken the same route.
Hanz had no idea whether or not he was on the same ship as Tipper, having bluffed his way onto the first ship to Vorito he could find. Tipper had no idea that Hanz had gone AWOL let alone followed him. It was therefore a surprise to both when on day 4 they bumped into each other in a corridor on the liner. There was an awkward silence broken with an "oh hi" and "I didn't know you were here". After that they didn't hang out, but nor did they obviously avoid each other.
Vorito
When the ship arrived at Vorito's enormous and brand-new spaceport they disembarked together and made their way to the main concourse. There was a person waiting for Tipper who nodded and took Tipper's bag with a "welcome Mr Tipper, please follow me". Tipper followed him to a cart which took him into the private areas of the spaceport. Hanz decided not to follow Tipper and instead started looking for somewhere to stay.
Vorito spaceport was only recently open for business and there were thousands of people visible. Advertising for accommodation , entertainment, tickets to far flung destination, and all manner of consumer goods were everywhere. This was no military installation but a temple to transportation and consumerism. The GeDeCo logo was everywhere too, reminding people of the immense financial might of the corporation.
Of the visitors, a great many were tourists who came just to see the new structure. Others were in transit, passing through to the planet below or other more distant destinations in this system or others. Still more people worked at the port in security, transportation, commercial or residential positions. A lot of people just stood or sit watching other people.
Hanz
Hanz picked a moderate hotel and booked in. Every few minutes an advert would appear on one of many holo-displays around the room. It seemed it was moderately priced as it was partially subsidised by advertising. Every time he silenced one it was just a matter of time until the next popped up. Adverts for entertainments, and feed were the main ones, but gambling was also advertised. Hanz looked thoughtful.
Tipper
Tipper on the other hand was taken deeper into the port through a number of checkpoints. At the first checkpoint he was given a card with his features but no name. At subsequent checkpoints this was scanned and he was handed to another person to took his bag and ushered him, on another form of transportation, deeper into the port.
Eventually Tipper found himself arriving at an executive residential area where four or five villas opened onto a lounge area with views one way out to space, and the other overlooking the vast interior of the station. The young lady who had brought him here opened the door to a villa and said it was his to use. She told him there was a liaison who could be reached via the communicator and that he could order anything he liked at the bar or cafe. His next appointment would be in a day or two but in the meantime he was free to come and go - his card would get him nearly anywhere - but that it was preferred if he didn't leave the spaceport. She then left, leaving him alone in this rather exclusive accommodation.
His first act was to send a message giving them Hanz's description and asking that they keep an eye on him from a distance. He also asked for a psi helmet. He was answered immediately with an acknowledgement, a comment that it was an unusual request, and that an answer would be forthcoming.
When the response came it was that worn psi helmets were available although internal prototype psi protectors were more difficult to get. When asked by the liaison if the two things - Hanz's description and the psi helmet - were linked Tipper said yes, and that he suspected Hanz of being a psionic. The liaison asked if he trusted Hanz or if he wanted GeDeCo to take care of him. Tipper answered that he had worked with Hanz for some time, trusted him and that he might be useful, but that he didn't like the idea of him getting into his head.
Hanz
Back in his far more basic accommodation Hanz considered his options. He wasn't sure what was happening to Tipper but he'd need to fend for himself anyway. He thought that perhaps he'd have a day or two before any news of his abrupt and unscheduled departure would be noticed, then a day or two after that while the military police worked out where he might have gone and sent people to follow him.
The first thing he did was find what jobs were being advertised. The system in the hotel was basic so he found a public terminal in a quiet part of the concourse. He looked for GeDeCo jobs, specifically security related, and applied for them. He had to give a location where he could be contacted in a day or two, and decided to stay in his room and lay low until he heard back. He practiced putting up psionic blocks and shields in his spare time.
Eventually, after existing on a diet of take away hawker dishes and passing the time practicing his psionic abilities, he got a response. At the appointed time he arrived at a large waiting area where there were dozens of other hopefuls and four doors leading interview rooms. He waited until his number was called and then went to where he was directed where two people were sitting waiting for him.
The interview was short. It consisted of some basic questions about what he wanted to do, his previous employment, and about motivation and aspirations. He answered all questions honestly, including those about the end of his navy career, reasoning that honesty was the best approach and that if they were put off by anything he could always get a job somewhere else.
The interviewers thanked him and asked him to wait for a second call, which he agreed to and he returned back to his room to wait.
Tipper
Meanwhile back in the GeDeCo inner offices, Tipper attended his first meeting with his GeDeCo masters including Fae Borshune, the head of GeDoCo on Vorito. They thanked him for his excellent work over many years. He was due some leave time, they explained, but they had a new and urgent mission for him. Something that didn't require him to be under cover but which did take advantage of his skills.
While they got a team together he was welcome to stay in his current accommodation. The area was solely for his use and there would be no other residents in the other villas. He was also given funds on his card - essentially unlimited - to purchase whatever he wanted, including from GeDeCo stores. Finally his recommendation to watch Hanz Waltz was a good one, and that more would be forthcoming on that front later.
Hanz
The next interview turned out to be a very comprehensive medical examination. Multiple scans and tests that put the Imperial Navy to shame. His medical training helped him understand most of it but procedures were some were so advanced that he was unsure what they were looking for - or if they found it. He was advised that the next interview would be in a day or two, and thanked for his participation.
He continued to lay low, worried now that the Imperial Navy could have sent people to Vorito by now looking for him and Tipper.
A day later he was contacted about the next interview. When he arrived he found it to be offices and was ushered into a conference suite where a tall white haired mane, who had a military bearing and an eye patch, greeted him warmly and thanked him for coming. He was shown into a room with a conference room, the walls showing scenes of Vorito and on one mirrored wall was a drinks cabinet. Five people sat at the table and stood as he entered. Offered a drink he asked for iced water. They then sat down.
Tipper
Unbeknownst to Hanz, Tipper was one of a number of people behind the mirror. His alert days earlier had resulted in Hanz being watched - a job made considerably easier by him not moving from his hotel room except to get food. This final interview would determine if Hanz would be assigned to the team, have an accident in an alley, or be handed to the imperial navy.
Hanz
The meeting started with the white haired military man introducing himself as Tychus Findlay. He didn't introduce the others but they didn't appear to be military - more corporate in appearance. Tychus outlined a proposal where Hanz would be hired on a probational basis. Not acting under cover but more a courier or GeDeCo operative, although it might be dangerous hence someone of his skills being needed. Tychus asked Hanz if that was acceptable to which Hanz agreed.
Tychus then elaborated more. The work would involve working in a team that would travel to a few systems nearby, collecting information as per mission parameters and, within three months, returning to Vorito. At that point his probation would be complete and an offer of more permanent employment might be forthcoming.
If Hanz agreed Tychus would put an offer on the table to indicate the level of compensation on offer for the three months. Hanz nodded and Tychus slipped over a piece of paper. On it was written 50,000Cr which was considerably over the going rate. Hanz agreed to the terms. Tychus produced an employment contract on a datapad and Hanz duly signed his agreement to the terms.
Tychus then asked a question that had been suggested to him from the room behind the mirror - did Hanz know of any other people who might be suitable or interested in this type of work? Hanz suggested Tipper, describing him and suggesting he might still be in the station. Tychus took a note and thanked him. He would be contacted again in a few days while the team was put together.
Tipper
Behind the mirror Fae turned to Tipper and asked if he'd be happy with Hanz in his team, to which Tipper replied that he would.
Two days later
Hanz and Tipper separately arrived at the designated place. Hanz had an access card similar to Tipper's and had made his way to the briefing room not sure what to expect. Tipper came from his GeDeCo quarters via gravcart and was there when Hanz arrrived.
There were four in the room including Hanz and Tipper when Tychus arrived. He remarked that Hanz and Tipper knew each other, which would make things easier, and then proceeded to introduce the others and outline the mission.
Their mission was to locate and make contact with a group of nobles from Drinax who had been travelling through the subsectors of the Reach for some months. The team would be given a ship and whatever equipment they thought necessary, and would be given details about where these people had been seen most recently. They were not under cover, and the people they were looking for were in no way the enemies of GeDeCo, but they were making themselves hard to find hence the unusual situation of creating a special team to make contact.
To be continued
Sunday, 17 February 2019
Sunday, 10 February 2019
Heading to battle
Number One
Arriving at Number One Admiral Slayed on the Frontier Trader headed to the spaceport while the rest of the fleet and the other travellers went to the gas giant. While the fleet scooped fuel and started purifying it Slayed inquired at the spaceport to see if there were any people who could be hired as crew. In particular he needed engineers but any stand out candidates would be welcome as the ships were all undermanned.
Finding three such people with appropriate references and the right outlook he hired them on the spot. With his ship refueled and with supplies in the cargo hold for the rest of the fleet, he too headed to the gas giant.
While around the gas giant the travellers quickly decided that the Lab Ship would slow them down too much. They had eight more jumps to do and without fuel scoops and with slow fuel processors refueling at gas giants would take too long. Not only that but the lab ship had no weapons or armour so would also be a liability should anything go wrong and a space battle ensue. Reluctantly they found a place to hide it on a small moon around the gas giant and cleared the computers before shutting it down and hoping it would be there when (or if) they returned.
After transferring the newly hired crew to the fleet and wishing the others well Slayed and the Frontier Trader jumped for Thebus where the routine would be repeated. Look for crew, refuel, take on supplies for the fleet, then meet the fleet at the gas giant before heading out two days ahead of the rest. This way they hoped to travel to Wildeman relatively unnoticed.
Thebus
While he officials and security forces on Number One were friendly enough, on Thebus Slayed was welcomed and given an escort to the station by a passing system defense boat. He was able to find nine suitable crew members and once they, the fuel and the supplies were on board he headed to the gas giant rendezvous.
Once there the travellers discussed their next few jumps and worked out that at the current rate of progress the mercenaries would be at Wildeman before them. It was decided that at around Torpol they would split the fleet and send the ships with longer jump range on ahead with some engineers to get the repairs started on the secret base.
Oghma
At Oghma Slayed found only three recruits, but among them was an engineer so he counted it a success. Meeting up with the fleet he transferred the new crew and jumped to Torpol.
Torpol
Arriving at Torpol the procedure was again repeated, this time resulting in only two crew, but one an exceptional pilot and the other an engineer. When Slayed met with the fleet the next stage of the operation was put into effect.
For the majority of the fleet the next system would be Blue, but the Far Scout would jump on to Arunisiir. Jaggad had reminded them that there was a Patrol Corvette hidden on that planet - one that had been downed by the party when they were trying to work out what to do with Jaggad's treasure ship. If they could repair the corvette then it might be a useful decoy for the attack on the convoy.
Slayed, Gobbo, a pilot and an engineer would man the Far Scout. With them would be First Officer Jaggad and three others as a second crew. If the patrol corvette was there and repairable Jaggad and her crew would stay to start the repairs. If it was not there they would just stay on the Far Scout which was heading to Wildeman.
The rest of the fleet would be on Arunisiir 10 days after the Far Scout. If the corvette were usable it and Goff;s ship would jump to Wildeman while the rest of the fleet took an extra jump to get there. The idea was to get as many people to Wildeman as possible to start repairs to the base so that the mercenaries and fleet would have somewhere secure to stay while they waited for the convoy to arrive.
Blue - Fleet
With no ship heading to the planet itself (as Blue was not particularly friendly) the fleet scooped and purified fuel at a gas giant and then jumped for Arunisiir.
Arunisiir - Far Scout
The hidden corvette was on the other side of the planet from the space port in an area with no inhabitants. They managed to get there unseen (they assumed) and their luck was strong as the corvette was exactly where they had left it nearly a year earlier. It didn't look like anyone had been there at all.
Quickly they assessed the damage. They would need many spare parts but the Arunisiir space port had a scrapyard and so while Jaggad and the second crew got settled in the Far Scout went out towards the 100 diameter limit and then approached the space portas if they had just jumped in.
Quickly refueling and again taking on extra supplies they filled the cargo bay with spare parts. When they left they went out to give the impression they were going to the 100 diameter limit but instead took a wide arc back to the patrol corvette. There they unloaded the spare parts and supplies then left for Wildeman, leaving Jaggad and her three crew to repair the corvette. The corvette crew now had 8 days until the rest of the fleet arrived.
Repairing the Corvette
Jaggad and her crew drove a hard pace. The main damage sustained to the corvette was to armour, hull and manoeuvre drive. They first patched up the hull to make it spaceworthy. This didn't fix the hull entirely - it was still badly damaged - but it did mean that the ship could enter the vacuum of space and hold up in jumpspace if they needed to leave in a hurry.
They then changed focus to the damaged (but not destroyed) manoeuvre drive. Repairing this would give them more thrust - useful for getting to the gas giant when the fleet arrived - and would also give manoeuverability if they got into a fight. Once this was done they quickly moved the ship to a nearby body of water and fulled the tanks. With fuel purifiers on they returned to their hiding spot and started work on the armour. This took, a while as there had been large holes in some places but they had enough spare part to fix the armour.
With the ship now ready to fly they spent the rest of the time repairing more of the hull until the rest of the fleet arrived. They didn't have enough spare parts or time to completely repair it but it would have to do. They also spent some time removing any traces of imperial navy insignia or colours to parts of the hull or armour that didn't need fixing.
To be continued...
Status:
Far Scout about to arrive in Wildeman.
Fleet about to arrive in Arunisiir at gas giant.
Patrol Corvette being repaired and preparing to meet fleet out at gas giant.
Planned:
Goff's ship and Patrol Corvette to jump to Wildeman to help repairs.
Remaining ships in fleet to jump to Pandora gas giant and then to Wildeman.
Arriving at Number One Admiral Slayed on the Frontier Trader headed to the spaceport while the rest of the fleet and the other travellers went to the gas giant. While the fleet scooped fuel and started purifying it Slayed inquired at the spaceport to see if there were any people who could be hired as crew. In particular he needed engineers but any stand out candidates would be welcome as the ships were all undermanned.
Finding three such people with appropriate references and the right outlook he hired them on the spot. With his ship refueled and with supplies in the cargo hold for the rest of the fleet, he too headed to the gas giant.
While around the gas giant the travellers quickly decided that the Lab Ship would slow them down too much. They had eight more jumps to do and without fuel scoops and with slow fuel processors refueling at gas giants would take too long. Not only that but the lab ship had no weapons or armour so would also be a liability should anything go wrong and a space battle ensue. Reluctantly they found a place to hide it on a small moon around the gas giant and cleared the computers before shutting it down and hoping it would be there when (or if) they returned.
After transferring the newly hired crew to the fleet and wishing the others well Slayed and the Frontier Trader jumped for Thebus where the routine would be repeated. Look for crew, refuel, take on supplies for the fleet, then meet the fleet at the gas giant before heading out two days ahead of the rest. This way they hoped to travel to Wildeman relatively unnoticed.
Thebus
While he officials and security forces on Number One were friendly enough, on Thebus Slayed was welcomed and given an escort to the station by a passing system defense boat. He was able to find nine suitable crew members and once they, the fuel and the supplies were on board he headed to the gas giant rendezvous.
Once there the travellers discussed their next few jumps and worked out that at the current rate of progress the mercenaries would be at Wildeman before them. It was decided that at around Torpol they would split the fleet and send the ships with longer jump range on ahead with some engineers to get the repairs started on the secret base.
Oghma
At Oghma Slayed found only three recruits, but among them was an engineer so he counted it a success. Meeting up with the fleet he transferred the new crew and jumped to Torpol.
Torpol
Arriving at Torpol the procedure was again repeated, this time resulting in only two crew, but one an exceptional pilot and the other an engineer. When Slayed met with the fleet the next stage of the operation was put into effect.
For the majority of the fleet the next system would be Blue, but the Far Scout would jump on to Arunisiir. Jaggad had reminded them that there was a Patrol Corvette hidden on that planet - one that had been downed by the party when they were trying to work out what to do with Jaggad's treasure ship. If they could repair the corvette then it might be a useful decoy for the attack on the convoy.
Slayed, Gobbo, a pilot and an engineer would man the Far Scout. With them would be First Officer Jaggad and three others as a second crew. If the patrol corvette was there and repairable Jaggad and her crew would stay to start the repairs. If it was not there they would just stay on the Far Scout which was heading to Wildeman.
The rest of the fleet would be on Arunisiir 10 days after the Far Scout. If the corvette were usable it and Goff;s ship would jump to Wildeman while the rest of the fleet took an extra jump to get there. The idea was to get as many people to Wildeman as possible to start repairs to the base so that the mercenaries and fleet would have somewhere secure to stay while they waited for the convoy to arrive.
Blue - Fleet
With no ship heading to the planet itself (as Blue was not particularly friendly) the fleet scooped and purified fuel at a gas giant and then jumped for Arunisiir.
Arunisiir - Far Scout
The hidden corvette was on the other side of the planet from the space port in an area with no inhabitants. They managed to get there unseen (they assumed) and their luck was strong as the corvette was exactly where they had left it nearly a year earlier. It didn't look like anyone had been there at all.
Quickly they assessed the damage. They would need many spare parts but the Arunisiir space port had a scrapyard and so while Jaggad and the second crew got settled in the Far Scout went out towards the 100 diameter limit and then approached the space portas if they had just jumped in.
Quickly refueling and again taking on extra supplies they filled the cargo bay with spare parts. When they left they went out to give the impression they were going to the 100 diameter limit but instead took a wide arc back to the patrol corvette. There they unloaded the spare parts and supplies then left for Wildeman, leaving Jaggad and her three crew to repair the corvette. The corvette crew now had 8 days until the rest of the fleet arrived.
Repairing the Corvette
Jaggad and her crew drove a hard pace. The main damage sustained to the corvette was to armour, hull and manoeuvre drive. They first patched up the hull to make it spaceworthy. This didn't fix the hull entirely - it was still badly damaged - but it did mean that the ship could enter the vacuum of space and hold up in jumpspace if they needed to leave in a hurry.
They then changed focus to the damaged (but not destroyed) manoeuvre drive. Repairing this would give them more thrust - useful for getting to the gas giant when the fleet arrived - and would also give manoeuverability if they got into a fight. Once this was done they quickly moved the ship to a nearby body of water and fulled the tanks. With fuel purifiers on they returned to their hiding spot and started work on the armour. This took, a while as there had been large holes in some places but they had enough spare part to fix the armour.
With the ship now ready to fly they spent the rest of the time repairing more of the hull until the rest of the fleet arrived. They didn't have enough spare parts or time to completely repair it but it would have to do. They also spent some time removing any traces of imperial navy insignia or colours to parts of the hull or armour that didn't need fixing.
To be continued...
Status:
Far Scout about to arrive in Wildeman.
Fleet about to arrive in Arunisiir at gas giant.
Patrol Corvette being repaired and preparing to meet fleet out at gas giant.
Planned:
Goff's ship and Patrol Corvette to jump to Wildeman to help repairs.
Remaining ships in fleet to jump to Pandora gas giant and then to Wildeman.
Saturday, 2 February 2019
Meanwhile...
Byrni - Imperial Navy Flotilla
Meanwhile the navy characters were meeting with Captain Labat and Admiral Krond aboard the Eurisko somewhere above Byrni. Over the past few months they had performed their duties well and this was, if not a reward, then a sign that they were trusted enough with an important mission.
Commander Boris (Engineering), Petty Officer Tipper (Line/Crew) and Lance Sergeant Hanz Waltz (Star Marines) stood to attention as Krond outlined the mission that they were to be sent on. For the next three months they would jump around the Borderlands subsector hunting down rumours to find the location of the pirate planet. They would be under cover as simple merchants, flying the trade routes in a captured far trader called Dirty Beast.
To help with the disguise they would be given MCr 2.0 with which to buy supplies for the flotilla and also to cover expenses. It was made very clear that should they not have a full cargo hold of required goods on their return there would be consequences.
Ergo and Falcon
First stop was Ergo, where they refueled at the automated station. With nobody to talk to they jumped as quickly as possible to Falcon.
At Falcon they managed to find the types of cargo that the flotilla required, and in sufficient quantities to fill the hold. This good fortune meant that unless they were attacked by pirates they would not need to do any more trading for the rest of their mission.
In the space port they asked around and even joined gambling games to find out information. Something they learned was that not long before a group of nobles had visited and lorded it over everyone. Rumour had it that they were really pirates and were trying to steal locals to force them to repair their pirate base. They also learned that at Exe a pirate base had been destroyed by the Imperial Navy although it wasn't clear if the two rumours were linked.
Exe
Jumping next to Exe they talked to the crew manning the refueling depot as well as some passing ship crews and got into a card game or two. They didn't stay long - there were only a dozen or so people to talk to - and didn't learn any useful information. They jumped as soon as was possible to Acrid.
Acrid
Acrid was an entirely different kind of space port to those that they'd seen on this mission. A huge class A facility, it housed tens of thousands of locals and visitors. They decided to spend a couple of weeks following leads, speaking to people, and frequenting gambling houses in order to learn useful rumours.
It was here they learned more about a group of ships, including a treasure ship, that had suddenly had to leave. Originally the rumours had been that the small ships were from Drinax and that they had hijacked the treasure ship. More recently information had come to light that the ships were really just far traders with some superficial external disguises added to make them look more impressive than they really were. They were apparently from Oghma but pretending to be from Drinax. This last rumour was strong and they got it from a number of people.
In the middle of their stay on Acrid Tipper got a message. He'd worked for GeDeCo as a spy in the navy for a few years now and was not entirely surprised when he was told that his time in the navy would be up and that he needed to find a way to get down to Byrni on his return. From there the GeDeCo operatives on the planet would get him away.
Around this time Hanz started getting quite frustrated and stressed about the mission. He managed to keep things under control but he knew he could get quite excitable, but was confident it would not get any worse.
Just over two weeks after arriving in Acrid, and with a number of strong rumours to report, they jumped to Inurin.
Inurin
The low tech level and lack of modern space port meant that when arriving visitors would be bombarded with radio messages suggesting that the ship land at one or another of many cleared areas that was all that could be declared a space port on the planet. The characters decided to land at one that promised to have refined fuel, but on landing (very heavily) they learned that there were only 30 tons or refined fuel, and that they probably didn't trust the refined fuel to be clear of pollutants. They bought the fuel and went about processing it in their tanks anyway.
The heavy landing had damaged the manoeuvre drive - not enough to disable it, but it would turn out to be less responsible that usual and difficult to use. Boris found some parts in a scrapyard and got to work. A couple of days later he decided he'd done as much as he could. The repairs were rudimentary but should hold although he wasn't very happy with his work.
Tipper went to talk to people around the port and the nearby town while Boris was repairing the drive. Hanz decided he could not contribute much to the rumour-gathering and with the ship just being in a field he stood guard. It was here that he started hearing voices.
As the locals came out to look at the ship - some to just gawk and others to try to sell goods or services - Hanz started imagining that he could hear their thoughts. At first he assumed they were saying these things out loud, but as time went on he realised that their mouths were not moving and the thoughts seemed to be more inward, reflective or self-narrative in nature, and not something you would say to someone else.
Eventually he shouted at people to just leave him alone and he went into the ship. That night he was sure he could hear Tipper thinking about going AWOL and jumping ship once they got to Byrni, but he said nothing.
IN the town Tipper had some success talking with the locals. They argued that Oghma and Tyr were the two planets mentioned as possible pirate planets. He also heard rumours about pirates and the navy having battles in the night sky above the planet. Many people had seen the lights above them and they had confirmed this with some navy ships that landed.
En route to Ergo
After powering up the thrusters and very shakily leaving the planet they got to the jumping point and jumped to Ergo. During this jump Hanz thought he might do some research into what he had been experiencing. The things he was experiencing were getting worse, which was making him stress out - which in turn made them worse still. Taking a few days to really get to grips with the problem he came to the only inescapable conclusion; he had psionic powers.
Sitting in his stateroom he tried to broadcast thoughts. "Bring me a drink!", then "I need a drink", "where's my drink" and so on until Tipper who, somewhat amazed, understood what was happening took a glass of water into Hanz's room and threw it in his face saying "here it is!". Nobody talked of this event again.
Ergo again, then Byrni
They refuelled at the station in Ergo and jumped to Byrni. Hanz trying his psionics more and more confidently but coming to a realisation that he'd be in big trouble if anyone in the navy found out about his powers.
Hanz decided that he'd not say anything about the thoughts he'd picked up from Boris (not really confident that the drives were fixed) and Tipper (still planning to go AWOL). Instead he would try to block his thoughts. From Tipper's point of view there was some mental straining and then a period of complete mental silence, followed with "well that seemed to work.".
Back at the hotel Boris was entirely unaware of what the other two were doing and lay back near the pool with a drink in his hand. He thought things had gone rather well and congratulated himself. What could possibly go wrong now.
To be continued... maybe.
Meanwhile the navy characters were meeting with Captain Labat and Admiral Krond aboard the Eurisko somewhere above Byrni. Over the past few months they had performed their duties well and this was, if not a reward, then a sign that they were trusted enough with an important mission.
Commander Boris (Engineering), Petty Officer Tipper (Line/Crew) and Lance Sergeant Hanz Waltz (Star Marines) stood to attention as Krond outlined the mission that they were to be sent on. For the next three months they would jump around the Borderlands subsector hunting down rumours to find the location of the pirate planet. They would be under cover as simple merchants, flying the trade routes in a captured far trader called Dirty Beast.
To help with the disguise they would be given MCr 2.0 with which to buy supplies for the flotilla and also to cover expenses. It was made very clear that should they not have a full cargo hold of required goods on their return there would be consequences.
Ergo and Falcon
First stop was Ergo, where they refueled at the automated station. With nobody to talk to they jumped as quickly as possible to Falcon.
At Falcon they managed to find the types of cargo that the flotilla required, and in sufficient quantities to fill the hold. This good fortune meant that unless they were attacked by pirates they would not need to do any more trading for the rest of their mission.
In the space port they asked around and even joined gambling games to find out information. Something they learned was that not long before a group of nobles had visited and lorded it over everyone. Rumour had it that they were really pirates and were trying to steal locals to force them to repair their pirate base. They also learned that at Exe a pirate base had been destroyed by the Imperial Navy although it wasn't clear if the two rumours were linked.
Exe
Jumping next to Exe they talked to the crew manning the refueling depot as well as some passing ship crews and got into a card game or two. They didn't stay long - there were only a dozen or so people to talk to - and didn't learn any useful information. They jumped as soon as was possible to Acrid.
Acrid
Acrid was an entirely different kind of space port to those that they'd seen on this mission. A huge class A facility, it housed tens of thousands of locals and visitors. They decided to spend a couple of weeks following leads, speaking to people, and frequenting gambling houses in order to learn useful rumours.
It was here they learned more about a group of ships, including a treasure ship, that had suddenly had to leave. Originally the rumours had been that the small ships were from Drinax and that they had hijacked the treasure ship. More recently information had come to light that the ships were really just far traders with some superficial external disguises added to make them look more impressive than they really were. They were apparently from Oghma but pretending to be from Drinax. This last rumour was strong and they got it from a number of people.
In the middle of their stay on Acrid Tipper got a message. He'd worked for GeDeCo as a spy in the navy for a few years now and was not entirely surprised when he was told that his time in the navy would be up and that he needed to find a way to get down to Byrni on his return. From there the GeDeCo operatives on the planet would get him away.
Around this time Hanz started getting quite frustrated and stressed about the mission. He managed to keep things under control but he knew he could get quite excitable, but was confident it would not get any worse.
Just over two weeks after arriving in Acrid, and with a number of strong rumours to report, they jumped to Inurin.
Inurin
The low tech level and lack of modern space port meant that when arriving visitors would be bombarded with radio messages suggesting that the ship land at one or another of many cleared areas that was all that could be declared a space port on the planet. The characters decided to land at one that promised to have refined fuel, but on landing (very heavily) they learned that there were only 30 tons or refined fuel, and that they probably didn't trust the refined fuel to be clear of pollutants. They bought the fuel and went about processing it in their tanks anyway.
The heavy landing had damaged the manoeuvre drive - not enough to disable it, but it would turn out to be less responsible that usual and difficult to use. Boris found some parts in a scrapyard and got to work. A couple of days later he decided he'd done as much as he could. The repairs were rudimentary but should hold although he wasn't very happy with his work.
Tipper went to talk to people around the port and the nearby town while Boris was repairing the drive. Hanz decided he could not contribute much to the rumour-gathering and with the ship just being in a field he stood guard. It was here that he started hearing voices.
As the locals came out to look at the ship - some to just gawk and others to try to sell goods or services - Hanz started imagining that he could hear their thoughts. At first he assumed they were saying these things out loud, but as time went on he realised that their mouths were not moving and the thoughts seemed to be more inward, reflective or self-narrative in nature, and not something you would say to someone else.
Eventually he shouted at people to just leave him alone and he went into the ship. That night he was sure he could hear Tipper thinking about going AWOL and jumping ship once they got to Byrni, but he said nothing.
IN the town Tipper had some success talking with the locals. They argued that Oghma and Tyr were the two planets mentioned as possible pirate planets. He also heard rumours about pirates and the navy having battles in the night sky above the planet. Many people had seen the lights above them and they had confirmed this with some navy ships that landed.
En route to Ergo
After powering up the thrusters and very shakily leaving the planet they got to the jumping point and jumped to Ergo. During this jump Hanz thought he might do some research into what he had been experiencing. The things he was experiencing were getting worse, which was making him stress out - which in turn made them worse still. Taking a few days to really get to grips with the problem he came to the only inescapable conclusion; he had psionic powers.
Sitting in his stateroom he tried to broadcast thoughts. "Bring me a drink!", then "I need a drink", "where's my drink" and so on until Tipper who, somewhat amazed, understood what was happening took a glass of water into Hanz's room and threw it in his face saying "here it is!". Nobody talked of this event again.
Ergo again, then Byrni
They refuelled at the station in Ergo and jumped to Byrni. Hanz trying his psionics more and more confidently but coming to a realisation that he'd be in big trouble if anyone in the navy found out about his powers.
Hanz decided that he'd not say anything about the thoughts he'd picked up from Boris (not really confident that the drives were fixed) and Tipper (still planning to go AWOL). Instead he would try to block his thoughts. From Tipper's point of view there was some mental straining and then a period of complete mental silence, followed with "well that seemed to work.".
Arriving in Byrni they docked with the Eurisko and reported immediately to Krond. He was delighted with what they'd discovered and declared that it was the final nail in the coffin for Oghma who had been protecting pirates for far too long. The three of them were given a week's shore leave as a reward.
Making decisions
Down on Byrni Tipper went through the motions of having a good time drinking and relaxing but was in reality waiting impatiently to be contacted and whisked away from the navy. Hanz was considering his options too. He was confident that he might be able to hide his powers now so was just taking it easy. Boris was relaxing by the pool unaware that the other two had things on their minds. It was Boris who heard a few days into their sojourn that the flotilla would be leaving about a week and a half after they reported back. It would be heading to Oghma.
Eventually Tipper was contacted by a hotel employee who made himself known as a GeDeCo operative and handed him a ticket to Vorito and a new set of identity papers. Hurriedly returning to his room Tipper pocketed his money and most personal possessions and left without saying anything.
Later, when Hanz couldn't find Tipper, he remembered that he had picked up thoughts from Tipper about going AWOL. He quickly concluded that if that happened he himself might be questioned about Tipper's activities, and that might lead to him being uncovered as a psionic.
Deciding he should at least find out where Tipper had gone he remembered seeing someone talking to Tipper in the hotel lobby. He searched for that person and, using his mind as well as his eyes, found him nearby. Rather than approaching he took a seat in the lobby and tried to tune into the other man's thoughts. With some effort he eventually heard the man wonder if Tipper;s ship to Vorito had left yet.
Rushing to his room he grabbed what possessions he had and made his way to the space port. He found a ship leaving for Vorito in the next hour and bought a ticket, persuading the person at the counter, with some psionic help, that he had the right papers to travel. He boarded with only minutes to spare..
Back at the hotel Boris was entirely unaware of what the other two were doing and lay back near the pool with a drink in his hand. He thought things had gone rather well and congratulated himself. What could possibly go wrong now.
To be continued... maybe.
Wednesday, 30 January 2019
Gathering the troops
Salif
Waiting on Salif for the traders to arrive, Sparrow wondered if there were any mercenaries available on Salif. Getting hold of Tiznee took some time as she was in meetings with advisors and delegates but eventually they met with her and asked about the mercenary situation. Tiznee said that she could not spare any of her own armed forces, but that she thought she knew of at least one company based on Salif and that she would get that information to them as soon as possible.
Within 24 hours the party were making their way to the offices of a mercenary company called Audley's Avengers. The door was opened by a ruddy faced stout gentlemen with white hair and mustache. He had a military bearing but was dressed in civvies.
Sparrow declared that they were looking for mercenaries and the gentleman ushered them in to sit around a small meeting table and got them tea. The other occupant of the small office was a younger man with cropped hair who kept at his work.
The travellers explained that they had a ticket for a mission in a system a few parsecs away that would involve ship to ship boarding actions against two large vessels. The agent for the mercenary company looked thoughtful and asked a small number of questions before agreeing that they can start negotiating.
The ticket:
Once the ticket was agreed the travellers returned to the space port to await the arrival of the traders. With this ticket in place there was no need to travel to Theev, so the party could instead go to the Space Station with Goff and Gobbo to have a look around and then shut it down and prepare to move all ships and crew to Wildeman's hidden base.
Arrivals
The Far Trader arrived first. It had been 18 months since the travellers sent it on its way, and even with a fairly casual schedule it was able to provide healthy profits, in part thanks to Vii Lon as broker and the fact it was plying a route between a Haven system and a Friendly system.
Next to arrive was the Frontier Trader coming from the space station. Everyone on board was delighted to see the travellers at last, and brought them up to speed with the small amounts of progress made on the station. Unfortunately with the departure of many crew members there was a need to hire new crew fairly soon. Slayed spent some time looking for crew and after careful consideration and vetting brought six new people to the hangar for induction.
To the Space Station
With plans in place retrieving the last remaining crew from the space station and shutting it down became the next task. As Goff and Gobbo had not see the station yet they were brought too in order to allow them to formulate plans for when the travellers returned.
On arrival the party could see that there was progress in repairing small things, but with most of the crew away on the Harriers supporting the party it was only a skeleton crew left on board. The travellers did check to see that the torpedoes were still in place and they were all there and appeared untampered with.
With everything shut down they jumped back to Salif. All ships and crew in the one place for the first time.
Salif, then Number One
Spending only a little time to formulate plans and see if more crew could be found (only one) the travellers prepared to jump their way across 15 parsecs to Wildeman.
They jumped as one group: three Harriers, a Frontier Trader, a Q-Ship, the Far Trader, the Far Scout, the Lab Ship and Goff''s ship. Next stop, Number One.
To be continued.
Waiting on Salif for the traders to arrive, Sparrow wondered if there were any mercenaries available on Salif. Getting hold of Tiznee took some time as she was in meetings with advisors and delegates but eventually they met with her and asked about the mercenary situation. Tiznee said that she could not spare any of her own armed forces, but that she thought she knew of at least one company based on Salif and that she would get that information to them as soon as possible.
Within 24 hours the party were making their way to the offices of a mercenary company called Audley's Avengers. The door was opened by a ruddy faced stout gentlemen with white hair and mustache. He had a military bearing but was dressed in civvies.
Sparrow declared that they were looking for mercenaries and the gentleman ushered them in to sit around a small meeting table and got them tea. The other occupant of the small office was a younger man with cropped hair who kept at his work.
The travellers explained that they had a ticket for a mission in a system a few parsecs away that would involve ship to ship boarding actions against two large vessels. The agent for the mercenary company looked thoughtful and asked a small number of questions before agreeing that they can start negotiating.
The ticket:
- Employer Details: [Fully identified but information REDACTED]
- Employee Details: Audrey's Avengers
- Service Required: Commando-Retrieval mission.Target consists of two ships in space. Mission is to neutralise any defensive forces, to capture (fully intact where possible) the two ships and free (unharmed where possible) any prisoners on those ships. Unit size set at 50 combatants to achieve this mission.
- Service Location: [Fully identified but information REDACTED]
- Length of Service: Medium - 6 weeks on location, starting in 15 weeks. Duration to be extended should arrival of the targets not take place within those 6 weeks.
- Ticket Exposure: Hidden. Ticket offered only to Audley's Avengers
- Ticket Risk: Difficult. Defensive forces could be trained marines or equivalent. High tech armour and weapons will be required to counter.
- Pre-Ticket Support
- Services: Transportation to and from the location will be required. Location is [REDACTED] parsecs from Salif which can be reached via [REDACTED] J-3 jumps. The Employee to source transportation.
- Equipment: Boarding ships will be made available on location by the Employer.
- Post-Ticket Support
- Repair and Rearm: The Employer undertakes to fully repair and rearm Audley's Avengers on the completion of the ticket.
- Medical Care: The Employer undertakes to provide full medical care for unit members injured during the missions.
- Compensation: Taking into account mission type, location, duration, risk and services, the ticket is agreed at a price of 5.0 MCr, with 2.0 MCr up front to cover expenses and to ensure the unit is equipped appropriately..
Once the ticket was agreed the travellers returned to the space port to await the arrival of the traders. With this ticket in place there was no need to travel to Theev, so the party could instead go to the Space Station with Goff and Gobbo to have a look around and then shut it down and prepare to move all ships and crew to Wildeman's hidden base.
Arrivals
The Far Trader arrived first. It had been 18 months since the travellers sent it on its way, and even with a fairly casual schedule it was able to provide healthy profits, in part thanks to Vii Lon as broker and the fact it was plying a route between a Haven system and a Friendly system.
Next to arrive was the Frontier Trader coming from the space station. Everyone on board was delighted to see the travellers at last, and brought them up to speed with the small amounts of progress made on the station. Unfortunately with the departure of many crew members there was a need to hire new crew fairly soon. Slayed spent some time looking for crew and after careful consideration and vetting brought six new people to the hangar for induction.
To the Space Station
With plans in place retrieving the last remaining crew from the space station and shutting it down became the next task. As Goff and Gobbo had not see the station yet they were brought too in order to allow them to formulate plans for when the travellers returned.
On arrival the party could see that there was progress in repairing small things, but with most of the crew away on the Harriers supporting the party it was only a skeleton crew left on board. The travellers did check to see that the torpedoes were still in place and they were all there and appeared untampered with.
With everything shut down they jumped back to Salif. All ships and crew in the one place for the first time.
Salif, then Number One
Spending only a little time to formulate plans and see if more crew could be found (only one) the travellers prepared to jump their way across 15 parsecs to Wildeman.
They jumped as one group: three Harriers, a Frontier Trader, a Q-Ship, the Far Trader, the Far Scout, the Lab Ship and Goff''s ship. Next stop, Number One.
To be continued.
Sunday, 20 January 2019
Reunion and rethinking
Arriving at Theev
The travellers arrived at Theev and requested permission to land at the downport, providing the special code that meant no missiles would fire at them. They landed and the giant clam-shell doors closed over their heads. No customs or inspections were required of course, so they planned what they would do.
Nitrane wanted to meet with Lomar Fisk, an admirer of hers and provider of tricked up transponders. Unter wanted to meet Davon who was Admiral Darokyn's right-hand man. Nitrane and Slayed wanted to talk to Admiral Darokyn as they had not seen him for nearly two years. Lastly Slayed wanted to meet with Zheukvi the Corsair who had wanted to meet with him for nearly 18 months ever since asking Krrsh to pass a message on.
In addition to meeting with friends old and (possibly) new, the cargo they bought on Palindrome needed to be sold and they thought that Klim Gobbo would like to get some high tech mining drones while here.
Heading out along one of the passages and into a main hub of the space station Nitrane and Unter noticed that there was a different vibe to the place compared to the previous timed they'd been here. There were fewer people out and about and the ones that were seemed more focused, moving faster and less interested in others. There were also more of the black-clad Widows of Blacksand around. Something was up.
Nitrane got hold of Fisk who was less effusively polite than other times. He said that he was in a rush and that he was about to leave. Nitrane asked why. Fisk was astonished and asked "don't you know?". Nitrane asked to meet him and he said he'd be at the spaceport in half an hour anyway as he had a ship to catch.
Unter tried to talk to Davon but was unable to reach him. This was not unusual as he was often out on missions but it was disappointing not to reach him. Slayed sent a message to Zheukvi announcing that he was in Blacksand City and would be happy to meet Zheukvi to talk. The message was taken and a response would be forthcoming he was told.
Meanwhile, after selling the cargo and picking up some more, Sparrow, Slayed and Gobbo went to buy 20 tons of mining drones from a reputable dealer. They asked them to be delivered to the docking bay and returned.
Fisk arrived and he and Nitrane accompanied him to the docking bay that his liner was leaving from. He explained that the Imperial Navy was in the sector doing a sweep for pirates. This happened every few years but this time seemed different. They had stayed around for a lot longer than before, and were more ruthless - intent on killing pirates rather than scaring them off. They arrived and, awkwardly, he shook her hand and hoped to see her again one day.
Meanwhile Slayed had started looking for Darokyn. He had no way to directly contact him - Darokyn usually contacted you - but started asking around. He at least had some more knowledgeable contacts than last time but it seemed Darokyn was not wanting to be easily found. What he did lern though was that Hrol Irontooth, Peter Vallis and a pirate lord they'd not heard of before called Dread Ashen had all been captured or killed by the Imperial Navy. There was no mention of Darokyn. He also learned that pirate bases in Exe and The World had been compromised. Some of Slayed's leads would report back the next morning so the travellers stayed on Lady Yemar's ship overnight.
The next morning, with all cargo and mining drones, they learned that Zheukvi was on The Skull and would be leaving in six hours, but there would be time to meet if Slayed could come up to the orbiting moon/spaceport soon. They also learned that Darokyn was not on Theev and so there was no other reason to stay. They talked about getting new identities but surmised that their contact would be long gone if the Imperial Navy were getting close, but also that they didn't want to stay around waiting for the navy to arrive. So they went to The Skull.
The Skull
Arriving at The Skull the party found that they were not far from where Zheukvi and his men could be found. They all made their way there, leaving Goff, Gobbo, Tiznee and the others on the ship. They didn't expect they would be long.
Zheukvi turned out to have multiple bays at one edge of the spaceport and had taken over, to all intents and purposes, the nearest bar as his centre of operations and heavy drinking.
Slayed learned here that Zheukvi was a Vargr, as were many of his crew. Slightly unusually they were all quite well behaved, politely apologising and getting out of the way as the approached the booth that Zheukvi could be found at.
As soon as the Vargr captain saw Slayed he stood up, growled a surprisingly cordial welcome, and shook his hand. He then shook everyone elses hand and asked them to sit. This was not at all what Slayed and the others had expected. He was not the archetypal Vargr corsair at all.
Zheukvi started by ordering a round of drinks, and Slayed followed suit. It has been long established that Slayed is a charming and entertaining host and as a guest he was equal parts diplomat a d rogue. He and Zheukvi got along very well. It was decided that they'd not mention the situation on Falcon (where Zheukvi had apparently planted a bomb to extort the inhabitants) as they didn't know him yet.
The conversation unearthed some interesting facts - or brags - from Zheukvi. Among other things he let slip that his based in Exe was compromised. The Imperials had raided it while he was luckily not there, but it was close. Slayed told him about the pirate prisoners being ferried to a prison planet in an Imperial convoy. This angered Zheukvi but he sighed as there was nothing he could do. Slayed hinted that perhaps he might think about doing something and Zheukvi smiled as if that confirmed something he'd been thinking.
The Vargr then got to the point. He'd heard about Slayed for some time now. That he was an excellent tactician, a cunning pirate, and a strong leader. Perhaps, Zheukvi thought, they could join up. He'd spoken to Darokyn and Lady Yemar about Slayed and his crew and heard good things. He'd be happy to follow Slayed, at least while they got to know each other, and they'd have time to do that as Zheukvi intended to stay low for a while until the Imperials left. He also wondered if Slayed had anywhere to stay out of trouble for the time being.
Slayed looked to Sparrow, Nitrane and Unter. They talked and while Zheukvi seemed nice enough the others, particularly Sparrow, sensed a trap or deception and in the end the decision what that they should go their separate ways for the time being. Zheukvi looked disappointed but thanked Slayed for his time and stood, rousing his crew to their ships.
Zheukvi shook hands with Slayed, wished him well. He and his crew would find somewhere to lay low for a few months. Hopefully they'd see each other in a year or so when the stars aligned and their paths crossed again.
Slayed and the others headed back to the ship. They noted when Zheukvi left in his four Corsairs and were careful to leave after him and head to the 100 diameter limit in a different direction.
They jumped to Salif.
On Salif
On arrival Tiznee announced that she was on board and they had an escort of two system defense boats and priority clearance to land at the presidential dock. They had no need to pass through customs and a number of grav trucks were waiting to take them to the hangar where some of their ships were to be found. The travellers learned that the Harriers had arrived and also that the Far Scout was on planet. Goff determined that his ship was also here, having travelled here on automation and landed at the cargo docks.
They bade farewell to Tiznee who hugged each of them tearfully, and very dramatically, and wished them well.
On arriving at the docking bay they found it to be a huge covered bay for ships of around 40,000 tons. This seemed to have been set aside for their sole use and all four ships - five when Goff fetched his - fitted easily. The crew were overjoyed to see them. They'd been kicking their heels for many months but the far trader had been bringing in money and they treated it as a long paid holiday.
The covered bay had been set up for long-term occupancy. There was a bar and food preparation area in the corner. Many mismatched chairs and a holo-display were adjacent. Portable sleeping quarters had also been stacked in another corner so nobody really had to leave. Food and supplies were delivered and nobody outside the hangar needed to know anything. When they left or arrived in a ship nobody asked any questions. It was pretty ideal.
They had also brought things from the space station to repair in more comfortable surroundings but the going was slow because most of the crew had decided to leave and so it was only a dozen or so who remained on Salif and the station. The arrival of the Harriers had boosted numbers by another twenty or so.
The far trader and the frontier trader were both due in the next four or five days. The far trader, on its trading route between Number One and Salif was not as profitable as the Torpol-Drinax run, but was not harrassed by Lord Wrax and the star guard. From time to time the Salif system defense boats had escorted them when there was trouble afoot so all in all it was a nice easy trading route. So much so that they'd started a trading company, headquartered here.
The frontier trader ferried things to and from the space station. There were only a handful of people in the space station at any one time and while there were some ships docked there wasn't any real activity going on.
Learning all this the travellers were disappointed to discover that they had only a handful of marines, not the 30+ they hoped to find. This presented a problem. They needed trained marines to board the freighter and the prisoner ship to execute their plan of freeing them all. Someone mentioned that perhaps Tiznee could lend them some marines but that was a very unlikely outcome even with the relationship they had with her.
They had a couple of days while the Harriers underwent long overdue maintenance and also while they waited for the traders. They spent some of this time planning and considering their options.
Goff and Gobbo thought that the secret base in Wildeman would be relatively simple to get up and running. Some fuel and maintenance should see at least partial functionality. Slayed admitted that being in the system that they hoped to ambush the convoy would give them time to plan and prepare. Unter pointed out that there were many mercenary companies based on Theev and perhaps there ware some still there that they could hire.
With the deadline of the pirate prisoner convoy weighing on their minds they decided that Slayed and the others would take the Far Scout to Theev and see if they could fund some marines to hire. The others would travel to the space station and fetch the last remaining people and shut it all down. This would take a couple of weeks and so they could meet back here in two weeks and them proceed to Wildeman.
To be continued.
The travellers arrived at Theev and requested permission to land at the downport, providing the special code that meant no missiles would fire at them. They landed and the giant clam-shell doors closed over their heads. No customs or inspections were required of course, so they planned what they would do.
Nitrane wanted to meet with Lomar Fisk, an admirer of hers and provider of tricked up transponders. Unter wanted to meet Davon who was Admiral Darokyn's right-hand man. Nitrane and Slayed wanted to talk to Admiral Darokyn as they had not seen him for nearly two years. Lastly Slayed wanted to meet with Zheukvi the Corsair who had wanted to meet with him for nearly 18 months ever since asking Krrsh to pass a message on.
In addition to meeting with friends old and (possibly) new, the cargo they bought on Palindrome needed to be sold and they thought that Klim Gobbo would like to get some high tech mining drones while here.
Heading out along one of the passages and into a main hub of the space station Nitrane and Unter noticed that there was a different vibe to the place compared to the previous timed they'd been here. There were fewer people out and about and the ones that were seemed more focused, moving faster and less interested in others. There were also more of the black-clad Widows of Blacksand around. Something was up.
Nitrane got hold of Fisk who was less effusively polite than other times. He said that he was in a rush and that he was about to leave. Nitrane asked why. Fisk was astonished and asked "don't you know?". Nitrane asked to meet him and he said he'd be at the spaceport in half an hour anyway as he had a ship to catch.
Unter tried to talk to Davon but was unable to reach him. This was not unusual as he was often out on missions but it was disappointing not to reach him. Slayed sent a message to Zheukvi announcing that he was in Blacksand City and would be happy to meet Zheukvi to talk. The message was taken and a response would be forthcoming he was told.
Meanwhile, after selling the cargo and picking up some more, Sparrow, Slayed and Gobbo went to buy 20 tons of mining drones from a reputable dealer. They asked them to be delivered to the docking bay and returned.
Fisk arrived and he and Nitrane accompanied him to the docking bay that his liner was leaving from. He explained that the Imperial Navy was in the sector doing a sweep for pirates. This happened every few years but this time seemed different. They had stayed around for a lot longer than before, and were more ruthless - intent on killing pirates rather than scaring them off. They arrived and, awkwardly, he shook her hand and hoped to see her again one day.
Meanwhile Slayed had started looking for Darokyn. He had no way to directly contact him - Darokyn usually contacted you - but started asking around. He at least had some more knowledgeable contacts than last time but it seemed Darokyn was not wanting to be easily found. What he did lern though was that Hrol Irontooth, Peter Vallis and a pirate lord they'd not heard of before called Dread Ashen had all been captured or killed by the Imperial Navy. There was no mention of Darokyn. He also learned that pirate bases in Exe and The World had been compromised. Some of Slayed's leads would report back the next morning so the travellers stayed on Lady Yemar's ship overnight.
The next morning, with all cargo and mining drones, they learned that Zheukvi was on The Skull and would be leaving in six hours, but there would be time to meet if Slayed could come up to the orbiting moon/spaceport soon. They also learned that Darokyn was not on Theev and so there was no other reason to stay. They talked about getting new identities but surmised that their contact would be long gone if the Imperial Navy were getting close, but also that they didn't want to stay around waiting for the navy to arrive. So they went to The Skull.
The Skull
Arriving at The Skull the party found that they were not far from where Zheukvi and his men could be found. They all made their way there, leaving Goff, Gobbo, Tiznee and the others on the ship. They didn't expect they would be long.
Zheukvi turned out to have multiple bays at one edge of the spaceport and had taken over, to all intents and purposes, the nearest bar as his centre of operations and heavy drinking.
Slayed learned here that Zheukvi was a Vargr, as were many of his crew. Slightly unusually they were all quite well behaved, politely apologising and getting out of the way as the approached the booth that Zheukvi could be found at.
As soon as the Vargr captain saw Slayed he stood up, growled a surprisingly cordial welcome, and shook his hand. He then shook everyone elses hand and asked them to sit. This was not at all what Slayed and the others had expected. He was not the archetypal Vargr corsair at all.
Zheukvi started by ordering a round of drinks, and Slayed followed suit. It has been long established that Slayed is a charming and entertaining host and as a guest he was equal parts diplomat a d rogue. He and Zheukvi got along very well. It was decided that they'd not mention the situation on Falcon (where Zheukvi had apparently planted a bomb to extort the inhabitants) as they didn't know him yet.
The conversation unearthed some interesting facts - or brags - from Zheukvi. Among other things he let slip that his based in Exe was compromised. The Imperials had raided it while he was luckily not there, but it was close. Slayed told him about the pirate prisoners being ferried to a prison planet in an Imperial convoy. This angered Zheukvi but he sighed as there was nothing he could do. Slayed hinted that perhaps he might think about doing something and Zheukvi smiled as if that confirmed something he'd been thinking.
The Vargr then got to the point. He'd heard about Slayed for some time now. That he was an excellent tactician, a cunning pirate, and a strong leader. Perhaps, Zheukvi thought, they could join up. He'd spoken to Darokyn and Lady Yemar about Slayed and his crew and heard good things. He'd be happy to follow Slayed, at least while they got to know each other, and they'd have time to do that as Zheukvi intended to stay low for a while until the Imperials left. He also wondered if Slayed had anywhere to stay out of trouble for the time being.
Slayed looked to Sparrow, Nitrane and Unter. They talked and while Zheukvi seemed nice enough the others, particularly Sparrow, sensed a trap or deception and in the end the decision what that they should go their separate ways for the time being. Zheukvi looked disappointed but thanked Slayed for his time and stood, rousing his crew to their ships.
Zheukvi shook hands with Slayed, wished him well. He and his crew would find somewhere to lay low for a few months. Hopefully they'd see each other in a year or so when the stars aligned and their paths crossed again.
Slayed and the others headed back to the ship. They noted when Zheukvi left in his four Corsairs and were careful to leave after him and head to the 100 diameter limit in a different direction.
They jumped to Salif.
On Salif
On arrival Tiznee announced that she was on board and they had an escort of two system defense boats and priority clearance to land at the presidential dock. They had no need to pass through customs and a number of grav trucks were waiting to take them to the hangar where some of their ships were to be found. The travellers learned that the Harriers had arrived and also that the Far Scout was on planet. Goff determined that his ship was also here, having travelled here on automation and landed at the cargo docks.
They bade farewell to Tiznee who hugged each of them tearfully, and very dramatically, and wished them well.
On arriving at the docking bay they found it to be a huge covered bay for ships of around 40,000 tons. This seemed to have been set aside for their sole use and all four ships - five when Goff fetched his - fitted easily. The crew were overjoyed to see them. They'd been kicking their heels for many months but the far trader had been bringing in money and they treated it as a long paid holiday.
The covered bay had been set up for long-term occupancy. There was a bar and food preparation area in the corner. Many mismatched chairs and a holo-display were adjacent. Portable sleeping quarters had also been stacked in another corner so nobody really had to leave. Food and supplies were delivered and nobody outside the hangar needed to know anything. When they left or arrived in a ship nobody asked any questions. It was pretty ideal.
They had also brought things from the space station to repair in more comfortable surroundings but the going was slow because most of the crew had decided to leave and so it was only a dozen or so who remained on Salif and the station. The arrival of the Harriers had boosted numbers by another twenty or so.
The far trader and the frontier trader were both due in the next four or five days. The far trader, on its trading route between Number One and Salif was not as profitable as the Torpol-Drinax run, but was not harrassed by Lord Wrax and the star guard. From time to time the Salif system defense boats had escorted them when there was trouble afoot so all in all it was a nice easy trading route. So much so that they'd started a trading company, headquartered here.
The frontier trader ferried things to and from the space station. There were only a handful of people in the space station at any one time and while there were some ships docked there wasn't any real activity going on.
Learning all this the travellers were disappointed to discover that they had only a handful of marines, not the 30+ they hoped to find. This presented a problem. They needed trained marines to board the freighter and the prisoner ship to execute their plan of freeing them all. Someone mentioned that perhaps Tiznee could lend them some marines but that was a very unlikely outcome even with the relationship they had with her.
They had a couple of days while the Harriers underwent long overdue maintenance and also while they waited for the traders. They spent some of this time planning and considering their options.
Goff and Gobbo thought that the secret base in Wildeman would be relatively simple to get up and running. Some fuel and maintenance should see at least partial functionality. Slayed admitted that being in the system that they hoped to ambush the convoy would give them time to plan and prepare. Unter pointed out that there were many mercenary companies based on Theev and perhaps there ware some still there that they could hire.
With the deadline of the pirate prisoner convoy weighing on their minds they decided that Slayed and the others would take the Far Scout to Theev and see if they could fund some marines to hire. The others would travel to the space station and fetch the last remaining people and shut it all down. This would take a couple of weeks and so they could meet back here in two weeks and them proceed to Wildeman.
To be continued.
Saturday, 12 January 2019
Needs some work
Secret Wildeman Base
After returning to the ship after the initial look around the hidden base in Wildeman, the travellers, with Goff, Gobbo and Lady Yemar, discussed what might happen next.
Everyone was keen to have more of a look around, but the party were keen to head back to their Space Station as quickly as possible to be back in tie for the Imperial prisoner convoy. Spending another day or two looking around wouldn't be too much of a delay so that's the time limit they game themselves.
Before that however was the matter of why they had come here in the first place. Lady Nitrane turned to Gobbo and told him that they had need of an expert miner/belter as they have an old base, near an asteroid field, that needed raw materials to bring it up to working order. She answered his questions, without giving anything away of where or what the station is. He asked to speak with Goff, whom he trusted and knew, and returned with another question - what were they offering?
Lady Nitrane advised him that they'd obtained Goff's services on the understanding that he'd get 10% of the manufacturing output for one year. Gobbo thought about it and asked for 5% and that the travellers provide him with the tools he needed - namely a seeker ship equipped in the manner that he needed, which would remain theirs after he completed the job.
The travellers agreed to this and he said he'd just need to return to Wildeman itself to pack and pick up his wife. His ship would be put into storage as it did not have a jump drive and nobody had any means of getting it to the space station.
Having agreed terms, and with the group rested and vacc suits recharged, they returned into the secret base. Wary at first about booby traps, and possibly critters, the base turned out to be devoid of traps and was just as it appeared, an abandoned base that people had apparently expected to return to. Nothing appeared to have been hastily left and there were no signs of struggle, explosions or dangerous activities of any sort. If things were quiet now it was just because they'd run out of fuel or battery life.
Base Description
The base comprised of:
Return to Wildeman
After exploring, and deciding to seal up the hatch they came in through, they left to return to Wildeman itself. Arriving they noticed a Patrol Cruiser, surrounded by Imperial Marines. Considering the options, the travellers remained on-board while Gobbo put his ship in storage and returned within the hour with his wife, Mindy.
Exocet
Leaving Wildeman as nonchalantly as possible, they jumped to Exocet, where they quickly refuelled, bought some cargo as a cover. Exocet had only a few dozen inhabitants - with more employees of the space station brought in from outside by GeDeCo than actually lived outside on the planet surface. With no intention of leaving the starport they kept to them,selves and as soon as everything was ready they jumped to Marduk.
Mindy and Lady Nitrane didn't get on very well. Nitrane, to all appearances an eighteen year old girl dressed in fancy clothes and very much expecting things done for her, contrasted with Mindy, a miner's wife and solidly working class who got in and did things, and looked older than her years.
Marduk
Unfortunately as soon as they arrived in Marduk proximity sensors identified that they were very close (within 10,000 km) to an Imperial Gazelle which immediately hailed them and demanded that they stop and prepare for customs inspection. Discussions broke out immediately about whether to comply, but quickly it was decided to shop rather than get shot at, and everyone made sure any illegal items were hidden from sight.
The Imperials came alongside and boarded through a docking tube. Two marines, a marine commander and a imperial officer came aboard. Having decided to use their real identities, the papers for the travellers were in order, and very luckily their names, known in relation to the Treasure ship incident, didn't trigger any special response from the Imperials. The fact that the ship appeared to be a merchant vessel - some high class passengers, some low class, and many tons of cargo - clinched the deal for the Imperials, who cautioned that there were pirates in the area and left without any in depth searches taking place.
On Marduk they sold and bought cargo and refuelled as quickly as possible. They then jumped to Palindrme.
Palindrome
Lady Yemar asked what the travellers would be doing next. If they were going to Theev she would come with them, otherwise she would leave at Palindrome and the ship would continue to Salif with Tiznee and the party. They decided that Theev would be a good idea - they wanted to touch base with some people they knew, and there might be some specialist mining equipment that Gobbo could use, and so the ship once again refuelled and departed as quickly as possible.
To be continued.
After returning to the ship after the initial look around the hidden base in Wildeman, the travellers, with Goff, Gobbo and Lady Yemar, discussed what might happen next.
Everyone was keen to have more of a look around, but the party were keen to head back to their Space Station as quickly as possible to be back in tie for the Imperial prisoner convoy. Spending another day or two looking around wouldn't be too much of a delay so that's the time limit they game themselves.
Before that however was the matter of why they had come here in the first place. Lady Nitrane turned to Gobbo and told him that they had need of an expert miner/belter as they have an old base, near an asteroid field, that needed raw materials to bring it up to working order. She answered his questions, without giving anything away of where or what the station is. He asked to speak with Goff, whom he trusted and knew, and returned with another question - what were they offering?
Lady Nitrane advised him that they'd obtained Goff's services on the understanding that he'd get 10% of the manufacturing output for one year. Gobbo thought about it and asked for 5% and that the travellers provide him with the tools he needed - namely a seeker ship equipped in the manner that he needed, which would remain theirs after he completed the job.
The travellers agreed to this and he said he'd just need to return to Wildeman itself to pack and pick up his wife. His ship would be put into storage as it did not have a jump drive and nobody had any means of getting it to the space station.
Having agreed terms, and with the group rested and vacc suits recharged, they returned into the secret base. Wary at first about booby traps, and possibly critters, the base turned out to be devoid of traps and was just as it appeared, an abandoned base that people had apparently expected to return to. Nothing appeared to have been hastily left and there were no signs of struggle, explosions or dangerous activities of any sort. If things were quiet now it was just because they'd run out of fuel or battery life.
Base Description
The base comprised of:
- Residential - the rooms were all cut out of the asteroid rock but were appointed as staterooms. The fresher, beds, storage and other furniture and objects were clearly brought in from different ships. Some staterooms were much more luxurious and spacious than the majority - perhaps for Tamby and his lieutenants.
- Main drag - the first large corridor that they encountered outside the residential area stretched along the entirely of the base. Gobbo christened it the 'main drag' and the term stuck. It was about 8 metres wide and had cargo cranes along the roof and what appeared to be a mag-lev tramway on the floor. it seemed that large amounts of cargo or people could travel quite quickly from one end to the other.
- Concourse - this area consisted of large windows (perhaps from luxurious liners) overlooking the docking area, as well as being a large gathering and socialising area.
- Commons - cafes, bars and recreation areas were in evidence at a much wider part of the concourse, and could easily accommodate well over one hundred people at a time. The machinery and appliances were all from on-board ships - a recurring theme.
- Docking area - well over 200,000 cubic meters with docking arms, airlocks and boarding tubes - all seemingly from captured craft. The airlocks were of all sizes - passenger and cargo sizes - and lead to the concourse area. No ships were currently in the docking area.
- Fuel - the massive fuel tanks were located under the concourse and were accessible through hatches. The fuel tanks were all small but there were many of them, better to avoid catastrophic fuel leaks, but mostly because the fuel tanks all seemed to be taken from captured ships./
- Commercial - adjacent to the concourse were stores (more like those run by a company quartermaster than a proper shop) as well as offices that appeared to be merchants or traders or brokers.
- Biosphere - a large area of hydroponics growing racks as well as water and air purification and reclamation. This meant that the inhabitants didn't need to go to Wildeman for supplies.
- Power Plant - many small power plants linked together, all clearly taken from captured ships. Need more power? Capture a ship. The maglev and cargo cranes extend into here as well as the biosphere.
- Cargo and Storage - Huge areas, much higher than the rest of the crew areas of the base, containing cargo racks and cargo handling conveyors. Massive hoppers of raw materials took up a corner; raw ores through to refined and smelted products. In addition there were some containers of mundane items - nothing very valuable.
- Manufacturing - Huge ranks of machines and computer terminals stood in one large chamber. It appeared as if just about anything that could be made here would be.
- Shipyard - fully equipped for even quite large ships, this shipyard looks like it specialised in asteroid based system defence boats. Many sections of hulls and machinery from captured ships are found in a large scrapyard that is adjacent: Hull plates, stacks of turrets, manoeuvre drives, electronics - you name it and it.s probably here somewhere.
- Mining - ranks of mining drones, docking bays for recharging and receptacles for receiving the mines materials with conveyors to lead to refinery, smelters and cargo areas.
- Refinery and Smelting - large machines that could break down mined raw materials, and molecule sifters and re-combiners to create materials needed for manufacturing.
- Defences - near the entrance to then base, as ships would enter, was a control centre and missile bay. Woe betide anyone entering that chamber without permission.
Return to Wildeman
After exploring, and deciding to seal up the hatch they came in through, they left to return to Wildeman itself. Arriving they noticed a Patrol Cruiser, surrounded by Imperial Marines. Considering the options, the travellers remained on-board while Gobbo put his ship in storage and returned within the hour with his wife, Mindy.
Exocet
Leaving Wildeman as nonchalantly as possible, they jumped to Exocet, where they quickly refuelled, bought some cargo as a cover. Exocet had only a few dozen inhabitants - with more employees of the space station brought in from outside by GeDeCo than actually lived outside on the planet surface. With no intention of leaving the starport they kept to them,selves and as soon as everything was ready they jumped to Marduk.
Mindy and Lady Nitrane didn't get on very well. Nitrane, to all appearances an eighteen year old girl dressed in fancy clothes and very much expecting things done for her, contrasted with Mindy, a miner's wife and solidly working class who got in and did things, and looked older than her years.
Unfortunately as soon as they arrived in Marduk proximity sensors identified that they were very close (within 10,000 km) to an Imperial Gazelle which immediately hailed them and demanded that they stop and prepare for customs inspection. Discussions broke out immediately about whether to comply, but quickly it was decided to shop rather than get shot at, and everyone made sure any illegal items were hidden from sight.
The Imperials came alongside and boarded through a docking tube. Two marines, a marine commander and a imperial officer came aboard. Having decided to use their real identities, the papers for the travellers were in order, and very luckily their names, known in relation to the Treasure ship incident, didn't trigger any special response from the Imperials. The fact that the ship appeared to be a merchant vessel - some high class passengers, some low class, and many tons of cargo - clinched the deal for the Imperials, who cautioned that there were pirates in the area and left without any in depth searches taking place.
On Marduk they sold and bought cargo and refuelled as quickly as possible. They then jumped to Palindrme.
Palindrome
Lady Yemar asked what the travellers would be doing next. If they were going to Theev she would come with them, otherwise she would leave at Palindrome and the ship would continue to Salif with Tiznee and the party. They decided that Theev would be a good idea - they wanted to touch base with some people they knew, and there might be some specialist mining equipment that Gobbo could use, and so the ship once again refuelled and departed as quickly as possible.
To be continued.
Friday, 4 January 2019
That's not a moon!
Looking for Gobbo
Arriving in Wildeman in Lady Yemar's ship the travellers made their way to the spaceport. They docked and after making their way through basic security checks, followed Goff to the dingiest, dirtiest space bar they could find because Goff figured that's where is friend would be.
To be continued.
After asking around for Klim Gobbo they found out he was out prospecting and that his wife, who could be found at his office, might be able to help. Goff had never met Gobbo's wife, not having seen him for many years.
Upon arriving Goff was typically blunt which put Mindy on edge, but Lady Nitrane was more diplomatic and after a little while they learned that Gobbo would likely be out for a month and that he was at the trailing Lagrange point of the nearest gas giant where six large asteroids and many smaller asteroids could be found. Because Lady Nitrane looked so honest and trustworthy Mindy gave her a special code to use in comms messages to let Gobbo know they were friends.
Thanking Mindy they made their way back to the ship and waited for Lady Yemar and Tiznee to return from what shopping they had managed to do. Agreeing that waiting a month would not be a worthwhile use of their time they decided to spend a couple of days heading out to where Klim Gobbo might be found.
Travelling to the gas giant
On the way to the gas giant, which would take two days, Yemar and Slayed imagined, for every other ship they detected, how they would capture it. Some would be hailed, others they'd open fire. In this way some time was passed while Yemar reminisced about her past life as a pirate lord.
As the two days passed Slayed took the opportunity to tell everyone about the item he'd pocketed just as everyone was leaving the vault on Vorito's space port. He'd managed to decode it and it was news - actually intelligence - that the Imperial Fleet currently in Byrni were planning to send their megafreighter and liner back towards the Imperium with all the pirates they'd captured up to that point. The convoy would leave in a few weeks, arriving in Iligan in 18 weeks or so.
As the two days passed Slayed took the opportunity to tell everyone about the item he'd pocketed just as everyone was leaving the vault on Vorito's space port. He'd managed to decode it and it was news - actually intelligence - that the Imperial Fleet currently in Byrni were planning to send their megafreighter and liner back towards the Imperium with all the pirates they'd captured up to that point. The convoy would leave in a few weeks, arriving in Iligan in 18 weeks or so.
The travellers immediately agreed it was something they should do something about. Not only would they be poking the Imperium in the eye, they would also have a lot of grateful pirate crew members and possibly some new large ships depending on how things went. The timing was tight though; they'd need to travel quickly if they wanted to get the Harriers and other ships back into the Wildeman system which was the last opportunity to attack the convoy before it reached the prison planet.
Lady Yemar agreed that they should do free the captives if possible, although she herself no longer had any pirating vessels having changed career to planetary ruler some time ago. She was interested in the possibilities of the Q Ship that was mentioned as the party discussed options. A ship with so many marines and a weapon to disable power plants would be useful.
Arriving
Once near the Lagrange point they opened the comms channel and hailed Gobbo but got no response. The area was very large though, so they started travelling through the area and sending out a comms message every hour.
After a while they received a crackled response asking who they were, to which Goff said it was him and Gobbo asked who he was with. Goff gave a suitable answer and Gobbo gave them directions where to find him, which was on a medium-sized asteroid somewhere near the middle of the field.
On the surface of the asteroid was Gobbos ship and sensors showed that it was tethered next to what appeared to be a hatch. Sparrow landed the ship close by and they agreed to meet outside. Everyone was very curious but Lady Nitrane noticed that Lady Yemar was a little apprehensive for some reason. She took her aside and asked if anything was wrong, to which Yemar responded that she'd known of someone in Wildeman but not Gobbo and not anything to worry about.
Exiting the ship in Boarding Vacc Suits they made their way over to Gobbo, who turned out to be a wizened old man. He had not seen his friend in many years but their friendship was there for all to see as they shook hands and patted each other on the back, with Gobbo's face lighting up when he saw Goff.
They asked about the hatch and Gobbo said that he'd noticed it only because he was doing a fine scan of the asteroid. Anything less than a square metre by square metre search would not have found it. And when he did find it he decided to open it. He invited the traveller's to come with him into it as he said he'd found something very interesting indeed.
Into the depths
Given that the gravity on the asteroid was very small they could all just float down the passage under the hatch. About 10 feet in diameter it was larger than normal but not remarkably so. Lighting their helmet lights they saw that at the bottom of the shaft, about 100 feet down, was a large mining laser which had cut through another hatch - this one considerably thicker and vault-like.
Looking through the cut-through door a very faint glow was visible. It seemed that the lighting in the vault was powered somehow, but very very weakly. Beyond the door was a vault of some kind, with a larger door across from where they came in.
The vault was empty but Gobbo mentioned that he'd found something when he first entered, and handed them two bottles and a note. The bottles were old gin bottles that Nitrane and Sparrow recognised as a very good brand from about a century ago. The note was in very fine calligraphy and said simply...
The vault was empty but Gobbo mentioned that he'd found something when he first entered, and handed them two bottles and a note. The bottles were old gin bottles that Nitrane and Sparrow recognised as a very good brand from about a century ago. The note was in very fine calligraphy and said simply...
Looking at the unopened door no controls were at first apparent, but after some searching a seamless panel was opened that had what appeared to be a DNA lock. Rather bemused by what Gobbo had found, and not being in mind to start the week or more long exercise of cutting through the next door, the party and Gobbo returned to the surface.
Going deeper
Everyone was interested to know what was behind the next door. It was suggested that power cables could be sent down into the tunnel to provide power to the door. Lady Yemar and Tiznee, who had not gone down with the others, exchanged glances. The bottles and note were also handed to the ladies who made no remark. The plan to open the door somehow by circumventing the DNA lock saw Lady Yemar and Tiznee exchange glances again, and Tiznee arched an eyebrow.
This exchange was not lost on some of the travellers. Slayed asked if she knew anything more and Lady Yemar sighed She said "It sounds a lot like Grandpa Tamby".
Tamby Dour
A few in the party had not heard of Tamby Dour, but Unter especially had heard of him. Known as "The Kraken" he was a notorious pirate - possibly the most notorious - and attacked shipping within four parsecs of Wildeman about a century ago. The Imperial Navy finally intercepted and killed him after many years of chasing shadows and wearing his forces out. At his might he had nearly a hundred ships but by the end he had only a handful left. Nobody ever found his base of operations.
Asked what he was like Yemar said she'd never met him but had heard stories from her father. The fact that there seemed to be some hidden vault, and possibly more, here in Wildeman was something that might be related to Tamby, but the bottles and note were in her mind clinching arguments.
Cracking the door
With a possible DNA source attention changed to getting the door open in the normal manner. They went down the hole again to check that the power worked, and when it did they took measurements and returned to Gobbo's ship to make something in his workshop that Yemar could use to safely apply her hand to the unlocking mechanism. This took an hour or two and at the end of it they returned down the hole and all stood in front of the door.
The device was attached to the wall and pressurised. Yemar put her hand to the lock and a small almost indistinguishable noise was heard. Removing her hand they all noticed that a small green light was now showing and it appeared her DNA had done the trick. The panel to open the door was pressed and nothing much happened other than some grinding that was felt more than heard and the door moving a fraction of an inch.
Slayed and Nitrane decided to put their backs into it and gave the door a helping hand or four. They got the door to move a little and Goff and Slayed then had a go, which got the door open a crack. Gobbo quickly returned to his ship and got a hydraulic mine joist which he applied and eventually the door opened.
Inside
What they saw was a corridor. That corridor had rooms, looking a lot like staterooms, leading off it. Looking in some of the rooms they found that many things were well preserved due to the vacuum. Other things had not fared as well for the same reasons. The rooms contained some possessions, as if they'd been left one day by someone who intended to return. They did not look like they'd been abandoned in a hurry.
The corridors extended over a large distance, and elevators suggested there might be other floors. Tens of staterooms were on these corridors. This was no small vault.
Inside
What they saw was a corridor. That corridor had rooms, looking a lot like staterooms, leading off it. Looking in some of the rooms they found that many things were well preserved due to the vacuum. Other things had not fared as well for the same reasons. The rooms contained some possessions, as if they'd been left one day by someone who intended to return. They did not look like they'd been abandoned in a hurry.
The corridors extended over a large distance, and elevators suggested there might be other floors. Tens of staterooms were on these corridors. This was no small vault.
Eventually they reached an opening to what looked like a concourse. Commercial ventures, similarly abandoned, were visible. Common areas were here too This was somewhere that many people had lived, and with commerce there was the suggestion that there was a small economy thriving here so this was not just a large hideout.
The concourse led to a massive - incredibly so - docking area. Tens of thousands of tons of ships could be docked in here along each of many concourse arms. That meant there must be huge doors somewhere on the surface of the asteroid. The docking facilities were fairly advanced too - possibly TL13 or 14. There were no ships visible, but the area was so large they could not see it all.
The whole complex was only partially explored in the two hours they set aside. They had not seen any power or maintenance or refuelling facilities, but they mist be somewhere. The complex was completely unpressurised - they had passed through normal and massive airlocks which were all open. This place appeared to have been abandoned for decades - possible a century.
The concourse led to a massive - incredibly so - docking area. Tens of thousands of tons of ships could be docked in here along each of many concourse arms. That meant there must be huge doors somewhere on the surface of the asteroid. The docking facilities were fairly advanced too - possibly TL13 or 14. There were no ships visible, but the area was so large they could not see it all.
The whole complex was only partially explored in the two hours they set aside. They had not seen any power or maintenance or refuelling facilities, but they mist be somewhere. The complex was completely unpressurised - they had passed through normal and massive airlocks which were all open. This place appeared to have been abandoned for decades - possible a century.
To be continued.
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