Category: Actual Play

207-1107 – Tech World

Lead by Dr Hodal, the travellers hurried to the laboratory of Dr Jali Astor. Leading them down access tunnels, and talking as they go, Hodal explains what has happened. Dr Jali had been distracted for days, eager to get back to her work as quickly as possible after the meeting the previous day with the players. She had spoken of being close to a breakthrough.

She had been working with nanotech from Neumann, her home world. But the nano containment system had failed. “There was an explosion and Jali was possessed by the nanotech. No, not possessed: that’s the primitive thinking of the Shield Church. Infected.” The Shield Church, he explained, teaches that experimental nanotechnology is demonic in nature. Not that a scientist like him believes such things, of course.

Dr Jali then made her way to the starport and accessed the docking systems. Somehow, she was able to board and take control of the Spark of Life. She had taken off, despite it being under interdiction, and would reach the jump point before she could be stopped.

The robot crews assigned to the maintenance overhaul of the drive systems of the So Much For Subtlety and Shinkiro had been doubled, and they should be ready to fly within a couple of hours. Dr Hodal pleaded with the Travellers to go after her and stop Dr Astor infecting others with the nanotech in her system, saving her if at all possible.

The party were discussing how to find out where the Spark of Life was going, and Dr Hodal mentioned that one of Tech World’s pre-eminent scientists had been working on an experimental jump-tracker system which analysed jump flashes and, in the hands of an excellent sensor operator, could sometimes pinpoint system or even location. He would arrange to have a prototype fitted to their ship, although the robot team doing so would have to eject on the way to orbit when it was completed, as it would take too long if they waited in dock, and Dr Jali would be gone.

At the damaged laboratory, the party found Lemuel Vinus, Dr Astor’s lab assistant, being bandaged for cuts to his face and hands. He had been hurt in the explosion, although he had not been as near to the containment vessel and had not been infected. When questioned, he mentioned that Dr Astor believed that she had been close to a breakthrough for days, but it had eluded her.

Warned that there would be a purge cycle soon that would ensure that the laboratory and everything in it was destroyed, the travellers investigated where Dr Astor had been working. They noticed that the words SHIELD CHURCH had been scratched into the metal wall. Watching security camera footage, they saJali working with the large nano-containment vessel to mix two different nanobot swarms. Warning lights flashed, with Lemuel Vinus turning in surprise, explaining the damage to his hands when the containment crucible failed in an explosion, with the nanotech rapidly eating through first it then Dr Astor’s containment suit.

Instead of pulling her apart, the nanotech infects her. There is a pause as she seems to fight for control, then scratches on the wall in front of her before spinning around and moving incredibly quickly through the door of the laboratory. A glimpse of her eyes as she looks up at the camera shows them glowing red.

The sound was confused, but the words “Immortal Protector” can be heard.

After their investigation, the purge cycle begins, and the laboratory is sealed off and destroyed by plasma fire.

The travellers questioned Lemuel Vinus further, discovering him to be a distraught young man from Neumann who had come to work with Dr Astor as she was dedicated to saving Neumann from the Nanite swarms that cover a third of the planet. The party asked Lemuel to join them and he was reluctant, saying that it seemed “kinda dangerous.” Dr Parsifal assured him, however, that it would be “perfectly safe” and that there was “no danger at all.” Faced with this reassurance from a respectable man of science, Vemuel cautiously agreed to join the party.

Next, the Drinaxians contacted Dr Nafir, saying that they were going to pursue, but pointedly not mentioning the presence of Dr Parsifal on the ship. Did he want to join them to recover his ship? Nafir said that he was some way away, but said that he could be there in a little over 30 minutes. He brought a bodyguard with him, a very professional-looking ex-military type called Sigismund Olafson, with what looked like some expensive chrome.

Taking the So Much for Subtlety, the party burned out after Dr Astor, managing to come within sensor range before the Spark of Life jumped. Analysing the sensor information, the party were able to detect that he was going to Hilfer, in the opposite direction from their expectations that he was heading for Neumann. Checking, the party found that there was no gas giant in Hilfer, and they knew that the outer system was rife with pirates, having previously roughly located (but ignored) at least one pirate base from back when they briefly flirted with piracy, themselves.

During the jump, Anastasia enquired as to why Nafir had rushed to Tech World from Blue. He was vague, but mentioned that he had heard rumours about someone performing cloning research that seemed extremely promising. Anastasia was surprised to be able to read his surface thoughts, and he seemed to be telling the truth. Performing a quick medical check on him – which Nafir happily consented to – also revealed none of the implants that the party expected to find.

The party almost entirely ignored the young grad student Vinus, who spent the week studying and working on his computer.

On emerging from jump, the So Much For Subtlety could not find the Spark of life but were able to detect a distress signal from a far trader in a decaying orbit. Her transponder indicated that she was the Vagabond Soul. They burned towards her, as law and custom demanded, and found it unresponsive. Using the Harrier class ship’s Neural Activity Scanner, they located eight weak life signals on the ship, none apparently very active: perhaps they were unconscious or had taken medical fast drug?

Boarding the ship, the group found the lights flickering and the gravity cycling erratically, making it very difficult to move on the ship. The hallway was pitted by tiny holes and abrasions. Suddenly, two horrific figures appeared around the corner, just a few metres away down the corridor. They were humanoid, but covered in silvery scales and their fingertips bristled with elongated, tiny needles. Their eyes were covered with glowing plates, and they moved like lizards, scuttling along the walls and ceiling of the craft. In their helmets, the travellers could hear clicks and staccato screams of radio-frequency energy.

Meanwhile, Operation Hubcap swings into effect: the operation to chop-shop the stolen Imperium treasure ship, the Martin II.

Vaz and Goorp, master and mate on the Mercifuge, acutely aware that they will be made independently wealthy as a result, agree to be paid in two instalments: they are pleasantly surprised not to be stiffed.

178-1107 – Pandora Kuiper Belt

The Mercifuge is a specialised salvage ship, and this is key to the Drinaxian pirates’ plans. The Diplomat party on board the Recent Convert (formerly the Deepnight Amundsen survey ship) embark upon the location of a suitable icy body in the Kuiper belt of Pandora, where the Martin II is hidden.

It takes nine days to find a captured cometary body within a couple of days of the Martin II’s location, and the Mercifuge, using the fuel bladder fitted in her cargo bay for the Argona attack, spends almost a month flying back and forth between the freighter and the comet, purifying fuel during each return journey to save time. Eventually, however, she retrieves enough fuel to fill the Martin II, the Recent Convert, and to brim her own tanks.

In the meantime, the crew of the Mercifuge, comprising mainly tireless Shipmate droids, strip the Martin II of her manuevre drives, sensors, fabricators, weapons and screens. Some of these have to be stored in the hold of the Martin herself in order to allow the higher-value treasure items on the Martin II to be transferred to the cargo bays and empty vehicle bays of the Mercifuge and the Recent Convert, which would normally hold some 250 dtons of loot. However, much of the hold of the Mercifuge now contains fuel. Goorp, in the meantime, insists on rebuilding sections of the Martin II’s jump drive while the salvage and refuelling operation is underway. The uplifted ape is by nature reckless, but not when it comes to misjumps on the edge of the Great Rift.

The bodies of the dead conspirators are sampled for DNA then given a decent burial in space.

225-1107 – Acrid Lowport

Salvestes, Vaughan and Osha are moved – still in cold sleep – to the Recent Convert, which then departs for Acrid, carrying a hundred tons of vastly expensive treasure, much of it irreplaceable. Leaving most of this at Acrid, the Recent Convert’s hold is filled, instead, with illegal pharmaceuticals, alcohol, prohibited media content and several square kilometres of microns-thick, black, carbon-fibre wrap.

225-1107 – Cordan Kuiper Belt

Once the Martin II is fuelled and jump-ready, she attaches the Mercifuge to herself using the Swiftsure-class vessel’s massive, type-IV docking clamps, and jumps to the Kuiper Belt of the Cordan system, with the transponders of both vessels disabled.

The extra mass of the Mercifuge means that this uses up extra fuel, leaving her short of what is required for the jump to Exe. However, the Mercifuge is still carrying just enough fuel for the journey on to Exe’s outer system.

234-1107 – Exe outer gas giant orbital space

Shortly after the Martin II and the Mercifuge arrive, they rendezvous with the Recent Convert on her arrival from Acrid.

In Exe’s Kuiper Belt, the crew of the Mercifuge continue stripping out more equipment from the Martin II. The salvaged equipment is packaged in the carbon fibre wrapping and sent on a carefully-measured orbit for later collection.

After a few weeks, with the Martin II stripped of her jump drives, the Mercifuge accelerates her for 72 hours to pass roughly through the point where Hroal was awaiting her arrival, her course adjusted midway so as not to point back at where the salvaged components were placed.

Deanna worked to make the navcom look like it had been hastily wiped and reprogammed, in order to hide where the Martin II had been while still looking actively piratical. The comms systems on the Martin II were set up to secretly broadcast any activity on her bridge in clear to anyone in the system as soon as the Screamer goes off.

244-1107 – Exe Highport

The Recent Convert, with her cargo of illegal funtimes, heads to Exe highport and turns her transponder back on.

255-1107 – Exe outer gas giant orbital space

The Mercifuge then jumped out and, allowing time for the expanding, light-speed shell of her jump flash to be outside the system, the Screamer beacon placed originally by Hroal goes off. At the same time, the cold sleep defrost cycle on the ship’s cold berths goes off, awakening the remaining crew of the Martin II.

Finally, a note was left in the Martin II’s bridge, purportedly from the missing conspirators:

Goobye shipmates. Sorry to leave you in a bit of a shit situation with that worthless jackass Torsa, but Hroal wanted us to murder you all, so don’t be too mad about it. Any landing you walk away from is a good landing, right mates?

We can’t stop laughing that Torsa never even noticed us messing with the NavCom TWICE, nor did his stupid poncy Drinaxian stooges who thought they were being clever trying to spy on us work it out either. They didn’t even notice the Screamer!

Anyway, Hroal is an even worse arsehole than Torsa, no tears after we heard what happened to him, so we thought we’d just keep all the loot ourselves. We’ll have new faces, new names, new lives a long way from this dump of a Reach, and you never know – maybe we’ll see you again one day. We’ll be the rich bastards buying drinks.

Hey, Jagad – Give Torsa slap across the back of his fat greasy head from us!

The Irontooth Crew

174-1107 – Elohai, Blue

The day after speaking to Dr Lira Venn, Anastasia and Lars arrived at the Spark of Life for their tour, with Anastasia showing her years-old journalistic accreditation and just managing to bluff her way past security. They were greeted by the ship’s pilot and astrogator, Sela Marrin, who answered Anastasia’s questions about Dr Nafir: she had been his pilot for many years, having flown the Spark of Life all the way to Deneb and the Spinward Marches and then back down through the Trojan Reach in Nafir’s search for the best scientific talent he could find.

The fact that a science ship was able to land at a starport struck Lars as surprising, but this turned out to be as a result of work in the area of aerodynamics optimisation which Nafir held a patent on: was there no field in which he did not excel?!?

Lars and Anastasia were given a tour of the laboratory areas, noting the name of Dr Kessarin Jaal on the way past: the scientist that Dr Venn had noted seemed rather jaded. Then they met Dr Nafir himself: he was as enthusastic and smooth as the others had found him to be before on Falcon, and happily answered Anastasia’s questions. Her attempts to use psionics on him, however, failed utterly. He was unreadable for some reason.

Dr Nafir’s rise had begun in tragedy: his collaborator – Dr Jans Trask – had died tragically young, and Nafir had sworn to continue their work, bringing their tasks rapidly to a conclusion in the form of the collaborative software that was at the heart of the Spark of Life’s success. Dr Nafir sadly answered questions about Trask’s death, in 1100, seven years before, and how important that Trask’s memory was to him.

On the way out, Anastasia sent a psionic message to Dr Jaal, with a means to contact her, but whether due to suspicion, confusion, an attribution of the message to intrusive thoughts and incipient madness, or the general loathing of psionics which is so general in and around the Imperium, no contact was made.

Anastasia had also attempted to send messages to former members of the raided Psionics Institute on Blue, but if any were on the planet, they were either not in range or were not responsive. A visit to the site of the Institute yielded only a large area of concreted-over land.

In the starport, the party took the time to note the many naval personel present – far too many for such a small population – as well as a couple of sleek, modern vessels in port. They also noted the political officers dotted around, wearing distinctive grey uniforms with red flashes and psi helmets.

On returning to the Shinkiro, the party discovered that Krrsh, having been left aboard yet again – he had hardly been off the ship in months – had killed time through taking control of the ship’s droids (a gunnery robot, an engineering droid and Patrice, the ship’s instance of the Patrickswarm which served on each of the Drinaxians’ ships). These he had provided with scripts for the notoriously high-energy, sprawling and violent epic poem which serves as a foundation myth for Vargr society through the borderline-surreal interactions of their great, mythical heros and gods. Think the Mahabharata crossed with the Chinese tale of the Monkey King. The performance had been underway for several hours, with Krrsh as lead star and director. Patrice in particular was strikingly relieved at the return of the party.

175-1107 – Elohai, Blue

The next morning, the crew of the Shinkiro awoke to find that the Spark of Life had left, late the previous night. Investigations showed that she had filed a flight destination of Clarke, but further investigation revealed that she had taken on cargo due to be delivered to Arunisiir: Nafir’s love of money had betrayed him. So off to Arunisiir it was!

182-1107 – Arunisiir Highport

At Arunisiir highport, the Shinkiro found that the Spark of Life had already left. A repeat of the previous investigations revealed that Nafir had filed a destination of Pandora, but had taken on freight for Acrid. The party pursued, however their investigations each time meant that they were falling further behind, each time.

190-1107 – Acrid Lowport, Kingdom of Drinax

Falling further behind, the Shinkiro’s occupants gambled and had a fuel bladder fitted quickly at the Drinaxian-controlled Lowport. Looking at his route, they deduced that Nafir was heading either for Tech World or for the medically-advanced laboratories of Falcon, not least since he had filed a flight path for Argona. So their next jump was to Inurin.

198-1107 – Inurin high orbit

Arriving in Inurin, the Shinkiro immediately refuelled from her fuel bladder and jumped at once to Tech World. Would this gamble pay off?

205-1107 – Tech World lowport

Arriving at the nanotech marvel which was the Tech World Lowport, the party were greeted by the tailored robot who would act as their guide for their stay. Few sophonts were to be seen, but huge numbers of droids – both realistic and fantastical – swarmed the hangars and corridors.

Soon after their arrival, a mysterious parcel with a worrying accompanying message was delivered to the ship. The parcel contained a beautifully-crafted computer module with an expert system on it, programmed to advise on linguistics, philosophy, psychology and sophontology. The party were understandably cautious about plugging this into the ship’s computer, but decided to use one of their intrusion devices, instead.

The message began positively enough:

“Greetings. Your presence is requested as matters of mutual interest and profitability may be discussed. We offer you this gift as a mark of our respect, in the hopes of future friendship. We hope that the enclosed information will demonstrate that we have no desire to harm you, as we have kept this scrupulously confidential.”

The enclosed information in question detailed a number of matters which nobody outside of the pirates themselves should have known about: the precise location and state of the Martin II, and the secret location of Orpheus Base, as well as discussions amongst various crew members of the pirate fleet regarding the robbery of the Imperium treasure ship on Arunisiir.

The party very quickly surmised that the Patrickswarm, built to order by Tech World to spy upon and report on the crews of each of the ships in their fleet, had in fact been uploading its findings to more than just Patrick.

A few hours later, their Tech World liaison droid asked them to accompany her to a meeting with “interested individuals”. After arriving at the sales office of “Action at a Distance” – a company involved in the forbiddden field of psionomechanical research – they were taken into the city basements, through access tunnels and service shafts, making use of their disguise nets to appear as droids and slip past GeDeCo security guards. Eventually, the crew arrived at the laboratories of Hodal Genotech AG.

There they met Dr Gerret Hodal, a geneticist from Neumann; Dr Jali Astor, a nanotechnologist from Neumann who appeared distracted throughout; and Dr Rex Darke, a roboticist formerly of the university of Regina who had an offputting laugh and a disturbing tendency to rub his hands together when enthusiastic. The three explained that they represented the Founders: the group of around a hundred scientists and entrepreneurs who formed much of the human population of Tech World. They had been invited to the planet by GeDeCo with the promise of unfettered abilities to carry out whatever research they desired, but they had found GeDeCo’s “pettifogging moral scruples” challenging to work within, and they had watched the rise of Drinax with interest.

In return for protection, supplies and the loan of defensive ships until they could build out their own robotic, defensive capabilities, they would join the Kingdom as a member state. One other condition applied, however: they would be allowed unquestioned scientific research freedom without interference or enquiry.

The party promised to take these requests to King Oleb and Princess Rao, but expressed their enthusiasm for the proposal.

In return, the scientists stated that they knew of the party’s interest in Dr Nafir and his ship, and offered to ensure that it would require a lengthy stay for unforeseen technical issues. In addition, the crew of the Shinkiro were offered the best hotel accomodation on Tech World.

205-1107 – Tech World lowport

The next morning, when assembled to discuss the events of the previous day, the party were surprised when Dr Hodal suddenly walked through the apparently solid (but nanotech-constructed) wall of their room, and told them, in distress, that Dr Astor had had a terrible accident. Infected by the Neumann nanobots that she had been experimenting upon, she had stolen the Spark of Life and departed!

Dr Hodal begged the party to help save Dr Astor – if she infected others with the nanobots then the results could be disastrous for the Reach! – and agreed to take the party to the laboratory of Dr Astor to investigate the accident.

161-1107 Orpheus Base (TR 2523)

The crew of the Shinkiro (Anastasia, Lars, Dr Parsifal and Cauldron, with Krrsh in tow) parted company with the Recent Convert (formerly the Deepnight Amundsen), who left for Pandora and the hidden Martin II, accompanied by the Mercifuge.

Leaving the hidden Sindalian base – now reclaimed on behalf of King Oleb, himself the proclaimed successor-in-exile to the Dragon Emperor of Sindal, the Shinkiro jumped to Blue, where the Spark of Life was most recently reported to be. The Spark of Life was the ship of Dr Izikai Nafir, the bitter rival of Dr Parsifal, whose early career was blighted by Nafir’s plagiarism and betrayal.

Parsifal now sought revenge: a revenge made all the more convenient by the demand of Prince Harrick that he be able to provide Clarke with a science vessel capable of performing research and improving the health sector on Clarke before he accepts the role of High Psychopomp. Since this was Clarke’s condition for entering the Kingdom of Drinax, the party had genuine motivation to succeed in acquiring the ship in a way that would not see Harrick, Prince of Drinax, accused of piracy!

170-1107 – Bulhai Base, Blue system

The crew of the Shinkiro chose to jump, first, to Bulhai Station, the independent freeport on a moon of the outer gas giant in the Blue system which they had used before due to the presence of a mercenary supply company. From there they contacted Loren Els, a junior civil servant in Blue’s capital city, Elohai. Els had been recruited the year before by Basemath Mondrane, a colleague from Deanna’s naval career who was now a wandering agent and recruiter for the growing asset of intel sources in Deanna’s employ. Another agent existed on Blue – Fa Roysopp, a petty criminal – but the party chose not to activate her at this time.

While the party were nominally in Blue to pursue the Spark of Life, the growing hostility to Drinax of the Blue government, and the possible links to the government on Lilgan, were impossible to ignore. So the group asked Loren what he could tell them about the attitude of the government of Blue to Drinax. A couple of days later they got a response, detailing how, in the last 20 years or so, Blue had gone from a small backwater, essentially passive in whatever external relations it had, to possessing a virulently anti-Drinaxian media and (in recent years) to building, buying or renovating a far larger, jump-capable fleet than its economy could dream of supporting.

I’ve managed to finish compiling the latest fleet records. Blue’s got more ships than anyone here admits we can pay for — five Edict-class defence boats, five Vigilant-class corvettes, and two Bedrock-class carriers still “under evaluation” at the Highport. The Edicts are supposed to be system-only craft, but I’ve seen the movement schedules — they can be ferried elsewhere by the Bedrocks. Someone’s planning for more than defence.

No one down here in admin knows where the money’s coming from. Every budget line for the fleet ties back to something called “Special Continuity Funds.” When I tried to trace it, I got told (politely) to stop asking questions.

Morale’s good but the officers are nervous — too many inspections, too many “advisors” aboard every ship. None of us know who they actually report to.

I’ll try to find out refit schedules soon.

There’s a new hauler been bought in Empire which will go in for refit later this year: they are calling it the Cornerstone class liner but it’s supposedly a troop carrier, with small ships for ferrying troops to the ground. It should be commissioned in 18 months.

The party asked Loren to give them a summary of the fleet built by Blue. In the meantime, they moved to the surface of Blue itself, relying on disguise nets, a programmable transponder and the adaptable hull of the Shinkiro to avoid being identified as Drinaxians.

173-1107 – Elohai city, Blue

On their way to Blue’s capital city, Elohai, the party researched the Spark of Life and her time on the planet. They discovered excitable stories in the local press about the ship and her cutting-edge computer systems, which not just backed-up each onboard scientist’s work overnight, but somehow multiplied the productivity of each through a multiplicative effect. Aware of the trail of bitter former collaborators alleging IP theft that Nafir possessed – including Parsifal himself – the party viewed this with great suspicion.

They also spotted a news story about the quadrennial interfaith conference, held on a varying rota of planets over the years, which would start on Clarke in two months: it was being hosted by the Psychopomps this time, and the interesting news was the announcement that Prince Harrick of Drinax was slated to attend as guest of honour, while attendees were to include the Psychopomps of Clarke themselves, the Church of the Solar Divinity, the Church of the Starry Wisdom and the Shield Church of Neumann

Much of the press concerned a junior scientist by the name of Lira Venn who was joining Dr Nafir’s incubator aboard the Spark of Life. The party discovered that she was renting out her apartment during her absence and, posing as prospective tenants, visited her. Finding out more about the ship and the fellow scientists (of whom there were two, at least one of them far less positive about Nafir), Anastasia managed to arrange a tour of the ship the next day in her role of journalist.

The players decided to rent Lira’s one-bedroom apartment on Blue since the plan is to get Lars on-board the Spark of Life as a mechanic/engineer, and they supposed that he may need an address for his disguise.

089-1107 – Ergo

Having survived their battle with the two leviathans in the forests of Ergo, the group then engaged in a shooting match with two of the Chain Gang members, before encountering locals, who appeared to possess a culture originally based in some strange half-memory of ancient Persia, and who had been essentially enslaved by the Chain Gang and their higher technology. Discussions with several groups of locals revealed a society divided into inherited societal roles: one family might produce technicians, another soldiers, and another hunters.

The locals had, it transpired, ritually killed the crew of the ship having taken them for gods, and had then placed their own, preserved clan gods (long dead astronauts from another crashed vessel) into the ship, closing it in the belief that they would fly the ship into the heavens and return with great wealth. Now the ship was locked and disguised from scans by piles of scrap, the anomaly in which it sat, and the ship’s own stealthy hull.

Breaking into the ship, the party found the embalmed bodies of the locals’ two gods. Leaving the natives with gifts, including substantial numbers of weapons with which to greet the remaining Chain Gang members on their return, the party then left for Tech World, taking both the Shinkiro and the Deepnight Amundsen.

097-1107 – Tech World

After some basic repairs, the party left in the Deepnight Amundsen to perform a survey of the apparently-empty parsec 2523. For this, we used the surveying rules from the Referee’s Guide of the Deepnight Revelation box set. This took five weeks of surveying, and a second jump, but the party managed to identify (alongside a rogue cometary body, to which they burned over the course of five days to refuel) a dense dust cloud half a light year across, within which they found a brown dwarf, orbited closely by several moons, one of them a tidally-locked moon 50% bigger than Titan which lay inside the fearfully-narrow, habitable belt of the Brown Dwarf. Bookmarking its location, they jumped out to Tech World once more, to rendezvous (a month late) with the crew of the So Much For Subtlety.

153-1107 – Tech World

Leaving the SMFS on Tech World, the Mercifuge, Shinkiro and Deepnight Amundsen then jumped to the moon they had discovered.

And on that moon, they located the Heart of Darkness: the fabled, long-abandoned Sindalian base. The rest of the session was spent investigating this base, and the greatest prizes were two Harrier-class commerce raiders. Each had been stripped for parts, and the ships were in far worse states than the SMFS, which had spent its long exile out in the dark vacuum and constant temperature of Drinax’s Oort Cloud instead of a moist, oxygen-laden atmosphere. But they were, nonetheless, recoverable (for a nine-figure investment of credits).

Satisfied, the crew of the Deepnight Amundsen – Timaeus, Eric, Lars and Penelope – then jumped to Acrid and then Pandora to work out what to do with the treasure-packed Martin II. The Shinkiro departed for Clarke and their long-planned reckoning with Dr Izikai Nafir.

Having heard of the success of the Imperium-Drinaxian fleet at Exe, the Shinkiro and Mercifuge travelled from Pandora to Drinax.

Much of the session was spent in collaboratively designing a pet snake for Erik. The snake in question being a robot and more intelligent than almost any member of the crew. It was to be accompanied by five drone snakes that it could control using Swarm Control software. The snake in question was murderously expensive (2.1MCr!) and clearly designed as murderous in other ways, too: stealthy, armed with a poison bite, capable of moving faster than a human on walls and ceilings… An order was dispatched to Tech World.

112-1107 – Drinax

The crew of the Shinkiro brought news of their successes to Oleb, who was delighted and declared a week’s feasting to celebrate the victory at Exe, and who was persuaded not to mention the Martin II at all.

We then moved onto the question of the (fake) treaty that the party had found on the Martin II, which purported to be an agreement between the Imperium and the Hierate, granting the Aslan full influence and freedom of action in all systems currently within six parsecs of the Aslan border. Discussing this with Princess Rao, the party persuaded her anonymously to circulate news of the treaty throughout the affected systems.

The effect was to drive several systems towards the rising power of Drinax, and to make those systems more receptive to Drinaxian advances as a result, as they sought collective security from any potential attack. The following systems shifted one step towards Drinax: Pourne, Asim, Torpol, Exocet, Marduk, Salif, Acis, Tktk, Tyr, Tech-World, Inurin, Exe.

Although Drinax’s name was not formally linked with the circulated treaty, there was enough circumstantial evidence (cui bono? Drinax bono!) to implicate them (GeDeCo had a very clear idea, but could not risk leaking their own involvement to prove it), and the party’s standing with the Hierate fell by six, while their standing with the Imperium fell by five.

077-1107 – Tech World

The party now turned their attention to the missing Deepnight Amundsen: an advanced survey ship belonging to the Deepnight Corporation which had gone missing while jumping back and forth into the Great Rift along the Voidsedge Cluster, reportedly last appearing above the interdicted world of Ergo. The Drinaxians had decided that an advanced survey ship might be a useful asset in investigating another rumour from the previous year, regarding a forgotten Sindalian base in the empty parsec Trojan Reach 2523.

085-1107 – Ergo

After showing apparent interest in investing in the Ergo Barons’ ambitious plans for rebuilding their economy on their last visit, the party were approached by two of the Barons once more.

The characters were, however, more interested in using the Ergo authorities’ notoriously incurious bureaucracy to change the identity of their ships. The Barons refused to provide the contact used for this – it was a major source of income for them – but the party used tracking equipment and drones to follow their runner, and made a direct approach themselves. The Barons knew nothing about the Deepnight Amundsen’s location.

On questioning the fixer, it turned out that he did have some interesting news regarding the missing survey ship: a group of locally-based pirates – the Chain Gang – had approached him, looking for hacking gear or, failing that, heavy duty cutting gear. He couldn’t provide either, and he believed that they had left for Tech World. His own hacker, who he used for reprogramming ships’ transponders, was paid to hack the Imperium interdiction satellites and this yielded a fix on the missing survey ship.

The party then located the Deepnight Amundsen, located in a magnetic anomaly caused by one of the weapons used in the war that destroyed the world’s civilisation, two centuries before. Approaching the ship through the dense forests within the crater, the party fought two of the vast, armoured beasts that roamed the world: only the presence of the plasma gun taken from Hroal Irontooth saved them from at least two deaths.

Two locals then appeared, communicating in gestures with the party to gain permission to approach the bodies of the dead beasts, then removing something from the head of one of them, before departing once more with warning gestures of something ahead.

At the beginning of the session, the date in Exe (scene of the battle against Hroal Irontooth) is 058-1107, while the party in Pandora (who hijacked the Martin II) have reached 063-1107.

The update for the party before the session, by way of a reminder on their rather complicated current dispositions, was:

• The Shinkiro is in Pandora with Dr Parsifal, Deanna, Anastasia and Cauldron. Krrsh is piloting.
• The Mercifuge is also in Pandora, crewed by Vas Silverfur and Goorp and with a largely robot crew
• The Martin II is in Pandora. You don’t have sufficient crew to work all three ships but I haven’t seen anyone comment on the fact that the Martin II has class 4 docking clamps, allowing her to move ships of up to 2000 tons, albeit at lower jump range.
• The contents of the Martin II’s main hold are stored in the still-derelict Pithos Base
• None of these ships are damaged

In Exe, leaving aside the Imperium ships:

• The Phlebotomist is undamaged
• The Grey Area has taken relatively minor damage
• The So Much For Subtlety has taken some damage, mainly to her hull
• The Never Talk To Strangers has taken severe damage to multiple systems
• The Meatgrinder has taken very substantial damage to numerous systems (heavy damage to her power plant, maneuvre drives, sensors, hull and some turrets)
• The player characters present are Lady P, Timaeus, Rosa and Erik with Sharyl and a great many Vespexers
• You have a very large army and droid contingent crammed aboard your ships

The focus for this session was mainly on the Shinkiro and her crew, out of Pandora. However, we did handle one aspect of the Exe group in the So Much For Subtlety.

Before the session, Timaeus’ player sent this in-character interaction with Sharyl, the party’s favourite NPC:

After the battle with the Meatgrinder was won, Hroal slain, and orders to assist the damaged ships given, Timaeus took a few moments to rest in the So Much For Subtlety’s luxurious conference room. He quietly motioned Sharyl to accompany him.

“A hard-won battle, Sharyl. Erik is a master with the Particle Barbette. Your work leading the boarding party brought terror to the enemy. We shall bring this fine ship into our fleet, although it will take a great deal of work to do it.

Yet it is of a higher matter that I would speak with you. You are aware that soon, in a matter of a few months at most, I will redeem my father’s sword from the Iuwoi-Ko. And have no doubt: I will have it. Hteilotorl is an honourable fellow, and in bringing our strength to gain him a holding in the name of Drinax, I am pleased do my duty to the Kingdom.

You have seen the Reach. You have seen the opportunities. When I asked you if you would stay with us after we defeated Redthane you said you would because we spoke of taking not merely ships but planets; this we have done, and this we will do again.

I will gladly fight beside you to claim the land you are due. If you will do as Hteilotorl did, and pledge fealty to Drinax, then in duty’s name it can be not just myself but all the forces I command for the King to add weight to your blade – and on my word as a knight and noble of a Star Kingdom that shall grow like a wildfire in a dry forest: we shall gain you a greater one than he. Will you have my sword by you, or my fleet behind you? Tell me of your desiring and your planning, my friend, and together we shall make it be glorious.”

During the session, Sharyl replied:

“Timaeus… you speak to the hunger that has lived in my marrow since I was a cub. To be an ihatei and an outcast is to be a half-Aslan. You offer me the chance to finally cast a shadow on my own land.”

“I have seen Ergo. It is a world that has forgotten its strength, but it has not forgotten its beauty. If you lend me a ship to claim it, and the time to visit Kteiroa to win a warband, I will give you a bastion that will never break. I will be the shield of your Kingdom’s rimward flank.”

“But know this: an Aslan does not ‘possess’ land. He becomes it. Those people on Ergo who yield to me… they will be my Pride. Any pirate or smuggler who treats my world as a gutter will answer to my steel. Will I have your sword? Yes. And you and Oleb Drinax-ko shall have my life-debt, for you will have made me an Aslan of standing.”

---

064-1107 – Pandora Kuiper Belt

The Shinkiro and Mercifuge left the powered-down Martin II and her frozen crew and jumped to Lilgan, carrying the vault dongle from the Martin II in her secret, smuggling compartment.

072-1107 – Lilgan Downport

The Drinaxian ships barely had more than two hours on Lilgan before a customs inspection of their ships was ordered. Consisting of Lilgan Border Force guards lead by a significantly hostile officer wearing psi-shielding, this discovered multiple heavily-armoured combat androids in the hold of the two ships. Fortunately, the hidden compartment holding the Martin II’s illicit, vault-monitoring dongle was not found. The ships were impounded and the droids were seized, with the party told that the court actions should take no more than a few months before they got their ships back.

Strong investigation work by the party found them a good lawyer – advocate Assilia Ferox – who in turn was able to gain a brief hold on the summary judgement, which she assured them was highly illegal, but she warned the group that there was extraordinary hostility towards Drinax and that another excuse to further detain them would undoubtedly be found, so they took their droids back and jumped out, without a cargo, for Exocet.

083-1107 – Exocet Highport

Exocet is hardly populated, but its GeDeCo-run Highport is a major transhipment point on the Imperium-Florian trade route with a population in the tens of thousands. The party were able to buy sufficient cargo to fill the holds of the Shinkiro and the Mercifuge before jumping to Blue.

094-1107 – Blue system: Bulhai Freeport

Almost as soon as they were detected by the downport at Blue, the Drinaxian ships were denied permission to land. This was academic, since they had jumped to Bulhai Station. They discarded the idea of contacting their two agents on Blue itself, traded at Bulhai, and headed on to Clarke.

101-1107 – Clarke

On Clarke, the party contacted Psychopomp Malos – formerly Keeper Malos – whose ascent to higher rank had been aided by his interactions with the party over the Redthane incident.

Malos once more briefed them on the situation that they had discussed on their last visit, months previously: the Progressives want to name Prince Harrick the “High Psychopomp” because he represents the fulfillment of their prophecy – a man who died and was resurrected by technology (during the Asim war).

However, the Conservative faction, led by the dour High Psychopomp Ksar, argued that Harrick was an off-worlder and his “resurrection” via the Scholar’s Tower was an abomination, not a miracle.

Malos has a lead. A lower-caste family recently petitioned to move their “sleeping” grandfather to a more expensive strata of the pyramid. Ksar personally intervened to stop the transfer, claiming the body was in a “delicate state of preservation.” Malos suspects Ksar is hiding something regarding the Lower Catacombs, where the poorer citizens are interred, and for which he has responsibility.

Using administrative and hacking skills, the party investigated the bank accounts and records of Ksar and the Conservatives. The TL8 encryption of the Clarkian systems could not stand up to the TL15 equipment of Deanna, with her finding that vast sums – almost a billion credits per year – were apparently being allocated to carbon-foam preservation fluid but not spent: a shortfall of fourteen percent for the required amount! Further, Ksar turned out to have two families living in luxury on nearby Torpol, a planet he often visited for “missionary purposes.”

Using drones, the party infiltrated the lower catacombs, run by the Conservatives, and found that around two hundred bodies per day were not being preserved, but were in fact being incinerated. The Travellers filmed bodies being diverted, and thus found the hidden incinerator disguised as a heating unit, along with a ledger of “failed preservations” signed by Ksar. Because preserved monoliths were used in construction – particularly in the necro-temple, any that were not quickly upgraded were inaccessible until the ultimate resurrection of all the dead, hiding the evidence in all but a tiny handful of cases.

Malos, when shown the evidence, was both furious and devastated: this was the ultimate sacrilege, leading to the final and total destruction, with no hope of revival, of those incinerated for profit. Ksar was sentenced to the Long Sleep: immediate preservation until all the faithful preserved had been revived at the End of Times. The huge corruption at the heart of Clarke’s appallingly inefficient (Efficiency -3 on TravellerMap) economy was revealed.

The Conservative faction were fatally weakened by the ensuing scandal, and the party saw rioting occurring around the quarters of the Conservative priesthood. The way was now open for Harrick, to whom the formal invitation to rule as Head Psychopomp was extended, and negotiations with Drinax over entry to the Kingdom were invited. The party traded, then departed for Drinax.

049-1107 – Acrid Highport

We now go back in time by ten days or so, to Acrid the day before the Shinkiro and Mercifuge jumped to Pandora. In his rooms at the GeDeCo-run Acrid highport, Torsa held a conference of the senior officers of the Imperium and Drinaxian naval officers. This was not by Captain Torsa’s choice: although he was commodore of the small, Imperium flotilla, he wished to press on with his journey to Tyokh uninterrupted. However, Captains Burghof and James, of the two Gazelle-class craft, had prevailed.

Torsa, his left eyelid spasming repeatedly, stressed his duty to deliver the contents of the Martin II to its Aslan recipients. Captain Burghof insisted that an opportunity – perhaps not to be repeated – offered itself to rid the Reach of one of its three most notorious pirate leaders – Hroal Irontooth – who might still be waiting in Exe at a remote location that was known precisely, thanks to the work of Rosa Perre.

Torsa stressed that two close escorts, a barely-repair ship, a freighter and a “rabble of near-piratical Drinaxian auxiliaries” was no math for the Meatgrinder and Sasquatch: some 2000 tons of ships with a pair of 50-ton bay particle beams at their disposal. Burghof and James each leapt to their feet to protest this statement, but were waved away by the senior captain.

Timaeus, his air of noblesse oblige allowing him to shrug off the intolerable slight, flattered Torsa, subtly pointing out the career advantages of leading a flotilla in victory against the odds. Between them, the assembled flotilla would have around a hundred marines, and five particle barbettes: they just had to get under the guns of the Meatgrinder and board her. Torsa, both eyelids now twitching furiously, gave in.

The highly capable Commander Mari Jagad was able to brief those present on the weaponry of each side, warning the Drinaxians that the Meatgrinder had redundant, advanced sensor systems and that she was likely to detect the So Much For Subtlety as soon as she moved, if not before. The assembled leaders decided that attrition was unlikely to succeed in the face of the Meatgrinder’s dozen turrets and bays, and so they decided to distribute the marines across several ships and go straight at the Meatgrinder, hoping to force a boarding.

050-1107 – Acrid High Orbital Space

The next day, the Drinaxian marines, soldiers and droids loaded aboard the fleet, the flotilla jumped to Exe. As secretly planned by the Drinaxians, however, the Martin II jumped to Pandora, instead. This meant that the joint Imperium-Drinaxian fleet was some 2,000 tons – and 14 turrets – lighter than the Imperium officers had counted on. The fleet jumped out with a common jump solution.

058-1107 – Near Exe System’s Inner Gas Giant

After a long, isolated week in which each ship was alone in its jump-space bubble, the warning klaxons for imminent jump emergence sounded aboard each ship, as normal, around four hours before they were expected to come out of jump-space. On this occasion, they were fairly accurate due to a correction by one of the So Much For Subtlety’s robots to the jump drive programming.

Thus, when the flotilla emerged simultaneously, they were at action stations and prepared for the fight. Finding themselves scattered between 1,500 and 50,000km from the Meatgrinder, they immediately engaged.

On one side was the 1,200 ton Meatgrinder pocket warship and her 800-ton companion, the Sasquatch. On the other were the Gazelle-Class Arshad and Komodo (each 400 tons); the 400-ton repair ship the Henry T. Ford; the Drinaxian flagship the So Much For Subtlety (240 tons); the Phlebotomist (a 300 ton Jump Cutter); The Never Talk To Strangers(260 tons) and the Grey Area (200 tons), each pirates converted from traders.

On paper, it was an almost perfect match, but the pirate ship had vastly heavier firepower, as she would rapidly demonstrate. Her sleek, massive sides bristled with guns The Sasquatch seemed to possess the bulk of a skyscraper.

With surprise on their side, the flotilla attacked at once, particle beams lancing out from the Arshad, Komodo and So Much For Subtlety, the latter meaning that she was instantly detected. The vulnerable Phlebotomist began to withdraw; the Grey Area advanced cautiously and the rest of the ships dove straight for the Meatgrinder, which suffered hits to her weapons and hull.

After a few minutes, the Meatgrinder and Sasquatch reached action stations, and began to reply. Although the Meatgrinder took further hits – particularly from Erik’s accurate work on the particle accelerator – stripping away her armour with a devastating series of hits, in return the Grey Area only survived a hit from a 50-ton bay at the cost of losing all of her deflector shields in a single blow. Her amour softened the remaining energy but she still lot about 10% of her hull from the remaining explosions, and saw some of her cargo of droid marines explode in a hit on her cargo bay. The Henry T Ford was instantly crippled, left a drifting hulk by blows from the other particle bay.

The So Much For Subtlety, which had landed at medium range, took beam laser hits as she cautiously advanced towards the pirate warship, and only Penelope’ evasive action saved them from being crippled by further fire. At this point, the first salvos of missiles leapt from each side. The Komodo was targetted by a volley of eighteen missiles from the Meatgrinder, and despite ECM from her own and the SMFS’s systems, several got through to heavily damage her computer and maneuvre drives, while the Never Talk To Strangers was pounded by one of the Meatgrinder’s particle bays, suffering heavy damage to her power plant, maneuvre drives and jump drive and taking her out of the fight. The pirates’ laser turrets were distracted by point defence duties against the return missile fire from the joint task force.

By now, the Meatgrinder had been stripped of her armour, several of her turrets, some manuevre capabilities, and her main sensors. The Sasquatch, sensing which way the fight was going, started to spool up her drives for an emergency jump. Hroal Irontooth, seeing this, reacted furiously, launching a full volley of eighteen missiles against her, many of which hit just before she disappeared into jump space.

He also fired upon the flotilla, destroying the Komodo and narrowly failing to destroy the SMFS, managing to inflict hull damage upon her. With three ships out of the fight, one crippled and one out of range, only the Komodo and the So Much For Subtlety remained. Things looked like they were going the way of Hroal Irontooth, but the SMFS was now in called-shot range, and took out his remaining sensors and his power plant. Although he retained emergency power, his hull was now heavily damaged by multiple heavy, critical hits, and the runaway effect of this shot almost lead to the pirate ship being destroyed.

At last, she was unable to inflict damage on her attackers, and the SMFS boarded her, launching not just half a dozen marines but also some forty droids into the charnel house which was the burning Meatgrinder. The pirates had taken crew losses, and were outnumbered and out-equipped by the heavily-armed Drinaxian troops, and most of the ship was taken within a few minutes, leading to a confrontation between Hroal – wielding a plasma gun – and Timaeus on the bridge, with the latter dispatching the pirate leader with a blow from his arc-field sword.

The day was theirs, and the Drinaxian-Imperium fleet was able to launch emergency repairs and tend to their many wounded aboard their heavily damaged ships, and attempt rescues from the shattered hulks of the Henry T Ford and the Komodo. One of Hroal’s iron teeth was removed, to be sent to Petyr Baelish on Theev.

Happily, Hroal and his crew had heavy bounties on their heads after years of piracy, and some 28 million credits of cash would, at least, make a dent in the expensive repairs faced by the Drinaxians.

In addition, while the disappearance of the martin II – a ship the Drinaxians had been working on – caused some suspicion and a two-point drop in their standings with the Imperium, the joint battle against Hroal caused their Imperium standing to rise to 25; their Aslan standings to 20, an even a single point increase in their Florian standings (to 8).