065-1106 – Tech World Lowport
The Travellers started the session in Tech World, spending time topping up their cyberware collections, recovering from the surgery, and pressing their faces against the glass of showrooms while gazing at high-powered military droids. They also posted that they were looking for a major Fabicator contract, and soon were contacted by a salesperson of Dietler Fabrication Services LLC. Dern Vass turned out to be a cyborg, who was able to give more information about the limitations and possibilities regarding fixing or replacing 1500-year-old Sindalian fabricator tech.
There was some debate about next steps, between hunting for the Aslan war criminal specified in the Saag Eriksson 5MCr bounty notice, or seeking out the cargo from Princess Rao’s coded message that the So Much for Subtlety had received back in Hilfer:
The group also placed an order with BetterLife Robotech Ltd for six more Patrick-like droids to place on each ship in their flotilla, complete with furtive spyware to keep an eye on what each crew was up to.
“Argona downport: meet Joachim Streussen, give codeword “Red Pharisee”. Sensitive cargo for Iuwoi clan, high value, terms notably generous, utmost urgency, move asap. Nature unclear. Absolute discretion. Repeat: Absolute Discretion. Potential for valuable leverage in Hierate politics. Believe highly sought by others. The game is afoot.”
Then the party started to suspect a connection, and asked Sharyl about the bounty. He didn’t know the individuals involved in the bounty, but he did point out that the end of Seeker-of-Worlds’ surname (the “-iwuiya” in “Aiyyuwaisaltourlaeiwuiya”) meant that he was a second or third son of the Iuwoi: the head of the entire Iuwoi clan, that he knew had land on the rich world of Tyokh.
So there was a bounty on the head of the son of the Iuwoi clan. And the party had been asked to move cargo for the Iuwoi clan.
076-1106 – Sperle system, in space
Sperle Highport Traffic Control contacted the SMfS to ask them to check out the emergency transponder broadcast from the Bugle Call, a ship that had been reported as attacking the mercenary cruiser Bayern. It was about two and a half hours away at 6G, but the crew of the So Much for Subtlety made a slower, lower acceleration approach to maintain stealth. Neural Activity Sensor scanning at close range revealed that there were only two survivors on Fat Trader hull that was surrounded by an extensive debris field and which had a huge hole in her hull.
The party boarded the hulk, which had no life support, no atmosphere and no internal gravity. They found Antoine Marais, captain of the Bugle Call, and his badly-injured Ship’s Mate Quiet Foyle. The Astrogator, Early Bob, was dead.
Antoine was a pugnacious, defiant man: told to submit to search by the Bayern, he had sworn at them and refused, saying that they had no jurisdiction. They had opened fire, but the Bugle Call was seconds from jumping out, and the shot caused a huge explosion in her jump capacitors, breaking the back of her hull. The Bayern sent in marines, who shot the two crew, with only Antoine escaping harm. The boarders had then seized part of the Bugle Call’s cargo, before jumping out.
The party found that the Bayern had not been able to take all of the Bugle Call’s cargo, so a substantial amount was there to be salvaged when their hold was emptied.
077-1106 – Sperle Lowport
The party took a couple of days in Sperle to sell their cargo from Tech World. They also decided to spend time in the port city, socialising and carousing with locals and with other spacers.
They heard of dissatisfaction amongst Sperle Whalers regarding the monopoly GeDeCo holds over the market for their products. They also found out more information that further narrowed down their hunt for Captain Envai’s cavern in Pandora: surely just one more piece of the jigsaw remained and then they could locate the old, Sindalian base! Finally, they talked to a paranoid conspiracy theorist who explained, at length, that Theev was in fact secretly run by none other than the General Development Company themselves!
Timaeus attempted to recruit Antoine Marais and Quiet Foyle to their pirate crew, but the pair had just been on the wrong end of an attack and had no stomach to inflict it on others. However, they were very happy to pilot the Lady Luck on a trading mission, so were sent back to Drinax to crew the Far Trader, freeing up her Vespexer crew for more active duties.
078-1106 – Sperle system, in space
Having sold their cargo, the So Much for Subtlety returned to the wreck of the Bugle Call, salvaging her cargo and stripping her for spare parts before jumping to Argona.
086-1106 – Argona system, in space
In Argona, the SMfS picked up a rather weary distress call from Samuel Kegii, master of the Sam’s Leaky Bucket, a rickety old Type-S, Suleiman-class Scout. Boarding her, they found the old scout hovering hopelessly over a disassembled manuevre drive: he had taken on two Aslan in return for the female stripping down and servicing his ancient M-Drive, but before she could put it back together, he had been “inspected” by the Corsair-class ship the Phalangist, which had taken his two Aslan passengers into custody, leaving him immobilised in space with a drive in parts that he couldn’t fix.
Cauldron and others reassembled the M Drive over a few hours, for which the old scout was profoundly grateful.
087-1106 – Argona Lowport
Lady Penelope made a swift and graceful landing of the SMfS on Argona, taking her deftly through the ice cavern approach and landing her with a aplomb, impressing the locals enough that the usually-truculent and stand-offish barge pilots were willing to share a few drinks with her.
The travellers learned that the Argona workers were always militant, but that unrest was brewing once again against the exploitative Pax Rulin Quartermasters (PRQ) colony owners. There was also talk about Acrid, including rumours that, for once, the normally-placid Acrid unions are even more militant than the Argona ones, in the face of rapidly-sinking living standards.
The meeting with Joachim Streussen (trader and member of the Borderland Alliance) the next morning revealed some more information about the Iuwoi contract: pickup was from an agent in Inurin, and there was a curious deadline: the cargo had to be in Tyokh by 210-1106, or there would be no payment. However, it was being sought after by other parties, and someone had spent huge amounts of money to find and intercept it. The cargo should be picked up at once, but an immediate and direct approach to Tyokh carried a high risk of interception by the considerable forces employed to find it, especially in the systems on the Drinaxian Chain.
So he suggested that the So Much for Subtlety put people off her scent by meandering around the Voidsedge Cluster, seeming to be a normal trader. This would allay the suspicions that the pickup in Inurin would cause, and would allow the Drinaxian ship to slip through the cordon later.
The payment terms were half a million credits up front; half a million more when the cargo was collected; and the remaining million on delivery of the shipment to Tyokh.
The party picked up mail and contract freight for Inurin, by way of cover for their journey, and left the same night for Gibraltar Station.
095-1106 Gibraltar Station, Inurin
At Gibraltar Station, the So Much for Subtlety was warned not to refuel at the gas giant because of an unspecified “serious hazard to navigation”, and was escorted into the station docking bays by two fighters. An appointment was made to speak to a representative of the Eanzuearrgzoerraer Freight and Brokerage (ERB) company at a horrifyingly early hour the next morning.
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