Galactic Adventures 2.0 (SciFi/Char/Mechanics/IC)

[The National Dominion of Hungary]

Link to OOC

Galactic Adventures

"Humans, Ellireans, Yaar, not a single of the starfaring species of the Galaxy was ever invited up into the void. We were built for our homeworlds and here, in the dark, hell... it almost feels like we are intruders in a grand house."

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Welcome, Starfarers

The Milky Way is caught in a cycle of change, violent change steeped in blood. The Imperium Galaxis, greatest power in known space has fractured into a hundred little successor-states in near-constant conflict, fearing to be swallowed up by the most powerful among them. The Hemoh Unity battered and bloody after it's war with humanity recovers it's strength, ready to jockey with the Ellirean Accordance and Yaaric Unity for the title of greatest superpower in the Galaxy, indeed, the greater powers are all jockeying for position and power now that the shadow of the Imperium no longer hangs over them, something that threatens to destabilize the entire Core Region. In the space of the formerly so great and mighty Imperium Galaxis, three major successor-states each try to reunify the territories of the old empire, reshaping it in their image, ushering in their idealized version of humanity's renaissance. Meanwhile in the Outer Rim, warlords jostle for position by any means necessary. In times like these, those with the ambition and grit needed can rise to great heights, in times like these, legends are born, of brave captains laughing in the face of what the galaxy throws at them. Captains who can by one seemingly small action after another cause the very stars to shift. But for now, spread across many worlds and stations across the lightyears of the known galaxy, from the ruddy alleys of Noctis Station to the gleaming spires of Qharlaq they must take their first step...

On the planet Ylem however, two Captains were waling through the sterile corridors of Port Victory on their way to an important meeting with the absolute top of the planetary authorities after their daring run to bring in vital supplies to the recovering planet, braving the pirate blockade. In the void, an old veteran flanked by a truly ancient veteran go to find something of great personal affection for one of them, a weapons from an ancient past. In other parts of the galaxy newly minted captains of ever stripe prepare for a new quest across the void.

[Great Confederacy of Commonwealth States]

Port Dusk
Valoria Motel and Breakfast
Room 2234

“It’s not going anywhere, Theo” Nathaniël said jokingly, while peering into the minifridge that had been installed seamlessly into the motel hall. Theodora did not give any heed to his remark, her eyes fixed intently on the Ozymandias. The Valoria Motel had two kinds of rooms: one with a view towards the sun and the system planets, and another in sight of the docking stations for those too paranoid to leave their crafts out of their sights. The Valoria knew what kind of visitors they catered to, at least. Nathaniël clacked his tongue, disappointed with the lack of choice the minifridge presented him.

“We got… those tiny bottles of Illeonian gin… And a bottle of Aleemu water” he relayed. Volotov, absentmindedly skimming through the latest issue of Spacer Monthly, his eyes resting on the centre fold of scantily-clad Yaaric models dressed up as mechanics, waved his hand dismissively.

“They call all water Aleemu water nowadays. They make it taste funny and double the price. It’s a scam”

“Okay, but you dropping our last crate of Ylem Moonshine means it’s either the scam or the heavy fuel oil the Illeonians call ‘gin’” Nathaniël retorted, Volotov pretending to be too engrossed by his magazine to hear. Nathaniël took the bottle from the fridge and poured three glasses, passing by the window to hand one over to Theodora.

“It’s a bad sign, emptying a motel fridge” she said, not taking her eyes away from her ship. Around it, the stars and rocket engines came to life like true fireworks, spaceship engines blasting in all colours of the rainbow, reflecting off the silvery-grey hull of their mobile home. She took the glass without looking and halved it in one swig, the ice-cold liquid almost freezing her brain.

“We’ve been sitting on our asses for too long”

“You’ve been sitting, too long, sweetheart” Nathaniël said, giving her a kiss atop her head and continuing to give Volotov his fill. “I’m up here pouring drinks”

Theodora did not dignify that needlessly argumentative reply with an answer, but Volotov luckily backed her up.

“She’s right, Nat… You know our numbers aren’t great”

“Then why did you ever ask for mine?” Nathaniël said with a wink, shutting Volotov up with a blush and a guilty smile. Silence returned to the room as Nathaniël returned to the bar, leaning over and taking a few careful sips of his drinks. Then, his face turned rigid, and he shuddered, the playful smile melting away into a frown.

“I’m sorry, guys. I mean… I didn’t…” he said, his voice quivering. Theodora, upon hearing his distress, jumped up from the windowsill and ran up to him, catching Nathaniël in an embrace.

“Shhh, shhh, it’s okay, sweety. We know” she whispered to him. Soon, they could feel the broad shoulders of Volotov close around them as well. Nathaniël shuddered still, and sobbed some, but very quickly relaxed again, and when Theodora and Volotov let go, he grinned his devilish smile again, though his eyes were wet with tears and his face was red. His voice, still trembling a bit, was steady enough to ask.

“Okay, so how are we going to fix it?”

Theodora was already on her way towards the door. She swirled her thick woollen coat around her and made sure she had her pistol in hand.

“I’m going to find us a new client, and I won’t be back until I found one” she declared.

“Don’t drink the last of that gin, I’m actually growing fond of it” she managed to shout before closing the door behind her, entering into the metallic cold of Port Dusk and its winding corridors; searching for someone with the cash to fund an expedition and the wish to acquire artefacts that were considered unacquirable. For that was their speciality.

Action: Find a customer willing to pay for an artefact hunt.

[The Empire of Tau]

Merchant Man Sam and the Adventures that Accompanies Him
The Meeting

First is the meeting. Samuel had just delivered a sizeable shipment of industrial equipment and machines to the battle-torn world of Ylem. The delivery was quite the danger since Samuel was literally shot at by a bunch of fortunate-seeking pirates - not a fun time. But that was behind him now, albeit it would not be the last time that he would be shot at. No, no, the rate at which ammo would be thrown at him will surely increase, especially for his newfound mercenary-friend walking beside him. Port Victory was at least looking a bit less damaged than it was once was. Just don’t mind the amount of cannibalized buildings and parts here and there. Slow and steadily were the repairs. Onwards to the main event now - the meeting. Samuel is making a name for himself as the only person representing Ylem’s merchant fleet of...one whole light-cargo ship. Not much a fleet compared to the masses of hundreds of thousands of transports of those core-world nations, but it is something to start out with. Better no than no ship at least.

The path towards the main central building was clear enough, but the insides were a different story. Gonna be careful not to head into the wrong wing or section. There were always twists and turns within these admin centers, housing the various government offices and departments. Luckily for Sam, he had his trusty hand terminal to give directions. Leading himself and his duck-looking friend, the merchant arrived at the front door of the meeting place - the meeting room, how exciting. Once Samuel found a seat, his brain started to really turn on. The future of Ylem is to be discussed at hand. What to do with all the new goods that Bridge brought in; 50 Cargo Units of Exoskeletons, 100 Cargo Units of Building Materials, 50 Cargo Units of Agricultural Equipment, and 50 Cargo Units of Light Machinery. Now that is quite the hefty load of supply.

There were also the issues of those damn bloody pirates. Nowhere was safe with these people around. Ylem, if Samuel understands, had no navy whatsoever. Ylem had to defend itself somehow but forming a whole navy was no cheap matter. Ylem also had no heavy industry to support a navy or even a basic land-army. Kyr is the only person with an ok-warship and even that cannot stand up against the hordes of jerry-rigged scrappers that these pirates have. Something has to be done...but that discussion will likely come by soon, if not within the meeting itself. Samuel has quite a few ideas on the matter.

The second matter to Samuel, who the HELL is spying on him? Someone is out to get Samuel for whatever reason, and Samuel does not like the sound of that. Pirates? Government officials? Cultists? Who knows, but Samuel has tasked Carnegie to figure something out. If anyone could do it then Carnegie can... at least that is what Samuel hopes. There had to be a lead somewhere within that tracking device. There gonna be a clue hidden…

“Are we ready?” Samuel asked, looking around the table with his hand placed in front. He gives a quick nod to Kry to acknowledge the merc’s existence.

[Exalted Inquellian State]

Noctis Station, Outer Rim

Thorpodeas didn't like it here. Even if space was so different from his old homes, this place he knew was dangerous. Thropodeas passed by a dead skeleton, raising his tail in alert as he looked at it. Was this what the galaxy degenerated into? No, Thorpodeas thought. It was almost like this since he was born, and, beneath any veneer, like this for what must've been millions of years. But this stood out from anything he saw in the time he had access to history books. There seemed to be a green hue everywhere. The captain didn't know if it was from some chemicals in the air, the rundown nature of the place(if it even was run down), or simply the lighting, but it did give him a slight nauseous feeling.

His crew was probably right to stay back. But if someone had to get the map and anything else his crew would need, I'd be him. All that would happen next would be his idea, they were just payed to follow along, at least for now. So, he felt if anyone had to sacrifice themselves for something he wanted, it'd be him, because the crew didn't know what they had gotten themselves into. His crew had families as well, but Thorpodeas had absolute nothing to loose.

The lights began shutting off. Evidently, a blackout hit. Thorpodeas had relatively good vision, and many of the shops, stands, and stores on the edge of the street still glowed. But he decided to simply stand, perfectly still, until the light came back on. Thropodeas realized he needed a flashlight as he stood there for what felt like forever. In truth, it was only five minutes before the lights came back on. He saw a stand with what appaeared to be starmaps on it, sixty feet away.

Alright, Thorpodeas thought, you haven't interacted with anyone like the guy in the store since...ever, actually. Remember what your crew and educational films taught you. Look directly at them, be direct, hold the gun by the trigger in case things go west. He quickly darted to the stand, getting there in five seconds. Looking at the alien at the front, Thorpodeas stated his order quickly, keeping his eyes staring wide ahead with his head tilted downwards. "I want a map to Rakodan, good mir".

Action: Ask to purchase a map to Rakoddan.

[Ralnis]

Chieftess Kyr Mirhorn Van
Governor's Office,
Port Victory, Ylem

It was something that the Clan never had done before or even thought that it was possible. Yet, by the glory of the Gods, they managed to destroy the pirates by only having medium armor damage. Such a thing was worthy of song and praise to the banner of Clan Van. Talou was giving orders as the Cutter was moving into the planetary space of Ylem.

Traffic control was surprised that the ducks actually made it and gave their reports that the pirates were sent to the afterlife. It took a minute but the Clan's ship was given clearance with the controller saying Thank you Clan Van which was a change of pace for Kyr and Talou. It was an even bigger change of pace for being on a wartorn human colony outside of the Eternal War. After the battered ship had touched down, the greenbills wanted to see the broken planetary capital while the veterans rained them in as they reminded them about human discrimination even out here at Ylem.

Kyr didn't like to hear that but there was the hard truth. Even though some of their clients were humans, the atrocities both sides commit in the Eternal War leak out and put a heavy weight upon both races. However, as the Clan walked down the streets once they got a message that the governor wanted to see the chieftess with the famed merchant representative. Already this was different than their usual jobs. Meeting planetary leadership is something that Kyr didn't expect, a representative at best but this already had more than what she expected.

Already the Clan's officers came around before she left. Zax had made a note that the planet didn't have a heavy industry to repair the Fly's armor so they would have to go either to Zophon or back to Noctis, which are both good in order to get more ducks under their banner. However, going back to Noctis would mean hiding away from Zevos and his slaving crew, no doubt restored his ranks and have gotten stronger. The very thought that Kyr had to hide from him started to light a fire in her breast, one smothered by her disciplined.

Talou makes a note that the planet is a very wild and a lot of homesteads that could be bought. The very place that the Clan could settle down if they wanted to invest more of their time helping Ylem. Of course Kyr held on this idea as she looked at the planet itself. It was temperate, humid and surrounded by rain forests. It could be a good idea in order to set up a Tula. if they get on the good side of the humans. Concerning that they have started off by fighting back a pirate blockade, it was a start.

Merrin was the one who brought up the various merchants that were seen docking on the Port selling much needed goods at higher than usual prices. They were basic goods and things that the people and militia would need if they had any hope of surviving any daring raids from the pirate armada. Anything that would be a retaliatory attack because of the hiring of mercenaries to destroy their ships. The combat surgeon believes it would be a good idea to get some information from the merchants on the goings of the Outer Rim and any jobs should the chieftess couldn't establish something more concrete with the governor.

Kyr took her advice with a nod. The merchants and the net were the greatest source of information that they had while on a planet like this. Kyr thought that the information among the natives was scarce and she had to use everything that she can get. After consideration they had decided to go with a long-term plan considering everything that could happen or will happen. Kyr told Merrin to go take some ducks to talk to the merchants and gather some information, see what that leads her.

Zax was to go scour the net and see if he can get any information concerning the movements of Zevos and the Wicked Grin. Kyr was working on a hunch that the government would be more than shocked if Clan Van could bring enough firepower to dissuade a squadron of pirate gunships from attempting another raid. Besides, the bounty on her head had got to go the only way a Dunkidor knows how. It would be a point of honor to turn the Grin as a flagship for the Clan, and it could mean something that there's a strong presence in this cluster that isn't scum.

Talou was to go talk to the militia command and see if they had any planetside work. She didn't believe that they would have much, if anything to do. However one could never be too careful and the planet was relatively untamed. Pirates could be hiding about, relaying information to whatever leadership their band had and knowing that the blockade attempt failed would be bad. Perhaps the gods would bless the Clan and they could storm a small fortification, capture it and make it their Tula. Of course it would be a stretch, the gods are fickle beings and just being able to defeat two pirate ships was worthy enough of prayer after the meeting.

After the orders were given, Kyr washed her medium armor, slung her DMR over her shoulder and put the powerblade on her hip. It was only to show that she was a grizzled veteran, but a professional one at that. Everything needed to make it that she looked honorable and presented herself as the chieftess of Clan Van. As she was directed to the administrative building near a large park, she took in the sights and waved at the humans. The humans looked warmly to the chieftess and gave their thanks with hopes of fighting more of pirates.

It was still strange to being thanked by humans of all things. They knew that she was a merc and a Dunkidor, but doing something like fighting the pirates seemed to wash it away. It was sort of strange but she just accepted it and walked to the administrative building where Samuel was waiting for her. The merc wondered how long did the merchant wait for? She knew that she needed to destroy the pirates, honor demanded it and would make the pirates think twice before trying something else. Though something like that made just embolden them to redouble their efforts to bring down Ylem and the Clan.

"Yes, I am ready." Kyr gave a nod as she walked with the merchant to go the meeting.

Action: Zax scours the net for any information on Zevos and the Wicked Grin. Get as much information on the pirates as possible. Like enemies officeres, squad sizes, and any new information that could be used to bring them down. Merrin goes talks to merchants about the current events of the Outer Rim and any jobs that could be of worth. Talou goes talks to the militia command to see if they have any planetside work for the Clan. Kyr is with Samuel to go see the governor.

[Elerian]

Old Man, Rimward Space

The Old Man paced back and forth in the cramped cockpit of the Shadow of Doubt as the automated countdown to their destination came close to an end. He thumbed through his data pad for the umptenth time, making sure the ship’s readouts were normal. It was unnecessary, as he would be immediately notified if anything were awry. Yet, he still wanted to be well informed of anything occurring during this expedition, perhaps obsessively so. Even still, there was good reason for that. He was not one for going blindly into new situations, and although their trip had spanned two weeks, he had been largely unable to find any information about his and Ket's destination. Nothing, save for the foreboding feeling he had when dipping into the paracasual.

Ket had picked up on the Old Man's unease, and although they had tried to communicate over the course of the trip, it was mostly silence that lingered in the air. He'd tried to gather what information he could about what the world might have been like during Ket's generation, but anything he found out would almost certainly be useless with so many years passed.

“How much longer until we exit FTL?” he asked the computer.

“Arrival in one minute, forty-seven seconds,” replied the ship’s computer.

“Good, I want a full scan of the system just as soon as we exit FTL. I don’t want any surprises.”

The Old Man had been mentally preparing for what was to come as soon as he felt the cruel power that came from where they were headed. He had seen and heard many strange and sometimes unexplainable things during his time serving the Imperium, but never something quite like this. He had honed his craft from years of practice and hard fought experience, so he knew little of what this occurrence might be traced from, or how it may affect the two wanderer's mission. He wouldn't need to wonder much longer, as the time had come to confront whatever might be lurking beyond the void.

The ship's automated voice chimed up then, “exiting FTL in 5, 4, 3, 2 . . .”

Action: Reach out into the paracasual to find the nature of the disturbance, and scan the system with the ship's sensors.

[Wochaystein]

The crew of Lothar's Edge, after taking up their positions en route to to the next star system, are already carrying out their tasks. The ship's captain, also called Lothar, is busy launching new ventures into the unknown. In the Edge everyone is a king (or queen) in their little niches, amassing what they could in this turbulent and chaotic galaxy for themselves...as long as they give Lothar his due. Lothar, in return, guarantees that his crew are not just pawns in a much bigger game.

The colonies of the Outer Rim they pass by are busy as well, ensuring that Lothar's wares are in demand. Their passage is not always pacific: sometimes they would pass through voidfaring bandits and depending on Lothar's disposition, would pay the toll with money, favors, kind, or hightail it.

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Released to Public: Artist View of Pulsar Planet System by NASA/JPL (NASA) by pingnews.com, on Flickr

From: Ludo Calliope, Seer of Kiar
To: Lothar Monsand, captain of the Lothar's Edge
Subject: REQUEST FOR INFORMATION

I hope this message reaches you, esteemed captain. Please provide us with a complete inventory of all extant and planned-to-acquire items en-route to Kiar, including any such that may be deemed inappropriate in the more coreward regions. We are willing to pay more for a limited number of those proscribed items, for they may prove to be more consistently beneficial for us in the future.

Sincerely,
Ludo Calliope

Action: Based on their prior interactions, Lothar knows what Ludo exactly wants: a certain type of cryo-protector that is only acquireble in the planet of Zuhiruta within 100 parsecs of his location. Ludo pays handsomely, and Lothar will normally go out of his way to satisfy this customer's wishes promptly. Fortunately, the Lothar's Edge is not too far from Zuhiruta now.

[The National Dominion of Hungary]

Theodora Merriet Gavro

The hydraulic doors to the room opened with a hiss and Theo walked purposefully through the dimly lit hallways of the motel as she dug for her hand-terminal in her pocket. Scrolling through her contacts as she left the motel and emerged into the station's winding corridors. Sinsaad Hannubin, where might you be... the woman thought to herself, shooting off a quick message as she walked through a residential area with small hexagonally shaped apartment pods stacked upon each other along the walls interconnected by a maze of stairways. She gave her hand-terminal a quick glance, no reply yet. Hannubin was a Farrasqui trader who did business on the station with relative frequency, specializing in artifact from Darkspace, mostly of Raghorn origin but some other things as well. He had hired Theodora and her crew a number of times to grab crates of artifacts from secure warehouses belonging to explorers who had ventured out beyond the known galaxy. The jobs were good and sometimes he even let her keep a small piece of the haul as part of the payment. Still, she made her way down to the Blind Eye a small but popular cantina located near the station's sunward shuttle-bays, frequented by void travelers looking to do business. Their usual meeting spot, and even if he wasn't on the station, it was an equally good place to find new business partners. A vibration in her pocket distracted her from her thoughts, a reply! 'This one swells with happiness at hearing from such a dear friend!' While Hannubin did often give them work when he visited the station, she didn't much like his Arlissian mannerisms, straight from the core-worlds of the Kingdoms. 'Do come for a visit, usual spot.' Making her way through the corridors she passed crowds of explorer-crews docked as the station until finally arriving at the Blind Eye, quickly tapping the holoboard at the door with her hand-terminal to download the notices posted there, just in case. A wobbling bass quite audible from the bar's outside greeted her. She opened the door and entered, the music shaking her very bones as she scanned the tables. Traders and explorers sat huddled in the booths, hunched around colorful glasses discussing business. There you are. In his usual corner spot, Hannubin lounged with two other cat-men, clad in a stylish vest and with at least three necklaces hanging down his furry chest. Theodora sat down with the Farrasqui and after humoring Hannubin for as long as she could bear, it was time to talk business. "Treasures in the stars oh friend, and ship as fast as yours, a gift from the Trinity." Hannubin had apparently agreed to purchase Raghorn artifacts from an explorer who was supposed to have docked three days ago, what he had was the ship's last known location, if Theodora was up for a little bit of a salvage mission there would be 150 credits in it for them now and another 700 when the artifacts were in Hannubin's hands.

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Thorpodeas

The Ellirean behind the stall looked up at the saurian standing there in front of them, looking at the OSD's laid out for display on the table. They were clearly an elder of their kind, having seen much in centuries of life in the Galaxy, that probably explained the lack of reaction, they must have seen a thousand and then another thousand people from strange, obscure and little known species with few numbers. Thorpodeas wondered how they would have ended up on Noctis, selling charts to passing star-captains in one of Port Noctis´ neon-lit slums, but that was not important. "I want a map to Rakodan, good mir." He said, trying to appear as polite as possible. The Ellirean looked him over. "You don't look like a psi-sensitive to me." They said, looking away from Thorpodeas and back to their hand-terminal before rising from their chair. "But that's none of my business eh?" They continued. "As long as you got the creds you can go wherever" The Ellirean took one of the optical storage discs and pressed a button on it, soon, a holographic projection of a path from Noctis Station to Rakodan shimmered in blue and orange before Thorpodeas, a display to let him know he was paying for the real thing. "Just 200 credits and the map is yours." The Ellirean said. Thorpodeas thought for a bit, the sum was not low, at least not when taking into account his current situation but it still left him with some creds to spare in order to buy some equipment or hire a few more hands for his expedition later if he thought it needful, which led to saurian captain to reply with a...

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Samuel Bridge Iron & Kyr Mirhorn Van

"Very good, let us begin." Governor Thelea Shastri said and leaned back in her chair. "Now that we are all gathered here, we need to make sure that the goods Captain Iron brought in get put to the best possible use and that our defenses are properly seen to. The militia has made this planet a safe haven in a cluster ravaged by Faeran Illuvian's armada and Captain Van has sent them a message that even they understand." The meeting progressed and soon many ideas were put forward by the assembled colonial secretaries, and soon the debate split along two main lines. On one side the governor wanted to put most resources into the reconstruction of Port Victory in order rebuild the most important harbor and population center on the planet which also held the overwhelming majority of the planet's industries. Even if it was light industry, it would still strengthen their economy and provide jobs to the people in the city who had lost their work since business ground to a screeching halt in the immediate aftermath of the pirate raid. "I believe that the restoration of the capital and our only real spaceport is the most important work ahead. Many Ylemite citizens are growing increasingly desperate for work and we have to rebuild people's homes." Then there was Orton Phican the head of the Ylemite Support Service Agency, a new government department tasked with providing the many refugees who had come to the planet with housing and basic goods. Phican argued that Ylem's rural areas were the most important, they needed to get the farms back in working order and the mines as well. While all were in agreement about where the agricultural machinery and industrial machinery would go, the construction equipment and exosuits became a point of heavy debate. The Governor wanted them in Port Victory while Phican argued for sending it all to the farms and mines. "It would restore our production of crops and raw materials, and more importantly we can start giving work to all the refugees who have come to our planet. I doubt that I need to remind you that ever since the Armada hit the sector, the planet's population has doubled, Madam Governor." The Governor smoothed out her colorful dress and leaned back in her chair, crossing her arms and gave an annoyed sigh. "Don't hide behind that fake altruism Orton. You see those people in the camps as nothing but votes, votes for you." She glared at the man before she turned toward Sam. Tell me, Captain Iron. You have travelled to Zophon and to Noctis recently, what is your opinion? Where should we focus our efforts? You are the one who will be transporting the fruits of these labors after all." The Governor said.

Meanwhile, while the captains attended a meeting with the planet's leadership, their crews were equally hard at work. Sam's second officer Carnegie was busy trying to figure out a way to find some way to track down whoever had tried to spy on them. They had worked on it previously before all focus had to be placed on getting two important shipments back to Ylem. Now, he was at it again. Enlisting the aid of the ship's chief engineer, they worked hard at the task. While they had managed to render it inert earlier, it proved difficult to crack the encryption on the device's logs to see where it was transmitting to. Firing off a quick message to the Captain, Carnegie was sure they'd get it eventually as they had made progress, otherwise if Sam was unwilling to be patient there had to be some good hacker in those refugee camps willing to handle it for a small sum, right?

Aboard the Battered Fly Zax was scouring across the vast digital expanse of the Netscape for any news about the Wicked Grin and it's captain. Zevos still very much had a bounty on Kyr's head, 2000 credits dead, 3000 alive. It's gone up a bit lately. More importantly however, it seemed like Zevos had been raiding shipping lanes in the Lymetis Nebula plundering ships and taking their surviving crews back to Noctis to be sold into slavery. There was apparently a rumor going around Noctis that Zevos was trying to establish himself closely with the Hiridran Collective, one of the Galaxy's largest slaving rings. Talou on the other hand managed to get an appointment with the commander of Ylems colonial militia, who told the Dunkidor mercenary that there were reports of a transmission coming from the planet and going to a small space station in the system that had been abandoned ever since the pirates came, they needed a gunship to investigate and offered 400 credits, with a possible 400 bonus if it turns out to be due to hostile activity and is destroyed. Merrin on the other hand worked the spacer's cantinas and the trade-floor where star-captains auctioned their wares to the highest bidder at many times the price. Apparently, there were rumors back on Noctis that the Renegade King himself was putting together an armed convoy to punch through a blockade of Orda Cestus to deliver a shipment of weapons, ammunition and personal shields to the planet. Once known as one of the more stable islands of peace and tranquility in a dangerous, volatile region, Orda Cestus recently experienced the fall of the largely Salunri nobility that had ruled the planet and the rise of an enigmatic despot called the Prophet of the Orange Codex. Rumor has it that the Renegade King and Outlaw Council had little love for this new leader as the old aristocracy were close to Port Noctis and held an important place in the Renegade King's web of power. Both Merrin and Talou sent the results of their work to Kyr.

Skill-check: 47 - Small failure.

---

Leon Tchaikovsky

The colorful dance of blue light around the ship abated as the electric current running through the Shadow's drive-core was switched off and the ship dropped out of FTL, outside there was now only the star-speckled void and a distant orange star. Leon took a deep breath and leaned back in his chair, it was a familiar process done a thousand times before. His focus went to his breath, feeling for that split-second moment of utter stillness between the end of the exhalation and start of the inhalation. The old officer let out a deep breath, there it was, that faint, familiar thrumming sound in the ear of the mind, calling out to him across the dimensions. Then, he was adrift. Adrift in a deep black void, strange green streaks shot out across the blackness in utter silence then... there were stars. He looked around and saw himself, only not himself, he was way bigger, clad in a Salj starfighter pilot's suit which was leaking oxygen from a tear on the back. All he could hear was his own labored breathing and then, in the corner of his vision, the blasted wreckage of what he could only assume was his fighter and there, in the distance... a mighty armada of strange ships approached, slowly sailing through the void, firing green laser beams at another armada in front of them, it's formation breaking apart, the way to a planet with large oceans and greenish-tan continents opening to the attacking fleet. A loud beep resounded, Leon looked around, was it the suit? Some system alerting him of critically low oxygen levels? Or... no. He opened his eyes, back in the Shadow's small cockpit, Ket barely squeezed into the co-pilot's seat next to him. The large alien had his eyes closed, seemingly deep in thought. The system scan had finished and with a gesture, Leon pulled up a holoprojection of the system. Five planets, two gas giants looming about in the outer system, a molten, tectonically active hellscape close to the sun and a rocky world with a bare trace atmosphere of argon and methane. Those were irrelevant, at least for now. What was important was the lone habitable planet, maybe the ancient debris-fields the scanners were picking up could be of interest too, the ancient remnants of a battle fought here long ago. He clicked on the planet and brought up all the information that the scan provided, the ship's computer had auto-classified it as post-garden, apparently largely covered with arid sulfurous deserts. Temperatures ranged from 24 Celsius at night to 53 in the afternoon in the temperate zones. Apparently there was a chance for unchecked hurricanes to run across the oceans with winds reaching up to 250 km per hour. Then, of course, there were the craters. Tell-tale signs of orbital bombardment. "Ket, we're going there, yes?" Leon asked, the alien just nodded and pulled up the nav-system at the co-pilot station, looking at a large holoprojection of the simple ground-scan the scanners had made, he indicated a point close to one of the large craters, that would be their landing spot...

---

Lothar Monsand

After reading the message, Lothar immediately keyed into the ship's intercom with his hand-terminal. "Helm, this is the captain speaking. Adjust course to Zuhiruta, say again new destination Zuhiruta." After receiving a quick aye-aye back from his pilot at the helm-station the Edge immediately went into maneuvers, firing it's RCS and re-adjusting to follow it's new trajectory. Luckily, they were close to the planet, there wasn't even any need to do a gate-jump to another cluster. Lothar was used to traveling these parts of the Galaxy, Kiar, Zuhiruta, Remwith, they were all major stops on his regular route. Places where he had already established networks of suppliers and other useful contacts. Zuhiruta was a smallish independent colony-world like so many in the Rim. Settled for more than two millennia, it only had a population of 50 000. A frigid rock planet with a thin atmosphere of carbon dioxide and monoxide which required the use of domed habitats or sealed colonies bunkered into hillsides, the surface had large deposits of water ice as well as occasional liquid water near some volcanically active areas. The planet's economy was based on ice-cracking and exporting it's abundant supply of zeolites which are used for water purification systems, as an ingredient in detergent, and as a shielding material for disposal of radioactive waste. The colony was small and unassuming but Lothar knew just the guy there who could get him a crate of cryo-protectors for just the right price, such were the benefits of working a well-established route, though Lothar did often wonder about striking out toward new horizons with new opportunities. He thought for a moment about the rest of the route, you could always get a good price on water-ice there, maybe it would be a good idea to check the demand on the worlds they were going to later. Finally arriving in the Zuhiran System, Lothar went to the bridge as his pilot steered the ship toward the planet. After being granted a docking berth in the planet's main settlement of Discovery, the Edge cut through the planetary atmosphere and sailed above the vast ice plains of Zuhiruta. Soon, a large mountain loomed before them, a mountain shimmering with windows carved into the rock and an array of doors leading to the spaceport's docking bays. As the pilot gently guided the Edge into the bay it would soon be time to track down Lothar's contact.

---

[Ralnis]

Chieftess Kyr Mirhorn Van

The officers sent their findings to Kyr while the governor and Samuel were talking. She didn't understand the details surrounding Ylem and Zophon outside of the general ideas. It seemed that, while the planet was recovering, they were trying to split on how to focus their new resources. This meant that no body was paying attention to her so she got her hand terminal and linked it to her helmet's HUD. From here she secretly made an encrypted room where everyone can chat without being in person.

When everyone was there and Zax added another layer of security, they started to talk and make a digital council on what to do. Zax brought up the news of Zevos and the bounty. The bounty going up around 2-3 times was not surprising considering that they had done quite a bit and been able to hide from the angry Zorveshi so far. The bigger one is that Zevos has been active in raiding and slaving across the Lymetis Nebula and selling in Noctis. Even rumors of him trying to get close to the Hirdian Collective is nothing but more bad news for the Clan.

Kyr was holding back her rising anger when it came to trying to fight against Zevos. The damn slaver could become more of a threat and be untouchable if the Clan managed to bring him down. Forget the bounty on her, there would be more trouble than even the pirate armada gunning for them. That means she was on a time limit before the angry slaver becomes too powerful for them to take down.

Besides that fact, Talou and Merrin came with some good and alternative news. Talou spoke to the militia commander about a signal that had been transmitting to an small space station that was between Ylem and the system's asteroid for miners to use to repair and fuel up. It was left abandoned when the pirates came and stripped it over everything but apparently not. The commander is offering 400 to investigate it and 400 to clear out any hostiles, which means pirates.

Merrin on the other hand spoke to the merchants and got some news from the Outer Rim. Apparently a planet by the name of Orda Cestus is being blockaded and under the control of a prophet of some kind that's against the Renegade King and the Outlaw Council. They are hiring anyone that's willing to punch through it. Of course there wasn't a price but knowing is coming from the leadership of Noctis then it would have be great and long-term.

Talou also dropped more information on the space station and the schematics he got from the militia commander. It had enough to house 10 mining ships and a population of 2000 max. It still was a go to point between mining vessels and Ylem and it seems to be something that can be of some use. Kyr started to think of all the good ideas that the Clan could used this as a jumping point in order to raise their Clan from the broken heap and even make them a small profitable Clan.

However a space station as a Tula isn't part of the Old Culture but it didn't matter. Space Clans like her owning space stations built on mining, raiding, or trade were normal to craft as a Tula. It would have to be consecrated by a Priest of Orlan, The King and Father and a Priest of Tyria, The Builder and Miner. Not to mention all the other things to make it a true Tula. However to have a Tula would need to work with the governor and Samuel to make this a thing. Though the prospect of getting ore to help build industry for Ylem.

It didn't take long to bring up the idea to take over the space station as their own Tula and make a deal with Samuel and the governor to help supply their rise. It would be a good idea to tell them about getting more ships from the profit which can help defend the system from pirates. Talou and Zax were the first ones to bring up the cost of trying to set up something that was already ransacked, not to mention any sort of machinery that was damaged by either time, the pirates, or whatever combat that they needed to do in order to clear them out.

Talou brought up the needs of ritual and paying for a the priests to come and consecrate the space station as a Tula. Not to mention trying to make friends with Dunkidor and miners to try and get things settled for a larger Clan. Both of these things could be struck between the governor and the merchant in front of her. She notifies this to the two but Talou said he was still skeptical. Merrin was the one who spoke with some agreement on the idea, despite how ambitious it is with such a small Clan.

Merrin brought up that she had some contacts in the Gozul District and Kyr did remember her contact within the Gogal Board, one Chief Ardan Sur, who she saved long ago from an assassination attempt. She of course hid away from the fame but there was a contact that she could ask for. After some deliberation, Kyr decided to at least bring it up to both Samuel and the higher ups in front of her.

"Excuse me for interrupting governor." Kyr said," my second-in-command had just met with your militia commander about an abandoned space station that was getting transmissions from planet. Now, my Clan and the militia seemed to believe it to have pirates and we shall clear it out for the payment the commander has set for us but there's something more to this. You see, such an abandoned space station could be of great benefit for the planet and could attract miners. "

Kyr leans in her chair, her rifle on her lap," what I'm trying to say is that let my Clan clear out the space station and claim it. You support us in rebuilding it and, with Samuel's help, we can attract miners to start mining the asteroids and funneling the ore back to Ylem to boost her industry and give people jobs. The profits that the space station can be used to build a navy and my Clan in order to protect the system while striking the pirates across the sector. "

[The Empire of Tau]

Samuel B. Iron

“Clearing out a whole mining station? I mean...that could work,” Sam skeptically says. Overpowering and taking control of an abandoned asteroid mining station is quite the undertaking. Who knows how many pirates are still there. It would be best if there were simply a few dozens there. Of course, nothing is ever as easy as it seems. Never go into a situation without first understanding your surrounding.

“We have to scout out the station first before we can even take any form of action against it. We rather not go in blind. Who knows how many pirates are still contained within,” Sam warns as he continues to think upon whether or not to support Secretary or Governor. New Discovery and Port Victory are, without a doubt, the only major true urban city on the planet. There were others, but nothing could rival the capital and its port.

On the other hand, the rural landscape had plenty of resources to be harvested. Ylem has always been a planet known for its crops and vast plots of farmland. Less known was its untouched materials of ore. Imagine what new material wealth could be found on this planet. The riches that could be mined…

In the long-term, the rebuilding of New Discovery and Port Victory sounds like the smartest move. Without industry (even if it is quite light in reality) and the ever-so important transport system was extremely important to the daily runnings on the planet. The extraction of resources can wait for another day. Even then, there were still the refugees to account for. What of them?

Ylem remains relatively safe. It is no wonder why refugees come in their numbers. Sam, in this own thinking, cannot imagine wasting such vast pools of manpower. Every helping hand is needed in the rebuilding effort.

“I support the Governor’s decision, but we can’t waste the amount of manpower given to us by the waves of refugees. How about we send these people to help rebuild the capital and its port? Why not open a labor department? Organize the people and get them to work in the capital and the port. How about that?” Sam suggests, clearly supporting the Governor while adding his new concerns to the mix.

“With that said, I won’t throw away the concerns of the secretary. I will see if I can get more industrial equipment to boost food production and material extraction. We’ll be needing that in the soon-to-be future. The only thing stopping me is those damn fucking pirates,” Sam stops for a second, opening a metal bottle to drink water to recover his throat.

“I just ran through the pirate blockade, and I don’t think they’ll be forgetting me anytime soon. I luckily have Kyr and her clan to help me. Still, it’ll take time for me to return with more goods. Dodging the blockade and fighting pirates is a time-consuming process,” Sam ends his speech as he looks about the room for reactions and responses.

[Ralnis]

Kyr Mirhorn Van

Kyr didn't say anything and just used her silence as a means of resting her case. She went back to the chat and Kyr told them the skeptical sense that the merchant had, which made sense but it did mean that they had to investigate it but there was the point that there would be more pirates than they had numbers as of right now. It was here Talou and Merrin suggested to hire humans as auxiliaries in order to fill bodies when trying to combat the pirates.

Kyr knew from the past 1200 years of the Clans history they had Clan thralls as humans but never used them as auxiliaries. Of course that was when they had thousands of ships and billions of ducks that were in the Eternal War, honor came at the blood of the humans and their sacrifice to the gods. However things were different and the rules were as well. Trying to take that space station would be warranted to boost relations between Ylem and the Clan so by taking the Vows of Quekal, they are given the ability to be an auxiliary and they can be of any age and group so long they are able bodied, so no old men or children beyond a certain physical age.

It was different than greenbills, which are always children around the human age of 14, who are pressed into Clan service or are allowed to be hired by a nomadic space clan to serve as on the frontlines of raids or as a merc outfit. Many of the greenbills that have fought for Clan Van were around 14-18 and Zax was still around 18 despite his talent for tech.

Thinking about that did make Kyr start think about Talou and Zax and wanted to see if they were willing to raise them into full officers. It would be something as Talou showed impressive control over the battle between the two pirate ships and Zax has always been reliable when it came to technology and having someone who can specialize in it was always a good idea. So she thought of having them both go through some sort of specialization rituals to become fully fledge in their station. Talou as her Thane and Zax as his Tech-Shaman. Of course the Tech-Shaman name would go over the young duck's head but he can adapt. He's only been scarred so far.

The last thing to get is some med stims and grenades once they are prepared and ready to assault the station.

Action: See about Talou and Zax becoming officers, Merrin starts precuring for medkits and explosives for trying to clear out the station.

[Wochaystein]

Lothar Monsand

After reading the message, Lothar immediately keyed into the ship's intercom with his hand-terminal. "Helm, this is the captain speaking. Adjust course to Zuhiruta, say again new destination Zuhiruta." After receiving a quick aye-aye back from his pilot at the helm-station the Edge immediately went into maneuvers, firing it's RCS and re-adjusting to follow it's new trajectory. Luckily, they were close to the planet, there wasn't even any need to do a gate-jump to another cluster. Lothar was used to traveling these parts of the Galaxy, Kiar, Zuhiruta, Remwith, they were all major stops on his regular route. Places where he had already established networks of suppliers and other useful contacts. Zuhiruta was a smallish independent colony-world like so many in the Rim. Settled for more than two millennia, it only had a population of 50 000. A frigid rock planet with a thin atmosphere of carbon dioxide and monoxide which required the use of domed habitats or sealed colonies bunkered into hillsides, the surface had large deposits of water ice as well as occasional liquid water near some volcanically active areas. The planet's economy was based on ice-cracking and exporting it's abundant supply of zeolites which are used for water purification systems, as an ingredient in detergent, and as a shielding material for disposal of radioactive waste. The colony was small and unassuming but Lothar knew just the guy there who could get him a crate of cryo-protectors for just the right price, such were the benefits of working a well-established route, though Lothar did often wonder about striking out toward new horizons with new opportunities. He thought for a moment about the rest of the route, you could always get a good price on water-ice there, maybe it would be a good idea to check the demand on the worlds they were going to later. Finally arriving in the Zuhiran System, Lothar went to the bridge as his pilot steered the ship toward the planet. After being granted a docking berth in the planet's main settlement of Discovery, the Edge cut through the planetary atmosphere and sailed above the vast ice plains of Zuhiruta. Soon, a large mountain loomed before them, a mountain shimmering with windows carved into the rock and an array of doors leading to the spaceport's docking bays. As the pilot gently guided the Edge into the bay it would soon be time to track down Lothar's contact.

---

Upon landing in the port of Discovery, the main settlement in Zurihuta, Lothar's crew split up in two groups. One of them went to find bargains and trades for themselves as part of the side gigs that Lothar permitted, the other went with the leader to find their ice-cracker contact.

"Welcome back, Lothar Monsand. Your arrival is unexpected, but such is the way of the trader, isn't it?" these were the words of Judy Barnez, the main liaison of one of the biggest ice-crackers in Zuhiruta. She was short, with gray hair and eyes, clad with a personal shield, and always carried a laser pistol with her person. Pirates would periodically arrive in the planet to get their own water supplies. It was Judy's responsibility to make sure they don't cause too much of a ruckus in this planet. The pirates understood it as well, for one can't survive without the other.

Lothar shrugged. "It's a nature thing. Emergent needs for my customer. I'm sure you're aware of that, too. I'm not here to judge."

"Agreed. As disucssed in our prior meeting, have you brought the food and the fuel for our equipment? I received word you need a crate of the zeolite protectors. They don't come cheap. Instead of a month's worth of our needs, we want three months of them."

"Three months, you say?" that was a tough ask for Lothar. The Edge has five months' worth of them that he could sell. He could provide them, but it would make several of his other larger customers unhappy. On the other hand, it would free up space to hold more valuable cargo in his future stops.

The pilot thought about it for a few more seconds. "Seven weeks."

"Geez, that's quite a crunch for us. Final offer, take it or leave it: Eight weeks' and a favor for my employer."

"And what could it be?"

"Something that will come in handy in the future. As it is now, I have little more than a hypothesis."

"A hypothesis?"

"Yes. I've been to one of the coreward regions in the galaxy. I've seen the markets there, and met the people inside. I'll give you one more crate of the zeolite protectors, but send it only to our associate there." She wanted to test the viability of a trade route to a distant, dangerous, and lucrative part of the galaxy.

"This will ruin my career if I'm caught. I am not a smuggler."

"Perhaps you are not a smuggler, but will this convince you?" Judy described the potential rewards of this task to Lothar should he succeed. Judy's employer was more powerful than first impressions would suggest. Among other things, they can provide substantial upgrades to Lothar's Edge, including cloaking tech that the pilot planned to add in the long term.

"All right, I'll do it."

"Very good," Judy smiled in satisfaction. "You'll have your crates of the protectors, and also the usual stuff specified in our contract. Make sure one of the crates reaches my associate."

Action: Lothar sells eight weeks' worth of food, medical supplies, and fuel for the ice-cracking equipment in Zurihuta, in exchange for two crates of zeolite-based cryo-protectors and enough water and zeolites to sell for his next leg.

Judy and Lothar signed a contract stating that he has to sell one of the cryo-protector crates to Judy's associate in a coreward location Lothar had never been into. On Judy's part, her employer will provide commensurate payment once he succeeds, including upgrading his ship with cloaking tech among other things.

Lothar receives his cut of his crew's profits from their side-deals, and the Edge sets off for their route to Kiar, where Ludo Calliope awaits the arrival of his cryo-protector crate.

[Exalted Inquellian State]

Liftoff

..."Yes." Thorpodeas said. The map was given. The captain looked it over as he walked away, smiling slightly as he moved the hologram and the display remained stationary. Thorpodeas walked away slowly. He wondered what artifacts he'd find on Rakodan- hopefully a piece of functioning Builder technology would do. Of course, Thorpodeas didn't know what museum would accept that for a high price, but if none did, he'd sell it somewhere. Its not like Builder artifacts were what he was after.

The saurian reached his spaceship. There his crew stood-or rather, half of them stood, the others slumbering. Thorpodeas opened the ship, which woke them up. "Forgive me, my fellow travelers" the captain said, "but I have the map. As far as I care, we have all we need-our wits, our stength, my speed, and our guns. And so, we go!" The crew followed their captain into the ship. The Brigantines engines lit to life, and it flew out of the various levels of Noctis station. Thorpodeas checked the map, and the ship went off to find the nearest warp gate.

[Elerian]

Old Man, Rimward Unknown System

Inside the cockpit of the Shadow of Doubt there was a muted atmosphere, despite the momentous nature of the occasion. The Old Man looked quickly around at all the blinking readouts as he'd done a thousand times before and sighed. Ket's home-world probably resembled Krieg, where the Old Man had come from so long ago. "Ket, we're going there, yes?" he asked then. His companion made a simple gesture, one that cut across a cultural boundary; he nodded in agreement. Ket looked over a hologram of the world, found a place of interest and indicated it to the Old Man. It seemed unremarkable at first glance, but something deep within told the Old Man otherwise. Not to mention, Ket would know best.

Yet, the Old Man wished to know more about what happened here, before venturing planet side. Perhaps within the debris fields he could find a functional black box. Despite the many millennia of harsh radiation that was sure to have eroded much of the debris, there was still the possibility that this advanced society could make its hardware last this long. It was a longshot, but the Old Man didn't like running into situations blind. It would be a bit longer before Ket could visit his world again, but it would surely shed some light on just what had transpired here. "I'm sure you'd like to know what happened here, so we're going to check out the debris fields for information, Ket."

Maybe Ket would prefer touching down first, but that would come in time. "Impulse Drives, all systems ready?" he asked, directing his question at the automated computer system.

From inside the ship there was just barest increase in the background noise of the ship as the reactor ramped up to meet the expected needs before a loud 'thrum' resonated through the hull and a forward jolt as the Shadow of Doubt went from zero to twenty kilometres a second in a fraction of a second. From outside, there was the expected flash of blue light along the rear of the ship, as raw power raced from within, then the drive flared. The ship quickly vanished into the distance.

Action: Search the debris fields for anything of importance

[The National Dominion of Hungary]

---

Kyr Mirhorn Van & Samuel Bridge Iron

The governor leaned back in her seat. "There is already a reward for the contract as the commander told your second-officer." She said adding that the station was not part of the payment and would be returned to the control of the state and possibly opened for out-of-system mining companies later. However, the Dunkidor would not go without their rewards. As the signal was coming from the planet, that meant there had to be some sort of pirate scouting base or some other installation from where they were transmitting. Pinpointing the source of the transmission will be easy via tracing back from the destination. There is a possibility of the pirates using some abandoned facility or farmstead as a temporary base for scouts using drones to gather intel, that temporary base could be given to the clan to set up a base of their own. If the clan were to later sign a contract with the Planetary Government to prolong the clan's service, the government would help finance the expansion of the clan's new property regarding the construction of new facilities, possible landing pads for more Van ships should they be acquired and so on. Nodding to herself, considering an answer the chieftess thought of her closest associates, if they could take the station they would surely acquire great glories, making the one of them who showed the greatest skill in leadership and loyally acting as an extension of Kyr's will would be given the ritual. Raising a thane would surely improve morale in the clan, a symbol of Van's rejuvenation and revitalization. Every great clan needed a Thane at the Chief's side, even if a Tech-Shaman may be more practical in some situations. Now, taking on human auxiliaries... that would certainly be unorthodox for a Dunkidor clan, some spacer clans did allow alien, even human helper aboard their ships. Some of the most progressive ones even gave the occasional alien honorary membership in the clan but among those who kept true to the old ways, such things were seen as degenerate and a shameful mark of how far some clans had fallen. Ultimately, it was Kyr's decision, of course, maybe they could get the Ylem militia to send a few fighters with them? Not by inducting them into some sort of auxiliary force or anything but just as allied soldiers, they could transport a few on the Fly and maybe Sam could help too?

The Governor smiled to herself subtly when Sam decided to back her up, most people wouldn't have noticed it but Sam did. He had gotten on the Governor's good side, or at least a step on the way towards it. "While you will need to plan the actual attack with the commander of the citizen's militia, I can however assure you that the full blueprint of the station is going to be sent to you and to Chieftess Kyr. I am sure those will be helpful with the planning. I am certain the Commander will support the attack in what way the militia can, with fighters if nothing else as the main issue we have preventing us from doing it ourselves at the moment is the lack of combat vessels." Governor Shastri said with a nod to Kyr. Talks shifted toward Sam's mention of a labor department to get some practical use out of the refugee population, it could certainly work. They could be given basic tasks and a chance to earn some money, powering the retail sectors and seeing some of those funds trickling back into the coffers of the planetary government through VAT and other taxes. "However, if we manage to recover the station we'll need to get some asteroid miners to come back to the system. I am wondering if you have any contacts we could work on? Captain Iron." Governor Shastri asked but her gaze also shifted to the Dunkidor chief. "Chieftess, security will be one of the most important concerns if we are to bring any business back to this planet, if you have any mercenary contacts with their own ships willing to work for prize-money, I would appreciate if you could reach out to them. Then, Captain Iron's next supply run would be an easier affair."

In the meantime, Merrin perused the port's market, trying to find some med-kits and explosives. There was always a chance of brave Dunkidor being injured in the fight that lay ahead. And, the needed a way to breach the station. Looking for a place where it could be purchased for a fixed price instead of the gouging that was going on at the auctions, Merrin had to look around for quite a while before finally resorting to perusing the NetScape through his hand-terminal. Finally finding places where he could get his hands on what he was looking for, mostly. Hand grenades were in short supply, but some explosives could still be acquired and used to make some makeshift thrown pipe-bombs. The Med-Kits cost 50 credits a-piece while a case of explosives enough to craft 20 bombs went for 250 creds.

---

Lothar Monsand

And just like that, half the cargo hold was full of goods. Ice blocks and large crates of zeolites. The water of life and the means to make them safe for consumption should the need arise. Not only were burly dockworkers in exo-suits busy hauling the cargo aboard under the supervision of Lother's executive officer, the merchant captain had been tasked with a long, long journey. He hoped it would pay off, but with great risk came great reward. Lothar couldn't get around the fact that he was nervous Judy had been less than forthcoming about his little, mission... All he had was a destination, Mrr'Shaan and what appeared to be a dummy hand-terminal that Judy stuck in his hand. No matter what he tried, he couldn't get anything out of the comm-device, everything that was there was a single contact. "Send them a message when you're in system. They'll be there to greet you at the docks, and to make sure customs doesn't get to nosy with their package." I hope I don't get tangled up in something way too big here he thought with a frown, running his thumb over the clear glass-silicate of the hand-terminal. Mrr'Shaan was one of the best known and perhaps also therefore seediest gateways between the Core and the Rim, where civilization met the wild frontiers. It was full of traders, smugglers, criminals and privateers crowding with the locals on a small moon almost entirely covered in hermetically sealed cityscapes, domed colonies and underground areas carved into the rock, all hazed in the smog from the moon's vast smelting plants and mega-forges. It was a comforting thought that the first part of the journey ahead would be a well-known one that he had already made so many times before, the run to Kiar. Their journey was for the most part calm and went off without a hitch. Days passed in FTL and passing through warp-gate from cluster to cluster. The voids were quite desolate this time, few ships passed by with whom the exchanged the customary greetings. After a few days of cruising the stars, the Lothar arrived at Kiar. As the captain sat down in his chair on the bridge, he was sure the traffic control officials would remember him...

Gain: 2 Cryo-Protectors (5 Cargo Units Each) / 6 Ice Blocks (20 Cargo Units Each) / 2 Zeolite Crates (10 Cargo Units)

---

Thorpodeas

"You are clear for launch, please proceed along the given coordinates." The voice of one of Noctis station's traffic controllers came across the Brigantine's comms. "Aye-aye control." Thorpodeas replied and relayed the order and coordinates further to his pilot. The ship's engine roared to life, a bright blue exhaust-plume lighting up their way as the plasma drive pushed the ship forward at speed heading for the system's Warp-Gate. In the meantime Thorpodeas sat back in his captain's chair, studying the star-chart he had bought and plotting the course to Rakodan with his ship's nav-computer. It would take them a few days, and they would pass through a number of gates on the way, interspaced by a number of sometimes days-long cruises through a cluster at FTL. Still, Thorpodeas smiled to himself, it was very much doable. All thanks to the ancient Builders. Every star-faring civilization owed them a great debt. To go to Rakodan from Port Noctis one had to pass nearly one-fifth of the Outer-Rim's distance. Without the Warp-Gates the Builders had left behind, it would take even the most cutting-edge ships from the Pythean Kingdom in the Core a few centuries to make the journey. Now, with the Gate network, it took barely two weeks. As they cruised the void, Thorpodeas spent his time on the computer in his captain's quarters and his hand-terminal reading up on his destination as much as possible. The ancient Rakodans were known as a people with a strong like to the Beyond, their red world was surrounded by a greenish-yellow sky, and psi-sensitives were rather often subjected to nightmares, strange dreams and even waking visions. Everyone knew that Rakodan was a place where the barrier between physical, material realspace and the para-casual was thin indeed, allowing the influences of the beyond to bleed through relatively easily. As they made their way through the final cluster before the Gate-jump that would take them to the Rakodan cluster, the trip had been quiet until now when Thorpodeas was hailed by his sensor-operator at the ship's bridge. "Captain, we're picking up a repeating signal from a nearby planet in-system. It may be a distress beacon sir, do we want to investigate?"

---

Leon Tchaikovsky

The Shadow darted forward across the void toward the massive debris-field left by the ancient battle Leon had witnessed. The radar and ladar sensors on his ship drew up images of torn vessels long before the small pinnace came close enough for the two men to see them through the cockpit's viewports but when they did, well... this wasn't Leon's first wreckfield. Still, each and every one had the same eerie, deathly feeling surrounding it, especially for a psi-sensitive. As the got closer, they could see the burned, broken and blasted hulks of small frigates, large heavy cruisers and every other type of warship silently drifting in clouds of shattered pieces blown loose by weapons fire in the ancient past. That was one of the things about the void of space, nothing decomposed out here, nothing rotted away, it was all frozen in the extreme cold and preserved until someone came and took it away unless it was close enough to a star. The wrecks drifted gentle with an eerie stillness, absolutely silent. Leon made his way through the maze of ancient, derelict, dead warships carefully using his RCS-thrusters to avoid any potentially dangerous collisions. Still, there was a lot of small debris around anyway, too small to do any damage to the ship it still sounded almost like rain was hitting the Shadow as the flew through the thickest debris-clouds. In the distance, Leon looked at his goal, the large blip on his radar at the far end of the wreckfield. As he approached, the absolute size of the vessel was daunting, a great, ancient dreadnought loomed before them, the planet behind it. The final, desperate defender, now blasted and gone, it's failed final stand opening the planet below to the enemy. Ket looked at the massive wreckage of the ancient dreadnought. "The last flagship of Rakodan... I heard a rumor the masters wanted to flee on it, they didn't." Ket said, nodding toward the dead ship. "I know the class, sailed on one, once... Do you wish to board? Dangerous without voidskin." The Salj warrior continued.

---

[Wochaystein]

---

Lothar Monsand

And just like that, half the cargo hold was full of goods. Ice blocks and large crates of zeolites. The water of life and the means to make them safe for consumption should the need arise. Not only were burly dockworkers in exo-suits busy hauling the cargo aboard under the supervision of Lother's executive officer, the merchant captain had been tasked with a long, long journey. He hoped it would pay off, but with great risk came great reward. Lothar couldn't get around the fact that he was nervous Judy had been less than forthcoming about his little, mission... All he had was a destination, Mrr'Shaan and what appeared to be a dummy hand-terminal that Judy stuck in his hand. No matter what he tried, he couldn't get anything out of the comm-device, everything that was there was a single contact. "Send them a message when you're in system. They'll be there to greet you at the docks, and to make sure customs doesn't get to nosy with their package." I hope I don't get tangled up in something way too big here he thought with a frown, running his thumb over the clear glass-silicate of the hand-terminal. Mrr'Shaan was one of the best known and perhaps also therefore seediest gateways between the Core and the Rim, where civilization met the wild frontiers. It was full of traders, smugglers, criminals and privateers crowding with the locals on a small moon almost entirely covered in hermetically sealed cityscapes, domed colonies and underground areas carved into the rock, all hazed in the smog from the moon's vast smelting plants and mega-forges. It was a comforting thought that the first part of the journey ahead would be a well-known one that he had already made so many times before, the run to Kiar. Their journey was for the most part calm and went off without a hitch. Days passed in FTL and passing through warp-gate from cluster to cluster. The voids were quite desolate this time, few ships passed by with whom the exchanged the customary greetings. After a few days of cruising the stars, the Lothar arrived at Kiar. As the captain sat down in his chair on the bridge, he was sure the traffic control officials would remember him...

Gain: 2 Cryo-Protectors (5 Cargo Units Each) / 6 Ice Blocks (20 Cargo Units Each) / 2 Zeolite Crates (10 Cargo Units)

...or perhaps they forgot him? As the mood darkened, and in spite of his experience all the protocols of Kiar working in unison to keep information of him up to date, he felt a pang of guilt. All the while, though, he was aware that the cargo he carried was very valuable: it was so since the time of the Imperium. He decided to go with the flow with whatever the officials were doing. That he was sitting in the outskirts of the system was not part of the standard procedure. The system had a history of small-time brigands just beyond Kiar's patrol area preying on those unwise enough to show off their rarest and most valuable commodities. Lothar made sure that his cryo-protectors were hidden where no one would look for them.

Trusting that their precautions were enough, Lothar gave his approval when those officials requested to inspect his cargo hold. This is definitely unusual, he thought. His crew also shared the same suspicions, but as they discussed in their briefing before they left Zurihuta, they were not to lay hands on anyone until they are positive that any inspectors on official business were not who they claim to be. Instead, they opted to have Lothar and some of the crew greet the boarders and the rest go about their business, out of sight, with their weapons at arms' reach, just in case.

"Welcome to my humble ship, Kiarans,"

"Welcome, uhh," one of them looked at his tablet, "Lothar Monsand. Arriving in Kiar from," he hesitated once more, "from Chendauclite."

"That is correct," Lothar affirmed and waited for their response.

"To the hold, then?"

"This way, please, follow me."

The officials then proceeded with the inspection. They did not ask for their manifest, indicating that this was merely a low-level inspection...

Cargo Capacity: 250 cargo units (cu)

What They Saw
3 Ice Blocks (60 cu total)
1 Zeolite Crate (10 cu total)
2 months' worth non-perishable food (10 cu total)
1 month's worth of fuel for consumer and industrial-grade machinery (15 cu total)
1 Crate of base metals (15 cu total)
1 Crate of small and uncommon spare parts (5 cu total)

What They Didn't See
2 Cryo-Protectors (10 cu total)

"Everything's good, nothing out of the ordinary. You may proceed," the officials concluded. They searched the nooks and crannies of the boxes in the hold for unusual stuff, and they only found some rather hard-to-acquire spare parts; things that could sell for some profit to beings who know what they were doing. They totally missed the cryo-protectors enclosed within the first crates that could be seen upon entering, those that contain the zeolites and ice.

He was surprised at how well that worked out for him. If they were pirates, and saw the cryo-protectors, it was likely that Lothar would have to deal with a shootout. The Edge and the customs' patrol boat parted ways without incident. It did not take long before the ship recognized explosions near the edge of their sensor range. They detected three ships, a light freighter, the patrol boat from earlier, and a decidedly Kiaran corvette. The corvette arrived from outside the range, and the freighter registered out of nowhere, perhaps because it fired it engines. The patrol boat's blip disappeared.

The Lothar's Edge was hailed by the corvette soon after with the customary markers of an official Kiaran transmission, just like that of the officials earlier: "Are you alright?"

"Yes we are, just got an inspection by the customs officials, or who we thought to be customs officials."

"If nothing happened to you, you were lucky. We were chasing down some wannabe pirates who were harassing travelers arriving in the system. How they were able to pass for legit officials, we need to investigate that."

In the bridge Lothar's XO exclaimed towards the captain, "Shit, sir, we were quite close to being robbed clean!"

Beyond that close brush with piracy, the band of traders arrived in the planet Kiar itself and got their proper customs inspections and the respective clearances. The Seer of Kiar received his crate and Lothar received his payment. Everyone was happy. Now, a question weighed in Lothar's mind.

How to get this damned thing to Mrr'Shaan?

Action:
With the completion of this route (transactions not specified in previous post are in the below), Lothar reviews his next trade run from Kiar to Remwith. He is very heavily leaning on charting a long route to Mrr'Shaan, so he studies the supply and demand of the planets en route and also how to securely handle the remaining cryo-protector in his cargo hold.

Goods sold in Zurihuta (crew's side deals: Lothar gets a 15% percent of the profit)
- Acidity Scanner
- Upscale holographic tablet

Goods sold in Chendauclite
- 3 ice blocks for credits
- 1 zeolite crate for 1 Crate of small and uncommon spare parts
Crew's side deals:
- Pocket cooker
- Rare crystals

Goods sold in Kiar
- 1 cryo-protector (rare item in this galactic sector) for credits
- 2 ice blocks for 1 month's worth of fuel for machinery
- 1 zeolite crate for 2 crates of medicinal drugs (20 cu)
- 1 crate of base metals for 2 crates of consumer goods (10 cu)
Crew's side deals:
- Schematics for a personal computer model no longer in production
- Prosthetic limb

Current Cargo Hold Contents:
1 ice block (20 cu)
2 month's worth of food (10 cu)
2 month's worth of fuel (30 cu)
2 crate of medicinal drugs (20 cu)
2 crates of consumer goods (10 cu)
1 crate of small/uncommon spare parts (5 cu)
1 cryo-protector (5 cu)
Total cargo units used: 100

[Ralnis]

Kyr Mirhorn Van,
Governor's Office, Port Victory,
Ylem

"The Clan will accept any new land that you can cede to us and help us build. With the contract extension I must express that we will have to find off-planet repairs and recruitment. The repairs can be mitigated when the planet has the industry and the expertise to repair ships but we need to recruit Dunkidor due to my Clan's culture."

She didn't like to say that in front of the humans. Of course it was common knowledge that Dunkidor Clans don't usually recruit other aliens, especially humans. Humans were very well known, but other aliens were due to the duck's idea of them needing their own and no one else. A Clan needs their own people and their can only be their people. However there were progressive clans who had human auxilieries and honorary alien clan members.

Those progressives have been shunned by the general race.

Kyr didn't like to do that but her Clan was all that she had. She had always been conservative due to being the Chieftess and needed to be the final say on the Clan's culture and without a Thane to make sure she didn't veer too off the ideas of the ancestors. Of course that was when she had a handful of ducks. Though now, even when she accepted the task of being Ylem's outfit on-call in exchange for a Tula of all things means she had no other choice but to keep to the idea of the culture.

From here, she broke out of her thoughts when she heard the governor's reaction to Sam's warning.

"Of course I have been given the blueprints of the station and my Clan has been preparing as much as we can. Though I do believe that we should get a few militia volunteers due to supposed concentration of pirates in the space station. We are looking at dozens perhaps maybe more, while it's possible my Clan to fight them, we would suffer heavy casualties since they would have a greater amount of knowledge of the station than we do even if we do a scouting mission."

Kyr sighed," I don't think me nor Sam need much. Mostly due to our cargo rooms but," the duck looks at the human merchant," if you wish to help then you can ferry any militia that they wish then that can help but we can talk about this with the Commander."

Kyr stopped talking as the governor started to talk about economics and stuff that went over the chieftain's head. In exchange she started to look at the chat and saw Merrin had managed to acquire good prices on both medkits and some ingredients for about 20 pipe bombs. At least there wasn't any price gouging to the point where the Clan had to look elsewhere. However they had enough money for a crate and 4 med-kits. That was enough to outfit every duck with one handcrafted bomb and Kyr with 3. Plus Merrin will have enough on hand to heal any sort of wounded in active engagement.

She also started to think about the ritual needed to try and make a true officer of the Clan. Merrin was bought in as a medical officer but that was different. Talou and Zax were the only two that could be seen as an officer but for two different reasons. Talou could be a Thane, which was both a symbol of a revitalized clan, but also a means to increase the Clan's standing among other clans. Already getting a Tula guaranteed that they have set themselves apart from the others. If one could thing of this as a game of politics in the Gozul District than Kyr could see herself being quite noticed and get a lot of support in taking down Zevos.

And like the human governor was listing to her thoughts she asked about any contacts that she knew for helping Samuel's supply runs.

"I actually do know of some young clans that roam around looking for money. Gods, with the land you will give to my Clan and, how the station liberation goes, then I maybe able to gather a much bigger presence than what I have now. However this all lied on how well we manage to liberate the station from the pirates."

Kyr's mind was already running with some people who were willing to work with her but others who were willing to work with an rising clan with a Tula and a Thane. One thing that already was running through her mind was the Gokal Board. She knew of Chieftain Mek Thas Vash of Clan Vash. The one that was willing to support their clan as a vassal ever since she saved his life from an assassination attempt. That was still years ago but he did say to always talk to her for that favor to be repaid.

There was also the young space clans she met around the Fifth Banner when they were putting their dead to rest. Exchanged contact info and war stories. Perhaps they would be willing to forge an alliance after she clears out the station and gets the Tula blessed in the name of the Gods? All there is just baby steps, but steps nevertheless.

576 credits before payments
250 credits for explosives for 20 pipe bombs
200 credits for 4 Med-Kits

126 credits left.

[Elerian]

Old Man, Ket's Homeworld

The massive dreadnought certainly piqued the Old Man’s interest, materializing into view as the Shadow of Doubt came closer to the debris field. There were numerous large, blasted, and broken vessels strewn about the ancient battlefield, but the dreadnought certainly had a dominating presence. He was sure that it would have been the flagship for the desperate last stand of Ket’s homeworld. It became clear that boarding any other ship in the field would pale in comparison to what they could garner from the massive flagship.

“Sounds like the old masters made an error deciding not to flee. But aye, we’ll board the Rakodan, their bridge should have more than enough information. Might be hard for you to fit in one of my voidsuits, but we’ll have to manage.”

With that in mind, the Old Man disengaged the impulse drives, opting to go the rest of the distance on RCS thrusters. The arc of blue light dimmed, the low thrumming of the drive cut, and they limped closer to their target.

“It’ll be a few more minutes before we get close enough to board. I’ll have to rely on you to get us to the bridge, do you remember…”

The Old Man tried to use the last few minutes to get any useful information out of Ket before they delved into the unknown.

Action: Use the Pinnance Voidsuits to board the Flagship

[The National Dominion of Hungary]

---

Kyr Mirhorn Van

The governor nodded to the Dunkidor chieftess. "Very good, Captain Van. I shall instruct the commander to assemble and assault team, do you think thirty good fighters may be enough? If they go alongside your clan that is." As the meeting went on, Governor Shastri was very pleased to hear that Kyr had a number of contacts to call on for the planet to put together a makeshift force of gunships-for-hire to help clear out the most important shipping lanes. Kyr suspected that making permanent contracts with a wide variety of groups would probably be out of reach for the war-torn world for financial reasons, but paying by the head for ships destroyed or captured. Well, there were surely some mercenaries who would find that a very attractive prospect to gain fame and fortunate. How lucky I know just the one. Kyr thought to herself as she came to think of Mek Thas Vash. "Perfect." Governor Shastri said. "Do you think you and Captain Iron would be able to run the blockade after the assault on the station has been completed successfully? We need both of you to work you contacts, in business and within mercenary circles respectively so we can bring protection and trade back to the planet." In the meantime. Talou was at work in the Fly trying to put together a plan of attack to present to his chieftess when she returns from her meeting. According to the blueprints and information forwarded to the Fly from the Combined Militia HQ, the station had a central spire and a ring-section. The Ring had most of the living quarters, commercial areas and also held the docking facilities while the central spire was home to smelting facilities for the harvested ore and gas-processors along with maintenance-tunnels and the central control hub for the station's systems. At a number of times, the planet's sensors had probably picked up at least one, sometimes seemingly two ships in the station's vicinity before the signal went up. After asking Zax to check the references, Talou suspected that both ships were small, probably around the size of small gunboats like the Fly. That would leave the vast majority of the station empty and derelict, though approaching unseen would be very hard, if not impossible. They would probably have to rely on shock and awe but on the positive note, the station was completely unarmed. The only adversary in space would probably be the ship, and or ships detected by Ylem's sensors. If they remained that is. But at least the Ducks knew knew exactly where they were going as the singal's endpoint on the station was easily traceable.

---

Lothar Monsand

On the razor's edge between fortune and ruin. Such is the life of the free frontier trader. Lothar thought to himself as he shook off the unease at what had just happened, too damn close to being robbed clean. He continued the mission, the oh so familiar mission, his old stomping grounds he thought to himself with a smile as he concluded his business on Kiar and made for the void once again, sailing the stars to Remwith. When the cruised through the systems along the way he linked into the comm-bouy network to see the prices of goods as they were updated by the hour. That Ice of his could be sold for about 30 credits, minimal profit, perhaps it was best to hold on to it for now. The crates of Basic Medicines could be sold for some 80 creds apiece, a decent enough sum though he could try his luck and sell them at a spaceport acution and get some more if luck was on his side. The spares were in demand it seemed, a good 180 creds! Now Remwith had a good price for large containers of clothing, 125 credits per unit but they took up space, at 40 cu. Biomass was also cheap, hell it cost next to nothing even, only 25 creds per 5 cu crate. Now if he purchased the Biomass, he should be able to sell it on Hoxath to provide fertilizer for the small moon's ag-domes for close to double the price according to the recent estimates. The small moon was also a good stop over before a long-jump from the Hoxath-system's warp-gate to cover alot of space toward the Core, and toward Mrr'Shaan. Maybe there were even some freight delivery jobs that needed doing on the way toward Mrr'Shaan from Hoxath? It sure was worth a look. Now, Lothar's real challenge was still ahead of him however. Safe waters to his back, new waters to his front so to speak. Though he had to find some way of getting his contraband through the customs services on Mrr'Shaan. His freighter didn't have a smuggler's compartment to hide illicit goods, though with some brainy work he had managed to hide the occasional shipment of Red Sand through a port without getting caught. He had gotten the strange locked down hand-terminal from Judy with a single number to call as soon as he got in system... maybe whoever waited on the other end had a good idea? Or, he could of course try on his own, failing that one could always see if some creds may help the problem go away. The law enforcement on Mrr'Shaan was notoriously corrupt after all. He had time to weigh the options as the Lothar made it's way from gate to gate, from system to system.

Kiar Delivery Mission Complete: 500 credits gained.

Goods sold:- 3 Ice Blocks / Gain 150 credits.
Goods exchanged:- 1 Zeolite crate for 1 Crate of small and uncommon Spare Parts
Income: 650 credits.

---

Leon Tchaikovsky

Ket nodded to himself. "Memory serves the purpose. We must go to the central decks of the right column, guide us to the void-dock here." He said, pulling up the holographic outline of the ancient dreadnought drawn up for them by the Shadow's ladar sensor and making a spot on the outer hull which at a cursory glance looked to be a hangar bay for shuttles or fighter craft, perfect point of entry. Leon weaved through the battlefield debris carefully to avoid any collisions with unexploded munitions or pieces large enough to do any damage to the Shadow. Ket looked over to Leon. "Take heed, there could be automines around." That did not sound good. "Clear any electromagnetic signatures widely, however faint." Leon nodded to himself, quickly pulling up and alert-screen next to his main flight controls, glancing over every few seconds. The Shadow of Doubt weaved through the wreckfield, approaching ever closer to the massive ship, looming ever larger before them as they approached. Leon was careful to avoid any debris, keeping an eye on the sensors for any potential mine signatures, still, the "steel rain" of any large wreckfield was inescapable, clinking against the hull as they burned the engines forward before Leon cut the drive, dimming the blue light of the plasma drive and carefully guiding the ship toward the ancient dreadnought's hangar bay. Now they were completely in the massive old wreck's shadow. Now matter how vast and powerful that warship have have been, it had been blasted into a dead hulk. The scars of ancient battle-damage were clearly visible along the hull, holes, tears and vast gashes exposing entire decks came to momentary life as Leon let the Shadow's floodlight sweep across the hull as the approached closer to the upper docking bay indicated by Ket. The Shadow of Doubt slid through the half-open blast-doors which once sealed the hangar off from space. That it then, they're in the belly of the beast now. Leon let the floodlight sweep across the darkness of the hangar-bay. A scene of ruin, abandonment and dereliction met the two lonely former soldiers, dark walls reflected the light dimly, ancient clamps stood empty and encrusted with ice, one still had some sort of small craft in it's grasp. Ancient supply-crates floated gently in the pitch-black darkness, marked with text utterly alien. Leon set the Shadow down on the deck of the hangar and the two suited up in their space suits before exiting through the airlock. Emerging into the deathly silent hangar-bay with nothing but their suit-lights to guide them, Leon and Ket walked across toward a large open gate indicated by Ket, taking heavy steps with their magnetized boots. They stepped through the yawning dark abyss, walking to what looked like a transfer bay. Leon was correct in the assumption as soon they were in a repair bay where those small ships could be worked over without the need to weak a sealed suit. Ancient tools and dead machines lay scattered about in the dark wightlessness. "Follow me." Ket's voice crackled on the suit-comm. "There is a tram not to far away, following the tunnel will take us under the central concourse, from there we can make our way up to the main bridge."

Check approach: 59 - Approach successful.

---

[Ralnis]

Kyr Mirhorn Van

"Of course governor, I do believe thirty good fighters will be worth for the assault. Speaking of which, would the government be willing to foot the bill when it comes to do a patch job on my ship's armor? We took some plasma damage when trying to run the blockade and my second-in-command just notified me that there are one or two pirate ships protecting the station. So if we were to engage them I don't wish to be destroyed and then have Sam or your militia forces to be destroyed."

As the governor asked the question about running the blockade Kyr gave a nod," I do believe we can do so. I would expect that the pirates would be more pressed to try and gun us down after taking a few of their ships and the station from them. However if they still have a majority amount of gunships then they will be swiftly dealt with in order to make sure that Ylem gets what it needs."

Kyr had already been thinking of holding back in order to make sure that she can get back to Port Noctis. She would have to contact the Gogal Board from the Gozul District but first she needs to escort the merchant so she needs to curb her bloodlust and wants of personal glory.

[Wochaystein]

---

Lothar Monsand

On the razor's edge between fortune and ruin. Such is the life of the free frontier trader. Lothar thought to himself as he shook off the unease at what had just happened, too damn close to being robbed clean. He continued the mission, the oh so familiar mission, his old stomping grounds he thought to himself with a smile as he concluded his business on Kiar and made for the void once again, sailing the stars to Remwith. When the cruised through the systems along the way he linked into the comm-bouy network to see the prices of goods as they were updated by the hour. That Ice of his could be sold for about 30 credits, minimal profit, perhaps it was best to hold on to it for now. The crates of Basic Medicines could be sold for some 80 creds apiece, a decent enough sum though he could try his luck and sell them at a spaceport acution and get some more if luck was on his side. The spares were in demand it seemed, a good 180 creds! Now Remwith had a good price for large containers of clothing, 125 credits per unit but they took up space, at 40 cu. Biomass was also cheap, hell it cost next to nothing even, only 25 creds per 5 cu crate. Now if he purchased the Biomass, he should be able to sell it on Hoxath to provide fertilizer for the small moon's ag-domes for close to double the price according to the recent estimates. The small moon was also a good stop over before a long-jump from the Hoxath-system's warp-gate to cover alot of space toward the Core, and toward Mrr'Shaan. Maybe there were even some freight delivery jobs that needed doing on the way toward Mrr'Shaan from Hoxath? It sure was worth a look. Now, Lothar's real challenge was still ahead of him however. Safe waters to his back, new waters to his front so to speak. Though he had to find some way of getting his contraband through the customs services on Mrr'Shaan. His freighter didn't have a smuggler's compartment to hide illicit goods, though with some brainy work he had managed to hide the occasional shipment of Red Sand through a port without getting caught. He had gotten the strange locked down hand-terminal from Judy with a single number to call as soon as he got in system... maybe whoever waited on the other end had a good idea? Or, he could of course try on his own, failing that one could always see if some creds may help the problem go away. The law enforcement on Mrr'Shaan was notoriously corrupt after all. He had time to weigh the options as the Lothar made it's way from gate to gate, from system to system.

Kiar Delivery Mission Complete: 500 credits gained.

Goods sold:- 3 Ice Blocks / Gain 150 credits.
Goods exchanged:- 1 Zeolite crate for 1 Crate of small and uncommon Spare Parts
Income: 650 credits.

Before Lothar was the option of taking the busiest trade route from Hoxath to Mrr'Shaan, blending in with other independent traders or those contracted by the big guilds. Or maybe, he could do it indirectly; go where few ventured because of the perceived lack of profits. The latter didn't deter him. A more resourceful being could make stable coin plying the less-served markets. He gained a respectable sum from his leg in Kiar, and upon taking account of his resources, minus the salaries of his crew. He was well in the way into outfitting a smuggler's compartment in the Edge. He knew Mrr'Shaan was an important operation, but was equally aware that he couldn't be lucky forever...

He deliberated his next move from Hoxath in his office very seriously. A direct route, or a series of delivery jobs for credits towards Mrr'Shaan? Judy did not specify a time limit, but Lothar felt this would be his big break if he made it. Hmm, the guilds loathe competition. They may have some under-the-table deals with a few criminals here and there, a de-facto monopoly of contraband shipping. If they , and not the customs, catch me, I would be 'encouraged' to sell that cryo-protector at great loss, if I am lucky.

He couldn't let that nightmare scenario happen, and finally chose to take the more discreet route. Buy low, sell high, save some more credits to upgrade the ship with contraband storage.

Now, about the deals he could make in Remwith, he bought a large container of clothing (40 cu) and eight crates of biomass to sell in Hoxath (200 creds, 40 cu).

Actions:
1. Lothar's strategy to arrive in Mrr'Shaan is to take the indirect route. He will do his best to avoid being noticed by competitors, pirates, or the law, fulfilling mundane delivery jobs and opportunistically taking advantage of supply and demand in a beeline between Hoxath and Mrr'Shaan. In Hoxath, he and his crew will look for their contacts with whom they can acquire stuff or trinkets by paying with goods or credits. His goal: have a smuggler's compartment well before reaching Mrr'Shaan.
2. Lothar tries to use the hand-terminal provided by Judy if anything comes out of it. Maybe he'll get a helpful response? Or would the other end reply with some variation of "new hand-terminal, who dis?" Judy gave him a Zuhiran passphrase just in case.

[The National Dominion of Hungary]

---

Kyr Mirhorn Van

Governor Shastri leaned back in her chair and clasped her hands together in thought, considering her reply. "We can only do so much with the current facilities we have in the city's spaceport. But we can do our best when it comes to the defense and security of our planet and system. We shall help you repair your ship, Captain Van. But you need to understand that this was mostly an agricultural world before the pirates came. So don't expect a job as professional as you would have gotten at a dock in... I don't know, Noctis or something. We have limited mechanical industry resources here. And I shall immediately order the commander to send thirty of his best fighters to join you so you can go when the patchwork on your ship has been completed." The governor said, still leaning back. "What we can hope for it that they focus on actual profit, there are still a number of colonies in the sector that they haven't hit or bypassed. Some of them are far smaller and could be easily destroyed in their entirety. But that is not currently our porblem, what I meant to say was that we may be lucky and see them try and hunt profit instead of revenge." Then again, Kyr had much experience with pirates, those scum were ever unpredictable and their captains often had to take the ever-changing into at least some account when making decisions, at least the small-time ones without much of a reputation. Such that might be sent out by their superiors to patrol and interdict trade lanes for example, or uphold a blockade. Kyr quickly messaged Talou to relay the order back to the crew, they were going as close into drydock as this planet could manage. Sending over a work-order with the signature of Governor Shastri herself, the dockworkers labored away, patching the burnt and melted areas of the Fly's armor. Luckily, the plasma blast had only glanced the Dunkidor vessel, leaving the hull and spine intact.

Armor Damage - Medium: repaired.
Status: Light Damage to Armor.

---

Lothar Monsand

Another jump, and they were truly on their own, the road ahead was one sparsely traveled and running through many systems only explored with a few automated probes a long time ago, the galaxy's explorers rarely bothering to visit personally with their ships. A few smaller colonies were on the new route Lothar had keyed into his nav-system. Sifting through the Netscape on the computer in his captain's quarters, Lothar tried his best to find any information he could on the prices of the goods he was hauling, the clothing would probably be a profit, almost always was, even on worlds where the people had little patience for offworlders and wanted to be left alone. The kinds of places he would surely be visiting among these silent suns. Still, taking an indirect route had it's advantages, less pirates was certainly one as they tended to cluster among more traveled routes with more raiding opportunities. Indeed, he would probably not encounter much of anything along the way. And Lothar hoped it would stay that way, the goal was to try and make enough bank to get a smugglers compartment installed by some docker who didn't care enough to ask questions. And on tiny backwater planets barely registering on the star-charts, such were aplenty. First stop was Mendradym, a small world without a breathable atmosphere but with a few hundred people inhabiting a domed colony and extracting lithium from a number of surrounding mines, a colony among countless thousands of similar ones across the Rim. Still, he guessed that he could make a profit on his biomass there as well, if nothing else for it's use as fertilizer in the colony's ag-domes. He turned from his computer, gaze falling on the hand-terminal Judy gave him laying there on his small desk. They were still in range of the nearest comm-buoy so he picked it up and sent a short message to the only contact logged in the terminal. Contact, who there? No reply. He tried again several times with no luck until finally, a reply. Strange pass you got. Aha, there we go. They had to be asking for the pass-code which Judy gave him, right? In the middle of deciding whether to send it or not, a call came over the intercom. "Bridge to captain, bridge to captain. We have picked up a derelict ship on the edge of our sensor-screen, should we investigate or maintain course and speed?

---

[Wochaystein]

---

Lothar Monsand

Another jump, and they were truly on their own, the road ahead was one sparsely traveled and running through many systems only explored with a few automated probes a long time ago, the galaxy's explorers rarely bothering to visit personally with their ships. A few smaller colonies were on the new route Lothar had keyed into his nav-system. Sifting through the Netscape on the computer in his captain's quarters, Lothar tried his best to find any information he could on the prices of the goods he was hauling, the clothing would probably be a profit, almost always was, even on worlds where the people had little patience for offworlders and wanted to be left alone. The kinds of places he would surely be visiting among these silent suns. Still, taking an indirect route had it's advantages, less pirates was certainly one as they tended to cluster among more traveled routes with more raiding opportunities. Indeed, he would probably not encounter much of anything along the way. And Lothar hoped it would stay that way, the goal was to try and make enough bank to get a smugglers compartment installed by some docker who didn't care enough to ask questions. And on tiny backwater planets barely registering on the star-charts, such were aplenty. First stop was Mendradym, a small world without a breathable atmosphere but with a few hundred people inhabiting a domed colony and extracting lithium from a number of surrounding mines, a colony among countless thousands of similar ones across the Rim. Still, he guessed that he could make a profit on his biomass there as well, if nothing else for it's use as fertilizer in the colony's ag-domes. He turned from his computer, gaze falling on the hand-terminal Judy gave him laying there on his small desk. They were still in range of the nearest comm-buoy so he picked it up and sent a short message to the only contact logged in the terminal. Contact, who there? No reply. He tried again several times with no luck until finally, a reply. Strange pass you got. Aha, there we go. They had to be asking for the pass-code which Judy gave him, right? In the middle of deciding whether to send it or not, a call came over the intercom. "Bridge to captain, bridge to captain. We have picked up a derelict ship on the edge of our sensor-screen, should we investigate or maintain course and speed?

---

Lothar turned off the hand-terminal amid the interruption. "Copy that, I will be at the bridge shortly."

As he arrived in the bridge, the pilot, Glynie Gonzal, greeted him at once. "Excellent, captain. I'm sure there could be much stuff on board the derelict."

"I just have a few pointers to go through before we proceed. Any signs of life?"

"Well, I will see if I can help you with that."

"Good, let's try it. Our sensor's rudimentary, but it should pick up indications if it's a bandit haunt."

The two went through the extra steps required to activate and direct the biosignature sensor: it was something that was rarely used in the Edge. It was really a simple matter of accessing an arcane sequence of computer inputs, but Glynie needed to read from the ship's manual and relay the instructions to Lothar, who was doing the button-pressing and knob-turning. It took a few minutes to complete the action; the crew simply checked the readings that come out of the sensor.

"Nothing," Lothar broke the silence.

"Now, we can take a look at some of the scrap that was left behind."

"Give me a few, this ship's a piece of history!"

"Something worth preserving for posterity?"

"Ha! If I have a tractor beam I would tow it and restore it! But alas. Mark its location in the map."

"Done."

"Okay. It's possible that there are some salvagable scrap inside, even something to take as proof that we've been in a ship of this class. I wonder what befell this ship, the decayed metal doesn't tell its secrets. As we board, be prepared for any risks."

"Indeed, I agree, it's a risk that we should take. And luckily for you, I've got some background in archaeology!" Glynie seconded Lothar's decision.

Action: Lothar and his crew investigates the derelict.

[Elerian]

Old Man, Dreadnought Hulk

The Old Man followed Ket as he led them through a corridor into what could only be a strike craft repair bay. He’d given Ket the Ancient Laser Pistol that he’d found on Rakodan, it made more sense for the real soldier to wield such a weapon rather than He; the retired Flag Officer. It was of a design that Ket would likely find familiar, if small in his herculean hands, and might perhaps give him a sense of comfort. The Old Man’s strength lay with his mind, what he could project into reality, and using a pistol to defend himself would prove to be more of a distraction than anything else.

This ship had an eerie and foreboding nature to it. He wouldn’t even be surprised if it had never been trodden through in the millenia since its destruction, but time would tell.

Ket’s comms crackled to life, “There is a tram not too far away…”

The Old Man listened intently, and gave a short affirmative to signal he’d received. He didn’t want to distract them in a potentially dangerous environment, but the Old Man’s curiosity overcame him. His comm came on, as they continued on towards the tram tunnel, “say Ket, do you know the name of this ship, or what may have been strong enough to do something like this?”

Action: Continue through the tram tunnel towards the bridge.

[Ralnis]

Kyr Mirhorn Van

"Pirates in general are unpredictable governor. So much so that their captains have to take that into consideration, at least the small ones without much of a reputation. Those who I have killed in battle and will be killed in the station were perhaps sent by their superiors in missions to curb that sort of unpredictability. Like going after a stubborn planet and their trader." She looks at the trader next to her before she continues.

"However I'm afraid that I can't be here anymore than I believe I should. With the ship patched up I can take as many fighters as I can and I will go see about trying to take the station so that the planet can sleep a bit before they come back with more men."

Kyr gave her thanks to both of the humans for their time and walked out with a sense of pride in her wadded feet. To be able to have a Tula and the ability to lead an assault to retake the station is something she never thought she would see her clan being able to do. Even if she was cloned by a great warlord during the Eternal War she never felt so close to being like she was moving up in the galaxy before this. She needed to make the station assault be done with some success.

This also makes her seem to become a much more successful clan in the eyes of the others in the Gozul District. One that could bring more than just soldiers to her side. Like actual clanless people looking to settle in a new world, one that reminds one of the Dunkidor of Golgara after the enslavement and scattering of her kind, even with the humans.

When she walks up to the Fly, she saw Talou going over the volunteer fighters. These men had the marks of battle that something the clan could equate to. A large man walked up to the small chieftain and extended his hand.

"Lieutenant Marcus Aren, 45th Yelm Defense Platoon. Guessing your the chieftain we will be following for the assault?"

Kyr takes the hand and shakes his hand," Kyr Mirhorn Van, chieftess of Clan Van and will be leading the assault on the station."

"That's good, we heard about your clan and are glad that we have someone who's taking the fight against the pirates. I'm sure you and your kind is looking at this as manner of honor but it doesn't matter for us, any good pirate's a dead pirate."

"For that I agree, let's get your men on board and we can get moving. Fair warning, the pirates have some defenses and we're gonna try and at least push them out before getting inside."

Action: Loads up as many volunteers that they can and then fly off to assault the station.