Play date: November 3, 2012
Game date: February 18, EY218
Location: Providence system, fleeing Limbaugh
Previous events: Rescuing Seo Yee and Tigd from Hoax's von Däniken platform
The Clegship, Iof, and Resplendent Dragon fly triumphantly away from the von Däniken platform, hoping that no one's managed to identify them. Down in the Clegship's engineering section Volkova tinkers with the space drive's settings, managing to reduce her EM signature at a definite cost to her range, but refuelling isn't anyone's priority right now.
As they leave the orbital plane behind Jillian keeps a close eye on the sensors. It's likely that the Iof and Resplendent Dragon took out the platform's communications array before it got a message out but the light from the ordnance's impact could have been noted by nearby ships and platforms nonetheless, and she does indeed spot the Crocodile, the navy frigate that Hoax has under its control. The Iof breaks radio silence and Vob informs the Clegship of not just the Crocodile but another ship as well. Jillian's informed of the ships' locations and relates the information to the Resplendent Dragon. The tiny fleet alters course to stay away from the naval ships.
It takes a few tense hours before they know that they've managed to avoid being pursued by the other ships, but finally they turn towards the Eggen Observatory, following a high arc out of the orbital plane where no one is likely to notice them.
The plan is to fly for half a day before briefly stopping to transfer personnel between ships, maintaining radio silence until then. On the way Jillian takes care of Bishop's bullet wound. It's a graze and minor enough that it won't hamper him much in a day or so. The Grob have definitely retreated into their own bubble and don't seem interested in having much to do with the humans right now.
Seo's in generally rough shape but nothing that rest won't take care of, or at least that's what Jillian hopes. The two of them talk about what happened during the roughly three months that she was in Hoax's care. She was kept on the von Däniken the whole time and never saw any other prisoners, Tigd included. At first she was interviewed by Nayan Kanth, who was primarily interested in the Grob society and psychology; he knew some of their language and she worked out that he had some experience with the Grob, probably Tigd. The very married Hoax employee Hyun Jung Gang in Aiscapo had told the Steel Hummingbird's crew that Nayan Kanth, a promising xenopsychologist working for Box, had been taken by Hoax. Now they know where Kanth is working.
After Kanth had gotten what he could out of her two other people played a good cop-bad cop routine on her. The nominally friendly one was Emma Brown while the very bad one was Clifton Lewis, who seemed like a military type. Lewis didn't hold back from torturing her. Seo's really not sure what she told them during her months of imprisonment. Jillian expresses her sympathy and offers to get Seo a new identity to help her with her integration into human society, but Seo's much more interested in boarding the Iof when the transfers take place and leaving human society behind for a while at least. Jillian can't really blame her and offers to give her some medical supplies in case she needs them.
When it's time for the transfer Xao heads over the Resplendent Dragon and Seo and the Grob board the Iof. Jillian tells the other two ships what happened to the boarding party. Olivia is relieved that Bishop's not badly wounded and fills the Hummingbird's crew about what happened on her end. It turns out that she learned a fair bit about pirate techniques while hunting them in the navy. To keep the Dragon from being recognized she tweaked her ID transponder to something that would seem to be legitimate until someone really looked at it; a military ship would likely see what was going on but the von Däniken was very unlikely to have that sort of sensor equipment or experienced operators. Neet kept her at a reasonable distance and also flew the ship at a strange angle to the platform to make her shape appear different.
When the Iof jumped in the platform immediately started firing at her; as planned by Olivia and the Iof the von Däniken's communications and sensors were taken out by the Iof, who soaked up fire by the platform's cannons without much in the way of damage. The Dragon and the Iof then destroyed the cannons. Once the platform was helpless they sprayed it, especially the upper level, with low-intensity fire to make the crew unlikely to want to peer out of the windows. Olivia had modified her autocannon to fire at a lower rate than it usually did and used fairly low-power shells that she uses for practice. If anyone manages to pull out her shells and try to link them to a particular ship nothing will match the Dragon. She's not terribly concerned that anyone on board the platform will be able to identify the Dragon as one of the attacking ships given the degree of apparent danger to anyone who'd try to take a look.
Jillian passes the bag of "small, smart worms" over to Vob and asks if it's enough for them to actually be smart. Vob isn't sure, but upon being told about the worm ship in the von Däniken platform wants to go and get it. It turns out that the Grob and worms can't communicate without technology, so to find out what a worm ship is doing here it may be necessary to revisit the platform.
A more pressing matter for Jillian is how the Grob, who claim to be a very united species that didn't leave their system until the D'vor showe up, managed to get so good at combat. Vob seems hesitant and embarrassed about the issue, but when Jillian insists she's told about the Kheldi, an aquatic species that evolved with the Grob on their home planet. The two species lived in peace and colonized their sizeable solar system together -- the Grob and Kheldi never found the space drive that humans did and so explored it the hard way. For some reason that the Grob never found out the Kheldi turned on them and waged an organized war of extinction. The Grob were obviously initially surprised and suffered heavy losses but eventually worked out how to wage war and then fought back, eventually wiping the entire Kheldi species out in a calculated, deliberate genocide.
Putting that piece of information in the back of her mind Jillian turns to the sensor readings that the Iof picked up from the second ship that she didn't manage to spot using the Clegship's sensors. It's hard work to translate everything from Grob but in the end, with Vob's help, she manages to work out that it's a military stealth ship -- a type usually referred to as a "submarine" -- and one that she actually recognizes the signature of, the Cobra. She doesn't know anything about its service history, though. Its path and that of the Crocodile indicate that they're not working together; she hypothesizes that the presence of a stealth ship indicates that it may have been sent by Vice Admiral Egan to keep an eye on the Crocodile now that its working for Hoax.
Once everyone's settled in and ready to go the three ships continue to the Eggen Observatory. Bored, Jillian spends much of the time working on art, but without any of her supplies on the Clegship she has to make do with raiding the medical bay and sculpting with gauze and plaster, her work ending up on one of the walls. The final work is aesthetically one of her better ones but everyone thinks that the wall now looks like it has a large tumour growing out of it.
February 21, EY218
When everyone gets to the Eggen Observatory, now vaguely near Carlson, they find that Roberta Kirshner and the gang watched the raid using their powerful sensors. Kieran made popcorn! Everyone on the observatory's happy that it all turned out well and declare their continued support for the Hummingbird's crew and their friends. They seem to have taken a liking to them, that's for sure.
The Clegship is of little use for travelling through the slide point. Sure, its drive is modified to allow it to use this most alternative form of travel, but everyone would rather use their own ship which is much more impressive. It's decided to leave the Clegship in orbit one AU above the orbital plane where it's extremely unlikely that anyone will ever find it by accident but the Hummingbird's crew can easily find it. Ester Weiß accompanies the ship up to its parking spot in the shuttle and ferries Malcolm back to the observatory.
Ester later flies the Steel Hummingbird's crew to McNeely station to pick up their ship. The Resplendent Dragon will spend the time it takes for them to do this doing their regular courier jobs. They've got time to go to Carlson, pick up something -- perhaps just mail -- and get back to Beck and then back to the observatory before the Steel Hummingbird makes her return. The Iof will stay by the observatory during this time, the Grob fiddling with her insides as always.
The flight to McNeely station above Limbaugh is uneventful. Ester usually makes the trip on her own and is in the habit of playing strange electronic music at very high volume to pass the time, but tones it down for the sake of her passengers. The Hummingbirds take it in stride, though their reactions to the music itself are mixed. Jillian teaches Volkova how to play cards on the way. The engineer finds this a strange, unproductive way to pass the time.
February 26, EY218
Arriving at McNeely, Jillian is quick to don her oversized sunglasses. Ester says goodbye and goes on her own way to buy supplies for the observatory. While the rest of her crew go to get the Hummingbird ready for her trip Jillian heads back to Gabi's apartment to pick up Ghost. Ghost seems quite happy to see her and apparently didn't eat much while the two of them were apart. When asked about her plans Jillian's deliberately vague, which the two second-story burglars understand.
Back on the ship Malcolm checks the messages and finds two, both left since the raid on the von Däniken. It seems that Hoax and Vice Admiral Egan both want to meet with the Steel Hummingbird's crew. Well, that's going to have to wait, he decides. When Jillian returns with the the cat and gets permission from McNeely's flight control for the ship to leave the station she goes out of her way to go through the bureaucratic hoops leaving as little a trace as possible while also rambling about the good time she had on the station over the past weeks and brings up the speakeasy she was introduced to. No one tries to stop the ship from leaving and everyone on her feels at home after being away for a couple of weeks.
March 1, EY218
Back at Eggen Observatory, the Steel Hummingbird finds that they've beaten the shuttle back. Volkova wants to get the space drive on the Hummingbird ready to use the slide points. She's been mulling over how to do this for quite some time now and with the experience working on the Resplendent Dragon's drive she figures she can do the necessary in a day with Jörg's help.
Roberta Kirshner informs Jillian that she's been asked by the navy to keep an eye on any ships that look strange or are flying outside of the usual commercial lanes. She's promised to do so and has expressed her hope that she can help the military in apprehending any ruffians and bandits. She gives Jillian an exaggerated wink during this last part.
The Iof, meanwhile, has spent the past several days being modified by the Grob, who inform everyone that they plan to return to the scene of their crime at the von Däniken platform and steal the worm ship; they seem determined to help what may well be the last survivors of another species, something they can relate to. Their plan is simple; they've expanded their cargo area (making the rest of the ship even more cramped) and constructed a grapple to snag the worm ship. They'll jump very close to the platform, shoot out the doors to the cargo bay it's in, and grab their prize before anyone inside can do much. They're not terribly concerned about any military ships in the area; the Eggen Observatory hasn't seen any military presence there. This makes sense if Hoax wants to keep everything about the von Däniken as secretive as possible. If anyone does give them chase they're convinced that they can outrun anyone who tries and outshoot anyone who might be able to keep up. They'll take a roundabout route and meet the Resplendent Dragon and Steel Hummingbird at the slide point on March 8th. The plan seems fine and no one tries to dissuade them from it.
March 2, EY218
It does indeed take Volkova a pleasant day with Jörg to modify the Hummingbird's engines to allow use of the slide points. Ester Weiß makes it back with the shuttle and the Hummingbird is topped up for its trip. It's time for another round of farewells and then the Hummingbird pulls away from the observatory on a roundabout trip to the slide point. The Iof jumps off on its mission with Seo Yee on board.
March 3, EY218
Bishop receives a happy emotion from the Iof; they've apparently gotten the worm ship.
March 8, EY218
The Steel Hummingbird makes it to the slide point. The Iof and Resplendent Dragon are both there already and after wishing each other the best of luck the ships activate the modifications to their space drives and pass through the slide point one by one, hoping to see each other on the other side in Vishnu. When the Steel Hummingbird takes her turn into the point it instantly feels like she's run into Satan's Suckhole. Looking outside the windows shows a swirling, multicoloured maelstrom, the sensors present rapidly fluctuating readings that make no sense, and the ship is violently pulled this way and that with no correlation to the visuals or what the sensors display.
Even with all her preparation Jillian has a terrible time trying to make sense of what's going on and trying to give Malcolm a heading to fly in. Piloting isn't much easier and Malcolm has to fight the ship the whole time. All the while the ship is battered and the crew is knocked about. Worse, there is also a distinct oppressive psychological pressure that immediately begins to wear away their sanity. How did Maurice Clegman and the Iof manage to make this trip the first time without knowing where to go?
Given these conditions it's no surprise that injuries, physical and mental, start to surface. Volkova manages to patch up the minor structural damage that the ship takes but she's helpless to stop the electrical surge that fries the long-suffering advanced sensor array and the new targeting system for the cannon. Malcolm bites his tongue badly and Bishop is banged up due to a slack safety harness -- it was apparently wrinkling his suit. Jillian sprains her wrist badly on the console and has the growing suspicion that she's seeing another spatial dimension, a suspicion that is confirmed after a while, though she has difficulty explaining it to her crew.
After what seems like an eternity the ship finally finds the exit to this horrorscape and in an instant finds herself in the black calm of space. With a fair amount of effort given her new condition Jillian recognizes the constellations: they've ended up in Aiscapo.
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Bishop's Bedpost Notch Count: 0 (running total: 17)
Jillian's Bedpost Notch Count: ha! ha!
Malcolm's Bedpost Notch Count: 0 (running total: 1)
Volkova's Bedpost Notch Count: 0 (running total: 3)