Play date: February 9, 2013
Game date: March 31, EY218
Location: Vishnu system, not far from Labrys City on the planet of Kali
Previous events: Burning up some ooze
Standing in a field of crispy ex-ooze and looking at the ovoid, Malcolm decides to give it a kick to see if it does anything. It's lighter than something its size and made out of metal feels like it should be and his kick knocks it over onto its side.
The Resplendent Dragon, still flying in circles overhead, calls to ask what's going on and Jillian fills them in. After a brief discussion the Steel Hummingbird and the Resplendent Dragon both agree to leave the ovoid here and let Labrys City deal with it; neither ship has the facilities to deal with a potentially dangerous alien device and they have other plans besides. Bishop, Malcolm, and Volkova clamber back onto the Hummingbird and remove any bits of burned slime that's stuck to them, making sure to throw them off the ship. Once Malcolm's set the comms to the correct frequency Jillian relays the ovoid's location to Labrys City as he preps for interplanetary flight.
Both ships are soon leaving atmosphere and heading to the wreck of the Leary, somewhere none of them have ever been to, seven days' flight away. On the way Volkova's leg fullly heals and Jillian's cracked rib stops bothering her though her crippled arm is still much the same. Thanks to Bishop's application of the Labrys City unguent Jillian's burns are also much improved, though there is some scarring. Thankfully, the bandage she wrapped around her tattoo in the research centre in Labrys City has kept it perfectly intact!
April 7, EY218
The Dobbs Habitat comes into view and looks even more dismal than they've heard. It looks like a habitrail of shipping containers and cast-off pieces of spacecraft that have been cobbled together and hopefully made airtight. No one hails their calls as they approach and it's obvious that the habitat has no communications array of its own. There are five ships docked at airlocks scattered haphazardly over the structure. One is roughly the same size as the Hummingbird. It doesn't look like it's in great shape and is the only one with armament. The other four are about the size of fighter craft and are even shoddier, though Jillian and Malcolm notice that one of them seems perfectly functional and has had work put into it to look superficially banged up.
There's only one airlock free -- which doesn't have any indicators and is only found after a visual search of the structure -- so the Hummingbird pulls up to it while the Dragon keeps its distance, alert for trouble. Jillian doesn't trust the safety of the place and wears an EVA suit. She's unarmed but does bring a small stack of D'vor warning posters. Volkova follows suit, only without the posters and with Khnuta. Bishop refuses to wear something so bulky and so does Malcolm, though Malcolm preps his EVA suit and leaves it in the Hummingbird's airlock, bringing a respirator, knife, and his Blingmaster 5000, which he does his best to conceal in his clothing. This requires leaving the spork and tiara off of the pistol.
The airlock to the Dobbs habitat creakily cycles and when it opens there are four people waiting for the crew. They're blatantly thugs of some sort and are amused by the unnecessary EVA suits. The thugs have sheathed but ostentatious knives and are all beefy, though nowhere near Volkova's league. They seem to be running some sort of racket here and demand a ridiculous amount for a day's docking. Flush with cash and still nursing a very tender crippled arm, Jillian doesn't want to cause trouble and agrees. They pay the smirking thugs and get complicated directions to Rosemarie Laughton's quarters. Feeling self-conscious, Jillian and Volkova remove their helmets and immediately wish they hadn't; the place smells of equal parts unwashed, crazy, and despair.
On the way to see Rosemarie it's obvious why the directions are so complicated; the place is a rat's nest of tight spaces and unsafe engineering practices. As they duck under pipes radiating intense heat and cautiously keep away from exposed wiring with ripped insulation there is the occasional sound of a door opening and then quickly shutting again when they turn to look.
The only person they see in the hallways is a Vishnan woman who puts a hand on her knife's hilt when they come close. When she's asked if they're on the right track to Rosemarie Laughton's quarters she backs up defensively and snaps at them. When they continue on their way the crew shares some interesting comments about her: their constant state of slight paranoia has sharpened their skills of observation! Firstly, she has a pendant that looks like the sort of material the Wyrm ship they saw in the von Däniken was made of. Secondly, Bishop and Jillian, both being excellent observers of people -- and although she was reasonably attractive she's in her late 30s and too old for him, he hastens to add -- are struck by her accent as being off. Jillian knows full well about putting on an accent that doesn't quite fit. Bishop wonders aloud if she, like Jillian, might be from another cluster.
When they find her hatch door Rosemarie is surprised but remembers them and lets them in. Her shipping crate is crammed full with an EVA suit, various scavenging-related tools, debris that looks like it's the result of a poor attempt at salvage, and heavily marked-up maps of the Leary. It lacks a personal touch and looks like a temporary work space more than a home. They talk a bit about Philipe Carozzo, Rosemarie's friend that she talked to them about back in August. No one has seen or heard from him and by now the locks on his ship and quarters have been bypassed and his property taken. It looks like he's a dead end and perhaps just plain dead.
When they bring up the Vishnan in the hallway Rosemarie identifies her as Nanda Reddy, one of the prospectors here. She's also Omenand's woman. Omenand is the leader of the gang that extorts money from the Habitat's inhabitants and provides supplies at exorbitant prices. The prospectors share the small, beat-up ships attached to the Habitat and, thanks to their short range, are forced to sell what they scavenge to the gang, who can make the trip to Shiva to sell their finds. Omenand's people at least keep the place running, more or less, but the vast majority of prospectors are kept in penury by this setup.
Rosemarie is quite willing to guide them on an expedition to the Leary but bargains for a 50-50 split of whatever they find. It's a terrible deal on the face of it but Jillian accepts without flinching. She's after information and if Rosemarie wants bits of gear to sell that's fine with her. The Steel Hummingbird will also have to pay Omenand an exorbitant amount for rights to scavenge in the Leary for a week. With the Hummingbird and Resplendent Dragon's abilities they could easily ignore the thugs and search through the wreckage to their hearts' content without really worrying about their safety but they've got so much cash at the moment that they really don't care and opt to avoid any trouble. Malcolm's got enough cash literally sitting in his pocket to pay for two ships for a week of scavenging. They tell Rosemarie to get ready to visit the Leary while they pay Omenand.
A new goon guards Omenand's door and will only admit one person. Volkova volunteers and strides into the gang leader's den, where he's smoking tobacco from a hookah as he reclines on a pile of cushions. He's wearing a vest that's open to show off his chiseled chest and sports a shiny shaved head, impressive moustache, and large hoop earrings. Nanda is there at his side and there are two more bored-looking goons standing guard. Volkova is typically blunt and the transaction is short; Omenand doesn't seem the curious type if she's paying. She hands over the cash for two ships for a week and is out in a few minutes.
Rosemarie's ready when they get back to her quarters and they help her lug her stuff to the Hummingbird. Someone's made a poor attempt at breaking into the ship, which doesn't surprise anyone, but other than a few cosmetic scratches there's no harm done. Rosemarie is shown to her new quarters on the Hummingbird and they soon leave the wretched Habitat behind.
It's a half-hour trip to the Leary and Jillian gets on the comms and talks with Xao about the goons on the way there. Neither is happy about the situation on the Dobbs Habitat but there are more important things afoot and they decide to leave it for now. Omenand and his gang don't look like they'd be too much trouble against the two ships' crews but they are keeping the place running and who knows what shape the place would be in if they were removed? Bishop spends the flight dropping into the Dreamscape in an attempt to get in tune with any alien beings or artefacts on the Leary.
The Leary is enormous. Jillian's the only one who's been on a proper jump ship but that wasn't an exploratory ship and even her breath is taken away by the scale of it. Roughly three kilometres long and weighing in with a mass of roughly eight million tonnes, it's the biggest human-constructed object anyone on either ship has ever seen. It's also an obvious wreck. It's well known in the cluster that it exploded shortly after jumping into the system with the loss of all hands and the structure is ripped through by the force of the detonation. It hasn't been torn into pieces but there are massive gaping holes throughout and both ships have to pick their way through debris on their approach. There are also sections where the Navy cut through to remove jump drive components and other parts of interest. Having seen the D'vor energy weapon on the Iof in use it's obvious that the ship was involved in combat based on the numerous burn marks. There's also evidence of ship-to-ship collisions.
Rosemarie's maps and Bishop's Dreaming point out a good spot to start searching. The bridge and other obvious places to find information won't be of any use, the Navy having no doubt removed navigation data and any recorders that they could find. With a week to look before they have to pay Omenand again they decide to take the full seven days and do a thorough search.
April 8-17, EY218
Jillian and Xao will stay on their respective ships and coordinate the work. The spot that they've chosen is close enough to a massive breach that the ships can actually fit just inside the hull proper. Jillian works the Hummingbird's sensors to guide the search team while Xao uses the salvage equipment on the Dragon to cut open bulkheads and move pieces too massive for individuals to shift. He's surprisingly deft with the equipment.
Work goes quite well, if slowly: there is a lot of twisted metal to cut through and they're working by suit lights. Most of the scavengers from the Dobbs Habitat come here singly and do all of their searching using only handheld tools; the Dragon-Hummingbird team is far more efficient. It's hard work, especially for those who spend so much of the time in EVA suits without much experience. Neet is by far the most comfortable suited up but really doesn't have much of an eye for items of interest. Bishop's lack of microG training means that he manages to end each work day with some new nasty bruise or two, but at least he doesn't rip his suit on any jagged edges. The size of the Leary means that there are many levels, rooms, and corridors to navigate and the damage makes getting from one area to another less obvious than it might be.
The first day is disappointing. There are some geological samples that don't mean much to anyone, but they can at least be sold to collectors. A piece of what looks like it might be D'vor technology evokes interest but it's only the size of a finger and a continued hunt doesn't find anything larger. There is interest when they come across a bank of launched lifeboats and realize that many of them have been intentionally pointed to the same location. Working back to where that would have been five years ago Jillian determines that they were heading towards Brahma, one of the gas giants in this system, and more specifically to its moon, Gold.
A book found after that energizes everyone. It's part of the captain's personal journal! The fragment is the last part of Captain Fai Huang's personal journal and talks about the Leary's experiences in the Wyrm's home system, mentioning the D'vor attack and giving some details about the craft that the D'vor used. It ends with a hurried account of the final jump of the ship to its current location in Vishnu but doesn't mention the system by name. The journal is damaged and incomplete but makes for fascinating reading. Tired as she is after the long days of work Jillian still gets some reading time in. If only Fai Huang's writing were more legible!
A strange piece of equipment the next day is identified by Volkova as part of a jump drive, apparently missed by the Navy in the tangled wreck. She doesn't have the training to repair or operate a jump drive but recognizes the technology. Jump ships use a few massive drives and several smaller ones working in parallel along the length of the ship to increase range; this is a piece of the latter. When they find more the next day they realize that with enough parts -- and some training -- they may actually be able to put together a functional jump drive of their own!
Splitting into two teams the next day they find yet another jump drive section and also come across a room of damaged biological specimens, all in bad shape and none recognizable to anyone.
It's been a week and they've found enough information to be happy. Staying longer means paying more to Omenand but they decide to stay for at least a few more days; Volkova thinks that they're close to getting enough jump drive components to put one together, though she'll need training in how to assemble and work it and Jillian will need to learn how to do the calculations. The Grob might be able to help here, having a functional jump drive on the Iof.
The next day results in them indeed finding more jump drive parts! Volkova's fairly certain that she has enough intact parts to put together a jump drive. The day after that results in some more biological specimens and near disaster as someone finally catches their suit on a jagged piece of metal. It could happen to anyone but in this case it's Malcolm. He's unable to patch his suit before a large part of his back is exposed to vacuum! Neet rushes over and applies an emergency patch but not before Malcolm suffers a massive contusion and freezer burn. He's taken back to the Hummingbird and the work day is cut short.
April 17, EY218
A slightly smaller team finds some more relatively uninteresting geological samples the next day, which seems inadequate reward after what happened to Malcolm. The day after that they strike paydirt one more time, finding a huge piece of D'vor tech that must weigh half a tonne. Once they've cut through a few bulkheads the lack of gravity will make it relatively easy to move but before the process can be carried out Jillian sounds an alarm over the comms (which Malcolm has been nice enough to set to the suits' frequency): she's spotted one of the smaller ships coming from the direction of the Dobbs Habitat. Before she can get any specific information about it the ship moves out of sight behind the bulk of the Leary. Not wanting to take any chances, she calls everyone back to the ship.
After hustling through the twisted corridors of the Leary everyone's back in their ship... with the exception of Bishop, who has decided to keep looking and not let the mere appearance of some random ship scare him. He answers his comm when an annoyed Jillian calls but has managed to get himself lost and couldn't make it back if he wanted to.
Jillian quickly works out a search pattern and has Malcolm, Neet, Rosemarie, and Volkova form a search party for Bishop while Olivia womans the cannon on the Resplendent Dragon in case things get unpleasant. The search party equips themselves with paint to leave a trail as they wander and Jillian tells Bishop to start banging on the hull with something. It's not that anyone will be able to hear it in vacuum but they should be able to feel it when they get close. He also shines his light around him to help the searchers find him. While those left on the smaller ships wait Xao works at cutting a path to the D'vor item.
It takes some time but Malcolm finds Bishop, whose arms are tiring. Malcolm calls this in and everyone starts following their paint trails back to the ships when Volkova announces that she, too, has found Bishop! Or someone lurking in an EVA suit, at least. The newcomer runs off when Volkova approaches and the engineer gives chase. Volkova's apparently as comfortable in her suit as the person she's pursuing but uses her ludicrous strength to push off down straightaways and ignores the inevitable bruises that arise when she bangs into structures. Her rocket-like launches let her catch up to the retreating EVA suit and she grapples it; the person she's caught briefly struggles, but it's to no avail against her might.
Volkova spins the other suit around and is surprised to see not Bishop, but Nanda Reddy! She calls in this information and then tries to communicate with Nanda by putting their helmets together and bellowing. Nanda doesn't reply and Jillian decides the best thing to do is simply to let her go. Volkova does so after Nanda refuses to converse and the "Vishnan" slowly backs away. Malcolm tunes into a likely frequency for the sort of suit that Nanda has and listens but she's not communicating with anyone. Volkova heads back to the Hummingbird but finds that she, too, is lost, not having left a trail of paint during her recent chase. Malcolm finds her after yet another search and everyone is eventually back together and the large piece of D'vor tech gets loaded onto the Steel Hummingbird.
April 18, EY218
They've got a big enough haul to keep them all happy and decide to call it quits. Nanda's poking around is also making them a bit nervous, particularly Jillian. The two ships fly back towards the Habitat and Jillian talks to Rosemarie while in flight. The prospector has no special desire to head back to the Habitat given the amazing haul that they found in the past week and a bit and doesn't have anything left that she cares about in her quarters. She doesn't have any contacts to sell the xenotech to and it's illegal to keep, so she lets the Hummingbird keep it. Bishop's happy about that; he feels that the large piece of xenotech is important, somehow. Rosemarie will keep the biological and geological specimens and likely sell them to collectors on Limbaugh. The Hummingbird will also give her the tiny fragment of D'vor tech and some money. Jillian lets Bishop negotiate and tells him to let Rosemarie feel like she made out very well but she's a terrible negotiator and before Jillian knows it Bishop's ripped Rosemarie off and she's happily agreed to a tiny amount of compensation. She feels bad about this but lets it lie.
Volkova's not willing to have an innocent be taken advantage of like that and bulls her way into Rosemarie's quarters to give her a good chunk of Volkova's personal stash of cash. It's a truly decent gesture that's sullied by Volkova's general lack of social skills and she gives Rosemarie a fright more than anything else.
A route to Vishnu is plotted and both ships sail past the Dobbs Habitat, keeping well away from it. Jillian keeps reading the captain's journal and is gobsmacked to find Nanda Reddy's name in it! She was apparently a xenobiologist on the Leary and although there's no description given the name is unlikely to be a coincidence given their observations about her. She calls Bishop and they ask Rosemarie what else she knows about Nanda. Rosemarie doesn't know her very well but she knows that Nanda has been here pretty much from the beginning of the Dobbs Habitat. She has her own ship that no one else is allowed to use -- from her description it's the deceptively ratty one -- and is often gone for extended periods of time.
The Dragon and Hummingbird turn around and burn space rubber back to the Dobbs Habitat. Keeping their distance Jillian scans and finds that Nanda's ship isn't there and so they continue on to the Leary. Jillian estimates where Nanda's ship is likely to be from where it was heading when she saw it and where Volkova found Nanda. After a few hours they find it, well hidden just inside a hole in the Leary's hull. Malcolm and Neet pull their ships in close and Malcolm calls Nanda on what he assumes is her suit's frequency but gets no response.
Jillian and Neet suit up and decide to go looking for her in the structure. Jillian takes the lead and Neet follows, both of them unarmed. As they float through the ship Jillian keeps talking over the comms to reassure Nanda that they're not going to hurt her. Nanda eventually makes her appearance and talks to Jillian. The captain eventually convinces her that the Dragon and Hummingbird are friendly, and Nanda cautiously comes onto the Hummingbird.
Malcolm makes some tea and everyone has a conversation. Nanda admits that she is indeed one of the original crew of the Leary. They had found the Wyrm system and some of their people had managed to set up some equipment to communicate with the aliens, though with difficulty. There was another alien ship in the system that was keeping its distance from the Leary. The Wyrms insisted that it, too, was friendly, though cautious. The Leary spent almost a year there, plotting out possible jump paths, sampling the system, and getting to know the Wyrm.
When the D'vor suddenly attacked the Wyrms the Leary did its best to protect them. It was large enough to stand up to the beating it received for a while despite not being specifically designed for combat. Eventually, though, it was obvious that it wasn't going to win. Badly damaged and with many of its crew dead or missing an emergency jump to a previously plotted system was reluctantly made. A decently-sized colony of Wyrm and some of their technology was onboard when they jumped. When they appeared in the Vishnu system their systems were badly enough damaged that they couldn't tell it was occupied by humans.
When a D'vor ship jumped into the system behind them they thought that it had "drafted" on their jump, perhaps the first of several. With no way of fighting off another invasion force they decided to abandon the crippled ship, setting its drives to overload and explode and hopefully take the D'vor ship with the Leary and cut whatever link they'd left to the Wyrm system. Escape pods were hastily set up to head to the closest planet, a gas giant, and the Leary was left to explode. The Hummingbird realize that the D'vor ship Nanda mentions was likely the Iof but keep this to themselves.
Sheltered from detection by the strong magnetic field of the gas giant Brahma the humans and Wyrm built a base on its moon, Gold. Once they'd gotten settled they worked on getting a ship ready to explore the system. The Wyrms volunteered to go first and their ship was never heard from again. The humans then cobbled together a ship of their own from their escape pods and sent it off. Nanda was one of two humans on that mission. They were relieved to be found by a human navy ship but things went terribly wrong when they were harshly interrogated for reasons she doesn't know. She eventually managed to escape and stole a ship. She thought that she'd avoided the navy but they just let her think that and when she approached the base on Gold they showed up and destroyed the base.
Nanda was apparently presumed dead in the attack but managed to escape and go to a second base that was in the process of being set up as added insurance. There are now less than twenty humans left from an original crew that numbered in the thousands. Although they don't trust the society of the system at all they do want to find out what's going on and Nanda's living on the Dobbs Habitat as a spy, getting information from Omenand about they system and cluster.
The Hummingbird, in return, reveal that the Homeworld Office for the Acquisition of Xenotechnology is corrupt and evil and that their influence seems to be spreading into the navy. They also tell her of the Wyrm ship and Wyrms that they found on the von Däniken platform, both of which are in safe keeping with "friends".
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Bishop's Bedpost Notch Count: 0 (running total: 17)
Jillian's Bedpost Notch Count: 0 (and likely to stay that way)
Malcolm's Bedpost Notch Count: 0 (running total: 1)
Volkova's Bedpost Notch Count: 0 (running total: 3)