Month: October 2022

The crew of the Sparrow accompany the Concord strike force back to Bauble. Along with a squad of 8 marines and a team of 3 techs, they cautiously make their way through the vault and sweep the tunnels beyond. Whatever had been occupying the complex is gone. Plasma scorched walls, piles of organic ash, and signs of equipment having been mounted in places are the only traces of an External presence. A few shards of a shattered 3D are found among some fragments of human (or mechalus) cybertech. These are taken back to Lison for the Concord techs to analyse.

Joseph has made arrangements with a t’sa physician to go into cryosleep. He will give it a little more time, just in case a lead emerges; otherwise Hadley has been given instructions.

Wayne finally gets his ghost-hunting trip to Mindara Station. TJ, a marine sergeant who is curious about the rumours, accompanies them. He brings three recruits, ostensibly as a training exercise. Aboard, they find the supernatural trappings serve to mask the presence of a group of klicks. Worse, they discover that a human turncoat, Lt Tuslow, has been supplying the enemy with sensitive Concord data. After a protracted firefight and some tinkering with the environmental controls, the klicks are downed, the traitor apprehended, and the station secured. Cinque acquires some new old toys. Conrad claims “salvage” on Tuslow’s personal yacht, the Star Skimmer. Veil sends in reinforcements, allowing the Sparrow to return to Lison.

Gus gives a presentation to the government’s archival division. With a little help from Cinque, she is offered first refusal on a security contract. Kerri gets a promotion to replace the department head who has suddenly decided to retire.

Cinque undergoes intensive pilot training through Concord.

Still in Joseph’s suite, a call comes in… from Kerri Lansing. She offers a deal to keep the crew’s good name intact, which is reluctantly accepted. From her, they learn that Ysala Rho had already visited the vault. Joseph reveals that his condition has worsened. He will stay in Tribon while Hadley goes to Bauble with the others.

The vault is swiftly located. Unfortunately, its contents have already been looted. The crew do find a gearwerk, thought to belong to Ysala Rho, which they rescue. More unsettling is the discovery of two klick artefacts, along with evidence of a potential klick installation nearby.

They hightail it back to Lison and inform Ambassador Cynthia Veil at the embassy in Tribon. She makes arrangements for a strike force to depart for Bauble the following day. The crew agree to accompany the expedition and proceed to make preparations and get some rest. Conrad arranges a safety deposit box with the local branch of a Bluefall-headquartered bank. He also convinces Sasha to stay behind with Joseph this time.

While out dining on Hughes Island, the crew meet Joseph Gallagher with his minder, Hadley Mazon. Joseph suffers from Lawkin’s Syndrome, a rare genetic disorder that causes the body to degenerate, ironically triggered by rejection of the standard gene therapies used to prolong human life. His destination is also Oberon, where he hopes to recover funds his father left in a secure vault before the revolt over a century ago. It’s a long shot, but the only one he has left. He contracts the Sparrow and its crew to aid him.

On Lison, Conrad catches up with a few acquaintances. After an unproductive meeting between Joseph and Kerri Lansing, a government data administrator, he suggests a more clandestine approach. Gus rummages around in Kerri’s department’s systems and inserts a new appointment into her morning schedule.

The next day, Cinque, Conrad, and Gus meet Kerri again. This does result in a tenuous proposition, involving the retirement of the department head. Afterwards, however, they descend to the basement, locate the off-grid archival system, extract the required data, and hastily exit before security lock the building down.

Back at the hotel, Joseph confirms this is all the information he had hoped for, including the vault’s location and passcodes. Gus discovers Kerri had accessed the records on two previous occasions.

Starrising in Aegis, Conrad receives a message from Sam, in which she is being arrested by the Thuldans. The message is over two months old.

The Sparrow lands on Haven 6 and the crew rush to Alloy. After being filled in, he sends them to Haven 23, where Ahab agrees to arrange a meeting with a Thuldan official.

The following day, they meet with Vice-Administrator Abraham Montague Augstine on Filtrane. A deal is struck and both sides get to work. Conrad brings Alan up to speed and asks him to provide a sanitised version of the research data recovered from the lab beneath Islvych.

A day later, the crew return to Filtrane, hand over the data, and eventually leave with Sam and a favour owed to the vice-administrator. Back in chez Gus, they ask So’ledrei to join them ASAP as his name was accidentally dropped by Sam during the handover.

When he arrives, they recount events. He says he will get a new identity from someone he knows. Gus explains that she has taken over Ayla Vych-Taron’s funding of the railroad.

Sam is disappointed when she learns that Conrad is leaving so soon and asks to accompany him as she doesn’t feel safe staying on Bluefall. Mayhem invites everyone out for a meal.

Arriving in Lucullus, the crew dock at Highport. They go searching for Mayhem’s contact, Julius, in the dock pubs. A rather drunken Rigunmor in Heavy Metals mistakes Wayne for someone else and tells them about a “secret base” in Vethril, where enslaved “Reds” are being exploited. Conrad makes friendly with the locals. Mayhem falls prey to a local con artist. Cinque and Wayne go shopping to pick up a few essentials. Yala draws glares and whispers from passersby, prompting Conrad to ask her to stay aboard the Sparrow with Mayhem. Captain Bradley, owner of The Wheelhouse, pings Conrad to say their contact has arrived.

Julius explains they’ve shown up long after most of the shipments have been sent. The only one left has unreasonable restrictions that others have balked at, including a bond of 60k they must hand over, to be returned along with their fee upon delivery. Undaunted, the crew pay for the privilege of delivering the goods to Station S7-508B29 in Exile.

A single jump later, the Sparrow finds the station unresponsive. Boarding it, they discover the inhabitants have succumbed to an airborne necrotoxin. Digging deeper it is revealed that a vessel (possibly Inseer) docked shortly before the crew perished, though no one came aboard. VoidCorp had constructed the remote station as a staging post to manufacture Compound CH32eF45. This was to be delivered to Walin III, where it would annihilate the ecosystem and render the planet uninhabitable.

With due care, the station is plundered of data and weapons, then set to self-destruct. As the crew watch the fireworks, a message is received from SK, who has just starrisen into the system and is somewhat unhappy with the situation. The Sparrow starfalls for Aegis before the LKA-444 gets near enough to express his displeasure less verbally.