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.