Midgard: A world unto itself



Midgard is often welcomed in lightly populated fringe territories as they
are willing to trade advanced technologies for local products
at a much better price than most corporate interests.



During the chaotic, warring-states period prior to the formation of the Federation, one man had an idea. He proposed to design and create a mobile space station capable of travelling interstellar distances while housing the population of a fair-sized city in style and comfort. He believed that the root cause of all war was population pressure, and the competetion for scarce, easily accessible resources. He theorized that his idea would alleviate issues of population pressure. If one of the stations became too crowded it would simply construct a new habitat and divide, much like cellular reproduction. Likewise he thought that mobilizing the population would eliminate resource competition because there would no longer be any permanent territorial claims. If there was a dispute about resources, it would always be easier to move to another nearby source then to fight over one.

This idea seemed to resonate with some fraction of the population and enough investors and volunteers came forward to actually begin construction on the first of these tremendous mobile habitats. Christened Midgard by its predominantly human inhabitants, it was the first and, ths far, only one of its kind as several years before its construction was completed the Federation came in to being and the problem that the project was started to combat faded away.

At over 25km in length, the Midgard is still the largest mobile artificial structure ever created. With a permanent population numbering over twenty million, it is more populous than many frontier worlds. It spends its time leisurely travelling from star system to star system, some inhabitated, some not.

Midgard collects most of its raw materials from the millions of uninhabited systems, when calling on settled worlds they generally refrain from everything except trade. Midgard has its own manufacturing facilities and is essentially self-sufficient. It engages in interstellar commerce to acquire luxury or specialty goods and to supplement its own resources.

Because of the permissive legal environment, and sovereign status, Midgard is also something of a smugglers haven. There is little in the way of commerce tax and Midgard only prohibits the sale of slaves and dangerous biological material.

Other species common to fringe space

Nagano: The Nagano are a shy, secretive people by nature. Their homeplanet was originally discovered by over a thousand years ago by Svesh raiders. The Nagano were subject to constant attacks from space and were unable to respond effectively with their limited technology. No other galactic race was willing to trade with them until they were finally able to present proof of the raids to a Quwern trading convoy.

Taking pity on the less-developed aliens, the Quwern trader not only negotiated a lucrative arms deal, he also returned to his homeworld and was responsible for pushing his government to create diplomatic ties to the Nagano homeworld.

Because of their intial treatment by the galactic community, the Nagano tend to feel isolated and mistrustful of aliens, but they make an exception for the Quwern, whom they consider trusted allies.

Roegaren: The Roegaran people evolved on a small rocky moon orbiting a massive gas giant. They are a small, hardy people that are comfortable in a wide variety of environments.

They are also extremely gregarious, the planetary system where they developed was first discovered by a human survey vessel that initiated first contact per Federation guidelines.
Roegarans are extremely curious by nature and often pursue careers in science and exploration. They are highly sought-after for service on long-term expeditions because their friendly demeanor and desire for new knowledge makes them valuable crewman.

Unfortunately the fall of the old Federation had unpleasant repercussions for them as they relied of the Federation Fleet for military security. Within a few years of the collapse their homeworld was conquered by a petty Risanthan warleader named Dicunna.

Vaskri: The Vaskri are renowned diplomats, scholars, and philosophers. Unlike almost all other intelligent species, they did not develop a secondary channel of communication through facial expression and body language. To compensate, the Vaskri depend on tonality of speech and the extensive vocabulary of their langauges to convey context and emotion. The most common Vaskri langauge has a corpus of almost ten million distinct words, even more when conjugation and alternate word forms are included. Normal Vaskri speech is described as musical and their songs and poetry are revered by most other species as the height of beauty.

In contrast, Vaskri philosophy is very similar in nature to ancient human stoicism, or even zen. The universe is described as an unthinking, unfeeling, uncomprehendable enormity. The only thing that the individual has control over is their means of responding to events. To guide these responses, the Vaskri have developed what they call the "Four Pillars" to help them. This philosophy has gained some traction outside the Vaskri community and is widely studied even by non-adherents.

Missing in Action: UNS Lexington



The ill-fated UNS Lexington in orbit around Tiferet,
just beyond the Mannerheim Docks where she was
constructed. Capture taken July 17th, 3102 as she
departed on her shakedown cruise.

The UNS Lexington was a Toulon-class light carrier design commisioned in 3104.
The Toulon-class was a new, modern design implemented during the height of the Orion Cluster Union's military build-up and it represented a new step forward in capital chip design.

The Toulons were created to serve as the centerpiece of so-called fast action grous. These small, agile task forces were intended to move quickly and stealthily deep into disputed or hostile territory and create utter chaos in enemy rear areas by disrupting logistical systems, destroying supply depots and construction capacity, and creating an element of fear and uncertainty in the enemy population.

Unfortunately, the Hecatan penetration of the Orion military establishment was almost complete. Of the 17 Toulon-class carriers, eleven had their deployment orders countermanded so took no part in the brief conflict and five were attacked and neutralized in their berths. Only the Lexington was able to leave dock.

She was destined never to reach her assigned patrol station though. When Hecatan intelligence learned of the Lexington's escape, they assigned a full third of their 8th fleet (70 combatant ships ranging from frigates to battleships) to track down the Lexington and her four escorts.

The Hecatan's followed the Lexington to the Cygna Ramillies system. Cygna Ramillies is an astronomical oddity, a binary star system that had a stable planetary system collided with another single star system only fairly recently (in astronomical terms). The resulting trinary star system is almost completely covered with an unusually dense asteroid field filled with ferrous metals and radioactives. Despite the wealth and rarity of the mineral deposits, the inherent instability of the star system makes exploitation difficult so Cygna Ramillies is only home so a few small, unlicensed colonies and itinerent freebooters.

The Hecatan forces went in and stalked the Orion ships for almost three weeks before finally claiming victory and departing. They left behind a heavy cruiser and four destroyers as total losses and eleven other ships in the fleet were damaged to varying degrees, including the flagship Durandel which was crippled by a collision with an Orion fightercraft.

The only sensor records released of the battle to confirm the destruction of the Lexington was somewhat inconclusive and its authenticity has been called into question. Some people still claim that the Lexington escaped destruction and elected not to return to Tiferet to be dismantled.

Session 5, part 3: Chaos at Toro Station

The party descended back to the lower levels of the power station and entered the tram terminal. It was a small, unfurnished room with two sets sliding doors leading into the tram car. The doors were now closed and the display on the wall indicated that the tram was at the far end.

When they had first realized that Vronune was gone, Forrester had accessed his tracking device to get a fix on his location, it appeared that he had split off on the crew deck and taken the tram while the rest of them had ascended to the command level. His locator tag currently showed that he was 17km away to the west, which put him right in the main facility.

With nothing else to do, the party broke into the small control booth at the head of the tunnel and hit the call button to bring the tram car back to them. They knew they couldn't take the risk of walking through the tunnel on foot, and the submersible wouldn't be any better, they needed to get over there as soon as possible.

Within a few moments, the tram car arrived and the two doors slid open with a pleasant chime. Hetzer was the first one in, performing a perfunctory sweep with his SMG before sitting down on one of the padded benches and removing his helmet.

"Smells like someone shat in 'ere." he declared.

"No," said Fang, looking around warily. "It smells like someone died in here."

The group froze then and scanned the car more carefully, Hetzer included. He almost didn't register the tiny movement he noticed underneath the bench opposite him until it was too late. A small metal object, no larger than his forearm, shot out from the shadows under the bench straight for his face.

"Corrin' 'ell!" He shrieked as he batted it aside with his weapon. Jumping to his feet, he drew a bead on the object and tried to keep his hands from shaking.

The object came to rest a few meters away in the center of the floor, it was slicked chrome with a strange fluid quality, approximately the size and shape of a football but with a mass of wires extruding from one end varying in thickness from that of a human hair to an inch or more in diameter. It remained motionless for only and instant, then it seemed to shift unnaturally and the wires, acting as limbs of a sort, lifted it off the ground and launched it back at the group.

As it hurtled through the air, the solid metal of the casing seemed to split like an over-boiled egg and more questing steel tentacles emerged.

"HUAAGHH!" screamed Hetzer as he threw himself over backwards trying to avoid the flying metal squid. The entire party opened fire reflexively, most of them missed and simply tore holes in the center bulkhead of the car, but one of Tobey's well-aimed gyroc shots struck it dead center. The little explosive rocket detonated and the metal creature landed on the ground at Hetzer's feet, seeming to come apart on impact and settled into nothing more than a pile of featureless grey dust.

For a moment there was silence, then everyone was talking at once.

"What the fuck was that?"

"Cor, me ass 'urts!"

During the pandemonium, Shik grabbed Forrester's elbow and steered him away from the rest.

"I-know-this, could-be-precursor-tech. Nanotechnology, very-powerful, very-dangerous. Could-still-be-functioning. Self-repairing, might-come-back-together."

"Nanotechnology? Are you saying its some kind of ancient drone?" When Shik nodded Forrester looked pensively back at the pile of dust. "This must have something to do with the Baculum. Srekank comes here with a precursor device that's supposed to interface with nanotech, then we've got an accident or something and now we get attacked by a nanotech drone."

The rest of the party had fallen silent, listening to Forrester's musing, Doc' Merrill asked the question on every else's mind; "So, what do we do now?"

"We can't just leave this be. We need to get over to the main base and find out exactly what's going on. This is bigger than we knew, if this thing of Cyrus' can actually activate precursor nanotech we need to get it away from people like Srekank." He refrained from going into details about why that was so, but everyone knew, with the ability to control self-repairing and self-replicating machines, there wasn't a force in the galaxy that could stand up to him, he'd go from gangster to emperor in no time.

After a moment contemplating the implications, Forrester shook himself. "First things first, we need to get that off the tram," he said, pointing at the little pile of dust.

"I see a custodial closet out there, probably a vacuum in there," Tobey said.

While he went about collecting up the pile of dust, the rest of the party more thoroughly checked the car. They didn't find any more metal squids, but they did find some major blood splatters near the door of the second compartment. Doc' Merrill knelt down and checked it out.

"Arterial blood...a lot of it too. However got hit is almost certainly dead."

"What happened?" Asked Cassandra.

"Well, I'm not really a forensics guy, but if I had to guess I would say at least one person got cut up pretty bad. The spray patterns are more indicative of laceration and deep puncture wounds, rather than gunshots."

"Is it Human, or Svesh?" asked Fang.

"Definitely not Svesh, they have a much higher iron content to their blood, so it tends to look more orange than red. Might not be human but I couldn't say for certain without a biochemical analysis, which I don't feel like doing."

After they removed the remains of the alien drone, and satisfied themselves that there were no more in hiding, they settled in and sent the tram zooming back through the tunnel towards the main facility.

After a brief and uneventful tram ride, they slid to a halt and the doors whispered open onto the main tram station. The party spread out and checked for any hostiles. They were in a large room subdivided into several smaller sections by waist-high railings. One part was set up as a cafeteria with several tables an chairs, another was a waiting lounge with several low slung couches, the rest was mostly bare space leading to a large set of double doors. SmartDisplays on the walls indicated that there was some sort of security alert, no alarm sounded but everywhere around the room pulsed dull red warning lights. Beneath the warning lights scrolled emergency instructions; security personnel receive instructions from internal communication, all others proceed to emergency shelter areas.

They found no one in their sweep, but they did see evidence of a firefight. The walls ceiling, as well as the supporting columns scattered about the room were covered in pits and pockmarks from bullet impacts. There were also several blood splatters and trails around the room that could have been drag marks.

Fang knelt down and examined the splatters, his keen eyes detected a pattern to them invisible to the rest of the party. This had been a running battle, he followed the trail to the main double doors. He stepped through into the corridor beyond. He was in a long hallway stretching both left and right, the walls were bare metal. His ears swivelled on top of his head as he registered the sounds coming from off in the distance to his right; gunfire, shouting, explosions, battle. He sniffed the air tentatively and picked up a trace of what he was looking for, Svesh. He turned to the left and began to stride purposefully down the hall, the rest of the party following behind.

"What are these gouges on the wall?" asked Cassandra, eyeing several strange geometric patterns cut into the metal walls. The walls themselves were a dull gunmetal grey except within the centimeter deep cuts, there the metal took on a mirror-bright finish that was almost painful to look at.

"I'm not sure. The shape looks familiar though, but I can't quite place it," said Forrester.

"It-is-a-number-spiral," interjected Shik definitively.

"A what?" asked Tobey.

"Number-spiral, sequence-of-numbers-that-always-describe-perfect spiral."

Forrester snapped his fingers, "Yes, a Fibonacci pattern." He frowned, "What the hell is a Fibonacci pattern doing cut into the walls?"

"Weirdin' me out, nobody touch nuffing'" spat Hetzer.

Meanwhile, Fang had been steadily advancing down the corridor, the rest of the group rushed to catch up. As they rounded the L-junction at the end they all skidded to a stop. In front of them they found Vronune, lying face down on the ground. His left arm was gone just below the elbow and there were several obvious puncture wounds through his back. He lay in a small puddle of orange blood but the injuries appeared to have stopped bleeding, he seemed to be stone dead.

Tobey moved to go check the body, but Fang grasped his wrist. "No, look" he said, indicating with his snout the body.

Tobey looked again and saw what was troubling the alien, several areas around the dead Svesh's body appeared to be splattered with molten metal, the spots appeared to be simple specks of debris but he stepped back involuntarily as one of them shivered and expanded slightly as he watched.

Fang switched his visor on thermal imaging and examined the erstwhile corpse, the internal temperature of the body was almost 40 degrees Celsius, well above a Svesh body temperature. He switched on the millimeter-band radar and looked again, inside the unmoving body he saw strange returned, it looked for all the world like there was a partially formed metallic structure inside the body, much of the torso was being filled with a delicate lattice of some kind of metal and several smaller tendrils were beginning to extend down the arms and legs and up through the spinal column into the head. He froze an image and sent it to the rest of the team.

"Holy shit, what is going on! What is that stuff?" Demanded Tobey.

"Whatever it is, I think we should destroy it before it finishes whatever it's doing," said Forrester, the party stepped into a makeshift line and unleashed a volley of gunfire that reduced the former gang boss into a riddled lump of meat. Then Forrester stepped forward and tossed a pair of incendiary grenades on the body and watched as it was immolated by heat strong enough to convert part of the bare cement floor into a gaseous state.

They stood still for a moment and watched. Vronune had been an evil man, without question, and he had almost certainly betrayed them, maybe everything he had said to them had been an elaborate trap. But now he was dead, and what would have become of him if they hadn't happened across his remains when they had. Would he have stood back up, if he had, would that have been him, or something else?

Shaking his head to clear it of these macabre thoughts, Forrester turned back to the main corridor facing towards the sound of combat. "Let's go, we need to figure out what's happening over there. If Srekank is anywhere to be found, that's where he'll be."

The party fell into a rough tactical order and moved off down the long dark hallway, they passed a large cargo bay with stacks of supply crates and several stowed exo-loaders. The passageway widened and across from the entrance to the bay was a set of cargo doors, they padded up to the door and keyed the opening. The blast doors irised open and inside they saw a circular landing pad with a small, angular spacecraft perched up on dainty landing legs.

The pad was completely enclosed , there was a wide circular bay door at the apex of the ceiling and there was hydraulic machinery all along the sides.

"This must be the main point of entry," said Forrester. "The landing pad rises to the surface, the ship lands, then it comes back down." He turned and examined the ship, "I don't recognize that, but it looks like a yacht to me. I'll bet good money it belongs to our friend Srekank."

Hetzer and Shik approached the lower hull cautiously. The entry ramp was closed, they checked it for booby traps and when they were satisfied, they lowered the ramp and checked the internal console.

The Naismith MkIIIc is one of the most prestigious
and expensive luxury yachts in existence. Not only is it
very well-appointed, it also boasts a comprehensive
defense suite and incredible speed and cruising endurance

"It's on lockdown. Give us a bit an' we'll have 'er openin' up like a cheap floozy." Hetzer claimed. He and Shik put there heads together and began to rip open the small panel, they inserted a bewildering array of electrical leads and computer spikes into the internal wiring, all the while typing away madly at one of several computer pads they had between them. Finally, after some minutes, they began to close everything up and the entry hatch opened.

Inside they found a richly appointed personal transport that was a good deal warmer and drier than the base climate. The floors were covered in a strange fiber that shifted and turned underfoot much like sand would have, the bulkheads were swathed in loose, billowing fabric and all of the immensely luxurious furniture sat low to the ground. They inspected the entire ship, but found no one aboard.

"I think we can confirm who the owner is," said Tobey.

"Agreed, we need to lock this down, this ship might be the only other way of this planet. If we close off his escape route he'll have to deal with us." Forrester said, turning to look at Shik and Hetzer.

Done, this-is-done. We-have-changed-the-entry-code, and-introduced-a 32kbit-encryption-scheme." He held up his small computer pad, "without-the-algorithms-stored-here, no-one-will-get-aboard."

Forrester nodded and turned back to the main corridor. There was nothing else on the ship they needed, and they certainly weren't going anywhere before they got what they'd come for.  They resumed their movement towards the main base. The sounds of combat grew steadily louder until finally they found themselves standing at a large pressure lock. This was no doubt put in place as a safety measure in case either the tram or landing pad had been breached, they could be sealed off and the rest of the base would be safe from flooding.

Hetzer stepped forward gingerly and checked the control panel. "Base is in general lockdown, I'll 'afta break it to get the door open," he said as he get to work. The encryption was not nearly as sophisticated as on the little yacht in the landing bay and within seconds he stepped back and the doors rumbled open.

The party stood staring into the darkness beyond tensely. Finally, when they seemed to realize there was no immediate danger they relaxed. Cassandra and Tobey stepped forward to shine their handlights into the other corridor when a piercing shriek made them freeze in their tracks. Out of the shadows loped a creation out of all of their deepest nightmares. It might have once been human, but no longer, it sprinted towards them on unnaturally long legs that now bent back the wrong way and two arms tipped with two foot long metal claws reach out for them, the remnants of the poor mans hands still dangling from where they sprouted. From its back sprouted long thin tendrils of metal that wavered around like so many antennae, seeming to taste the air for evidence of prey to slaughter. The face was mercifully covered by a delicate lattice of wires and metal filigree, but when it's mouth opened a light shined through from inside that chilled something inside all of them.

Confronted with the monstrosity in its full malignant glory, both Tobey Cassandra simply froze in catatonic fright, but lucky for them the rest of the group reacted to their peril. Doc' Merrill's shotgun boomed out a devastating tattoo as the thumb-sized slugs punched straight through the creature for seemingly no effect. Forrester's SMG burped off a long burst and it burst through the dessicated flesh of the man-thing in some places, or raises puffs of evil-looking grey dust in others. The creature shrieked again in pain or anger non could tell. The banshee wail hammered at the very sanity of the party, it felt like their ears were bleeding, like they had broken glass in their eyes, but still they kept firing.

Tobey, finally reacting to their plight, dove to the side and tackled Cassandra out of the way. The onrushing creature flew directly over them, landing on the far side and skittering to a halt. It turned and lashed out with a tentacle, connecting with Forrester cleanly and sending him sprawling back to crash into the far wall, a spiderweb of cracks on his breastplate to attest to the massive strength of the abomination.

Hetzer knew what had to happen, a strange calmness overtook him. He dropped his SMG to the ground and casually reached down to his belt for the mono-wire grenade dangling there. He had the uncanny feeling that this moment was preordained, that it had been inevitable since long before he was born. He was merely a spectator as he watched himself flick off the first safety from the grenade with practiced ease. A momentary confusion furrowed his brow as he raised the explosive to throwing position and examined the creature as it leapt and dashed around. Then he smiled to himself as another of Doc' Merrill's shotgun blasts tore a small, grenade-sized hole in the exact center of the creatures torso. He reared back and closed his eyes. Thinking about his life as it had been before, and how it would be after occupied him for the eternities it took for his arm to slowly move forward, the grenade released at the exact instant at the center of the universe. He watched it as it languidly flowed through the air, spinning lazily.

Hetzer cocked his head to the side, he noticed that he no longer heard the cries of his companions, nor the report of their weapons, he couldn't even hear the horrifying screech of the monster. Instead he heard a single note. A perfect, pure tone of promise that was both comforting and awe-inspiring all at once. It rose from the depths of nothing to reach a single, angelic peak, then it fell again in perfect time and harmony. He decided that this sound must be the very voice of god, telling him that he belonged, that he was welcome, that he was loved.

Then, the grenade struck, it went right into the hole at the monster's center and stuck fast. His vision blackened around the edges as everything seemed to speed up at once. He fell to his feet, the sound of his helmet telemetry alarm blaring in his ears; raising and falling.

"FOOK ME, I 'IT IT!" he crowed in astonishment.

The horror seemed not to react at all to its impending demise as the timer in the grenade counted down from five. Instead it vaulted across the threshold and bowled into Tobey and Cassandra as they tried to flee. Both of the were knocked to the ground and the thing loomed over them.

Hetzer looked on, wracked by a sudden and inexplicable feeling that any other human would recognize as guilt as he realized he would be partly responsible for the death of his companions. He had little time to further examine this random attack of conscience as Cassandra, looking even more frail and innocent trapped beneath the menacing figure of the monstrosity, lifted her hands palms out and shouted at the top of her lungs. There was an audible crack as it seemed the very fabric of reality frayed, a filament of utter blackness extended from the center of the singularity and brushed against the creature. It flew back as if shot from a cannon and crashed into the far wall.

Mono-Wire Grenades are commonly banned from use
in interplanetary treaties because of the massive
tissue damage they inflict.

Just then the grenade went off and the abomination disappeared in a tremendous explosion. Nothing remained but a thin cloud of grey dust illuminated in the flickering overhead lights, slowly settling to the ground.

The party gathered around the girl as she tried to sit up. Great, shuddering sobs wracked her small body. The group of hardened mercenaries looked at each other in wide-eyed confusion as they realized that they didn't know how to react to a crying girl.

From around the corner, a small orange ball with a tiny green animal inside rolled out hesitantly. When it saw there was no imminent danger it rolled further in and collided with Cassandra's bowed head. The girl sat up with a start, then sighed in delight and gathered the little creature up in her arms and hugged it tight.

Session 5, part 2: Bringing down the Jamming Field

The interior of the cave was jagged and covered with an unusual pattern of tiny spines and straitions, perhaps analogous to coral. Once the party travelled a few meters in the narrow tunnel opened up slightly. They were still required to travel single file, but they could no longer reach out and touch both sides of the tunnel as they did.

The party continued deeper and deeper until finally they came to te first fork, one tunnel begin an ascent up and to the right, the other continuing down. They paused momentarily, Fang cycled his visor through several different modes.

"The water coming up from below is deeper, and there are slightly elevated radiation levels, not dangerous yet, but noticable."

Forrester considered this for a moment, "It's possible this tunnel is hooked into the coolant exhaust system for a fusion reactor. If so there should be a maintanence access hatch somewhere ahead of us. We should follow the heat downward."

"Let's just be careful not to get drawn in to the turbines, though. That'd ruin my day." Interjected Tobey.

"Turbines? I don't wanna go into a turbine." said Cassandra plaintively.

"Well, then you shoulda stayed back with yer corrin' brother 'ey."

Forrester was only half-listening to the banter as he drifted forward. Fang came up beside him and they both peered into the darkness ahead of them. Fang let out a low growl and Forrester involuntarily reached for his weapon.

Before they consciously realized what was happening, a massive shape came hurtling out of the darkness, they saw only parts of it illuminated by the beams of their handlights, its flesh was a semi-translucent white with patches of some kind of chitinous material. The entire party opened fire instantly, having distributed the supply of Gyroc weapons. The tiny rockets flew out to meet the massive creature as it lunged towards Forrester.

 

The Serradine world-ocean has not
been studied but it is known to
be home to a thriving ecosystem.

The first rounds began impacted on the monstrosity's body but Forrester could tell that it wouldn't stop the thing dead. He lunged to the side as fast as he could in the bulky environment suit. The creature barreled into him with the force of a small truck, but he had narrowly avoided the wicked sixty centimeter long barb that had been aimed at his chest. He looked on in horror as the vicious looking spine suddenly snapped open and revealed that it was actually some kind of beak or probiscis.

The attack was over as suddenly as it had begun, having taken a half dozen wounds from the gunfire, the creature simply reversed and fled back down the darkened tunnel in the blink of an eye.

"Is everyone alright?" asked Forrested, not entirely sure that he was alright. He paused to take stock of himself as the rest of the party responded; "No problems here," "We're fine," "WHAT THE CORRIN' FUCK WAS THAT!"

"Ok, we'll keep going, I think we hurt that thing, hopefully it will avoid us now." Forrester said, allowing Fang to take the lead.

As they continued down, they passed several more branches, always following the heat signature. Soon they found that the tunnels rock walls gave way to metal. They also began to detect a subtle current pushing against them, they were now in the cooling ring of a large fusion reactor. The exhaust pipe they found themselves in began to curve back upwards and as it approached the vertical, they saw the massive spinning blades of the turbine above them, along with the maintenance hatch about halfway up. Fighting the increasing pressure of the current, they filtered up into the main heat exchanger and clipped on to a railing around the access door. Hetzer settled in to break into the door but he soon found that it lacked all security features and he simply opened it. Inside was a small lock, big enough for two or three at a time.

Despite the many different engineering philosophies
throughout the galaxy, all fusion power plants must adhere to
certain basic design restrictions, like a robust cooling mechanism.

Hetzer and Tobey went in first to secure the interior. Once they cycled through they found themselves in an empty room crowded with pipes and conduits going off in every direction, they searched thoroughly and found no security measures except for a simple laser tripwire at the rooms only door and a broken surveillance camera in the corner. They called every else in and spread out to double-check the room.

As the rest of the party began to filter in, Hetzer went to the door, careful to avoid the laser tripwire, opened it and peeked his head out. He looked left intially and from behind him he heard a shout of alarm.

"Hey!"

Ducking back quickly, Hetzer flinched as several rounds spanged off the metal piping around the doorway. Thinking on his feet, Hetzer grabbed a grenade from his belt and, without arming it, tossed it around the corner into the hallway.

"FRAG OUT!" he shouted as he heard the small explosive bounce down the metal grated floor.

Kinassa Phase IV Security Armor is designed to
provide ballistic protection to critical areas
while remaining light and comfortable.

From out in the hall came a terrified shriek and the sound of rapidly retreating footsteps. Hetzer chuckled to himself and rushed out as soon as he heard the man run back around the corner. He scooped up the grenade and decided he would keep this one for good luck. As he came around the corner he briefly locked eyes with his opponent, a rather timid looking man in stock light security armor, then shot him in the face.

The rest of the party fanned out and began to search the area, alert for any additional hostiles. They were on an elevated platform about five meters above the primary engineering section of a medium size power plant. In front of them rose an array of large metallic cylinders, fusing chambers for the Deuterium and Hydrogen fuel. ALong the walls were a myriad of other, unidentifiable support machines. To the left were several doors and a short hallway.  Forrester and Shik began examining the reactor itself. If this was providing power to the jamming field, then sabotaging the reactor might be the best way to disable it. Meanwhile, the rest of the team set up in positions to cover the only obvious entry points.

As Shik and Forrester descended the ladder to the base of the reactor room, Fang sounded the alarm.

"I hear something! Coming down the hall," he called out over the comm.



The Behrans-92F AMW (Anti-Material Weapon)
is a shoulder-fired electromagnetic accelerator
that fires a 7mm solid ferrous projectile
at speeds in excess of 6,000 mps.

Tobey settled the rifle butt tight into his shoulder, then he closed his eyes and slowly exhaled, allowing his entire body to relax. When he opened his eyes he saw the crosshairs of his scope pointing at the ground near the center of the short hallway. He adjusted his position so the crosshairs rested naturally about halfway up the wall near the inner corner of the corridor.

 Within seconds of this a group of five armed men came rushing around into view. Tobey exhaled again and as the last air left his lungs his sights settled on the midsection of the second man in the line. He depressed the trigger in one slow, smooth motion and absorbed the massive recoil easily, his point of aim barely shifting.

The hypervelocity slug sliced through the warm air of the reactor room and punched right through the light ballistic armor of the target. The hydrostatic shock inflicted by the strike was sufficient to cut the man in half without even slowly the round appreciably. The next three men were directly behind and the railgun shot struck each one of them in turn, killing four men in an instant.

The leader of the group slowed to a stop and turned to survey the carnage behind him. At that instant Fang leapt out of his concealing position and ran up to the man, delivering a precisely aimed blow to the base of the mans spine with his wristblade. The last of the security personnel dropped, dead before he hit the ground.

Fang and Hetzer bounded forward and cleared the hallway, around the L-junction at the end they found an open elevator. The party spread out and cleared the rest of the floor, finding nothing else but a machine shop and several storage areas, plus an emergency staircase leading up. Forrester and Shik clambered back up to join them.

"Alright, we rigged the place to blow, but the radio detonators won't work until we bring down the jamming field."

"Not-want-blow-up-reactor-anyway. Not-until-we-are-far-away, at-least." Added Shik indignantly.

Avoiding the elevator in favor the the staircase, the party began to methodically move up, clearing the station as it went. The second level was given over to crew spaces, they found a console and Hetzer tapped into it, finding that this was a secondary station connected to the main facility some 20km away by a single-car tram. They also learned that this outpost was manned by eight engineers and between four and six security/custodial staff. It appeared that they might have accounted for all the security personnel but they had yet to see any of the engineers.

Cassandra was with Tobey and Fang checking the dormitory when she let out a squeel.

"What!, What do you see?" Asked Tobey urgently, thinking she might have seen one of the missing crew.

"It's sp FLUFFY!" the young girl declared as she lifted up a small, orange plastic ball and snuggled it against her cheek. Inside was a little ball of green fur skittering around erratically and emitting tiny squeeks. Written on a piece of masking tape affixed to the ball was the creatures name "Mr. Future."

"What is that thing?" asked Tobey.

"Lunch," said Fang, with dire purpose.

"No, it's a Trill."

Everyone but Cassandra turned to Doc' Merrill as he strode into the dormitory.

"A Trill? how do you know that."

"My sister's kids had one as a pet a few years ago, they're great for kids because they don't really need much care, but you have to be careful how much they eat because they are self-inducing hermaphrodites, and the normal litter size is between ten and twenty.

"I love him!"

"Give me the morsel." demanded Fang.

Forrester came in then, saw the young girl and the little creature and wisely decided to refrain from comment. Instead he waved the group back towards the stairs.

"Let's get going, the sooner we get up to the command section the sooner we can leave."

The group moved up the stairs cautiously to the top level and they gathered around the closed door.

"Watch this, I'll get them corrin' bastards to hop, see if I don't." Hetzer whispered gleefully. He again removed his lucky grenade from its rightful place on his belt, slipped the heavy door open, and tossed the small device in as hard as he could.

"Fuckin' BOOM!" He shouted unnecessarily.

Much to his dismay, there was no reaction from inside. "Aww, nobody 'ome."

The party moved in and confirmed that, it appeared that the engineers had eluded them, perhaps they had been sent away on the tram as soon as the incursion had been detected.

"This-is-terminal-that-controls-jamming-field." sputtered Shik as he approached a large console occupying a central space in the small command section.

"Good, rip it open and bring it down," replied Forrester. "We need to move fast now, those technicians have probably already warned the main base."

"Not so sure that's going to be a problem," said Tobey absently. "Come take a look at this."

Everyone wandered over to join him at what appeared to be a communication console. On the display was a flickering tri-D image that was heavily distorted by still discernable as a man. The audio was even worse, a constant hash of noise with only occasional flashes of clarity.

"..Explosion...things...help...fucking..arrival...bad..."

"That sounds like trouble," deadpanned Merrill.

"Is that due to the EM field?" asked Forrester, indicating the interference.

"No way, look, its a hardline connection. This gear is good, mist be a problem with their equipment."

As they spoke the display cut out, replaced with a simple holding pattern.

Tobey cocked his head to check the readout, "Transmission terminated at the source," he said, tapping the error code with his finger.

"I-have-it," crowed Shik from behind them. They all turned to see him lifting up a non-descript looking piece of technology about the size of a human head.

"Is that the jamming module?" Asked Tobey.

"Yes-yes, very-advanced, very-valuable-as-salvage, we-take-it, split-evenly." The small alien practically vibrated with excitement. 

"Hey, where's the Svesh?" Asked Cassandra suddenly.

The party looked around and realized that they hadn't seen the cartel boss since the firefight on the bottom level.

"He must have betrayed us somehow. I will gut him and leave him to bleed to death for that," said Fang, his eyes narrowing dangerously. "After I eat the green morsel."

Session 5, part 1: The Still Waters of Serradine IX

The trauma pod is a triumph of medical technology.
Capable of treating virtually any serious injury, its only
drawback is its significant operational cost.

"How is he?"

Doc' Merrill looked up from the display he was monitoring. At the entrance of the medical bay stood Forrester, Cassandra, and Fang. He sat back in his chair and considered his response.

"Well, the tissue damage was extensive, and the Colonel was clinically dead for almost twenty minutes. However, I was able to induce chemical hypothermia on the brain to prevent degradation of the CA1 cells in the Hippocampus." As he spoke, he stood up and began to pace back and forth across the room. "You see, most tissues in the human body are relatively unaffected by clinical death, limbs can be reattached with little permanent damage even hours after separation, but the brain is much more vulnerable. Degradation due to rampant free radical disassociation begins with minutes, unless proper steps are taken to prevent the damage."  Turning back to his audience, he saw that Forrester had a bored look on his face and the other two had left. He sighed. "I managed to get him in the trauma pod quickly enough that no permanent damage should occur. His recovery time might vary but he should be back up in three to five days."

"Good to know Merrill, keep it up." Forrester said as he turned on his heel and strode out. Merrill went back to his display and sat down, grumbling to himself.

"Forrester, you gotta help me."

Forrester stopped and turned to face Hetzer, they stood alone in the corridor that led from medical to the crew spaces.

"What are you talking about?"

"It's the lit'l girl, she's evil. I think she wants to eat me brain or sumfing."

Even for Hetzer, this was a particularly odd thing to say. "What are you talking about, she seems quite nice for a one-of-a-kind genetic experiment.

"To you, but whenever she's around stuff keeps fallin' an' hittin' me on the 'ead."

Forrester chuckled, "You mean you think she's making things fall on you, what have you done to her?"

"Nufing! Only time I ever talked to 'er was at chow when I asked her for the last biscuit."

Knowing there was more to come, Forrester simply waited.

"Ok, Ok, maybe I told 'er I was gonna sell her and 'er lit'l brother back into slavery if she didn't gimme the last biscuit, but that's it, 'onest."

"..."

Forrester turned and walked away without a word.

Fang sat on the extended loading ramp when the bay doors opened, in marched Vronune and half a dozen Svesh thugs guiding a set of massive cargo canisters. Fang jumped to his feet and contacted Forrester,

"They're here, a group of them."

"I'll be right there, don't let them on the ship yet."

Fang dropped to the deck in front of the big cargo crate. Addressing himself to Vronune he said "Wait here, Forrester will be here in a moment."

"Out of my way dog," Vronune replied condescendingly. "We have an agreement and I mean to leave immediately."

"We had an agreement that you would come alone, now you're here with six of your lackey's, what are we to think?" said Forrester as he hurried down the ramp to join Fang.

"These are here merely to load the cargo. You didn't think I would haul all of this myself, did you."

"Well, alright let's talk about that, what's in the cargo containers?"

After a very brief pause Vronune answered, "Mission-critical equipment."

Forrester regarded the Svesh gangster, "...and?"

Vronune grimaced, "The place we are going is called Serradine IX. It is covered almost entirely by deep ocean. I don't have the exact coordinates of the research base and I know that it is hidden by an electromagnetic jamming field generated by a secondary outpost. We will need to locate the jamming station and eliminate it before we can determine the location of our ultimate objective. Because of that, I have brought a small submersible and diving equipment to enable us to find and enter the base"

Forrester smiled broadly, "Ahh, good thinking." He turned to the rest of the group, "Let's get this cargo loaded and secured." He shouted. As the loading recommenced he leaned in closer to Tobey, "Check everything over with a fine-tooth comb. Make sure none of it is sabotaged and any bugs, tracers, spikes, or god-forbid, explosives need to go."

"I'm on it."

Vronune was brought aboard and they settled him into a small cabin near the cargo bay, away from the command section and critical engineering spaces. He rarely left his room and insisted his meals be brought to him. Forrester reciprocated his manners by feeding him a tiny tracking device.

Despite it's perfect temperature and non-toxic atmosphere,
Serradine IX is an unlikely spot for colonization. Because it
lacks dry surface there are very few Photsynthetic lifeforms
and therefore, little free oxygen for respiration.

The party gathered in the drop bay, having spent most of the trip working up the dive gear in a flooded secondary hold. They had transferred the submersible from the main cargo hold here and loaded it into the dropship. It took up most of the smallcraft's carrying capacity so the party would have to find what limited space they could. This meant a relatively sedate insertion so they were hoping that planetside defenses wouldn't be an issue.

After discussing things with Vronune and Captain Saul, it was decided to bring the ship out of warp very close to the planet so they could be down before any possible anti-air defenses could be brought on line. This meant the ship itself would be extremely vulnerable to spaceside defenses, as a ship coming out of warp always needed a few minutes to stabilize its systems before it could intelligently defend itself. This was deemed an acceptable risk, Vronune had informed them that the base relied on remaining undetected for its primary security and he did not believe there would be any orbital defenses.

At drop stations, the group waited anxiously for several minutes as they felt the indescribable sensation of warp fade as the ship re-entered an Einsteinien inertial frame of reference. They breathed a collective sigh of relief as Captain Saul came over the intercom;

"Deep orbit looks clear, no artificial contacts of any kind and I'm not picking up any active tracking systems. The whole western hemisphere is blanketed by the jamming field, I've got Harris doing signal diffusion analysis to get an idea where we need to drop you."

The intercom clicked off for a moment, and they sensed rather than heard the air being evacuated from the bay. Less than a minute later, they felt the deep vibration as the armored hangar door opened beneath them.

"We've got it narrowed done to about a ten square kilometer area, you'll be able to refine it further with handheld instruments. We're beginning our run, thirty seconds to launch."

The party hunkered down and tightened their grip on safety ties and secured equipment. When the dropship was released from the bay, the descent was initial very peaceful, only the mild sensation of freefall. Soon, however, the hull of the dropship began to bite into the planet's thick atmosphere. The tiny shuttle began to buffet violently despite the pilot's best efforts. The party sat crammed into corners of the troop bay around the submersible and hung on as best the could.

Within two minutes that seemed much longer, the dropship shed the last of its orbital velocity and settled into a smooth atmospheric flight path ending in a gentle hover over the target insertion point. The aft ramp lowered and the group pushed the submersible out the back. It fell the two meters and slid into the water with barely a splash. The rest of the party quickly followed suit. Once everyone was off, the dropship moved off slightly and gained altitude rapidly on its way back to the Bastard.

The party gathered together and hooked their safety lines onto the sub. Vronune strapped himself into the control harness at the front of the little craft. Checking the mounted radscanner, he clicked onto the open comm; "According to the readings, the source of the EM field is at about 80 degrees. The return is fairly strong, it seems your pilot put us pretty close."

With that, the Svesh keyed the drive and the submersible began to move ponderously off into the deep water."

They glided gently through the barren waters, the party gripped the handholds along the sides of their tiny vessel and kept searching for anything. Based on a maddeningly non-descriptive entry they had found for the planet in their shipboard database they had reason to believe that there was some truly terrifying mega fauna native to this world. It was light on specifics, but words like "hypercarnivore" and "unprecedented size" were not designed to inspire a relaxed attitude.

Soon, looming out of the distance, they spotted a massive rock outcropping soaring hundreds of meters above the seafloor.

"This must be it, The radscanner is off the charts." Said Vronune.

Switching his visor to thermographic view, Fang observed the spire. "There is heat leaking out of it, several degrees warmer than the surrounding water. It looks like there are three separate sources." He pointed them out to the group.

"Look-at-the-radiation-levels. Could-be-exhaust-ports, for-some-kind-of-reactor, yes?" Sputtered Shik. He desperately hoped they would be able to get out of the water soon, he did not like being in any situation where there was nowhere to hide and something a hundred times his size could also outrun him.

After a moment of thought, Forrester spoke up, "Alright, assuming it is an exhaust system, we'll want to enter through the center port, less likely to be directly attached to the turbines."

The party anchored the submersible to the side of the undersea mountain, gathered what equipment they thought they'd need, and began the swim up against the gentle current of warmer water coming fro the dark cave on the side of the mountain.

Session 4, part 2: Invading Srekank's Mansion

Once again the party gathered in the conference room of the Wayward Bastard. This time Tobey, Hetzer, and their new alien companion Shik stood at the front of the table.

Tobey pressed a control key and a stylized diagram of Catalan station popped into view.

"I've been working with Hetzer for the last several hours and I think we've uncovered enough information to proceed. We've learned that this Srekank is the head of one of the "big 5" as it were, of these Svesh gangs. These five are in a constant state of competition and even occasionally outright war. Right now his group seems to be in the ascendant, making him one of the most powerful Svesh alive."

"His personal residence is located in a surface dome separated from the rest of the station except for some utility connections and a single vehicular entrance tunnel.  Needless to say the main entrance has extensive security arrangements so at first we thought our only way in was through the utility connections, then we found this;" he said. Hetzer manipulated a control on the projector and a new line sprang into view on the display, a narrow line that connected the lower level of the mansion with another section of the station inside a surface canyon.

"This appears to be an escape tunnel, it connects a side room at the bottom of the residence with a small docking bay located a few hundred meters away."

"That's almost too perfect, what's the catch?" asked Doc' Merrill.

"Well, the docking bay itself is private, so we will still have to break in there, but that should be much easier to do than getting in to the residence directly." Tobey replied. "Even though the docking pad is private, it's still very likely that the tunnel entrance will be camouflaged, so we will have to get in and find it without tripping any alerts that go back to the mansion."

"Don' you bastards worry about a 'fing. I'll jus' talk to these corrin' bastards an' explain that we need to kill their boss."

The party gathered their equipment and set out for the private docking bay. As they approached they began to take stock of the area around them, this part of the station had fallen into disuse and they saw few other beings save for some scattered derelicts that lived in this abandoned area on the fringes of station society.

When they finally came within view of the entrance to their target, they saw that it was guarded by three cartel soldiers and had a host of visible electronic security.

"Sgt, if we distract the guards, do you think you can crack the security?"

"Sure, no problem Colonel, I was just finkin' that'd be a good idea."

Hetzer split off and walked around to the far end of the corridor as the rest of the party sauntered up towards the guarded door.

"Stop right there! This's a private compartment, no public access." the largest of the Svesh guards said, swaggering up to them with his hand resting prominently on his holstered pistol.

"Oh, that's fine," replied Tobey. "We're just looking for the tramway station back to Gennzo District, can you help us out?"

The guard grumbled, but began to reply when he was rudely interrupted.

"CRACK!" shouted Hetzer as he struck the guard from behind with his cosh, his grin so wide it threatened to split his face.

"OH, NO!" cried everyone else in the party, realizing they had clearly underestimated Hetzer's ability to follow simple verbal instructions.

It was too late now, the other two guards instinctively reached for their weapons. Unfortunately for them they faced a team that had become accustomed to having to respond to situations exactly like this and they were cut down before they could return fire.

"What were you thinking! I thought you said you were going to crack security?

"I did, roight on the back-o-the-'ead." Hetzer said, unable to contain his child-like glee. "What's everyone lookin' so mad for, that was fun."

Meanwhile, Shik had rushed forward and was working feverishly to circumvent the electronic security on the off-chance that an alarm had not already been triggered. Finally satisfied that all of the security systems were disabled, he turned to the party, "No-time-for-yelling, we must hurry now, yes?"

All eyes turned to Col. Strong.

"Yes, we continue, but we need to be more careful about how to approach things," he said pointedly, looking at Hetzer.

The party filed into the docking bay and saw that it was completely bare. It had two medium-sized berths large enough for a small starship, plus a landing area that could accommodate three or four short-range shuttles. There were no spacecraft present, and apparently no staff on duty as they found themselves completely alone.

"Alright everyone, spread out and start looking, based on the schematics we found, the entrance should be somewhere on this side of the bay." said Col. Strong, indicating the portion to their left as they entered.

With the advanced scanning equipment they had brought, it was only a matter of a few moments before they identified the entrance, which appeared to be completely low-tech, with a simple mechanical locking mechanism that they easily opened.

Beyond the hidden door they saw a long unlit tunnel formed directly from the asteroidal rock of Catalan itself, above them a series of pipes and cables led along the length of the tunnel. The party advanced cautiously down through several turns, wary for any traps or surveillance measures but found none.

Finally, they came to a small circular chamber that was featureless save for a narrow wide staircase leading upwards.

"I'll go first," volunteered Tobey. "I'll check it out and report back."

When the others nodded, Tobey steeled himself and began to pace up the stairway slowly, making certain to make as little noise as possible. When he reached the top he saw that the doorway was identical in function to the other one, with a simple mechanical lock. He reached out and gently disengaged it. Opening the door a fraction he peered out and saw a large room with a high vaulted ceiling. There was an array of low-slung furniture spread around haphazardly, the ceiling and walls of the room were covered with an assortment of loose clothe and the floor was covered in a layer of fine, pale sand. The air was warm and dry, but with a heavy, pungent aroma of some alien perfume. Overall, the effect was not unpleasant. It brought to mind some nomad's tent in a deep desert.

Seeing no one in the room and no identifiable security, Tobey eased the door closed and returned to report. He described what he had seen and the party decided to enter the mansion proper while there was no one to witness.

The group carefully entered the room and quickly secured it, there were two other doors, once they oriented themselves with their digital map, they saw that one led towards the front of the building and the main entrance, and the other led into a room along the rear exterior wall. They surmised that Srekank would probably be found on the upper level and the stairs up were located in the main front chamber, so Tobey once again volunteered to scout ahead.

He pulled out a large, colored headscarf he had taken from one of the docking bay guards and wrapped his head in it in the same manner that some Svesh did.

"Cassandra, I'm going to need you to listen in over the radio and tell me what is being said around me. If I run in to one and have to speak to them, I'll also need you to feed me lines, so be prepared."

The young girl nodded and followed him to the door.
"Good luck, don't let them kill you," she said matter-of-factly.

"...Thanks." 

Stepping out through the first door, Tobey found himself in a long, broad hallway. Along the right hand side there were several doors spaced unevenly. Down at the end he could see it opening into a large open area and he spotted several cartel members lounging around. The furnishings were similar in this area and the floor was still covered with sand. 

He stalked forward carefully, making not a sound at all when suddenly the door to his right opened and a Svesh strode out carrying a large box. Tobey froze and prepared to fight. The Svesh stopped abruptly and stared at him for a moment.

"Tu naka i chyo?"
[Why are you walking like that]

"Angs sur efche tomani," said Cassandra over the commlink.
[Because I feel like it]

"Angs ur fech tunami," parroted Tobey.
[My pencil is long and yellow]

"No, you said it wrong!"

The Svesh appeared confused, then simply shrugged.

"Agaka."
[Whatever]

He turned and continued walking down the hall.

The rest of the party listening in blew a collective sigh of relief. Tobey took a deep breath and resumed his advance in a more normal manner.

When he reached the end of the hallway it opened into a vast chamber with more than a dozen cartel members from various alien races, all sitting around gambling and eating.

He continued along the periphery of the room when one of the older looking Svesh turned to him and grunted.

"Tur sasem i, fetsab?"
[Who are you?]

"Albo remu achgo Tuak, asgo hefni?" ame the swift reply from Cassandra.
[I am called Tuak, do you want to fight?]

"Albo remyo ako to ak, azko hefmi?"
[Where is the bathroom, I need to fight it?]

"No!"

There was a moment of stunned silence as the room falls silent and the twenty or more hardened criminals stop what they were doing and turn to look at Tobey.

"Gak chu!" the first Svesh roared and the entire room charged after him.

Tobey turned to flee back to his comrades with what seemed like an entire army after him. He ran down the hall as fast as he had ever moved and slid into the hallway and scrambled around to the side of the door. The rest of the party had positioned themselves in in cover throughout the room or beside the doorway.

Col. Strong used his enhances muscles to grasp the first gangster, a Risanthan, through the door and pluck him bodily off his feet, he drew the struggling alien up to the faceplate then upended him and slammed him headfirst into the ground hard enough that sand splashed up to eye level.

The next one through tackled Fang and bore him to the ground, but the wiry Ganjuko twisted underneath the gangster and tore out his throat with a flick of his wrist-blades.

As soon as it had begun, it was over, two cartel members down and the third twitching on the ground as Forrester and Doc Merrill took turns blasting him with electrolasers.

Peering down the corridor, Col. Strong so no further activity, of the rest of the gangsters there was no sign.

"Olright you stinkin' bastard, where's your boss? We're gonna kill 'im and then he's gonna give us all 'is stuff." Hetzer declared, kicking the stunned survivor in the side.

"Tell us where Srekank is and we won't let him kill you," declared Forrester diplomatically.

"Oi, I'm the corrin' diplomat 'round here." shouted Hetzer, almost as if he could hear the narration.

"Srekank...is gone, off-world. He left last night," sputtered the injured Svesh.

"Where did he go?"

"Don't...know. Ask Vronune, he's upstairs."

Following their policy on taking prisoners, the party left the body of the informant beside those of his comrades. They stalked down the hallway and saw no signs of activity save a steadily blinking red light, obviously indicating some heightened security alert.

They reached the main chamber and cautiously ascended. At the top they found a wide set of double doors that the informant had described as leading to where Vronune, the Cartel's second-in-command, would be.

Deciding that the element of surprise was already lost and that the best way to disarm a trap was to spring it, the party crashed through the doors into the chamber beyond.

The ANS series of security drones are considered among the best
available because of their advanced programming and flexibility

There they were brought to a halt, before the was a mirror set of spiral stairs and above them, where the stairs met stood a large, heavily armored Svesh. At the ground level stood a dozen high-end security drones with their weapons trained on the group.

"Who are you, and what are you doing here?" said the Svesh.


Deciding that, since the drones hadn't opened fire immediately, their opponent was curious enough to spare them for a moment.

"We're looking for Srekank. We think he has something that belongs to us." responded Forrester.

The Svesh laughed, "And you thought this was a reasonable way to respond? You are only still alive because I thought there might be some valuable information I could get from you, now I see you are just criminally stupid."

Gambling on what he knew of Svesh politics, Tobey shouted a challenge, "He does have something that belongs to us, something that he doesn't understand but is more dangerous than he can comprehend."

"You speak of the trinket? Yes, I am aware of this thing. I have no interest in it...You say it is dangerous."

"If not properly handled, it can be lethal, yes." answered Forrester, "Tell us where he is and we can recover it, he'll only bring destruction and embarrassment on you if he is allowed to keep it."

"Your attempts to manipulate me are laughable, but I do tire of being his lackey," Vronune seemed to ponder the party for a moment.

"Very well, I will lead you to Srekank and allow you to recover your property, but in return you must aid me while I kill him."

Before anyone could respond, the drones turned as one and opened fire on Vronune. Apparently whoever or whatever controlled them remained loyal to Srekank.

Pandemonium broke out as the party dove for cover and returned fire, having just acquired an ally in Vronune they didn't want him to die at the hands of his own security system. Hetzer, Tobey, and Fang began methodically picking off drones as Shik, Doc' Merrill, and Forrester laid down cover fire.

Col. Strong began bounding up the staircase to protect their erstwhile partner when he was struck by a anti-armor round from one of the drones. His armor protected him from the worst of the blast but he was slammed into the wall and went down in a heap at the foot of the stairs.

"NOOOO!" shouted Cassandra, impossibly loud.

Rising from he hiding place near the door, she reached out with both her arms and pointed with her flattened palms at the rocket-armed drone. A strange distortion filled the air between them as the launcher was torn from the drones grip and went flying across the room. With another gesture from her the drone was lifted off the ground and thrown back to crash through the wall.

Engaged in combat, the rest of the party barely had time to comment. As the last drone was dealt with Doc' Merrill rushed to examine Col. Strong.

"He's badly injured, we need to get him back to the ship now or I might not be able to save him."

Vronune emerged apparently unscathed from the wreckage of the upper level, "Yes, haste would be best, by now the terminal security is engaged. The building will be destroyed by a controlled demolition charge, and we along with it if we don't hurry."

Needing no further encouragement, the party sprinted out the doors, down the stairs, and out the main entrance. Out under the dome they spotted a light cargo hauler that they immediately commandeered. Driving out the access tunnel, the truck was picked up and thrown sideways as the detonation obliterated the residence behind them.

 After checking that the vehicle still functioned, Forrester restarted it and drove off.

One the reached the nearest habitation concourse, Vronune leaned in to the cab, "Drop me off here, I need to make some arrangements before we leave. I will meet you at your ship in six hours.