TECH-WORLD
The decision is made to not buy a J4 engine, as it would effectively reduce the cargo space of the Harbinger to zero (taking into account the additional fuel that needs to be carried, etc.) After much discussion, the decision is made to continue to BYRNI to allow the Treaty to be found in the vault. This course of action seems to best fit with the plans of creating a Kingdom of Drinax.
Jump co-ordinates are calculated and successful jumps are made by the Harbinger and the Martin II just in time before the window of when the escort ships might make it to TECH-WORLD. The ships jump to PAAL, a non-aligned agricultural world.
On arrival in the system the Martin II is hailed from PAAL, expressing its surprise that such a ship is in its system, as this is not the usual route that these ships take. They request that the Martin II proceed directly to the Spaceport at PAAL. Meanwhile, via a routine sensor check, the Harbinger detects a signal close to system’s gas giant, Artobin. They head towards Artobin to check out the signal in more detail. The Martin II contacts PAAL and negotiates also investigating the signal – after all, if it’s a ship in trouble then they might need some help.
As the ships edge closer, they try another scan and identify that it is a ship that drifting out of control in a decaying orbit. Its name is the Vagabond Soul. She appears undamaged and there are some life-signs onboard, but they are oddly muted – the best guess is that the crew (it appears to be) are in suspended animation. The life signs are scattered around the ship. A communications umbilical hangs free near the starport airlock – a sign that someone recently docked with the ship.
Captain De Winter brings the Harbinger around and docks with the aforementioned airlock. De Winter, Rex, Bovine and Kane get suited up and head through the airlock onto the Vagabond Soul.
Exploring the Vagabond Soul is like wandering into a haunted house. Lights flicker on and off. The air is icy cold. Everywhere there are signs of carnage and brutal slaughter. Blood splatters every surface.
De Winter, Rex, Bovine and Kane head down towards the bridge when suddenly these human shaped ‘things’ appear, accompanied by these bursts of static on the radios. These things have no eyes or mouth. Their skin is covered in silvery scales; their fingertips bristle with thousands of elongated needles. All of them discharge their weapons into these ‘things’ and the weapons make light work of their armour, not before several of them get close combat hits on Rex. However his armour easily withstands their attacks.
Kane makes a dash for the bridge and reaches the computer console. Mistakenly, Kane echoes the static screams (which is how the creatures are communicating), this makes it extremely difficult for everyone to concentrate.
Meanwhile, Lance and Vance (on the Martin II) start looking for ways to block out or eliminate the static screams. If they can do this, maybe it might stop the creatures from seemingly communicating.
In the bridge of the Vagabond Soul three more of these creatures appear from ducts in the ceiling. One strikes Kane as he wrestles with the computer and it pierces his armour. He immediately feels a warm fuzz feeling from the wound that he feels to start moving around his body. Undeterred, he manages to use the computer to knock out the gravity in the ship, whereas the grav belts of the party help them to keep their balance.
As this happens, Lance and Vance (on the Martin II) have success in creating a transmission that blocks out the static frequency that the things seem to be communicating on. This, along with the lack of gravity allows De Winter, Rex and Bovine to mop up the remaining ‘things’ easily with their weapons. Scans show there to be just one left, locked in a cabin in another part of the ship. Kane’s condition is deteriorating (it seems there was neurotoxins in the spines that punctured his armour). He is whisked back to the Harbinger for treatment.
The rest seek out the room where the last ‘thing’ is and obliterate it. Searching the room, they find a leatherbound copy of the Shield Church Bible, and tucked into the First Testament of the Immortal Protector is a flyer for an interfaith conference to be held on the planet Mirage (0509 Gazulin).
Additional searches of the ship discover 50 tonnes of petrochemicals in the hold. Checking the video recordings of the ship also give some idea of what happened. Several hours before the Harbinger detected the ‘Soul , a female came aboard (who appeared to be friendly) and then suddenly during a brief altercation released a nanotech virus. Horrifyingly this nanotech virus turned the human crew into living weapons. Nanotech stripped the metal from any available sources (in this case, the corridors and bulkheads of the Vagabond Soul are pitted with tiny scars) and coated the victims in armoured scales. Useless organs dissolve; their organic molecules used to assemble combat-drug glands and backup hearts. The Nanotech infected crew is just what the party have battled.
The decision is made that they want to hold onto the Vagabond Soul as salvage for the time being, and a skeleton crew is left on board. Preparations are made to jump to BYRNI, and Vance, Lance, Bovine and Osha are on board the Martin II.
With some desperately unfortunate luck, the jump for the Martin II does not go well (double 1), and the ship mis-jumps 24 parsecs into Aslan space (see map)
The rest of the party on the ‘Soul and Harbinger successfully jump to BYRNI, and have no idea what has happened to them. They wait around for a few weeks, but the chance to carry on with the plan at BYRNI is gone. They have no choice but to plan a route back to DRINAX and make preparations to do so. Surely Lance, Vance and Bovine – if they are still alive – will plan to head back to DRINAX.
TO BE CONTINUED?
