Campaign Diary

Life on the farm had settled into a sort of routine, our heroes living the life pastoral and making occasional shopping trips into town.
On one of the shopping trips, about a month into their stay, Annissa and her friends were stopped by the GEO Marshall. Marshall Baskerville seemed concerned that the 'indentured labour' on the farm had not been seen socialising or taken any time off. Annissa bridled but showed admirable restraint when Marshall Baskerville said that if Annissa or any of the women were being 'exploited in any way', they should contact her.
Marshall Baskerville's dog drew some attention from the party, a massively muscled and obviously cyber enhanced hound with steel shod fangs and claws.
Some channel hopping led Ezra and Antonio to discover a 'fly on the wall' documentary about the planetary Marshalls and they were somewhat impressed to see these extremely cyber and bio enhanced law officers at work.
Ezra and the more religious members of the crew were slightly disturbed by the concept that cybernetics and biomodification would actually be a product advertised on television and even have their own 'review and magazine' shows.
A week or so after the shopping trip on which they met the Marshall, the party awoke to discover they had shared similar dreams over the previous few days, curiously autobiographical dreams. Casey however had not been affected, claiming nothing more than the usual surrealistic racial memories that often form Ukar dreamings.
The concept of shared dreams let to much paranoid speculation about 'brain scanning rays' and led to a search of the house.
During the search, a small robotic device was found scuttling about in the eaves. Assuming they had been discovered, they called their resistance contact, who said he would arrive the next day.
That night Casey awoke to find her human comrades marching in their sleep toward the sea, after other means of rousing her friends she grabbed a shock-prod (used on recalcitrant iguanas) and applied it to the rumps of the sleepers. Ezra had been on watch, looking out for the mysterious aboriginals that he suspected to be behind the dreams but had fallen suddenly asleep.
It is probably worth noting that the party exhibited a varied selection of nightwear :
Musa favoured simple pajamas as did Alectrona.
Annissa's chosen attire was a simple silk slip and Ezra wore t-shirt and shorts, Casey and Antonio however wore nothing.
Several of the party required multiple jabs from the prod, Musa was practically rendered unconscious, Antonio was the last sleeper, when he was chest deep in the surf he suddenly punched himself in the mouth and awoke. Antonio explained that he had been in a dream in which a female voice had been trying to rouse him; the dream was set on the command deck of a capitol ship, one he had never served on. The blow that roused him came just after the voice said "C.I. taking helm control."
Antonio concluded that his implants had been 'infected' by the nanites in some way.
Puzzling over this, the shaky and upset party made their way back to the house and began to pack.
On a lighter note, Casey's chosen location for applying the shock-prod led to some gallows humour banter about everyone requiring soft cushions and having to sleep on their fronts for a week. Whilst Casey's undressed state seemed to elicit no comment (perhaps due to her possession of the shock-prod), Antonio was subject to a few jibes about the sea being colder than it looked and a lot of women being very kind in the past…
The party was more than happy when Milo, their contact, arrived and loaded them into a truck to take them to a hideout in the mountains.
If necessary the cover story would be that the indentured labour had 'skipped'.
Annissa was not best pleased to discover the hideout to be a cave with some very basic facilities.
That night, Alectrona began a series of dreams that progressed over the course of the next few nights.
They appeared to show an archaeological dig in the desert using slave labour, fenced in with the pit they were digging, guards outside.
The dreams revealed a strange and malevolent darkness in the pit that formed into tentacle and over the course of the next few nights, took workers from the tent. Alectronas nights became more and more disturbed, waking with increasing violence and screaming.
Casey sat vigil and watched for signs of psionic interference in Alectronas dreams but saw none.
Consultation with maps, using Alectronas excellent orienteering skills, the location was pinpointed and the party decided to investigate.
Driving through the night, they headed into the desert of Hells Basin.
Digging in for the day within sight of the dig site, the party took turns to watch the area through binoculars.
Little occurred until nightfall, when the guards began to bunch up for moral support, obviously ill at ease.
Then, quite literally, all hell broke loose. A sense of utter wrongness was felt by all, and the darkness in the pit erupted out in a radiating web of tentacles that rapidly seized everything in the area and dragged them into the pit. The night was rent with screams, gunfire and explosions as the camp was dragged down and devoured.
Soon, silence descended and only debris and one figure remained, staggering about in the dark.
As the party cautiously approached, he began to scream and scream, his eye sockets empty, gouged with his own fingers.
Sedating the man, the party loaded him into the jeep and headed at speed back toward the mountains after placing a small cairn to mark the spot, Ezra carving a Christian cross in deference to the pre-reflective faith of the majority. They took steps to cover their trail and avoid the aircraft that soon appeared in the sky and quartered the area over the dig site.
The man was dressed in civilian clothes and seemed to be a member of the university staff in charge of the dig (the gate had born a sign reading 'University of Bradford - Archaeology dept').
Ezra volunteered to clean the man up after he was sedated and was shocked to discover a tattoo over his heart that marked him to be a Draconic Antinomist, an order that took its present form -after- the time of the prophet.
Despite their best efforts, whenever the sedation wore off, all the man could do was scream and scream and scream, interspersed with attempts to bang his head against rocks and bite people.
Holed up in their cave, the party discussed the implications of the presence of the Antinomist order in the double system. The supposition was that there may well be a jump gate somewhere in the Prime system.
They contacted Milo to ask him if there were any repercussions from the events in the desert. Milo arrived and was somewhat 'intrigued' as to how "stay here and stay out of trouble" turned into "drive fifty miles and be an eye witness to something that stirred up every security unit in the area and resulted in the arrest of numerous people as a knee jerk response"
Milo said that the tattoo was something that he had seen once or twice before, although it was not common, some sort of gang tattoo he thought.
He brought news that Rakim had escaped some days ago and was presumed to have escaped on a boat that had been dropping off supplies. Annissa was obviously concerned but was hopeful that he would be safe.
Antonio suggested attempting an exorcism on the consistently gibbering survivor, then suggested executing him. After much debate, it was decided to drop him off at in the outskirts of town and hope that the medical authorities found him and got him the psychological assistance he needed.
Milo reported that the farm had been swept for bugs and the party decided that it would attract less attention if they stayed at the farm and didn't trigger a search by a curious Marshall. He also said that they had drawn a blank locating any 210.
Returning to the farm, life once more settled back to a routine of iguana farming hijinks.
A week or so later, with no sign of follow up to the night of the tentacles or any other strange dreams.
On a trip to Phillpotts hardware store, the party noticed a somewhat disconsolate looking raccoon in a cage. Mr Phillpott said that it had been rummaging through the bins and he thought it was some tourists pet that had got lost, it not being a native animal.
Annissa said that it was hers and got Rakim to do some tricks and convinced the shopkeepers of her ownership. She was profuse in her thanks and rewarded the shopkeepers with what money she had. Antonio felt that the animal risked their cover, being a non-Prime animal but a search of CommCore showed that geneered pets were not uncommon among the upper classes, although what an indentured labourer would be doing with one was a good question. Annissa said that she would claim she had found it and nursed it back to health, should anyone ask.
A few nights later, Ezra was on the roof looking for aborigines and other strangeness when he spotted what appeared to be a SWAT team encircling the house.
Initially the instinct was to act innocent and let the presumed police investigate but after a few moments, they decided this might not be a good idea. As they debated, a tear gas grenade failed to hit the window and detonated in the garden.
Grabbing SCUBA masks and wet towels, the party made a break for the farm pickup, sniper bullets zapping off the shields of several of the group. The hope was that the farmer would be safe with the party gone.
Driving off at speed, the party saw the SWAT team come under fire from what appeared to be a number of combat remotes, appearing from under cover.
As they drove up the dirt road the truck was narrowly missed by shoulder launched missile and then pursued by a jumpcraft that engaged them with an autocannon, only to break off after some sort of engine failure.
Heading into the warren of canyons in the mountains, the party pause for breath. A skittering caused the party to jump and a remote crawled out from under the truck. An electronic voice addressed the party and offered to help them escape.
Faced with a diminishing number of choices, our heroes elect to trust the mysterious voice, especially when it claimed that the 'engine failure' of the pursuing aircraft was caused by one of her drones flying into the air intake.
The drone directed them to a plateau, where they were told an aircraft would extract them.
A few minutes later, a light aircraft touched down and the party piled in quickly. As the aircraft taxied to take off, they realised that it was unmanned. The voice introduced herself as 'Diana' and assured them that they were safe. The aircraft flew out to sea and touched down on the water, using inflatable pontoons. A small submarine surfaced alongside and the party boarded swiftly. As Musa brought up the rear, she saw the carbon composite aircraft burst into flames and sink into the sea.
The submarine dived as the party took stock and they met their rescuer.
Annissa and Alectrona were shocked to see the woman in the pilot seat of the sub', 'Diana' appeared to be the living image of their aunt Hecate, as close a resemblance as a twin sister.
Antonio, true to type seemed to find the lithe woman in the black form fitting garment more than passingly attractive.
Alectrona momentarily seemed to be able to sense the emotions of the woman, who seemed to be amused, curious and cautious. Diana seemed to pick up on the rapport between herself and Alectrona and the connection was severed.
Diana introduced herself as a member of the Selenite External Intelligence Directorate and she had followed up on the curious websearches concerning 'element 210', an element produced by the Selenites almost exclusively. Bugging of the house had led to some very interesting revelations. The presence of aliens and a starship for a start.
The party engaged in some initial denials and then, amid some facepalming, they came clean.
The compartment had fold down bunks and Diana advised them to get some rest, the journey to the floating city of Dyfedd and the Selenite safe-house would take ten hours.
Musa was absolutely enthralled and spent some time chatting to Diana and watching her at the controls.
The underside of Dyfedd was a spectacular sight, cetaceans and submarines moving between the inverted 'skyscrapers' and undersea docks. The submarine docked with one of the 'buildings' and the party disembarked into the private dock of an extremely luxurious apartment.
Diana played the gracious hostess and made the party welcome, giving them the run of the guest rooms and letting them refresh themselves (discovering clothes in their sizes waiting for them) before cooking them a meal and serving drinks.
An unusual debriefing technique but curiously effective as, over the course of a comparitively short while, the party unburdened themselves quite freely. Diana revealed for that her government had been supplying 210 for about 20 years in quantities that led Antonio to exclaim that there was enough to produce 1,000 jump drives. The other materials provided by Selene had applications in meson weapons and field generators, all technologies not meant to be available locally. The presence of meson precursors indicated at least one Dreadnought might be being constructed.
Diana also said that there was no 210 in the Poseidon system and that it would take 6 months to ship any from Selene. However, she said she would investigate, she contacted another Selenite on a video link and asked her to start a search.
Diana also revealed that the same cabal of political and business interests that had been buying the 210 was also funding the University of Bradford (a city on Prime) in their digs in Hells Basin.
The other Selenite was another perfect image of Hecate. Artemis, explained Diana was from the same gene-line as her - a clone. Both were gene-engineered for their role in life and it made sense to copy a good operative. Alectrona consulted her copy of the measure and was reminded of some references to the early history of her house back on the moon of Earth, a segment of the house disappeared from history after a schism or difference of approach over the house's direction. Alectrona however lacked the level of initiation in her house's mystery cult to know over what. However the use of cloning rather than the implied use of selective breeding in the modern house (matriarchs approving marriages, all marriages being with someone outside the house).
Alectrona also discovered that the house responded to her unspoken needs, lights coming on when she wanted them to and the like.
Antonio expressed an interest in accessing the net, causing Diana to call his neural jack 'a design classic' and offering him the use of a stand alone array to test whether or not it was in some way 'compromised'. When he jacked in, Diana said that her house system was detecting a virus. The virus seemed to be advanced and Diana asked the city array to examine it (Selene built some of it and the array allowed private access to diplomatic staff so long as it did not risk the city). The array (a non AI called 'Hugo') pronounced that he was intrigued and wished to communicate with the original source of the machine code. Diana asked if this was permissible and ever obliging, the party allowed a communication channel with the atoll. Tanalu announced that the ship was hours away from operational status and provided a data channel to the computer.
There then followed an exchange of data that progress from 1+1=2 up to blindingly fast algebra and equations.
After another leisurely meal, the party and Diana set out in her submarine for the journey to the atoll.
Diana seemed not to require sleep during the day long trip to the atoll. Alectrona discovered that she could sense the control system of the submarine awaiting commands, although when she had an unguarded thought about the hatch opening, the system appeared to politely balk at the request.
On arrival at the atoll, Diana seemed utterly unphased by the presence of three non human aliens, making an off the cuff comment about having seen stranger things in her time.
Antonio made an offer that perhaps Diana would like to come with them as they investigate the system and shakedown the repaired ship. Annissa and the others swiftly agreed and Diana pulled a bag from her submarine and sent it away on autopilot.
Loading up their cached equipment into rucksacks, the party headed over to the patch of sand where the ship lay once the tide went out.
An oval patch of sand crumbled away to reveal stairs leading down, seemingly made of sand. As the last person descended the stairs, the opening closed behind them, leaving a dim bioluminescence from the tunnel wall. The party emerged into the cargo bay of a radically altered Osprey, whose interior was a distinctly retro 'steam punk' theme. Wood, brass and dull iron-effect metal were the order of the day. A spider like drone led the crew to their accommodation, each one decorated in a very homely style appropriate to each crewmember. A voice from the speakers welcomed them aboard and started a preflight countdown, the same voice from Antonio's dream.
When asked what the antiquated decor was all about, the ship said simply "Satire..."
We leave our heroes dumping their bags and heading to the bridge with 2 minutes on the clock.

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Session 22

We rejoin our heroes as they board their newly 'reconditioned' starship under the sands of the remote tropical atoll on the surface of the lost world 'Poseidon'.
Ka'ra, Anam and Tanalu conducted their shipmates on a guided tour of the ship, showing everyone to their quarters and pointing out the location of all the key common areas before leading people to the bridge.
On the bridge (beautifully upholstered in fine leather) Casey and Annissa found envelopes containing keys. The keys, explained the computer, were for control of the missile system as there was now a nuclear capability. When asked how such a proscribed weapon came to be aboard, the computer explained that it had discovered a nuclear device concealed on board Osprey and that it had been wired to the 'auto strike' system, such that if Osprey had reached the threshold of damage whereby she would automatically surrender rather than be destroyed, she would in fact have been consumed in a nuclear explosion. The bomb had been placed aboard sometime during her last repairs on Bz-II. For the want of anything better to do with it, the bomb was now a warhead on one of the ships complement of ship-to-ship missiles.
Some debate as to what should happen next ensued and it was decided that perhaps a trip to the planetoid belt and the 'free city' of Ariel would be productive. If anything could be bought on Ariel then perhaps it would be possible to locate information about 210 shipments there. Diana said she would arrange a safe hiding place in the belt and a rendez vous with a shuttle to take them from there to Ariel. The Selenite seemed very impressed by the artificial gravity and inertial systems on Osprey but when Antonio took her through space suit drills, she was amused to discover that life support technology was actually more advanced on Prime/Selene manufactured space suits.
Lift-off went smoothly, the trajectory plotted to avoid any surveillance satellites and course set for the inner Serpentis belt (a truly massive planetoid belt that seemed to truly be the remains of a fractured planet).
During the journey, someone actually thought to ask Diana why it was that she was being so helpful. Diana was seemingly quite honest in her reply – The Known Worlds were a fact, something that her government would have to learn to cope with in one way or another. Ignorance would only make the likelihood of making the correct judgement harder, so she would be tasked with finding out as much as possible about this state and her people and to get relations off on as friendly a footing as possible.
The normally serenely unflappable agent was more than a little non-plussed when Alectrona asked if she could compare her Measure to Diana's. Diana had not made the leap to connect House Xanthippe with the origins of her own Selenite culture and had no idea that Alectrona would even have a Measure. Among Selenites, the book had an almost holy status and extra chapters were awarded as a Selenite gained initiation into the mystery cult that formed part of their 'sisterhood'.
Various areas of the ship were discovered to have an ambience suited to their purpose, restful in the cabins, cheerful in the mess area etc. It turned out that both Ka'ra and Tanalu had been involved in some stages of the design process and that the S'ssu of the interior had been balanced from day one. Some of the human crew seemed to find this concept a little unnerving, feeling a little manipulated.
Annissa asked the computer what she should be addressed as and was told that 'Osprey' would do fine. Annissa also asked if the AI could conceal itself when they returned to the Known Worlds. "Of course…" replied Osprey. Osprey also said she could falsify the log so as to indicate that the 'new' ship had been captured in battle. "Can you lie to US?" asked Annissa, "No…" replied Osprey. Antonio muttered that this was typical of a woman, lying to suit herself, to which the AI replied "Typical man… once he's been inside you, he loses all respect." Antonio seemed be somewhat thrown by this and more than one of his crewmates teased him about the intimacy of his relationship with an AI due to his neural jack.
Antonio questioned Diana about her 'clone' nature and was slightly disturbed by the frankness of her answers. Selenites genetically engineer some of their citizens to be suited to particular jobs, ensuring that all key posts are filled and filled by those who are suited to the task and likely to find it fulfilling. In an environment where exposure to natural and cosmic radiation is a fact of life, gene banks are also a method of preventing loss of fertility for those who (for example) travel on torch ships. Antonio seemed curious as to whether or not sex and sexual reproduction still played a role in their society and Diana assured him that sex was still as popular with them as anyone else and that sexual reproduction still had a place.
Antonio received some ribbing from his crewmates about his quiet enthusiasm for putting yet another lithe woman through her paces as designated 'Space suit training officer'.
That night, Ezra awoke from a dream in which he seemed to have been visited by the Prophet, who spoke of bringing the light of the word into the darkness. Over breakfast he broached the subject of faith with Diana who expressed polite interest but some disbelief about aspects of the occult, she did however say she would be interested to read his copy of the gospel some time.
A day of travel through the system later and Osprey rendezvoused with a small shuttle in the belt. Local space suits were provided, a little bulkier than Known World suits but this was as much due to radiation shielding as lower technology. Antonio seemed more than a little perturbed at the thought of travelling in a ship that lacked Vau radiation screening. Diana suggested he leave "Some swimmers in the freezer" if he was that bothered.
The pilot was something of a shock to Known World sensibilities. 'Bradley' was a cheerful young man in the employ of a Selenite front company and was a gene adapted 'spacer' – He had hands instead of feet and his limbs had an extra knee/elbow joint, making movement in freefall that much easier. The anti 'changed' prejudices of several party members were barely suppressed at this quite flagrant alteration of 'the divine form of man', gills and uplifted animals seemed to be somehow less blatant to their eyes. Bradley however seemed not to notice. He seemed happy to answer questions and claimed to not care that his adaptations meant he could not live on a 'normal' planet, being limited to about 1/3rd gravity. Space was his life, he said.
The party clambered into the shuttle, bouncing around the interior in zero gravity until they secured themselves to cargo webbing. The trip would take about 18 hours and be at fractions of 1 G acceleration.
During the flight, the subject of inter species sex came up, after Bradley mentioned that absolutely anything was for sale on Ariel, even the services of cetacean prostitutes. Casey had previously mentioned that Hironem were compatible anatomically with humanoids and that led to a whole discussion about Decados perversions that culminated in Ezra asking Antonio whether or not his late wife was a "dirty Decados pervert" or not. Antonio, quite understandably, lost his temper and tried to beat the priest up (utterly scandalising Annissa, who was scandalised enough by Ezra's question as it was) but fortunately, fractional gravity and bulky space suits reduced the 'fight' to farce within a few seconds and the situation calmed.
During a discussion of the Prime system, the Fading Suns phenomena was mentioned and piqued Diana's interest. The star in the Prime system had an older and slightly similar problem. Some 2000 years previously, a 'dark object' entered the system and perturbed the orbit and axis of Prime before smashing into the star.
Since this event, the star has become a variable with a frequency of decades, leaving Prime with seasons that are over a century long. This is why so much of her population live below ground where conditions are constant or live a nomadic lifestyle.
Ezra considered this more than a little interesting, given that the Known Worlds had only been afflicted with the Fading Suns for a millenium. That the stars instabilty followed an actual visible event, even if the result was not identical to the Fading Suns phenomenon deserved further investigation.
Arrival at Ariel came as something of a relief and the party disembarked at the end cap of the asteroid. Ariel was a cylindrical chamber inside an asteroid, spinning to produce a form of gravity on the inner surface. The Known Worlders were amazed to be inside what was, for them, a piece of technological history unused in their part of space in two thousand years. Local customs control seemed to be limited to ensuring that no weapons that would damage the habitat were brought aboard. Stunners and knives were permitted, slugthrowers were not. (Antonio quipped that the only stunners they had were the ladies in the crew, which strangely seemed not to help his stock with the ladies).
Heading to the luxurious Selenite safe house, the group planned their course of action. A few enquiries among fences and fixers would be set in motion by Diana and then some meetings over the next few days. "But first" said Antonio "A trip to a bar…"
After some debate, somewhere informal but safe was decided upon and Diana obtained some nice going out clothes. Ezra, Musa and Antonio opted for casual dress ( Leather jackets, denim and boots – a universal constant) whereas Annissa, Diana and Alectrona decided on Selenite fashion (Which resembled those of high status Xanthippe it turned out). Selenite ladies garb seemed to favour large skirts and well tailored corsetry with velvet, lace and silk fabrics in black and silver. Arriving at the bar the party took a moment to realise that in addition to spacer adaptations, cyberware was common here, several people in the bar had obvious replacement limbs or even sub dermal armour.
Antonio headed to place an order for drinks and was startled to recognise someone at the counter – A Masseri noble he had last seen some years previously at the naval academy. Doing a swift about turn, Antonio headed back to the group and ushered them outside where he explained what he had seen. The hastily hatched plan was to head back into the bar, act normally and let Antonio approach the man and see if it was not just a genetic co-incidence (there were Masseri bloodlines among the Prime population).
It was here that things started to go wrong…
As Antonio approached the suspected Known Worlder, Annissa must have noticed something the others had not and urgently whispered to her cohorts to get down under the table. At that very moment, the man Antonio was approaching pulled out a dart pistol and shot Antonio in the chest. Two of the heavily cybered men at the bar produced machine pistols and opened fire at the remainder of the party, now fortunately hiding behind their overturned steel table.
Diana ripped off her skirt (seemingly attached by some very convenient Velcro, to reveal high boots with holsters, handing one pistol to Musa she began to return fire at the gunmen while Alectrona and Annissa hastily fashioned molotovs from the vodka bottles they had ordered. Ezra ran across the bar to try and aid Antonio (already collapsing under the darts effects) while Musa gave covering fire.
The mystery man at the bar manhandled Antonio over the counter, pausing only to shoot Ezra with another dart before dragging the unconscious Antonio away down a service corridor.
The improvised molotovs missed their intended targets but managed to set the many bottles of spirits behind the other bar alight, distracting the gunmen somewhat and allowing Musa and Diana some opportunity to return fire more effectively. The fire soon took hold and Diana suggested a retreat before the damage control teams came and arrested them all. The gunmen attempted to retreat first and were cut down by some very snappy shooting.
Dragging Ezra with them, the party retreated to the safe house, Diana cursing that the amount of bribe money required to placate the habitat government was going to raise some questions with her superiors. Diana also put some of her contacts onto the task of tracking any departing shuttles and trying to trace Antonio.
Remembering a comment by Osprey about Antonio's cyberware, Annissa sent a message to the ship asking if he could be located using it. After a light speed induced lag, the ship indicated that it was able to track him and that he was alive but travelling away from the station in a shuttle. Osprey suggested an immediate rendezvous in the shuttle and the party concurred. Alectrona administered an antidote to Ezra who seemed to be having some sort of shamanic experience as a result of the mycological origins of the drug he had been darted with.
After a hasty departure in Bradleys shuttle, Osprey intercepted them some hours out and informed them as she grappled the shuttle that Antonio was now receding at over 10g acceleration – conclusive proof that a Known Worlds ship was in the area. An intercept course was laid in and as they cut Bradley loose, Osprey accelerated at full military power in pursuit.
Osprey positioned herself directly behind her receding quarry and nestled into the near blind spot that all ships have when under boost. Unable to use active sensors in a system that would detect them, a ship relying on passives only is effectively blind to her rear. Using her superior acceleration, Osprey was able to close the gap and was able to identify the ship as a Decados designed raider. The plan was to wait until the mid point of the ships trajectory, then launch a surprise attack designed to take out her engines, then board, hoping the attack would have incapacitated a good number of the usual 13 crew on this class of ship.
Two days into the pursuit and the ships sensors recorded the signature of an activated jump gate, something that they had been told did not exist in this system.
Quizzing Diana about the so-called 'wormhole', Ezra discovered that the wormhole was hidden from view by a 300km wide circle of solar sail material… leading him to exclaim "Bloody hell! They've just covered the bloody jumpgate in tinfoil so you can't see it!"
The party armoured up for the assault, favouring body armour and shields over space suits, reasoning that if they caused the ship to depressurise in the attack, there was little point boarding in the first place.
Meanwhile, Antonio came around in the shower cubicle of an accommodation compartment aboard the raider after a series of dreams featuring a rather slinky woman in military uniform complaining "Oh no… not again.". Somehow, he had managed to kink the tube of the sedation IV and the drugs keeping him unconscious wore off…
The attack on the raider when it came was brutally effective, Osprey launched three missiles in quick succession while Musa raked the shields with laser fire. Casey matched the desperate attempts to evade by the raider and in moments, the fight was effectively over… the enemy engine section was a blazing ruin, all maneuver control was lost and no guns were able to bear as Osprey clamped onto her quarry and a cutter built into her cargo air lock began to slice through the raiders hull. "Well…" said Ezra, cocking his autoshotgun, "You can't argue with 2nd Republic technology, now can you?"
Antonio felt the ship buck and reel from the attack and grabbed a space suit and weapon from a locker, whatever guard that had been nearby must have been at his battle station.
Entering via the upper cargo bay, the boarding team noted that the fire was spreading forward from engineering and the cargo bay was full of small arms ammunition. They tasked Anam with trying to contain the fire in this section and perhaps 'liberate' some cargo while they stormed the bridge.
The storming of the bridge was bloodily brief, Antonio managing to surprise the defenders on one side of the section and cutting them down with a burst of autofire as his shipmates blew through the ceiling with a breaching charge. He was shocked to realise that the people he killed were a mix of Keddah and Masseri.
Diana was cut down in the first volley of fire, taking a blaster shot straight to the chest but the remaining defenders were cut down by Musa, Annissa and Ezra. Antonio managed to attract his comrades attention and avoid being mistaken for a defender, leaving the party now in control of a blazing ship. Antonio heard movement from a nearby companionway and he headed aft while the rest of the party tried to get Diana to the infirmary and grab anything of use and value from the bridge (flight computer, jumpkey, blasters etc). Antonio was able to shoot the last remaining defender of the ship (the Masseri noble he had seen in the bar) before he was able to arm the nuclear device in the auxiliary control room and destroy the ship.
Examination of Julius Masseri's body showed a tattoo similar to that of the dead 'archaeologist' on Poseidon, although in this case it was a Masseri house symbol intertwined with a Demonic sigil. Ezra thought that the sigil was that of a Demon associated with vengeance and that together the two marks indicated a pact or pledge of fealty.
Abandoning their prize temporarily, the boarders allowed her to vent to space and thus extinguish the fires. Re-boarding her some time later, they conducted a more detailed search. Meanwhile, Alectrona and Tanalu fought to save the life of a critically injured Diana in the med bay.
The external and internal markings of the raider showed an emblem formed from the House symbols of Masseri and Keddah, superimposed on a clenched mailed fist.
Signs, thought several in the party, of a combined effort by these two minor houses to become a greater force. Antonio was sickened and shamed at the possibility that his house had sought demonic assistance for their scheme.
We leave our heroes examining their prize…
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Session 23

I'll be writing this one up in a slightly different style.
The session was largely a talkie-type thing and any attempt at transcription would turn into a novella.
The Vigilance was re-boarded and searched. The captain's log was recovered (albeit largely destroyed) and it yielded a lot of interesting information.
In addition to the log, a quantity of her cargo was taken aboard Osprey and turned out to be ammunition in Known Worlds calibres and types. Ezra made a point of recovering the personal weapons of the fallen crew before inviting the Osprey's company to assemble for a funeral service. Having given the fallen the rites of the Church, Osprey applied her engines to putting the wreck onto a trajectory that would keep it from entering 'the outer darkness'.
Diana recovered well from her surgery and the use of one of the precious doses of nano-tech 'Elixir' proved to be a good investment as the Selenite was conscious within a few hours of her operation.
Alectrona surreptitiously reprogrammed one of the medical devices to run a tissue scan of the Selenite (the results becoming relevant later).
"The jump key we have captured could go to one of three places : Prime, The Known Worlds (if the log is correct – Grail) or 'Somewhere else' – Do we ask Diana if she wants to take the chance on it not being Prime?" – Annissa.

Diana seemed happy to risk being taken beyond the "twin systems" (as Prime/Poseidon are known by their inhabitants).
Ka'ra was able to jury rig the 210 containing segments of Vigilance's drive to work with the engines of the Osprey.
The Osprey politely requested that the artefact not be 'tampered with' during the upcoming jump or "I cannot guarantee the safety of the Sathra Damper system or our jump engines" Antonio seemed to find the A.I.'s voice (familiar from his dreams) somewhat unnerving.
When asked about the reference to 'Replicants' in the log, Diana explained that the Selenites were aware of some sort of conspiracy and had had difficulty penetrating some of their installations due to genetic scans and genetic locks. 'Replicants' were clones taken from DNA recovered from suspected conspirators and used as spies. The programme had had little success but it did explain the reaction to Antonio to some extent.
Annissa pointed out to her shipmates that Diana had consistently not been 100% honest with the party, as befitted an intelligence officer and that she ought not to always be taken at face value. The failure to mention 'Replicants' was an example of this.
It was decided to attempt to 'run the gate' and chance the unknown jump key. Hopefully the lighter defences on the Poseidon side would be expecting a ship on their present heading and speed and by the time they were close enough to ID Osprey, it would be too late (a so-called "Vuldrok flyby").
For once, things went to plan. The Osprey was almost upon the gate when the alarm was raised and she was able to engage her jump engines before the missiles could reach her.
On emergence, it was immediately apparent that Osprey had indeed emerged in the Prime system and Casey had to do some pretty decent evasive manoeuvres to avoid the many shuttles buzzing around the gate in addition to the flights of fusion powered missiles that were fired at her.
One missile got close to Osprey as she fled for the inner system and detonated in a nuclear fireball which powered a flurry of lasers – taking down Ospreys entire rear shielding array in the blink of an eye.
Passive sensors revealed that the gate was an absurdly large distance out from the star. Rather than the usual 30 to 100 AU, the gate in the Prime system was over 500 AU out. Running at full boost and taking the shields to the red line, the inner system was still over two weeks away.
Diana made arrangements for Osprey to have safe haven at Selene.
Ezra was fascinated by the gate being so far out and was convinced that it must have something to do with the 'dark object' suspected of damaging the star in the Prime system. His shipmates could come up with no more reasonable explanation, other than perhaps 'a fluke'.
As Osprey grew closer to Selene, Alectrona reported that her 'intuition' was picking up on something, a presence as though she was approaching a concentration of minds.
"Antonio… You say you don't find Annissa or Alectrona attractive but you flirt with her aunt? That's crap and you know it… Those three could be sisters if you look at their appearance, with Diana in the middle of the three for weight, build and height. If you find her attractive, I just plain don't believe that you can't find one or other of her kinswomen attractive too. Frankly 'toni… I think the issue here is more than skin deep. Diana's an outsider, someone you don't have to think about longer term issues than 'breakfast' with" – Casey in one of her more trenchant moments.
Antonio and Annissa had a fairly civilised conversation in which Annissa asked Antonio about the loss of Daishan and the effect it had had on his house. "I realise now how the loss of your houses homeworld and the constant yearning for it has shaped your people and you… why it is that money and material things matter so much to you, when you have lost so much in the past." Of course, Antonio ended his side of the conversation by calling Annissa a 'Rich bitch' but it was progress of a sort.
Tiamat, the gas giant around which Selene orbited was an impressive sight. A failed star, Tiamat emitted huge amounts of heat and made Ares, the inner moon almost habitable. Selene, the outer moon was an airless sphere reminiscent of Luna.
Alectrona became increasingly aware of the presence of millions of minds on the world below. Diana explained :
"You are truly a sister to us, for it is that Affinity with our kind that defines us. Your thoughts are your own unless you wish to share them with The Consensus but we can all sense one another, share ourselves with one another if we wish. It is the Great Project toward which we have dedicated ourselves." Osprey landed on a barren plain and was carried below the surface on a massive elevator and into a giant subterranean chamber. A docking tube was extended and two Selenites came to greet the newcomers – Valerie and Hera.
Hera and Valerie bore a resemblance to Diana, Alectrona and (to a lesser extent) Annissa, the Selenites quite plainly of similar stock to the Xanthippe.
The purpose of the two envoys was to enter into dialog with the new arrivals and to come to some sort of agreement as to how to proceed.
The crew of the Osprey initially declined the offer of quarters on Selene itself, preferring to negotiate in familiar surroundings.
There then followed a day or so of meetings and presentations, during which it was plain that the Selenites were not going to volunteer anything unless asked directly to do so or challenged on their omissions.
During these talks, Annissa showed that her skills as a trader were more than slightly transferable to the negotiation table.

What was revealed :
Poseidon may have been settled by Sleeper ship but Prime was not. The official history that Prime was a lost diasporan colony was a great lie. Prime was founded by elements of the First Republic, wishing to preserve their way of life in the face of the social changes that ushered in the birth of the Second Republic.
The Selenites are a branch of what later became House Xanthippe. The Selenites represent a more radical faction within the proto-house who saw the 'Great Project' in a different light to their sisters.
"Have you ever wondered why it is that one of our main industries is viniculture? Consider the grape… in the wild it is a small, almost inedible berry. With breeding, selection, refinement and tending… it becomes the source of wine, a liquid that is cherished enough to form part of sacraments. To us, the human form is as the grape… something that has room for improvement, to become greater. It is no blasphemy in the eyes of the Divine to have altered the grape and so to us it is no blasphemy to alter ourselves… the grape, you, I… it is all clay."
House Xanthippe in the Known Worlds would appear to have restricted itself to basic eugenics, guided marriages and careful manipulation of pedigrees to eliminate inherited diseases and improve some beneficial traits. Selenites took a more direct approach and applied genetic engineering to themselves.
The Selenites had begun a refinement to the Great Project some centuries ago, striving to develop the semi-mythical bond between twins into a general trait. In recent generations the Affinity gene was born : A limited form of telepathy between Selenites and Selenites only. The social implications were immense, crime was now practically unknown and mental illness a matter of pure science rather than guesswork. However, it was also something they kept from their cousins in the Twin Systems.
A side-effect of the Affinity Gene was 'The Consensus' – Something less than a Hive-mind, more an awareness of the collective will. The Consensus directed the administration of Selene and had 'debated' what to do about Osprey. Only a minority favoured arresting the crew and preventing their taking the secrets back to the Known Worlds.
Central to Selenite policy was a belief that "A Storm is coming" and that a conflict with the Known Worlds would only weaken them both. That the Known Worlds were coming was an inevitability and if Alexius was willing to enter dialogue with the symbiots, then he would be likely to be willing to parlay with the Selenites.
Alectrona played her trump card : A DNA analysis of Diana that proved that the Selenite was as closely related to Annissa and Alectrona as an aunt would be (tampering with a tissue typing machine is for the advanced student). Statistics would indicate that this was an absurd co-incidence and that in Alectrona's opinion, there HAD to be contact between the modern house and the Selenites.
Hera and Valerie were silent for a while and then conceded that this was indeed the case. They explained that this was a secret of the sort that imperilled those privy to it in the Known Worlds.
Each of the first colonies founded by Luna during the Diaspora carried with it a device tied to the mother Moonhaven at Tycho. The workings of the technology approach any reasonable definition of magic ('Philosophers Stone' muttered Ezra) but in essence, House Xanthippe possessed a limited form of Faster-Than-Light communication between the original colonies and Luna. Selene had been sharing data with her mother world for centuries.
Annissa and Alectrona still suspected that perhaps the Xanthippe had a jumpkey they were not talking about but did not push this issue.
The Selenites said that they had become aware of a 'cancer' spreading through Prime society slowly for the past couple of centuries. Affinity seemed to make those possessing it sensitive to the presence of true darkness, something Alectrona could attest to from personal experience but something that also made the parallels with Symbiosis more distinct. The situation had grown worse in recent decades with the rediscovery of the Jumpgate.
Selene believed that someone from outside had been visiting the system for a period of time before the rediscovery of the jumpgate.
They also supplied archive footage of the 'Dark Object' that was implicated in the 'variable star' problem in Primes sun. A teardrop shaped object, blacker than black and with an estimated surface temperature of 0 Kelvin. Ezra was convinced that this was an object of Antinomist nature. It streaked in from the outer system, swung past Prime and perturbed both its orbit and axis before impacting the Sun.
The suns surface erupted into a massive flare that would have sterilised the sunward face of Prime had it reached the planet. However a strange light coalesced in the path of the mass of ejecta and took the form of a 'mirrored flower' that deflected the worst of the flare away from the planet before vanishing.
The Selenite explanation for this veered straight into the religious rather than scientific – The Selenites believed that in addition to The Divine and its 'pantheon' of lesser aspects, there were godlike entities that predated the Gate-Builders. They cited as evidence for this the fact that all the alien species of Known Space were able to eat the same foods and in the case of the Ur-Ukar, Ur-Obun and Mankind, they could interbreed (admittedly with some genetic help, but even so). That all these races shared a common genetic and biochemical legacy was evidence to the Selenites of some hand on the tiller of evolution. That many of the non-human races seemed to resemble animal lineages from Mother Urth also seemed to back up this tenet of their belief.
When the Selenites arrived with the Newcomers on Poseidon, they discovered some evidence that indicated that Poseidons biosphere was the result of direct manipulation by some outside agency. There was both evidence of mass extinctions caused by global events and evidence of global events that should have caused extinctions and did not.
"We call this force 'The Dark Mother' – An entity who creates, shapes and prunes the tree of life. She is not the Divine, the Divine is the creator of the garden… The Dark Mother has taken on the role of gardener. We believe that it was not Prime's time to be pruned and she acted to prevent the actions of whoever or whatever sent that object into our star"
The exact nature of the Antinomist conspiracy remained unclear but it seemed that there had been a presence for several centuries, slowly building a powerbase within the Prime governments and corporations before covert contact with the Known Worlds began in earnest. A steady trickle of modern starships came and went from the Prime system bringing with them personnel and certain materials, whilst Prime manufactured materials and drugs flowed in the opposite direction.
When 'recontact' with Poseidon occurred, things moved up a notch and the flow of ships between the twin systems steadily rose. Selene suspected that the center of operations was moved to the Serpentis belt where surveillance by other parties would be harder.
It is there that the Selenites suspect a shipyard has been constructed.
Selene has taken a very passive role in the growing situation, preferring to observe and not betray that they are not as ignorant of matters as they appear to outsiders.
In secret they have been preparing for 'The coming storm' and have shipyards of their own, deep in the bowels of the planet where they are constructing a fleet of modern starships. The designs for their weapons and drives were supplied by House Xanthippe but the nature of the hulls and construction is a pure Selenite technology.
The information provided by the Osprey's crew shed some light on matters. It seemed that Houses Keddah and Masseri had formed a plot to overthrow House Decados some years previously and had been infiltrated by Antinomists who offered an easy route to power. The evidence seemed to show that only some of those involved were in thrall to darker powers and the rest were 'merely' political malcontents.
Antonio suspected that the plot to kill his Duke was not because of the Duke's alleged plot to obtain symbiot spores but perhaps because he 'knew too much' – Antonio's reasoning being that the odds of two such serious conspiracies in so small a house was improbable.
Ships were being constructed in the Poseidon system and recruits were smuggled through from the Known Worlds to train on them and operate them. The manpower involved must be substantial and it would be hard to supply it through covert means reasoned the crew.
Annissa pointed out that whole troopships and liners disappeared during the war, perhaps it would have taken only one or two of these, filled with 'loyal' plotters to enable the conspirators to fill at least their initial needs for crews.
At the mention of this, Antonio went very quiet and became rather introspective. His wife and daughter had disappeared aboard a liner during the closing stages of the war…
It was decided that Osprey would best be employed in the Poseidon system where there were more suspected outposts of the conspiracy and evasion was easier.
The hope being to capture information from one of these installations that would help uncover more about the conspiracy. Antonio, being a Masseri might have some luck if any genetic locks were encountered.
The Selenites would provide as good a route to get close to the gate (in the 'shadow' of a Selenite controlled transport) as possible and hopefully Osprey would be able to 'run the gate' as before.
Diana would travel with them as her assigned location was the Poseidon system and the party had requested a liaison.

"Computer?" "Yes Padre?" "Can you made me a bookshelf?" -pause- "In extremis I might… but I can easily supply you with wood, nails and a hammer if you like?"

The Osprey would not need to leave for 48 hours and the freedom of the city was offered to her crew.
Antonio decided to take himself off for a while.
Annissa suggested to Ezra that they visit a holy site and after some arm twisting, the priest agreed to leave his beloved books.
Alectrona decided to visit a park at first.
Alectrona found the background 'hum' of several million Affinity gene'd Selenites to be strangely comforting and not at all invasive and spent some time just wandering through the botanical gardens of the city.
Ezra and Annissa travelled to one of the temples in the city, set in peaceful gardens and built in a very Greco-Roman style. The Selenite faith seemed to be (at worst) a heterodox version of Universalism – They believed in an overall Divinity but below it was a pantheon of more anthropomorphic entities who corresponded to the Empyrean 'Angels'. There was less stress on the concept of the Universal Sun and more on personal progression and meditation, doctrines not a million miles away from the Eskatonic or Incarnate doctrines.
Antonio set out for a bar and proceeded to drink fairly heavily, although he found a sympathetic ear – First in the bartender and then in a pretty young woman called Rachel.
Annissa sent a text message to her crew and invited them all to a meal in the city's piazza. Antonio politely declined (a small victory).
Casey and Tanalu joined Annissa, Ezra and Alectrona for a meal. Tanalu seemed very much at ease in the city, proclaiming that "The S'ssu here is most harmonious".
The Selenites seemed to take the presence of an obvious alien in their midst very calmly, perhaps because The Consensus was aware of it. The meal passed amicably with the view of the crew being that the word 'Harmonious' was indeed appropriate.
Antonio initially had romance on his mind but his companion seemed able to see past some of his outer defences and engaged him in quite a deep conversation, drawing him out on the subject of his life and the loss of his wife. Rachel seemed to think that he was hiding from life behind a façade of self destructive behaviour and affected brashness. Antonio, she maintained, felt that moving on with his life was a disloyalty to the memory of his wife, despite the likely fact that a loving wife would not expect such a thing from her husband. "It is your life, but it seems to me that on the face of it… three people died that day, not two. Two of those lives are in the hands of the Divine… the third is still within your grasp. It seems a shame to waste it."
The day, whilst platonic was both pleasant and intimate as Antonio was given a natives eye tour of the particular city in which they found themselves. The Selenites seeming no less individual than anyone else and enjoying life in a myriad of different ways.
When Rachel and Antonio parted company (with a warm but chaste kiss), Antonio decided to seek out his compatriots who had by this time decided to head to a night club.
The nightclub was quite an experience, the availability of a host of recreational stimulants in addition to plain old alcohol made for a very relaxed and vibrant atmosphere. Ezra, every the Eskatonic, elected to take some mild hallucinogens and 'people watched'. Casey, Alectrona and Annissa did not take any drugs (Casey out of a caution for other peoples biochemistry). Alectrona found it almost hypnotic to tune into the 'group mind' effect of several hundred Affinity gene'd Selenites, united by the beat of the music. A late arriving Antonio also opted for some drugs and a long night of drink, drugs and loud music ensued. Antonio was by far the worst for wear at the end of the night.
Carried back to the ship, Antonio was able to stagger into his cabin and collapse on his bunk.
Unknown to Antonio, Casey flippantly suggested to the other women that "for half a firebird" she would spend the night in Antonio's bed for the look on his face. She was duly called on the dare and the following morning, Antonio awoke in his bed, naked and aware of a naked female form curled against him.
What had begun as a slightly cruel bet resulted in Antonio being aware that whilst Casey felt not one jot of sexual feeling for him, as an empath she was not unaware of his unhappiness and apparently cared about him.

"You, 'toni quite plainly should not have been alone last night."
We leave things with our party arising for breakfast with a variety of sore heads and fuzzy memories. Provisions are being delivered and three brand new missiles of modern design have arrived, fresh from the foundry.
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Session 24

Our heroes spend the morning after the night before variously nursing hangovers or similar and overseeing the delivery of various items to Osprey's cargo bay.
The Selenites had foreseen the likelihood of prisoners being taken on any raids and provided a set of cryogenic suspension units. Cryogenics had become something of a lost art in the Known Worlds, only the most desperate of spacefarers ever resorting to the emergency suspension units carried on a few ships. The Selenites had used their experience with the lower tech units used on the long duration torchship flights and claimed to have refined the protocols, making the process safer. In all, two dozen capsules were installed in the cargo bay, along with a large stock of food and life support consumables.
Osprey was also provided with a small shuttle pod for boarding actions.
Annissa liquidated some of the assets they had acquired on Poseidon by selling some xenosilicate to the Selenites and using the currency to buy some luxuries for the crew : Wines, fresh vegetables, meat, ice cream etc.
Osprey lifted off for the sixteen day flight to their rendez vous with an in system cargo hauler en-route to the gate.
The flight passed uneventfully enough, although Provost Ezra began a series of regular prayer meetings among the crew with the aim of building morale and faith for the hard tasks ahead. Ezra made the meetings as ecumenical as possible, so as not to exclude those of other faiths that at least acknowledged the same values as the Church. Tanalu was a regular attendee, but the other pagans were less interested.
Ezra's other main activity on the long flight was to review his notes on the alien artefact that had brought them to the system.
Antonio spent some time with his hobby, brewing hooch. Midway through the flight, he surprised everyone with a batch that was actually non-toxic and halfway palatable. Osprey had previously forbidden him from disposing of his earlier efforts down the toilet and instructed him to use the hazardous waste unit in main engineering.
A 'target planning' meeting consumed several units of this beverage and resulted in Antonio being charged with selecting their first likely target by throwing olive pits at a series of empty glasses that represented target choices.
Osprey tucked in close to the cargo hauler (operated by some shady individuals in the pay of the Selenite government) and clamped onto her hull for the final run toward the gate.
Once close to the gate after a journey of four days, Osprey unclamped amid the sensor clutter of the hauler jettisoning her cargo pods for collection by tugs. Casey made a good job of coasting toward the gate and was almost in jump position before being discovered.
Amid a flurry of missile launches and railgun fire, Osprey made a hasty exit from the Prime system and emerged in the Poseidon system, streaking away from the gate before the defences could fully rouse.
Antonio discovered that with the right lead, his neural jack enabled him to utilise the cybernetic enhancements on some Prime/Poseidon produced weapons – boresight cameras etc.The evening of October 31st was spent in a semi- party, "remembering the iguana farm" and absent friends. Not quite a canonical observance of the festival but acceptable enough in the eyes of Provost Ezra.
The journey to the inner system took four days and Osprey slid stealthily into the Serpentis belt, homing in on one of the targets provided by Selenite intelligence. The rock on the chart registered on the basic gravitic sensors employed by the Selenites and it seemed therefore that it was employing anti-grav technology somewhere in its interior, a sure sign of outworlder involvement.
The entrance to the facility within the rock was well hidden but once found, the party went across in their pod and once docked with the hatch, Antonio attempted to open the lock. The hatch had a genetic lock built in and it would seem that his Masseri heritage was sufficient (along with the careful application of a screwdriver in the right place).
The facility turned out to be an unmanned Uranium enrichment plant and this caused some consternation as this indicated a significant nuclear threat in the possession of the conspiracy.
Taking a dump of the computer system, the party did their best to cover their tracks and departed.
Target two was a slightly larger rock and careful use of passive sensors revealed both a personnel and cargo lock concealed on the surface.
Noting the presence of surveillance cameras covering the locks, Antonio volunteered to spacewalk across and disable/subvert the cameras. He managed to induce one camera to display a looped image but broke the second one off it's mounting entirely. Satisfied that this would only provoke an eventual repair call out, the party boarded the facility via the personnel lock.
Taking an elevator down to the listed 'accommodation' level (after disabling the lift sensors) the party emerged into a well lit corridor and gunned down the first person they saw before he could reach an alarm panel. Whilst Alectrona was applying first aid, the rest of the team began to sweep the level. Alectrona quipped that it was an awful waste of expensive elixir but used a dose all the same, the gallows humour of the combat medic striking again.
Unfortunately, the gunfire had alerted the occupants of one of the dormitories and there then ensued a firefight .
Antonio was alarmed when one of his grenade swas thrown back at him from inside the dormitory into which he had tossed it. The party fled the grenade and Antonio threw the unconscious prisoner over his spacesuited shoulder as he retreated, which is what saved him from the blast, but sadly resulted in the death of the prisoner.
As the party returned to the fray, Ezra and Annissa concentrated on the dorm' whilst Diana and Antonio covered the access corridor after another grenade was used to suppress the defenders in the dorm.
Soon enough, more defenders appeared at the access door and began firing with baton rounds, one of which caught Antonio in the chest and winded him. He did however manage to snap off a shot at a person throwing a cylindrical object up the corridor toward him and as he collapsed winded, was sure he recognised the timbre of her scream when his blaster struck home.
Antonio choked out a request for a ceasefire but it went initially unheeded.
Grenades and blaster fire had started several small fires and the environment was soon full of smoke and fumes mixed with fire suppression sprays. Ezra and Annissa called on the defenders to surrender, but were initially unsuccessful. The base shook and Casey communicated with the party to inform them that she had fired on the bases communication array to silence an attempt to call for help.
Faced with the presence of a Known Worlds warship and several boarders with energy weapons, the defenders laid down arms. Antonio urged Alectrona to see to the wounded female defender and as the party moved to secure the base, he revealed that he believed the woman was his missing wife, Annabella.
The base commander, Klaus of House Keddah was obviously terrified and very tractable. The installation turned out to be an assembly plant for starship components.
Osprey docked with the cargo lock and the prisoners were herded into the cargo bay under guard, Klaus and Annabella taken to the brig.
Before departing, the Osprey crew trashed the installation to cover their tracks.
It was decided to cryogenically freeze the remainder of the captives, Ezra had to calm them down, reassuring them that they would be treated with due diligence and not executed out of hand.
Klaus was co-operative but not staggeringly helpful, essentially he was an industrial plant manager with little knowledge of anything beyond the running of an assembly plant. It was decided that he was of no further use and he was placed in suspended animation.
Annabella was an entirely different prospect. Antonio confirmed that the woman was who he thought she was by examining the surveillance cameras in the brig and then decided to go and speak to her.
Most of the crew gathered around the camera monitor after Antonio departed for the brig and eavesdropped on the conversation.
"I want a divorce!" were the first words out of the woman's mouth.
"Leaving aside the fact I shot you, why do you want a divorce?"
"That was YOU?"

There then followed a very bitter and emotional exchange. Annabella seemed to regard Antonio as a disappointment, that he had failed her and her daughter for accepting her apparent demise at face value but her primary issue was that their marriage was more of a business arrangement and that she had since met a man she truly loved.
Annabella revealed that she had born her 'husband' a son called Samuel and that her daughter was in training for the military having developed psychic ability when she entered puberty. Annabella seemed an enthusiastic member of the conspiracy, although apparently without any taint of the Infernal.
Her motivation, according to her, was to give her children a chance at a better life, to be something other than disadvantaged vassal nobles.
Local system communications revealed that the 'wormhole' was embargoed by the authorities as a precaution against "a credible terrorist threat", the party were flattered to rate as 'credible' in someone's eyes.
Over the course of the next day or so, efforts were made to convince Annabella that the conspiracy was compromised by Antinomists. Annabella would not believe that 'the cause' could be tainted in that way and that the accusations were a poorly conceived attempt to make her betray it.
The next day, sensors detected anomalous activity at the gate following an activation. Weapons fire and the emissions from a Known Worlds ECM suite.
Some time later, a burst transmission in Imperial cipher was intercepted by Osprey and the decrypt revealed that a Questing Knight ship called "Swift Needle of Enquiry" had entered the system.
Annissa recognised the initials on the communication as being those of Kolya Decados, the knight who had been pleasant to her in the face of almost unremitting rudeness on her part.
A rendezvous was arranged via burst transmission and the two ships approached one another in the rings of the largest gas giant.
Osprey was asked to 'play dumb' when the guests were aboard, the ship said that she was able to do that, "I could emit sparks and make the occasional beep if it would make you feel better."
kolya requested that if Osprey had the gas to spare, they allow the Needle to depressurise and replenish their environment from Osprey as the Needle had been in space for nearly two months and the air had become very… ripe. Anastasia requested that baths were on standby when they boarded.
kolya and Anastasia came aboard in space suits, having been using them to conserve the heating of the ship. Anastasia quipped that she would "pay good hard currency for someone to scrub her back" and Ezra (much to everyone's surprise) volunteered, very diligently washing the courtesans back and hair but being a gentleman and averting his eyes when she entered and left the bath. He did however notice that she had a neural jack like Antonio's.
Annissa laid on a lavish meal for their guests, who said that they had fresh orders and some personal mail.
Kolya told the party that several of their friends had refused to believe that the party were dead and that Lady Alicia Hawkwood had called some favours in to get a search underway. Dan and the Vuldrok had contributed to the effort and Kolya had 'fabricated a family emergency' to enable him and his ship to continue the search once official pressure came to bear to abandon the efforts.
The 'Swift Needle' was a new acquisition for Kolya after a mission to Khotan in which Sergei the bodyguard had been killed and their old ship lost, a mission that landed a cache of 2nd Republic technology for the Emperor.
Some weeks ago, an Imperial courier hailed the Needle, docking with them to hand over the new orders and to transfer a 'code sniffer'. The sniffer allowed Kolya to monitor the jump codes transmitted to the Grail gate, after nearly a month sat powered down on the surface of the gate, an unrecognised code was detected and the Needle jumped into the Poseidon system.
The mail was, to put it mildly, something of an eye opener :

1) Letter from Count Allessandro

Be it know that I, Count Allessandro De Justus Hazat of Aragon do hereby gift the estate of San Daniel to the Emperor in recognition and gratitude for the heroism and diligence of his servants in the rescue of my sister Maria and as a tribute to their memory.
Enacted this day, August the fifteenth in the year of the Pancreators Grace 4,997.

Count Allessandro De Justus Hazat of Aragon

2) Letter from the Emperor's spymaster

October 1st 4,997
From the desk of Sir Chamin Mazerin,
Until further notice, trust no official communication that does not come under the seals of the Emperor, the left hand council or myself in the cipher provided.
The conspiracy that you have helped uncover has infiltrated many key areas and as a result we risk showing our hand by mobilizing any significant force to act against it until counter-intelligence measures are in place.
We are pleased to learn that your demise was misreported but we regret that it is a fiction that we will need to maintain for the time being. Your re-appearance in the Known Worlds would reveal that the ambush had failed and in all likelihood the conspirators would realize that the unknown ship acting against their interests in the two systems was a vessel in the service of the Emperor.
Your key directives are :
· Under no circumstances are you to allow yourselves or your ships to fall into enemy hands, nor are you to permit your positive identification by local forces or the conspirators.
· You are to employ every means at your disposal to gather intelligence on the conspiracy and their capabilities so long as this does not compromise your first directive.
· The fleet under construction and any completed vessels must not be permitted to leave the system under the control of the conspiracy. You are directed to use any means whatsoever to prevent this from happening. This matter supersedes all other considerations.
We include a codebook, employ these codes for messages relayed via the Selenite channel to the Known Worlds. It is understood that this method is slow and you must therefore be prepared to act on your own initiative for periods of time.
The Emperor and the Matriarchy of House Xanthippe are presently engaged in discussion with regard to the 'Selene' situation and you are to do nothing to jeopardize relations with that state unless that state should show signs of ill intent toward the Phoenix Empire. You are, however to provide His Majesty with a full and frank assessment of the political and military situation in the two systems (as per your standing orders as Questing Knights).
May the Pancreator light your way in the dark avenues you must walk.

Mazerin

3) Letter from the Emperor

Knights of the Phoenix,
The lands bequested to ourselves were given in the memory of those the donor believed dead. It would be churlish in the extreme for us to retain these lands in the light of your miraculous deliverance.
We therefore make the following entitlements :
That the Castle of San Daniel and the estate is granted to Tarhana Annissa Al-Malik and that the Villas Stellata and Verde are gifted to Sir Antonio DeMosto Masseri and Dame Alectrona Xanthippe respectively. Said entitlements include all rights to the lands and chattels therein.
We note also the heroism and diligence of the Cohorts and crew aboard the Osprey and award to them a gratuity in addition to their usual stipend as a token of our gratitude for loyal service.
By my hand, this day October First, the year of the Pancreators Grace 4,997.

Alexius

Antonio instantly came to the conclusion that he could hide his wife, her children and her newfound love on his new estate, assuming he could 'turn' her and extract her family. With that in mind, he asked Casey to use her empathy to convince his wife that she should help them, or risk the Osprey having to use their nuclear weapon on the shipyard when they found it.
Casey displayed a previously unsuspected talent for cruelty, after talking for a while about Annabella's children (Saskia being very close to Casey's age) and then exploiting Annabella's maternal feelings to heighten her fears for her children. Leaving Annabella a bawling wreck, Casey returned to the bridge. When Antonio praised her ability, she merely shrugged and said "Humans are weak.".
Kolya and Annissa got to chatting about fencing and the the Baron offered to spar with Annissa but no sooner had he done so that several others asked to take a turn at sparring with him. Kolya was able to give Annissa an overview of the lands granted to the nobles aboard Osprey, apparently the estates bordered his own hunting estate.
Alectrona made a discovery while examining the captured computer data core. Plugging it into the ships computer system she observed that the ships system was able to immediately interface with and infiltrate the computer core. Calling a private meeting on the bridge with Annissa, Ezra and Antonio,
Alectrona asked the AI to elaborate on this ability. Osprey revealed that she was able to interface with other computers and take control of them as part of her original design as a damage control system.
She 'confessed' that she had done something similar to Antonio's cyberware and left a dormant copy of her core algorithms in the memory core of the cybernetics, which had allowed her to awaken him back on Poseidon. A side effect of her infiltration of Antonio's cybernetics was that when he reconnected to her network, she was able to integrate her copy back into herself, allowing her to gain experience of life outside the ship. This was something everyone took remarkably well, perhaps because of what Osprey said next :
The AI pointed out that the computer software in use by the conspiracy was significantly inferior to that in use when she was designed. Once interfaced with such a system, she would be able to subvert it in short order.
If the enemy fleet was in a 'dry dock', there would have to be a door. If the door could be controlled, the ships would be going nowhere. If the ships were networked to the dry dock, they could be infiltrated.
This led to the beginnings of a planning session, Antonio suggesting he try and get his wife to help him get aboard and use his cybernetics to allow the AI to upload her algorithm to the network.
Selenite sensors in the belt were detecting a flotilla of Known Worlds warships shadowing a line of local vessels that were sweeping the belt with active sensors, trying to flush out any hidden ships (according to the media, an anti-piracy sweep). The conclusion was obvious, the conspiracy had mobilised some of its warships to begin an attempt to hunt the Knights down.

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Session 25

We rejoin our heroes as they sit around and attempt to come up with a plan of action as they orbit the outer gas giant in the Poseidon system.
· Antonio spent some time interviewing his wife Annabella to glean more information about the conspiracy.
· Annabella revealed that the base had a compliment of about 2,000 people and a few dozen in outlying manufacturing, weapon and sensor plants.
· After examining the navigational computer of Annabella's pod, Alectrona and Tanalu were able to ascertain the location of the space station.
· Saskia, Antonio's daughter apparently exhibits two psychic powers – Telepathy and Telekinesis.
· Annabella pointed out that she was going to be listed overdue and that her pod would have run out of life support by now, so the "Oh, look… here I am… I got lost" approach was not going to work.
· Karl, Annabella's 'husband' works as a member of base security, which is how he and Annabella met (when she was a P.O.W. she and he met and fell for one another).
· Ka'ra the Ishkin engineer 'decloaked' in the middle of the planning meeting and proposed her own plan – That Annabella and Antonio 'steal' the Swift Needle Of Inquiry and flee to the arms of the conspiracy with Annabella saying that her long lost husband had helped her escape. Antonio proposed punching Kolya in the face using knuckle dusters for verisimilitude (not that this was in anyway necessary). kolya managed to walk in just as Annissa exclaimed "We are NOT laying Kolya out!" which he took with good humour.
· kolya asked nicely that the expensive things installed by Imperial intelligence had installed were removed before his ship was put in peril. "I have signed for that lot"
· Antonio felt that the odds of his surviving the mission were not at all good, leading him to re-write his will.

"Excuse me, I've got a few private things to do in my cabin"

· Diana made another of her long series of "We've not exactly told you everything" revelations – The Selenites had a limited number of modern drive starships in the Poseidon system, including a troop carrier with marines.
· Diana asked that people not over react when they saw that both the ships and the marines armour were biomechanical. This caused some initial consternation and suspicion which fortunately soon passed.
· Before Antonio departed on the Needle, Annissa prepared a pleasant meal that was deliberately more a comforting send-off than a 'last meal'
· Antonio went to Ezra for confession

"Father, I would also like to confess several hundred incidences of inadvertent adultery…"

"Antonio… I am always here, I won't leave you." - Osprey

· Osprey rendezvous'd with a small flotilla of Selenite vessels, reassuringly not looking anything like known symbiot vessels and having more a look of a seed pod about them rather than the insectoid / fungal aesthetic of symbiot technology. Four escort sized ships flanking a heavy galliot sized troop carrier. The engines were obviously standard Known World units, grafted into/onto the biomechanical hull.
· Alectrona was 'aware' of the presence of Affinity'd individuals aboard the ships and also… that the ships themselves were aware, living things. Again, unlike symbiots which were organic things with aspects of machines, these were more like machines with aspects of life.
· Following at a decent distance, the Osprey and the Selenite 'voidhawks' set off to the Serpentis belt to be on standby when the plan went down (hopefully).
· Antonio and Annabella spent the trip to the belt if not settling their differences, coming to an understanding with one another.
· Needle was challenged by two raiders and boarded by marines. The raider connected its computer to that of the Needle with the intent of interrogating the logs, not realising that the process would not be one way…

"Accessing…" – Osprey

· Needle was escorted to the base, a two mile long planetoid and guided into a hangar bay at the end cap of the roughly cylindrical rock.
· Once aboard, the Needle was connected by an umbilical and Antonio was led away toward a holding cell while Annabella was giving her account to the boarding party aboard the Needle.

"Accessing…"

· As Antonio was led away, Osprey 'whispered' for him to shield his eyes and as he did so, the lights in the corridor began to strobe, rapidly incapacitating his guards.
· Grabbing a gun and following the directions whispered into his head, Antonio returned to Needle and revived his vomit soaked wife, bringing her with him as he made his way toward the families' residence deep inside the habitat.
· Back aboard the Osprey, the rest of the party waited anxiously for signs that things were actually going to plan for a change. Confirmation came when the stealthing systems on the habitat ceased functioning and the ship was hailed by a 'copy' of itself.
"All station systems now compromised… you are cleared for boarding. The nearest enemy vessels are three hours away."

· As Osprey and the flotilla moved in to dock, one of the pair of ships that had escorted the Needle plotted an intercept vector but it's companion opened fire at point blank range and disabled her engines – Osprey having taken control of the second ship.
· The troopship and Osprey docked with the habitat and the party were surprised to see just how many of the Selenite marines were aboard her, rather than the fifty or so normally carried on a ship of that size – row upon row of foetal positioned figures uncurling to deploy down the ramp.
· The Selenite marines armour was biomechanical but as with their ships, not at all like the symbiot technology that some of the party had seen previously, the material resembling organically sculpted plastic.
· Every screen and display on the ship began to display the report compiled by Ezra that detailed the Antinomist involvement in the conspiracy.
· Antonio and Annabella made their way to the residential section and entered the familes' quarters.
· Antonio was surprised to see that his daughter had indeed grown into a young woman. The sight of his daughter and the man who had taken his place in his daughter and wife's life was something he struggled to cope with.
· Karl and Saskia seemed shocked and relieved to see Annabella and Saskia doubly so to see a man she vaguely recognised as her father.
· (Later, it would transpire that the reason Saskia did not shoot her father was her reflexively scanning his surface thoughts and being reassured by what she found)
· Grabbing a few essentials, the 'family' made their way back to the docking bay, encountering several Selenite marines along the way (now sporting an Imperial purple colour scheme and Phoenix emblem on their chromatophoric 'skin') before running into Annissa and the rest of the group.
· Alectrona sensed a 'wrongness' as did the psychics in the area… a group of marines had reached the command center of the habitat and cornered a group of diehard defenders – One of whom had swelled and begun to emit a cloud of nebulous darkness…
· Ezra was convinced that this was a demon, those who had been on the Daishan mission –knew- it was a demon.
· Ezra immediately set off toward the command center, determined to use what Theurgy he could provide to aid the marines (whose weapons were proving ineffective).
· The rest of the party delayed a little before following after him, Antonio electing to stay behind and guard his family (who had been placed in the brig at Annissa's insistence).
· At the command center, Ezra called forth light and tried to direct it against the possessee, praying out loud and reciting passages from the Omega Gospels.
· Marines and party members poured fire on the possessee and the remaining defenders in the command centre.
· At this point, the screens aboard the habitat (and all vessels within range) began to display a feed of the fight against the demon.
· As a marine team hastily assembled a squad support weapon, Ezra prayed for guidance and aid and his light brightened, actually shrivelling the skin of the creature. At that moment, the power that had been shielding the possessee seemed to weaken and it was literally blown apart under the strength of weapons fire.
· Amid the cloud of human debris, a shadow began to coalesce, the demon seeking another host but Ezra turned his light upon it and it dissipated with an unearthly scream.
· The marines silenced the last defenders with a shoulder launched plasma charge and declared the facility secure.
· Pulling back to the Osprey, the party lifted off along with the Needle and took station near the habitat.
· Over the course of the next two days, the remaining facilities and ships of the conspiracy at large in the belt struck their colours. There were several instances of conspiracy vessels firing on one another or mutinies aboard the ships as diehards refused to surrender.
· Activity at the gate over this time period indicated that something was going on. It transpired that the Selenites had made contact with the garrison of the fortress and 'suggested' that gate traffic be allowed once more. A courier was dispatched from the Poseidon side and soon returned with news that Selene had begun a bid to take control of the Prime gate and that they had received news from the Known Worlds.
· Selene, Diana announced, would take control of the gates and the shipyard and offer the bulk of the ships captured as a 'sweetener' to the Emperor. The governments of Prime were being asked to 'clean house' and key organisations appraised of the true situation in the system.
· The Imperial Eye had been engaged in a series of targeted assassinations, relocations and arrests over the preceding two months, removing many of the conspirators from their positions in the Questing Knight and Imperial organisations (one person eliminated was Peter Justinian).
· Selene offered political asylum to any of the conspirators who wished to remain in the twin systems rather than throw themselves on the Emperor's mercy.
· Antonio spent some time talking to Karl, Saskia and Annabella, offering them a place on his Aragon estate or sanctuary with the Selenites. After some thought, the family chose to remain with the habitat under the protection of the Selenites.
· Antonio offered Saskia a place to stay, should she ever wish to visit him and by way of "restitution for five years missed birthdays and Lux Splendor presents" gave her his blaster pistol, a Masseri family heirloom handed down from his own father.
· Osprey and the Needle were cleared to return to the Known Worlds and after off loading their prisoners and Diana to a Selenite Voidhawk, they laid in a course to the gate.
· Emerging from the Grail gate, the Osprey and Needle were greeted by two Xanthippe warships, a Cruiser and Assault Troop Carrier (The cream of the House's limited resources) rather than a Keddah gate picket.
We leave our heroes as they hail the Xanthippe vessels, pleased to be in familiar surroundings once again.

(End of 'An Aquatic Interlude')

Session 26

We join our heroes as they rendez vous with the Xanthippe vessels at the Grail gate.
On a secure channel the Xanthippe warn Osprey that Imperial vessels will soon arrive to escort them.
The party decide not to wait and jump to Bz-II under their own steam.
The jump out of the Grail system resulted in another series of anomalous spikes in the jump drive and Sathra damper systems with the associated strange visions of an infinite white landscape.
At Pyre the ship was hailed by an Imperial vessel and instructed to proceed to a remote moon.
On arrival at the moon they were hailed by a cruiser and ordered to shut down their main reactor and prepare to be taken aboard the larger vessel.
The party were a mite concerned but proceeded out of their ship when instructed and surrendered all their electronic devices.
Antonio was escorted away by a group of heavily cybered Engineers Guild personnel and subjected to a battery of very painful tests on his cyberware to check for 'contamination'.
The rest were held in comfortable quarters and chafed against the confinement.
When Antonio was returned to them, Annissa's already bad temper came to the boil, matching Casey for invective.
Bran Bratan Vo Karm arrived and spoke to the party, stating that they would need to hold Osprey until its threat level could be determined. Annissa insisted that they were going nowhere without their starship and that all this showed an extreme lack of gratitude on the part of the Empire.
Vo Karm left, muttering in Obun words to the effect of "Prophesy be damned..." which when translated by Casey, led Ezra to assume that this referred to the old heretical Engineer Order obsession with 'Soulcrafting' and the concept of machines with souls.
(GM note - He was referring to another prophesy entirely: The one concerning the party)
The party were given quarters aboard the ship while the ship was examined by teams of drooling Engineers.
Vo Karm announced the following day that the ship seemed to possess a soul, something which seemed to disturb him somewhat. He announced that he had been able to use some Church Theurgy on Osprey and have the same effect as on an organic being.
Quote

Antonio: "Hey there might be money in this... Is it bad to make money out of Heresy?"
Ezra: "You are =such= a twat!"
The cruiser jumped with Osprey aboard as far as Leminkainen and the Osprey was released to the party's charge. Vo Karm had placed an injunction upon Osprey to prevent it 'reproducing', thus meaning it could not become a 'VonNeumann Deamon'.
Osprey was very quiet when the crew reboarded her, describing her experience as 'invasive' and 'disturbing' but ultimately actually interesting.
Before departing the cruiser, Vo Karm presented the land deeds to the nobles and chests of firebirds to the commoners
The Imperial Eye would contact the party when it was safe to no longer hide out.
Kolya and Anastasia elected to come along with Osprey in their own ship.
It took six days to get to Hargard and there was much jubilation when the Osprey contacted Valheim by communication laser, clearance to land was immediately granted and there was a large and happy welcoming committee in the cave hangar.
The ale flowed freely in the Thanes hall and there was, if you'll pardon the reference, much rejoicing.
Ezra's "what we did on our holidays" pictures attracted the attention of the Skey who were fascinated by the pictures of Cetaceans, their legends speaking of Cetaceans on the lost home world. The Skey claim to have come from Sirius rather than Lambda Serpentis however.
Kolya offered to teach Annissa to ride a horse and was able to deter Antonio from tagging along to every lesson, ride and picnic.
Ezra went hunting with one of the Firedrake crew after buying a hunting rifle with some of his money from the Emperor (who he gently declined after the combination of winter solstice, hunting and butchering the kill made her... feral).
Musa spent a lot of time talking about guns with her friend on Firedrake's crew (Quote marks optional).
The following few weeks were pleasant enough, Annissa and Kolya spending time riding and Annissa learning to skate (which led to many of the others taking an interest).
Anastasia was an excellent skater, in addition to her other talents.
Lux Splendor co-incided with the Vuldrok solstice celebrations, leading to a week of drinks, religious ceremonies, gifts and pagan 'friskiness' (Anastasia and Antonio participating in the latter even if the others didn't).
A communication arrived on New Years Day, the Osprey could return to Bz-II.
The idea of ignoring the recall order for a month or two was briefly debated by the crew who were all enjoying the simple life among the Vuldrok.
Musa decided to send 100FB to her mother
Antonio decided to send 100FB to his daughter and then realised that he was broke as a result and also had no blaster pistol anymore.
Tanalu announced that he wished to give his stash of Firebirds to the church and swear an oath of poverty, declaring his wish to become a follower of Zebulon officially as a Hesychast monk. Antonio nearly wept when he saw the box of over 6,000 firebirds (Tanalu's life savings) was handed over.
Ezra held onto the statue and sensed a sense of 'potential' in the artefact, as though it was ready to do something. Ezra tried to concentrate on BZ-II to see if the artefact would take them direct to the throne world but that did not happen.

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Session 27

We join our heroes as they prepare to make their jump to Bz-II. Ezra took hold of the artefact and attempted to focus his mind and empty it of conscious thought.
The jump was somewhat unusual, even by Osprey standards… The Sathra Dampers spiked into the red-zone and Osprey was forced to initiate a shutdown but there was no ensuing ecstasy, just an eye aching grey nothing outside the ship. All the telemetry and clocks seemed to stop, as if time stood still for everything but the crew.
After a few moments, the ship emerged in Bz-II space and time resumed.
Ezra "I think I know why it did that…" Crew "Why?"
Ezra "I'm not saying… yet."

Ezra proposed a trip to Pentateuch after concluding their business on Bz-II, Ezra explained about Pentateuch being the base of operations for his Order and that he hoped Order scholars could help analyse the artefact more effectively.
On the approach to Bz-II several Musa observed Vuldrok trading vessels on their way toward the gate, a sign of thawing relations between the Empire and their barbarian neighbours.
Ezra theorised that the time effect was perhaps due to his having meditated on nothing, Antonio wondered whether or not meditating on the past would enable time travel, resulting in Ezra delivering a short sermon to the effect that "God does not like time travel you f—king idiot".
Osprey and Needle were directed to land at the Imperial landing field and for them to spend the night at the palace incommunicado until the news of their arrival and survival was released to the press.
The crew of Osprey spend their evening theorising about possible conspiracies among other Minor Houses and analysing reports that around the time that the party were stranded on Poseidon, there was a massive increase in Questing Knight casualties.
It was theorised that the conspiracy launched a series of attacks and ambushes on QK teams that had either gotten too close to hidden jump roads or had been too effective in hunting down 'Warlocks and Antinomists'. A significant number of those QK teams listed as missing or killed were in the Delphi, Sutek and Vera Cruz (Musa displaying her talent for investigation, sparking off Annissa's intuitive leaps).
Given House Justinian's former status as a great House and the involvement of Sir Peter in the ambush that nearly claimed the party's lives, the crew of Osprey suspected that perhaps House Justinian might be the target of an attempt to 'turn' them.
After breakfast the next day, the party met their new QK head of operations – Lady Cassandra Juandaastas who made a much better impression than Sir Peter did (Cassandra seemed to be a genuine, intelligent and open minded woman in her 30's and who did not seem to look down on the party).
Antonio complained about his lack of a blaster pistol led Ezra to loan him a pistol. Ezra and the others chided Antonio for his materialism and Antonio retorted that Ezra had enough guns as it was, a rack full in fact. Ezra threatened to brain him with the gunrack…

"If I see a rack on my deathbed, I will call that a result" - Antonio
"The only rack you are likely to see when you're dying is going to be operated by the Inquisition" – Ezra

Lady Cassandra reported that sadly the spin on the news reports would be that Kolya had rescued the party and that the bulk of the credit for the discovery of the secret Lost World would go to him.
Annissa felt somewhat aggrieved that she would look potentially foolish to her House and Family but conceded that Kolya deserved many plaudits for coming after them.
Kolya was somewhat embarrassed and apologetic about the whole thing but Cassandra explained that due to the contentious nature of the worlds and the revelations from the mission it would be best to minimise the number of questions asked of the Osprey crew.
A service of thanks giving had been arranged at the Cathedral and the Knights and Cohorts would ride an open topped vehicle and receive the applause of the crowds.
Annissa had to be persuaded not to wear a chador and veil due to her embarrassment about being regarded as a hapless victim who needed rescuing. Ezra bought a cassock (under which he wore his body armour).
Part way to the Cathedral, Annissa yelled for everyone to get down and moments later the vehicle shield sparked as a sniper opened fire on the vehicle. Immediately afterward, a series of lightning bolts ripped into the general location of the sniper fire from another rooftop position.
The vehicle tried to get clear of the ambush, hampered by the crowds and was then struck by a missile of some sort that burned out the vehicle shield.
Escorted by armoured Phoenix guards the party were bundled into the shelter of a shop as the crowds stampeded around in panic.
Time passed and the party were escorted to the Cathedral by a detachment of armoured vehicles and Phoenix Guard.
The ceremony was conducted by the Archbishop and attended by a number of local dignitaries and afterward, things moved to a small reception at the palace.
Ezra buttonholed the Archbishop and spent some time discussing his vision of the Prophet and subsequent manifestation of Theurgy.
Duchess Solandra was icily beautiful and paid Kolya a degree of attention, something that seemed to make him somewhat uncomfortable.
Annissa and several of the others snuck out to the garden and waited until they could leave without seeming rude.
A functionary guided the party down a maze of corridors and into a small but opulent meeting room.
The party were somewhat stunned to find themselves having an audience with the Emperor.
The Emperor explained was politely grateful for the work done in his name, even if it had somewhat complicated matters.
The attempted assassination seemed to involve two rival groups of symbiot infiltrators, an intriguing if disturbing fact.
He also stunned the party by revealing that they appeared to be the subject of a prophesy that originated from the Gargoyle of Nowhere some hundred or more years ago. The prophesy was obscure and hard to interpret but seemed to indicate that the protagonists would discover something of great importance.
The Emperor counselled against involving the Eskatonic Order too overtly by travelling to Pentateuch and also advised that the party go nowhere near Vau space as the Vau seemed also to have an interest in the party (due, he believed, to their know interest in prophesy and auspice).
For the moment, the party's time is their own he said and that they should feel free to survey their fiefs and relax.
He ended the meeting by handing the nobles each a Phoenix Ring, a token by which they could gain access to the Imperial person without delay. Annissa was subject to a sudden attack of blushes and girlish giggles for some reason.
Antonio was perhaps for the first time in his life, utterly lost for words as he held the token in his hand.
After the audience, a somewhat stunned party headed back to their quarters for the night.
Antonio went to see Vo Karm to seek ecclesiastical advice on gaining a divorce from his wife. Vo Karm said that he would send a communication through channels to Poseidon to make sure that the divorce was uncontested and then set wheels in motion to grant him the divorce.
Annissa sold on the cargo from Hargard and picked up a cargo for Aragon.
Antonio treated his colleagues to a meal out using his 5% of Annissa's profits.
Kolya and Anastasia had to remain on Bz-II to continue the social whirl as the heroes of the hour but said they would come to Aragon later on.
Osprey departed Bz-II with a cargo of car parts and headed off to Aragon.
An uneventful 11 days later and Osprey touched down at the Agora on Aragon to unload her cargo. Annissa got a good price for the car parts and divided out the profits, leading to an argument with Antonio about his complaining about his relative poverty and then living off his share of her profits.
Antonio: "Well, I own 5% of the ship so suck it up bitch!"
Annissa : -PUNCH!-
Antonio : "Argh!" (Two levels of damage to the face)
Annissa : "Damn… Now I have to go to confession!"
Ezra : "No, that's okay my lady… I saw it all. Wrath and Pride, but he did have it coming… Ego Te Absolvo. Antonio… you are such a twat!"

We leave our heroes as they prepare to fly to the fiefs on the other side of the planet and as Antonio has the severe facial bruising seen to. Back to top

Session 28

Our gallant band find themselves with 48 hours docking fees paid, their cargo unloaded and some time on their hands. The human contingent of the crew decide to take a trip to the Hazat Capitol and see the sights while the rest prepare the ship for the trip to the noble's fiefdoms.
Annissa ordered herself a new bed and a supply of bedding for her new home, stating an aversion to using a bed that someone else has potentially died in or at the very least not been sterilised since its last owner.
The warmth of the local climate and the relaxed Hazat 'dress code' meant that the Antonio took the opportunity to work on an upper body tan whilst the ladies of the party opted to somewhat less revealing, albeit diaphanous garments. Ezra (with his thieves brand acquired on another Hazat world) decided to keep a shirt on.
The group took a tour of the famous Athos gardens, renowned for their botanical displays and the frequent duels of honour that take place their. After savouring the plants and one or two minor duels between Hazat nobles, the party went for a meal and then their separate ways for the evening. Antonio opted for a local casino and the ladies were escorted to a show of Ezra's choosing. Ezra had been asked to find something "Not too cerebral" and the ladies were somewhat surprised to find themselves in the VIP box of a burlesque review.
The following morning, back on Osprey, Antonio was in a good mood after winning several Firebirds and the ladies were somewhat embarrassed.

Antonio : "Ezra, you are telling me that you took two highborn noblewomen to a T+A bar?"
Ezra (indignant) : "Well, -I- paid!"

Annissa also ordered a few chickens and a goat to add to her serfs livestock, along with a small stock of alcohol.

"Chickens, the gift that keeps on giving" she said.

On the flight over to the fief, the Osprey's sensors detected a larger than normal power source emanating from the nearby fief of Lord TES Shelit. This was filed away for later reference.
As the Osprey made to land near the castle, a concealed 20mm cannon opened fire from the castle (deflected easily by the ship's navigational shielding) along with the launch of a series of shoulder launched missiles, one of which penetrated the hull and lightly wounded Antonio.
Annissa attempted to reason with the occupants of the castle via the tannoy, initially assuming they were merely overly zealous servants trying to fend off a perceived raider.
Antonio was all for using the ships weapons to pacify the location but Annissa overruled him, not wanting to kill any innocents or devalue her house. It was observed that the two villas in the valley were in disrepair and were missing sections of roof.
After another volley of fire, Osprey retreated to behind a nearby ridge and the party debated what to do next.
Annissa once again veto'd the use of extreme force (and expensive machinegun ammunition) on her own property and it was decided to contact one of the neighbouring fiefs and see what help and information was available.
Contacting the fief of Lady Iphiginia Thana by radio, the Osprey was directed to land in a field near the noblewomans country lodge (by a butler using tennis racquets as guide paddles).
Lady Iphiginia was an eerily beautiful woman in her 30's who was most perturbed by the violent tidings. She said that she had heard there were bandits operating locally but that her small holding had not been troubled.
It was decided that the humans would attempt an infiltration of the fief, perhaps just to reconnoitre but also with a view to potentially retaking the castle by stealth. Iphiginia offered to loan the group her car but Annissa demurred, fearing it might get shot up. The group did accept the loan of some horses, reasoning that a) they were less expensive and b) might have the sense to get out of the way if the shooting started.
Leaving in the afternoon, the party were able to ride through the forest and arrive at the outskirts of the fief at dusk. Taking up positions on the wooded ridgeline, they surveyed the area until full dark.
The castle walls appeared to only have two sentries with a possible standby crew inside the concealed gun position. Of some potential worry was the large agricultural golem wandering around near the castle, seeming to be engaged in both gardening and patrol duties.
Musa was sent into the valley to make contact with the serfs. When she returned, she reported that Muster Chainers had taken half the serfs away some weeks ago, around the time that a gang of bandits moved in and occupied the castle. One serf and the castle vintner had been killed and much of the processing equipment had been taken away in trucks. The serfs guessed that there were about a dozen men at the castle plus 'The metal demon'. The castle chaplain had seemingly run off to the local town and was still claiming his tithe whilst living it up in the brothel and tavern.
The initial ideas of pretending to be wandering gypsies, itinerant dancing girls or traders were, after some bickering, discounted.

The plan, when hatched was simple :
Ezra would cover the group as they approached and scaled the walls, eliminating the sentries with his sniper rifle. The rest would then eliminate the gun crew and proceed into the castle proper and kill everyone who resisted.
For once – It actually went pretty much to plan

The sentries heard the group as they reached the foot of the walls but were cut down by Ezra in short order.
Annissa nearly brained herself with a botched grapnel throw, leaving Antonio to reach the top of the wall first but he was able to deal with the first of the gun crew before Annissa caught up.
It seemed that the party had arrived while the bandits were in the process of hastily moving out, loading the portable valuables into two 3 tonne trucks in the courtyard.
The party used the element of surprise to immobilise the trucks with blaster fire and hose the bandits with bullets. Leaving their dead and dying, the bandits retreated into the 'keep'.
The party discovered that someone (later revealed to be the servant they saw hiding under the kitchen table) had left the kitchen door open and Antonio, Alectrona and Annissa were able to storm into the main building without much opposition.
There then followed a series of brief and bloody gunfights that saw the last of the bandits driven into the tower and bottled up.
Alectrona and Annissa tried to storm the stairs but had a grenade thrown at them, Alectrona took the full blast but was saved by her energy shield and merely deafened and singed.
Ezra arrived at the castle just as the golem burst through the front gates and rather heroically snapped off a blaster rifle shot that blew the leg from the metal creature, immobilising it.
Using tapestries that Annissa felt were too vulgar, they built a small fire in a dustbin and commenced to smoke the surviving bandits out of the tower and were able to persuade them to surrender.
The bandit chief, his bodyguard and their technical 'wiz' were tied up and herded into the courtyard where they were threatened, questioned and generally yelled at.
The bandits looked very frightened when Osprey landed and Anam and Ka'ra escorted them to the brig. Ka'ra confirmed that the cyber-arm on the boss's weedy looking assistant was a professional job, possibly a Guild installed item.
Anam prodded the captives with his spear to help make them more tractable.
'Boss' Martin tried to cut a deal with the party, trading information for his life.
He agreed to spill the beans in return for being let go in the local capitol "A head start".
It seemed that the bandits had moved in to a castle that they felt was abandoned and neglected, using it as a base to raid the Zuranist gypsies and store contraband for the local Scraver syndicate (who they hoped to join).
The local vintners had had the castle vintner killed for working without paying Guild dues and then stole the winemaking equipment.
The bandits used the golem to harvest grapes which they then sold on to other wineries.
It was an 'official' Muster raiding party that took the slaves, paying the local Imperial assessor a kickback to look the other way.
The assessor was also bribed to ignore the bandits presence.
Ezra contacted the local bishopric and threw his weight around in a righteous and forceful fashion, dropping names all over the place and demanding the sacking of the chaplain and an immediate replacement.
Annissa contacted the Count and informed him of her troubles and told him that if the three bandits could be arrested as soon as they left the landing area and shipped off to the Kurgan front, she would be awfully grateful.
True to the deal, the bandits were released at the local capitol city with some of their fallen comrades money and weapons (sans ammunition) and given a slight head start.
Annissa called her serfs and staff together and vowed to make things right for her vassals as a good liege lord should.

Antonio's first words to his newly liberated serfs ? "Get your pigs out of my house!"
We leave our party drawing up a list of people to pay a visit to and deciding just how much of a whupping they are going to have to administer.

Session 29

Our heroes take stock of their fiefdom and decided delay repairing the ship and take Osprey to the local market town of Aguilar and ask some serious questions of the local Scravers and Vintners Guilds. Ezra of course, was resolved to visit some serious ecclesiastical disapproval on the absent castle chaplain.
The arrival of a small warship outside a wooden pallisaded market town in the middle of an under-developed continent caused something of a stir among the peasants within and the population seemed divided almost equally divided between those running away from the ship and those running toward it.
A deputation of nervous looking local dignitaries approached the ship and were informed that the nobles were in town to set right certain issues concerning the fiefs at San Daniel. At this point, several individuals at the back of the crowd bolted off to various parts of the town, perhaps to inform others.
Ezra headed straight to the brothel, knowing that the chaplain was said to frequent it. Hearing footsteps receding down an alleyway, he gave chase and soon overhauled a hastily dressed clergyman who he brought down with his sure-snake elecro whip.
Dragging the priest by his hair into the town square, Ezra then gave him a stern lecture on the evils of sin and the shortcomings of the priest. The populace were suitably impressed by Ezras fervour.
Annissa, Antonio and Alectrona were, meanwhile en route to the Vinters Guild. They noticed a horseman fleeing the town in the direction of the coast. On arrival at the guildhouse, they were admitted by a pair of nervous guards and only briefly delayed by the guild secretary, Alonso.
Phillipe, the Guild Master was very calm and denied any involvement in the bandit's schemes. Antonio demanded to see the Guild accounts, as was his right as a Knight of the Phoenix (although bending the spirit of his charter just a little). Leaving Annissa and Alectrona to peruse the records, Antonio headed off to join Ezra in seeking out Don Gregorio in the bar operated by the Scravers.
Annissa soon realised that the accounts presented were the 'clean' copy that many operations keep for official inspection and not the ones that show the real activities of the enterprise.
After applying some gentle pressure to the Guildmaster (pointing out that prior to the fief belonging to the nobles, it was Imperial property and therefore anyone involved in theft from the estate would have been guilty of High Treason) he presented the black books. Annissa soon located the relevent entries in the ledgers showing bribes and payoffs to the Imperial assessor, bandits and Scravers. Annissa suggested that perhaps if the lost property were to be returned and losses made good then they might forget the details of the ledger.
Phillipe said that he might "make enquiries" as to whether or not the stolen property was in any of the local storehouses and pass the location on to the liege lords of San Daniel.
Antonio and Ezra found Don Gregorio to be an urbane and polite individual who was 'shocked' and 'dismayed' by the 'misunderstandings' that surrounded the recent events and denounced the bandit informants who had implicated him in the thefts and killing as liars. He suggested that if the Scravers were paid a finders fee then perhaps they could help locate some of the missing materials. It was suggested that some of the 'lost property' found at San Daniel could form that finders fee. Don Gregorio regretted that he could not help with regard to the lost serfs as the Muster had sole responsibility for that action.
With matters more or less resolved, it was decided to head for the capitol and speak to the Muster Guild about the stolen serfs while the ship was repaired.
The Muster representative was most welcoming, although he did arrive with a member of the Reeves Guild to deal with any legal implications. The Muster Guild admitted no legal liability for the loss of the serfs but did offer to trace and return them as soon as possible.
The party took the Muster at their word and returned to their ship.
Later, the Guild contacted them with the unfortunate news that the serfs had been sold to an estate on Hira, the world that was the front line between the Hazat and Kurgan Caliphate. The Guild said it would take 'some months' to repatriate the serfs.
There then followed a vigourous debate among the Questing Knights and Cohorts about whether to take Osprey to Hira and pick the serfs up themselves. Annissa was all for going as soon as possible but Ezra, Alectrona and Antonio favoured letting the Guild do the job and save their own peril, preferring the delay over risk and expense.

"We can always buy our serfs some new friends to increase the workforce..." said Antonio.

The local masons and woodcrafters guild were engaged to supply a team of labourers to renovate the estate buildings, leaving the party to discuss quite what to do with themselves next.
Antonio spoke out for resolving the mystery of the Duke Masseri's disappearance. Daishan would be a hard place to begin the search as it would involve going via Stigmata or Abydos so it was decided to try and pick up the trail at Cadavus.
Antonio was bated about the likely reaction to his recent career and the life-path of his daughter.

"And how do I explain to my parents that their darling grandchild is a trainee psionic commando?"
"Oh... just lie..." said Ezra.

Back at the fief, the nobles decided to throw a small festival for the peasants to cheer them up and announce the hopeful return of the lost serfs. A pig was bought from Aguilar and a magic lantern projector rigged up to show a suitably uplifting tale of adventure and heroic doings.
The gratitude and supplication of the serfs along with their rigid adherence to the more traditional notions of feudal etiquette stirred some of Annissa's more liberal Al-Malik sentiments.
The peasants would not make use of the chapel at 'the big house' because "it's not right or proper" preferring to gather at the 'preaching stone' when the priest was willing to stir out of doors.
Antonio was, at least, willing to spend some time shovelling the pig dung out of his own house when the peasants were busy working the fields.
The next day, a figure was seen walking from inland with a pack horse. A man in monk's raimant approached the fief and introduced himself as Brother Lucas, a member of the monastery brethren at the local shrine, sent by His Grace the bishop to take up the now vacant post of chaplain.
Musa recognised the mans manner as that of an old soldier and it transpired that the monk had been a soldier for the Hazat before taking Holy Orders.
Lucas seemed to recognise Osprey as a Hobby class Republican Scout, but was amazed at the unusual decor of the ship. He seemed to be cosmopolitan enough to take Ory'im and Hironem crew in his stride but was taken aback when he saw an Ishkin. Ka'ra sniffed at him and declared "I like." before disappearing again.
Charging the chaplain with the welfare of the serfs and servants until a steward was appointed, the nobles decided to head for Criticorum, pick up a cargo and then go on to Cadavus.
The trip up to the gate was uneventful and the ship made the jump to Bz-II without incident. While waiting at the gate for the jump to Criticorum, Anam seemed out of sorts and spoke to Ezra of his sadness that the quest for Akata was not going well. As the ship began the leap to Criticorum, Ezra took out the statue and unusually, Anam came close.
As the jump sequence began, Anam began to resonate his throat sac in sympathy with the chime emanating from the statue. As he did so the chime began to rise and fall in tune with Anam's chant. At the peak of the chant, he began to recite something in an old dialect of Ory'im (akin, thought Ezra, to Urth Tech). The ship jumped and emerged in perfect blackness, no stars visible.
Antonio flew into a fury with Ezra, blaming him for what he felt was their imminent demise.
The ship bumped to rest on a surface that none of the sensors registered. A wind was audiable blowing past the ship and on a barely discernable horizon, a ziggurat.
Anam,, when pressed, said he felt that he could reverse the process that brought them there and that "They were 'between' and 'inside' the thing that the statue represented" which led to some metaphysical speculation by Alectrona and Ezra that was eventually cut short by Antonio's increasingly strident demands that something be done to get them home.
Alectrona said that her 'affinity' sense was detecting a mind presence in the direction of the structure, something large and slumbering.
The jump engine was fired up and Anam invoked the 'God Lore' once again, as the sequence began Alectrona felt the slumbering mind begin to awaken. The ship emerged not in the Criticorum system but in the Grail system which led to even more speculation. Osprey joined a Criticorum bound convoy, jumping via Rampart and Kish without incident.
We leave our heroes at the edge of the Criticorum system with Antonio directing his ire at Ezra rather than Anam.
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Session 30

February 22nd 4,998 AD : The Criticorum System
Two days into the 'downhill' run from the gate to Criticorum Osprey reported an anomaly in her trajectory. In essence, it appeared that although the engines were at 100% and instrumentation indicated full acceleration, the actual speed through space was not matching the instruments. It was as though the acceleration were dropping relative to the space around the ship.
At the same time as the crew began to notice the anomaly, Ezra noticed a faint but increasing glow from the artefact, although he did not mention this for a day.
As the light from the artefact grew in intensity, the ships acceleration dropped to zero, although their speed through space was still considerable. Once zero acceleration was reached, the velocity also began to decrease.
When zero velocity was reached, the ship then began to 'fall' backwards, where the glowing nimbus of a jump-gate like vortex was forming. Casey attempted to break free but it became plain that it would be to no avail and Osprey fell into the vortex.
There was a moment of discontinuity and the ship touched down with a gentle bump onto a grey plain under an overcast sky within view of a large ziggurat.
Another discontinuity and in the logic of dreams, the crew found themselves stood before the Ziggurat but dressed in the clothes most linked to their self-image. It took a moment for the crew to realise the addition of an additional figure : A statuesque woman in the snugly tailored uniform of a Late-Republican naval officer bearing a bemused expression. Antonio recognised the figure as the 'avatar' of Osprey's AI (Proof that computer programmers in the 40th century shared some of the characteristics of those in the 21st).
A voice boomed out, resounding in the mind rather than the ear. "Who has awoken me before the appointed time? Why are you here before the stars are right?"
Ezra had the presence of mind to say that they were explorers, here by accident.
"And what is it that you seek, that you would disturb me?" spoke the voice once again.
Ezra said that they sought the lost world of Akata, colony of the Ory'im race. Anam concurred and although the party's ears heard the speach of the Oro'ym, their minds heard the meaning in their own tongue.
"All knowledge has a price... and what do you offer for knowledge such as this?" demanded the voice.
There was a pause, the silence broken by Anam's words "My life, my soul!"
"That will be acceptable..." boomed the voice. With those words, Anam was consumed by a white. burning light that seemed to begin in his very bones. In an eyeblink, there was nothing but ash where Anam had stood.
"And you have brought a child of Rillos here..." spoke the voice and Casey began to scream as her bones began to glow. Ezra screamed that she had done no harm and was no enemy and the light diminished, leaving Casey collapsed in a foetal ball, her scalp steaming in places.
"The sacrifice is accepted, you will have your wish and when you are done, place a hand on the idol and you will be returned."
Another discontinuity and the party were back on the ship, all computer systems in standby and Rakim the Raccoon in some sort of deep sleep. Casey was rushed to the infirmary and Annissa took over the pilot's seat (her ability to fly a ship not being one she had mentioned previously). Osprey's avatar was still present, still looking rather bemused at her own corporeality and even more so to be aboard 'herself'.
A moment later and the ship was floating in space, the computer systems coming on line and the avatar now absent.
Osprey floated in the midst of a diffuse debris field, some light hours out from a massive white-giant star. The debris field proved to be the fragments of a jump gate. broken into fragments by some unimaginable force.
Osprey reported with some surprise that her navigational systems could actually hazard a guess as to their position in space, relative to a known system. Osprey lay 8 or so light years from Holy Terra, in the Sirius system.
Moving out from the gate, Osprey was almost immediately engaged by some sort of missile that launched multiple warheads - Musa's lucky shot caught the swarm of submunitions as they separated and they were caught in each other's detonations, detonations that were far larger than would be expected for weapons of their size. Osprey concluded that the warheads employed the proscribed technology known as Contra-terrene or Anti-matter.
Casey recovered slowly over the next few days, needing several infusions of nanite elixir to make good the damage to her skeleton and bone marrow. Annissa seemed to take Anam's death more personally than anyone else aboard, doing most of her grieving on the bridge.
Moving more cautiously into the system, they performed a basic survey - locating a world in the life zone of the star. Alectrona noticed something for the first time, that her 'affinity' sense normally had a background awareness of the life in her surroundings. Here however, there was an almost deafening 'silence', no life beyond the hull of Osprey.
Cruising in-system, Osprey arrived at the world in the life zone of Sirius, an Earth sized planet but one with only a faint whisp of atmosphere, ringed by debris.
Osprey was struck by a dud missile as she approached the world and lit up her active sensors to sweep for more. The world showed the ghosts of huge oceans and few landmasses, but the world was bone dry. Many of the landmasses showed signs of impact or blast craters of considerable size, not a single sign of civilisation showed on the surface.
After a day in orbit, a weak signal was detected from the surface, emanating from what would have been a remote atoll when the planet had oceans.
The decision was taken to land the ship and Ezra made ready to do some archaeology. Setting down on the eroded coral of the atoll, Osprey pinpointed the source of the transmission, a series of Prime Numbers, to several tens of meters below the coral. Fortunately there was no need for prolonged spade-work in vac-suits as Casey had renovated the captured OGRE golem.
The golem uncovered a metallic hatch below the surface which refused to open, so some of the ship's small stock of explosives were used to blow it open.
The hatch opened onto a stairwell that led down into the ground, the architecture had a flowing theme, like the interior of a seashell. Moving down the stairs, Ezra noticed Old Ory'im ideographs and another script that resembled cuneiform. Pausing to translate the glyphs, Ezra was surprised and disappointed to discover that they were directions to an emergency exit and floor level labels.
The stairs led to a hatch which did respond to a push panel, allowing aa mummified corpse to fall out and shatter into dust and fragments at the feet of the party. Examining the remains showed them to be human, clad in a tunic and wearing a necklace of shells. The bone structure showed Li-Halan or Asiatic Terran features.
Beyond the hatch lay a bunker of sorts, containing control panels and command chairs. In the chairs were two more human bodies and an Ory'im. The Ory'im wore items similar to Anam's ornate ritual attire but made of turned metals and crystals rather than shells and beads.
The more intact human bodies showed tattooing of a distinctive style that strongly resembled that used by some of the Vuldrok, specifically the Skey. One of the consoles still showed power and seemed to be the source of the beacon. Examination of the bunker suggested that it was some sort of control center for a weapon. Power came from a geothermal tap into the planet's crust.
Some of the console's systems still worked and some of the files on the storage array were accessible (Having two computer experts, an AI and an expert on ancient Ory'im languages certainly helped).
The data was patchy but showed that the planet had once held many cities and been the center of a civilisation that probably rivalled the Second Republic or even the Vau for technology. Three and a half centuries ago, there was a great battle against an invading force that came through the gate. The battle raged in the outer system, slowly driving the defenders ships back toward the homeworld, which was bombarded by long range weapons launched by the invaders.
A last desperate sally by the remaining warships was made to hold the enemy back while two separate flotillas left the planet. A small fleet of small ships ran for the gate, whilst several huge ships, miles long, lifted off and slingshotted around the sun, into the void of space. The last telemetry files showed a series of massive series of explosions on the planet, in orbit and at the gate, almost certainly caused by contra-terrene matter.
The large ship's trajectory could be extrapolated - Toward the Sol System, given their acceleration, the distance between the two stars would take about three and a half centuries to traverse.
Ezra surmised that the smaller flotilla would be the ancestors of the Skey nation.
With an entire ark fleet of technologically Ory'im potentially on their way to Holy Terra and theoretically due any time in the next few decades, the party decided that the Emperor needed to know the truth soon as possible.
Lifting out of the dead world's gravity well, Osprey headed away from the dessicated corpse of Akata and Ezra placed his hand on the idol. Another discontinuity and the party stood before the Ziggurat.
"And are you now content? Do you have that which you sought?" boomed the voice.
The party's affirmative answer was tempered with the loss and gloomy nature of their mission to Akata.
"And do you seek anything else?" the entity enquired. Annissa shouted that she wanted her crewman back, only to be told that a willing sacrifice had been made and that was an end to the matter.
"Be gone now and let it be known to those that hold my other tokens that the time of my release is not now, I am not to be disturbed until the appointed time."
Ezra placed the idol on the steps of the ziggurat, noting several inscriptions in various languages above the threshold (which he photographed). Within the ziggurat, Ezra thought he saw a giant version of the statue that formed the idol.
Osprey appeared in the Criticorum system.
Ezra translated one of the inscriptions from the ziggurat as an old Egyptian script that read "Death will come on swift wings to he who disturbs my rest." Ezra felt that the entity bore more than a slight resemblence to Horus as much at least as it did to an Etyri.
Course was laid in for the gate and Annissa invoked the authority of their Phoenix rings to jump the queue at the gate and make for the throneworld as fast as the reactor could be pushed.
Landing at the palace, the party were immediately conducted to the Imperial apartments where they were met by Chamin Mazerin who conducted an initial debriefing.
The Emperor would be due in the next day, and he would want to speak to the party but until then, the palace facilities were at the group's disposal.
After one of the group expressed a desire to swim, they were assigned the Aquarius suite within the palace, a group of rooms clustered around a central pool.
The news media yielded an interesting report : That one Baron Kolya Decados had just returned from Kurgan space with some liberated serfs.
Annissa flew into a fury that someone had done their feudal duty for them when she had wanted to do it and been overruled by her ship mates. Antonio accused her of ego, that she was just angry that kolya had the media coverage and she did not, whereas Annissa insisted that it shamed them all that a near stranger had chosen to take a risk when they had not.
Annissa left the palace to clear her head and avoid getting into a violent arguement with Antonio, Musa followed at a discrete distance to keep an eye on her mistress.
Ezra sought out VoKarm, feeling that only he could be trusted with his confession.
In the park, Annissa sat alone on a bench while Musa and at least two palace 'spooks' trailed behind at at distance. She was approached later by a cloaked figure who sat on the bench beside her. The woman was almost certainly another of the Selenite operative clones or a Xanthippe with very close blood ties to Hecate Xanthippe, her voice having the exact same timbre and her face being the image of Hecate and Diana.
The two of them spoke at length, talking of duty and nobless Oblige. 'Dione' was supportive, discussing Anam's loss. It seemed that even if Annissa did not have the 'affinity' for her 'extended family' that Alectrona had, they had sympathy for her. Dione also said that there were a couple of less than sympathetic shadowers lying in a nearby alley, but Annissa's bodyguard and the two palace spooks were fine.
Dione left Annissa feeling a little better and departed.
The next morning, the Emperor received a personal briefing on the developments and added his own news to the mix - The Patriarch was dead and the high echelons of the Church would therefore soon convene on Terra to elect a successor.
The news therefore of an ark fleet containing amphibian aliens heading toward Urth could not really have come at a worse time.
Once dismissed from the Imperial presence, the party decided to go shopping.
As they left the palace, the news broke of the arrival of a Vau ship at the throneworld. The party resolved to try and avoid the Vau if they came across them. Later in the day, the usual throng turned into a crowd and and unruly one at that. Turning the corner, they beheld a phalanx of Vau warriors escorting a Mandarin. The party, as one, decided to bolt for it, rather than face the Vau. Unfortunately the crowd impeded their escape and the Vau Mandarin pointed at the group and politely said, "Excuse me...?"
Rather than be rude, Annissa smiled politely and bowed to the Mandarin who in turn said that he had a message from his government for her personally. Handing over a small cube, he bowed. After a moment of confusion, the Mandarin gestured for Annissa to press the upper surface of the cube. The cube unfolded into a screen and upon the screen appeared the likeness of another Vau Mandarin who spoke of an invitation for the auspicious persons there assembled to travel to Vril-Ya and undertake an embassy to the Vau.
The Vau took their leave and headed up the thoroughfare, leaving the party to face the crowd, who seemed evenly divided between those who wished to praise the emissaries and those who wished to pelt them with stones for attracting the Vau. Running pell mell up the road to the palace, the party made it to the gates just ahead of the mob (who were just a few torches and pitchforks short of a horror movie).
The party were immediately escorted to a shuttle by stern faced Phoenix guardsmen with orders to place them aboard an Imperial Eye ship bound for Vril-Ya.
Almost before they could take stock, the party were aboard a stealthship bound for the gate at top speed. Crammed into basic bunkrooms aboard the ship, the party had a rather spartan trip ahead of them aboard the 'Nocturnal'. Only the captain had much to say to their passengers and by the time the ship landed at Vril-Ya some nine days later, there was more than a little touch of cabin fever in the air.
The party were given a basic briefing on the Vau, although the material was scant.
Landing at Vril-Ya's human settlement, the party were taken to the ambassadorial residence and given a chance to freshen up and be fitted for party clothes, for that night there was a birthday ball in honour of the Hawkwood Duchess in charge of the embassy.
The ball was a trying affair, Vril-ya seemed to be a backwater for failed careers and aspirations. Some envied the envoys and others seemed to be fascinated by them. Antonio became involved in a duel with a drunken Torenson noble who insulted Alectrona, the noble seemed intent on fighting to the death and the fight only ended when he was near to death himself. Antonio's shortcomings as a swordsman cost him no small level of injury himself. They met another group summoned by the Vau, but the leader of that group, a plain speaking Truskniron noblewoman, seemed surprised that the party were being taken off world by the Vau (news to the party!) whereas her group were 'just' going to the secretive Vau continent on Vril-Ya itself.
Ezra's behaviour was, in retrospect a little odd that evening.
Following the party, the party retired and prepared for an early start.
The next day, the group gathered at a landing field where a Vau ship sat alongside the Nocturnal.
A Vau delegation approached and the Mandarin swept a scanner over the group, lingering over Ezra and then demanding 'a return of oneness' and a 'removal of the mask'. After a few such cryptic utterances, Ezra ran for the transport and was cut down by energy blasts from the Vau warriors. As the form of Ezra was dragged toward the Vau ship, the Vau said to search their sleeping places and restore the wholeness of the group.
Ezra was discovered in a compartment under his bed, bound and gagged, having been replaced by a metonym shapeshifter shortly after they arrived on planet. Returning to the landing field, the Vau seemed to be satisfied and said that now the Nocturnal would be carried to the world of Shauduveen by one of their vessels.

We leave our heroes at the landing field.

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