The Trip From Villis to Regina

Where the adventurers travel from their home base at Villis Station to Regina en-route to Yourbund where they hope to find an Ancient site.
 
This adventure was played over the last two weeks via e-mail. We decided to save the table-top time for the more exciting stuff.
 
As usual, this is mostly Carl's notes.

Continued from Beyond the Horde
 
In our final week at Vilis, we got the annual maintenance on the Skylark done. All shiny outside, nicely tuned inside, now let's go find a thunderstorm... maybe not.
 
  This few days largely involved stretching legs, relaxing the minds of the crew, and spending time with some people who, in the simplest possible terms, are not us.  It gets old looking at the same five faces.
 
  Medicus got VIP treatment as he went to present the Chamax biology information at Khurasan University, plus a nice little stipend, and sold a copy of the database to them as well.
 
  Ultimately, we all gathered back at port for our journey on toward Yorbund and greatness (or maybe death at the hands/whatever of an Ancient Artifact).
 
  Our departure from Vilis was delayed a day due to bureaucracy, understandable perhaps but bureaucracy nonetheless.  The Vilis government is concerned about weapons potentially being imported into Garda-Vilis, our planned next stop, and it took Sam the time to fill out the paperwork and walk it around, but on 204-1101 we jumped out.
 
211-1101
Uneventful arrival (NOT complaining, just saying) into the Garda-Vilis system, and in spite of a poorly placed Nav beacon Medicus got us into the station.
 
215-1101
We jumped out for Frenzie and arrived in good order on 222-1101, but the Frenzie system orbits a type III red giant, and it took us 6 days of in-system travel to reach the port from the 100 stellar diameter limit. No one is going to surprise the 193rd Fleet with a hyperspace attack showing up close into the planet, and we will have to remember to NEVER show up here needing to restock life support any time soon.
 
239-1101
Jump out of Frenzie after another 6 day in-system trek, and into Mirriam on 246-1101, a much shorter (4 hours) jaunt to the starport. Interestingly enough, in Frenzie there are some 'non-standard' items available, including combat dentures.....we had to ask....
 
"This enhanced jaw is capable of biting through steel cable up to one centimeter in thickness and easily severing fingers and other such objects. The recipient gains a Bite attack that inflicts 1d6 damage."
 
    None of us are truly interested in up close and personal combat (nothing says I don't like you as well as a laser rifle from 200 yards) , and they did not come with 'installation' anyway.
 
  Our time in Mirriam was much the same as our time in every port, and we jumped out for Denotam on 250-1101, arriving in the Denotam system on 257-1101.
 
  Medicus had to save one of our low passage folks this time, but did his normally fine job, and all 4 walked off.
 
260-1101
Outbound from Denotam for Rangent, we were all studying our various fields and interests, and looking forward (at least a little) to the slight difference Rangent would offer - we get to scoop our own fuel instead of taxi up to the 'pump'.
 
272-1101
In and out of Rangent uneventfully, another short (6 hr) trip to and from the spaceport and the jump distance, and off for Phlume we went.
 
279-1101
Into Phlume, and we were all enjoying our stability and uneventful trip, looking forward to much of the same all the way to Yorbund. Medicus had begun a formal scientific paper on the Chamax biology and life-cycle, and continued work on it. Others of us continued our studies in our various interests.

Loading cargo at Phlume

 
283-1101
Jump out of Phlume for Jenghe, our last small stop before settling in (relative term) at Regina. We planned to update our information on Ancient Sites in the University system that Regina is so well known for.
 
290-1101
Jenghe was not the most impressive starport we had been to, an old junker named the Salamander was basically falling apart in one of their bays. The setting was nothing compared to losing two of our low passengers.  One would have been bad enough, but even Medicus's broad knowledge supplemented by Fig's basic medicine skill could not get two of them back.  Worst trip ever for passengers. The ship collected the low lottery money as one of the deceased low passengers had guessed right, two survivors.
 
  On a more upbeat note, a Captain Godfrey Spencer from the Scout Service bought a copy of the Chamax database.
 
  Learning that smuggling was prevalent in this area, we were more vigilant in port and leaving system.  So far it is Us : 1   Pirates : 0, but no need to relive that time, we were (and continue to be) happy to rest on our well-deserved victory.

 

 

 

293-1101
We jumped out for Regina, with cargo and 4 more optimistic low berth passengers, arriving in the Regina system on 300-1101.
 
    As we came in system, our scan screen lit up with hundreds of contacts. Most were small traders and freighters, but as we came closer to the highport, Sam detected larger ships.... Much larger ships....
 
    Up ahead, we could see a convoy of megafreighters, slow-moving titans; each one of them could swallow our  ship five thousand times over at least. The names and ports were from all over known space, giving us visions of distant, exotic worlds far off in the core systems (and sugarplums, but that was a more merry vision) . These ships have been traveling for months, jumping along from Corridor sector.
 
  There was also a flotilla of Imperial warships, part of the sector fleet. They glitter in the darkness, but since there was a military interdiction zone around them, even if we wanted to we could not have gotten very close. Even at a distance, though, they were an impressive sight to behold. At the center of the formation was the 200,000 ton Korrirak class dreadnought, The Pride of Efate; the Skylark could fly down the barrel of that meson gun with plenty of room to spare on all four sides. A constellation of smaller warships surround the Pride, and we could just make out a swarm of troop transport shuttles making their way out from the highport to the flotilla along a military flight lane.
 
Regina is one of the most heavily-trafficked systems in the Spinward Marches, so as we got closer to the Highport, we were assigned an approach vector to make sure we don’t interfere with the courses of any of the other thousands of ships.
 
  This evoked some memories of days long gone by, when we had a vector to fly but wound up with a missile in our fuel tank....Fortunately, this arrival went better.
 
  Sam scored again with cargo and a sale of the Chamax database, and our coffers were filling up nicely.  Daydreams of paying off the Skylark 2 may not be so far-fetched as we had thought...
 
  Fig was raised here, and had mustered out of the Merchant Marine here following his accident, so while the rest of the crew were enjoying their own time, he visited the old Merchant Marine stomping grounds and spent a while with an old friend, Elvis Yombe.
 
    As well as telling Elvis the tale of almost single-handedly saving the people of Raschev (he had to admit Kipenzi flew the air raft pretty well) and catching up a little with the local history, Fig learned that some lawyer had wanted to get in touch with him.  Likely some outraged father...
 
  Since lawyers are never that urgent, Fig decided to talk over with the cyber people about his arm and future options for improvement/replacement or even the idea of swappable parts, and visited with those of his family that still were in-system.  (The Newtons have always had somewhat a gypsy attitude, which has made the Skylark a perfect place to 'retire').
 
 He was especially hoping that fourth cousin Ellie Mae had not shipped out for somewhere else.  :)
 
Continued in Shadows, Part 1
 
See Also: Dramatis Personæ, Campaign Starts, The 2nd Adventure, The Chamax Plague, Horde.