Inselburg - Part 1
This note is from our August 2nd, 2015 session and was mostly written by Carl and Kay with additional material provided by myself.
Continued from: Trade War - Part 3.
Date: 140-1105 Imperial.
Location: Aramanx Station orbiting the Planet Aramanx in the Aramis Subsector.
After our briefing with Oberlindes in which he outlined the "Lewis expedition", we reconvened at the Skylark for a round of drinks and a "How did we end up in this mess?" session.
Thinking back to the weeks we spent on the raid just made the mystery
bigger, but approaching our time coming out of hyperspace back into
Aramanx System was the biggest puzzle of it all. About a week ago, as
half of us were getting suited up - we suit up a half hour or so before
our earliest time to come out of jump, ESPECIALLY this time - Fig got
some odd readings on the sensors.
That was a first ever, as far
as any of us know - sensors are usually blank or maybe inoperative in
jump space. This time there were 6 signals, about our class of ship,
keeping us company. One smaller one, maybe the size of a cargo container
was offset a little from them. Weird. We discussed whether to try to
contact them and voted no. We decided to wait and see, and in some
minutes the signals faded away.
We recorded the inputs both video and signal records, and will get them analyzed by someone professional as soon as we can.
Coming out of jump into Aramanx, we waited for the Guardian and the New Horizons. When all three of us were present, we flew to the base Oberlindes had established in the outer system.
That put us at the morning of 131-1105. Our plan was to ride back to Aramanx while Sam took the Skylark (with
a hired crew) to Rhylanor for upgrades. Oberlindes had given us a
programmable transponder and he reprogrammed the transponder to a
generic setting with the ship name of "Chamax", rather than the Tukera
ship ID we had been using. However, no one volunteered to be hired for
the several month long trip, so we all wound up going back to Aramanx
station instead.
We asked the decryption people for help in decoding the brooch, but to no avail. Still a mystery.
Arriving at Aramanx on 139-1105, we got a strange news report:
⑆ IVENDO/LANTH (1719 A879553-B) 064-1105
¶
TNS - Friends of Sir Yaricht Fruenelle, sweeping the Abyss for
transponder signals or other evidence of his whereabouts, reported
sighting a large vessel emerging from jump in deep space in the lvendo
outer system. It was definitely a warship, and had suffered extensive
battle damage very recently. Witnesses report a violent emergence from
jumpspace characteristic of a misjump.
¶ No reply was received from the vessel except an automated transponder identifying it as the Solomani heavy cruiser Navarino,
presumed lost with all hands in the Fomalhaut/Dingir system during the
Eighth lnterstellar War in -2362. Before any further contact could be
made, the mysterious vessel vanished. Ω
Kipenzi:
"3000 yr old cruiser jumped from 20 parsecs from Earth? This is one hell
of a mis-jump, and it made us wonder about the 6 ships flying in
formation during our hyperspace trip."
Gvouzdon put the brooch in a safety deposit box at the Aramanx bank. We followed him at a discrete distance because “never go alone” is our unofficial mantra these days. He’s sporting a new dye job, and was not recognized by Hilda the Bear, who stopped to chat with Kipenzi. So we gossiped until the Vargr came out of the bank.
So, as we sat around the table in the Skylark, after that trip down memory lane, we discussed our near future.
Sam
planned to get a temporary crew and park the Skylark back at the
Oberlindes' base in the outer part of the system. The rest of us would
be going to Zila and then on to Lewis.
This new
raid will be against the Tukera family estates at Inselberg on Lewis.
Secure behind an Imperial interdiction decree, the Tukeras keep much of
their corporate information at these estates; Oberlindes wants to gain
access to it. He cannot flout Imperial decrees with a major tradewar
attack, as Tukera has done to several Oberlindes facilities, but it
would be possible to take advantage of some loopholes discovered in the
security arrangements at Inselberg to slip a few people onto the estate,
tap into Tukera’s computer files, and discover their plans and secrets.
The
Tukera family on Lewis has long recruited its menial help from Zila. It
is felt that offworlders better serve the family’s needs than would
hiring from the local population on Lewis. As the family owns a minority
interest in Central Hirings, SA, an employment agency on Zila and has
so many other interests on the world, servants for the estates at
Inselberg are hired strictly through the agency and transported to Lewis
in company ships.
There is a loophole in the screening process
used to ensure the reliability of servants hired by Central Hirings.
Some well-placed graft can influence one of the agency’s people and get
applications approved. Oberlindes has found this loophole and is now
prepared to exploit it. We will be assuming the identities as natives of
Zila and get ourselves hired on as replacement servants destined for
Lewis. Even Gvoudzon presents no problem, as Zila has a small Vargr
population.
The plan was to get any information out of Tukera's computers we could and then meet up with the New Horizons which would be disguised as a Tukera ore hauler.
Looking up Lewis in the database:
Lewis/Aramis
(D427402-D) Lewis is a small world with a diameter of approximately
6400 kilometers, a very thin, tainted atmosphere, and large salty oceans
covering three-quarters of the surface of the planet. A young world,
Lewis is one of several satellites of Zenthra, the only gas giant in the
system.
The night sky as seem from Lewis is one of the wonders
of the Imperium, First the gas giant Zenthra has gorgeous multicolored
bands. The ring of Zenthra has been described as "A ring of diamonds."
The other four satellites of Zenthra are uninhabited, but they are
bright in the night sky, which adds to the beauty of the night sky.
Finally the magnetic fields of Zenthra send charged particles into the
upper atmosphere of Lewis, creating striking auroras almost every night.
Lewis
orbits the gas giant Zenthra in just over seven standard days. It is
tidally locked with Zenthra. So one side always faces the planet. Since
Zenthra is so big in the sky, (3.75 degrees, over seven times the
angular size of Luna), it eclipses the sun each once each time Lewis
orbits it. The eclipse lasts about two hours. Inselberg (see below) is
situated in a prime viewing site for this, and most visitors view the
eclipse several times.
The world has a population of just over
73,000 persons, mostly farmers. There is no government established on
the world; among the farming community family ties predominate – a
system which has worked very well for several generations. A D-class
starport facility exists on the world (as well as several smaller
landing fields of even lower quality); this is controlled by the Tukera
family and reserved for their use.
Lewis was, indeed, entirely
owned by the Tukeras for quite some time but, about 150 years ago, a
Tukera baron in need of funds was forced to sell off some of the family
lands to outside settlers. This community flourished for quite some
time; recently, the family has been attempting to recover those lands
and the ownership of the world. After several unsuccessful efforts to
force the independent settlers to sell out, Tukera interests at Court
(with the support of Marquis of Aramis) have managed to have the planet
interdicted.
A special access dispensation allows family members
to come and go as they please but all trade and outside contact has been
cut off, isolating the settlers. So far they have shown an amazing
degree of self-sufficiency but the Tukera family still believes that the
increasing hardships of this isolation will eventually compel them to
give up and sell their land.
The Tukera estates at Inselberg on
Lewis are isolated from the main areas of settlement, surrounded by
desert and protected from intrusions by an excellent security
organization.
The nearest town is some 100 kilometers away.
Inselberg’s facilities enjoy a Tech Level of 13; the settlers are
limited to a much lower level of technology.
The Tukera estates
on Lewis consist of large expanses of desert on the only continent on
the world. Within that expanse, three areas are of interest: Inselberg,
the Retreat and the mines.
Inselberg is a cluster of large buttes
or mesas standing tall and open in the expanse of desert. Their flat
tops hold a variety of buildings and structures which serve as living
and working areas and as recreation buildings. The sites have been
chosen for their scenic beauty, their protection against periodic floods
and their isolation from wild animals and other nuisances. Movement
between the various peaks is generally by air/raft.
The Retreat
is a single large butte approximately 12 kilometers out from the main
estate buildings. It has long been a park or forest preserve maintained
in manicured beauty for the enjoyment of the family. The focal family
cemetery is at one end of the butte.
The Mines: In 840, a local
survey discovered a body of lanthanum ore near Inselberg close enough to
the surface to allow mining. Although samples of the ore indicated that
it was marginally worth mining, no effort to exploit the body of ore
was made until approximately 1050, when first excavations were begun. In
1093, large amounts of equipment were brought in and a large strip
mining effort was begun. The mines produce raw ore which is processed
into enriched ore for shipment offworld. In addition, the body of ore
has been found to have a quantity of mediocre quality semi-precious
stones, called ‘sparkles’, which are also sold offworld. Locals can buy
permits from the estate to scavenge for sparkles. The stones are sold to
the estate, which exports them at a slight profit.
142-1105
We
traveled on an Oberlindes courier ship to Zila, where we got the fake
ID's. Enroute to Zila, we all studied about the Zilan culture and world,
so we could pass (more or less) for Zilan natives. For some reason,
Tukera prefers to hire Zilans.
Leon went, appropriately
enough, as a mechanic, Medicus as a fire fighter/paramedic, Kipenzi was
to be an air raft pilot, and Fig a valet for one of the family.
Gvouzdon had a more interesting prospect. The Tukera family wanted a
Vargr companion for one of the important workers. We thought it likely
that would be the Vargr that those log entries had mentioned.
Previously we had captured a Turkera courier, the Nebula and
its logs indicated that the courier ship was involved in ferrying in
material transferred to Aramis subsector from a Tukera research facility
in Deneb sector; Lewis was established as the new site of the project.
On one of the trips, the courier carried as a passenger a female Vargr,
apparently connected in some way with the project.
We set up a rendezvous with our exit ship, the New Horizons for
three weeks after our arrival on Lewis, with a one month later fallback
if we had not found the information Oberlindes wanted. That information
was "whatever you can learn about Tukera's plans and actions". Sort of
open-ended, but that is how we roll whenever we can.
While on
Zila, Kipenzi and Fig discussed paying a visit to Swartman and Closter,
the shipping company that loaded up and sent a surprisingly similar
tonnage of "farm equipment" to Jesedipere with Ozarr as the consignee.
We found that S&C doesn’t sell or handle farm equipment - only
wholesale electronic subcomponents. We send another letter to the Navy,
signed “the Red Baron”, and find out the investigator-in-charge for the
Mammoth is a Cdr. Warren. The similarity, as we learned from the
intercepted messages, was just a hair more than the Meson Guns had been.
Kipenzi and Fig figured the guns were just reboxed with a little more
packing material and sent off.
They hoped to get into the
paperwork of the company and find some additional names of the
conspirators. However, reality intervened when both realized that they
could not pick a lock well, and with the Zilan law system the way it is,
not worth the risk. The Navy can figure it out when (eventually) they
get a clue about what we have learned and tried to pass on to them.
We got some news concerning Tukera that was sent out from Regina some six weeks earlier:
⑆ Regina/Regina (0310 A788899-A) 097-1105
¶
TNS - Officials of the General Shipyards on Regina announced that it
has completed negotiations with Tukera Lines to locally manufacture
L-Hyd drop tanks for use on high-capacity commercial vessels. General
will assemble components at its more modern facilities on Pixie
(0303-A1001030-D). The first production examples are expected to be
available within six months, at which time Tukera Lines will begin high
capacity service from the interior. Component assembly will be carried
out at General's more modern facilities on Pixie (0303-A100103-D).
¶
L-Hyd drop ships have only been in service for the last dozen years in
the interior, being made possible by recent advances in the field of
capacitor engineering, a joint press release explained. Commercial
vessels equipped with the new generation of long-storage jump capacitors
carry jump fuel in specially designed L-Hyd drop tanks in excess of
their rated tonnage. Upon conversion of the fuel to the massive energy
required for jump, the drop tanks are explosively jettisoned through the
use of break-away connections and explosive bolts. Jump is executed
when the remains of the tanks are a safe distance from the vessel.
¶
A spokesman for General Shipyards explained that local yards are not
yet capable of manufacturing the long-storage capacitors required for
the process, but that production of the drop tanks is possible, thus
allowing the high capacity starships of the Tukera Lines to begin
service to the Regina subsector.
¶ L-Hyd tanks are not reusable,
and thus increase the absolute cost per jump. However, experience has
shown that the increase in cargo tonnage resulting from the elimination
of internal J-fuel storage more than makes up for this, the press
release explained.
¶ The joint press release concluded by stating
that local manufacture of L-Hyd drop tanks marks the dawn of a new era
of commerce and prosperity in the Regina subsector. Following the
announcement, common stock in Oberlindes Lines plummeted 27 points on
the Regina exchange before trading was suspended. Officials of
Oberlindes Lines were not available for comment. Ω
That is some good news for Tukera.
157-1105
On the ground at Lewis, ready to go to work.
Our work weeks were 6 days on, 1 off. However, not all the days off
coincided with each other. Add to that the complication that Gvouzdon's
work as an aid to the Vargr Scientist Garukh was at the Retreat, located
on a completely different mesa than the main family area, and we only
had one or two meals a week to get together to discuss things.
During the first couple weeks we did manage to access some information.
Hoping it would be enough, we started planning our egress.
Fig
is assigned to a retired Admiral Egbert DeKlerk-Tukera, who figures out
Fig was a spacer and possibly military. The prosthetic arm is a plus. So
the Admiral tells war stories and mentions this nephew is a newly
promoted commander in the Navy. Cdr Warren, who’s investigating the
Mammoth crash, and he says it’s “dastardly sabotage by Oberlindes, oops!
This is the guy we addressed the info on Swartzmann & Closter to!
Meanwhile, Gvoudzon, working in the research facility, sniffs out the
fragrance of Ho wood, leading him to discover one of the brooches
mounted on a stand. He asks Garukh, “do you know how to read these?” To
which she answers “Of course, I designed them.” Now we have a reason to
get her off the planet and back to Oberlindes’ base.
Medicus had
a slight complicationt. A failed attempt to get some drugs to help
Gvouzdon get Garrukh out led to him (Medicus) being tested for drug use
and monitored more closely.
Garrukh, as we learned the first
time we could talk with Gvouzdon, wanted to get out too, and had already
started looking at Gvouzdon as a possible rescue. Bonus.
Gvoudzon,
meanwhile, has asked for sedatives for his "insomnia", and continues to
bring coffee to Garukh, her staff, and her guards. Leon is trying to
get some maintenance practice time on the G-carrier (armed and armored
personnel carrier on the research mesa). Kipenzi and Leon try to get
permits to look for “sparkles”, a mediocre gemstone found near the
lanathium mines, which is where the landing pad for the New Horizon’s
scheduled arrival is located.
163-1105
Fig fails a computer hack on the Admiral's system, but Gvoudzon comes through and finds:
A correspondence file containing records of communications between Bulolo, head of subsector operations for Tukera and Akerut, and Aran Ashkashkur, director of the Aramis subsector branch of the Vemene. In a series of exchanges, Bulolo queries Ashkashkur on the Mammoth incident. He orders Ashkashkur to conduct a full investigation of circumstances surrounding the crash, managing to imply that it would be best if the accident turned out to be due to Oberlindes-inspired sabotage, rather than Akerut incompetence. Ashkashkur’s reply states that an examination of the evidence suggests that Oberlindes Lines, anxious to expand in the Aramis market, may indeed have been responsible for sabotage of the luckless Mammoth. In a follow-up letter, Bulolo commends Ashkashkur for his prompt work and orders him to begin plans for a sharp response to Oberlindes provocation-probably in the form of a full tradewar implementation.
A much later piece of correspondence
from Ashkashkur reports his intention to personally look into a security
problem at the Tukera depot on Jesedipere. The letter states that he
will be arriving there on 209-1105 and that all operations will be
handled in his absence from Junidy by his chief assistant there. He
will, however, be available at Jesedipere should anything come up that
should need his attention.
164-1105
A ship comes in with some news:
⑆ Regina/Regina (0310 A788899-A) 101-1105
¶
TNS - Close on the heels of the joint announcement by General Shipyards
and Tukera Lines that L-Hyd drop tanks would soon be manufactured in
the Regina subsector, came word by express boat from the Imperial core
that a decision has been made to deploy Jump-6 L-Hyd drop tank express
boats on all major express routes. Initial feasibility studies indicate
that such a system could average jump-5.5 per week by executing maximum
jumps, and leaving current xboats to disseminate information between the
new major relay points. The system is expected to cut communication
time to the Imperial hub to under 25 weeks. The Initial System
Deployment Schedule indicates that the Regina subsector can expect to be
fully integrated into the network within a decade. Ω
165-1105
Fig is able to connect to the main system through the admiral's terminal and finds a correspondence file:
Letters from Bulolo for distribution to all planetary managers. One letter informs the managers that tradewar operations are being initiated against Oberlindes Lines and that full co-operation with Vemene efforts is essential. Bulolo cites a number of provocations which have led to this step, the last one being the loss of the Zilan wine monopoly through Oberlindes action.
166-1105
Gvouzdon finds out that Bulolo is head of Aramis subsector operations
for Tukera and Akerut. He is Ashkashkur’s supervisor but is not a
Turkera family member.
Continued snooping finds:
A
file, consisting of letters between Bulolo and the Marquis of Aramis.
An early letter from the Marquis questions Bulolo’s decision to begin a
tradewar, suggesting that honest competition would be more fitting.
Bulolo’s answer stresses evidence that Oberlindes was responsible for
the loss of the Mammoth, not merely an act of tradewar but one damaging
to the Imperium; his action, says Bulolo, is merely a protective
response. Further correspondence indicates that Bulolo and the Marquis
of Aramis will both be on Lewis on 194-1105 for some general meetings to
discuss policy. The Marquis apparently was not entirely satisfied with
Bulolo’s response. In all the letters, neither correspondent actually
admits that tradewar is being waged by Tukera; all references on both
sides are couched in hints and generalities.
Leon, working in vehicle maintenance, accesses the records for the
G-Carrier, which is a sort of flying armored personnel carrier. It is
the only grav vehicle on the site that is armed. He asked about getting
trained on it and is told that he could get trained the next time its
scheduled maintenance came up... about a week after the group was to
leave on the New Horizons.
As this closes, it was
167-1105. Our planned rendezvous, some hundreds of kilometers away, was
set for 178-1105. Before then we will need to figure out how to get
Gvouzdon and Garrukh away from the Retreat, steal a grav vehicle and get
to the mines in time to get picked up... all without getting shot down
by the G-Carrier. Time seems to fly whether you are having fun or not.
Continued in Inselburg - Part 2.
See Also: Dramatis Personæ, Skylark 2, Campaign Starts, The 2nd Adventure, The Chamax Plague, Horde, Shadows, Research Station Gamma, Twilight's Peak, Prison Planet, Leedor on Aramis, First Call at Zilla, Trade War.
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