Outback - Part 3

Having been cleared of the murder of their former passenger, the crew of the Skylark 2 leave Mora and go to the planet Caledonia to recover an Ancient Artifact. They discover its history and the possibility that there may be more where it came from.

This chapter is based on Carl and Kay‘s notes from our September 30th, 2019 session. Since we are now scattered around the country, we used Discord for voice communications and the Roll20 online virtual tabletop to connect with each other. The map is from TravellerMap.com and I modeled the illustration in Sketchup and rendered it in Twilight Render. The wreck of the Leopold was from Robert Pearce’s Sharptooth-class Armed Merchant deck plans.

Continued from: Outback - Part 2.

Location: Mora Highport in the Mora Subsector

Imperial Date: 157-1108.

1600
A couple of hours before take off, Fig came on board with a small crate.

Leon asked, “What is that?”

He popped the lid and inside were seven Ling Standard Products’ AShPJ-12’s stun guns plus ammo.

“It shoots a barbed, self-contained electric capsule that inflicts ‘debilitating pain and incapacitating shock’ to most targets in the human-sized range. It also works against most devices if you hit it right.”

“Looks expensive.”

“Including ammo, they came to 42,000 Credits total. We really needed a non-lethal option and this was exactly what we needed.”

1800
Undocked and moving away from Mora High Port Station.

Due to traffic regulations we were outbound at 1G, we wouldn’t be able to accelerate at our usual 3G until after we hit the 160,000 Km planetary radius line and were clear of the high traffic area.

1820
As we crossed the 30,000 Km range, Sam detected a transport drone on an intersect course. it was a 100-Ton In-system Transport, the Iruushigak-7, owned by Achron Industries and it was going to hit us unless we did something about it.

Medicus, piloting, changed course and it appeared that the drone was tracking in on us... Hmmmmm.

We got acceleration approval from Traffic Control and dodged it at 3G. Achron Industries might bear some research in our near future.

Traffic control told us that Achron had lost control of it, and was sending out a system defense boat. We asked about shooting it but were denied. They mentioned something about not wanting a cloud of fast moving debris in the high-traffic area.

2204
Out to the jump point safely, and off we went to Grille.

165-1108  0208
Out of jump and in system at Grille which is a desert moon around a gas giant - very COLD. It takes us about 15 hours to get to our destination, the local gas giant.

We decided to hit the gas giant for fuel rather than the port, staying low profile.

0900
We encounter a pinnace, the 20-Ton Vigo Mercury 5, owned by Spinward Solutions. They’re heading out to a corporate station on one of the moons, outbound from Grille. We ask about combat reports, but there is no news.

We gassed up at the giant, set to processing the fuel. Kip decided she needed the pilot practice, took 5 hours to gas up. Takes 3 days to process.

169-1108 Midnight
Ready to jump to Duale.

176-1108 0600
Out of jump into the Duale system.

1100
Landed at the A-class port, they have refined it fuel, should be a speedy turnover. Takes 9 hours total including paperwork.

The world is amber zoned due to terrorism. In 1102 an explosion destroyed Imperial Research Station Alpha there. Security is tight, we gas up at port.

2000
All fueled up. One of our fastest turnovers ever... Not even time to hit the bars.

The Imperial Navy stopped us and checked our cargo and ship while we were in high orbit preparing to head out to jump.

They check our manifest for two tons of weapons and 15 tons of drones, ask us where we’re selling it. Sam says Caledonia, they’re cold and professional but there are no problems.

On the way out to the 100-planetary diameter jump point we passed the type-A2 free trader Free Enterprise, we had met them earlier at the port and they were friendly. They said they were headed for Tivid as we accelerated past them at 3G.

177-1108  0100
Jump out for Drolraw

184-1108  0015
Out into the Drolraw system, so far so good. Takes 10 hours to get to the local gas giant.

Gas giant refueling again, no reason to hit an E port during this trip since they would only have unrefined fuel anyway.

0720
We pass the 400-Ton Naval Auxiliary Gemma Star, we chat with them a while. They are going to Strouden and had just finished gassing up at the gas giant.

1050
Sam attempts to gas up and fails badly, wastes 6 hrs.

1650
Fig tries next and fails miserably but only wastes 1 hr, trying to refuel.

1750
Medicus takes the helm and 6 hrs later we have full tanks, he is done before midnight.

2350
Now processing for 3 days

185-1108
Sam takes the midnight shift on the bridge, everyone else takes an eight hour rest break after a full day of hard piloting or being bounced around while fueling up.

188-1108
1 minute past midnight we Jump out for Persephone.

194-1108 2320
Into the Persephone system, at about 100,000 Km out from the world we pass the Naval Auxiliary Akoth Deng, they were outbound at 1G and didn’t say where they are going.

Docked at Persephone High by 0630. Loaded refined fuel at the port.

We got some news:

⑆ ARAMIS /ARAMIS (3110 A5A0556-B) 122-1108

¶ Equipment, records, and personnel of Imperial Research Station Beta are reported by unofficial sources to have been evacuated from Yori (Spinward Marches 2110), and are now said to be under heavy guard somewhere in the Aramis system. The station will almost certainly be reopened, but it is not known where the station will be relocated, or when it will resume operations.

¶ No information is available on the fate of Imperial Research Station Delta, located on Retinae (Spinward Marches 0416). While the exact nature of station Delta's research is classified, the information in such stations is in the forefront of Imperial technology, and thus is extremely interesting to other powers. Ω

---

Even on the X-Boat route, it is taking over two months for news to get to us from the front. It will get longer as we move rimward.

1000
Gassed and gone in quick step.

195-1108 1800
Jumping out for Marastan in the Glisten Subsector.

201-1108 0010
Out of jump at Marastan. The system is an Amber zone so we stay away from the main world and go to gas giant to gas up.

1600
At the gas giant to refuel. Sam figured it out this time and succeeds without much trouble. The trick is to avoid those planet-sized storms.

2200
We start the three day fuel refining process.

As we were processing fuel the Rainbow's End (Type RL-2, 600 tons) came in for refueling.

They were friendly, but had no new news of the war, just talk that it is not going well.

204-1108 2257
Jump out for Caledonia.

Area Map

210-1108 1900
Out of jump in the Caledonia system at last. The planet orbits a M4 III red giant, there is also a M0 V (red dwarf) companion in the system, but it is on the far side of the giant right now, so can be safely ignored.

The star didn’t look that big, until it sunk in that it was 53 AU away, most stars would be hardly visible at that range and this one was showing a disk. It was going to take nearly a week at 3G to get from the 100-stellar diameter limit to Caledonia.

There were no gas giants in the system, just eight rocky worlds and a broad asteroid belt. We will have to fuel up at the starport.

Caledonia had a thin, tainted atmosphere. The library database said it was tainted with virulent allergens, provoking a lethal allergic reactions in about 60% of humans and Vargr. So we would need to use our masks.

The population was not particularly friendly either. The weapon policy there is shotguns only, and no loaded weapons at all in town.

The Leopold crash site is about 1,400 Km northwest of the starport and we flew over it on the way in, but didn’t spot it. Sam reported that he didn’t pick up anything on sensors. The terrain is rough with a lot of deep canyons, so it was not surprising.

We also looked for outlying buildings or steads. Getting a better lay of the land as we did. NOT forgetting that the ship we are looking for was SHOT DOWN !!!!

217-1108 0300
Down at the starport. There were no landings allowed anywhere else and no contact with locals except approved starport personnel.

We called it to the port office to get a berth and we were told to call back at 0600 during normal business hours, so we sat on the taxiway for three hours.

We could see that we were the only star ship at the port, there weren’t even any in-system ships there.

Caledonia Down was listed as D-Class port, and it was shabby one at that. It was adjacent to a commercial airport and what looked like an Air Force base with military aircraft. We could see rotary wing, prop and some jet aircraft. There were no grav vehicles that we could see.

0600
Once the port opened, they confirmed that there was no landing allowed in the outback, including air/rafts. No off-world vehicles at all.

They suggested that we, “Sell our cargo and go.” as we rolled into our assigned berth.

Sam went to see about local brokers to buy our cargo, but no one was actually around til about 9.

0900
When we reviewed the sensor logs from when we flew in, it showed that Caledonia had incomplete radar coverage, only low quality TL5 radar at the major cities that wouldn’t be able to see the Skylark at all due to our stealth paint job. The starport sensors were better and could see us, but not very well.

We decided to sell cargo, fuel and process up and then 'leave', but in a north-westerly direction.

The port fee was 40Cr / day and it took the Skylark about two hours to fill her tanks and would take 3-days to process the water into hydrogen so we could use it without messing up our equipment.

The Scout Service tags the government here as a self-perpetuating oligarchy. What we could see was a poor, oppressed, population and sullen one. They don’t like outsiders here. Strangely enough, there is small settlement of Aslan here, but they keep to themselves and don’t interact with the main population much.

220-1108
Fuel refined and cargo sold. Sam tried to 'casually' find out the radar range at which we were detected, not sure how that went... Medicus tried too, with better results. They noticed us about 1000 Km out, more or less.

1300
We took off, northwesterly as directed, and when we thought we were very likely out of radar range (1500 Km) we descended and came back to where Leopold allegedly was to be searched for. We came up and over a ridge and actually spotted the ship.

We set down the Skylark on a rocky ledge that looked like it would support our 200 Tons about 36 meters away from the Leopold.

Sam turned on the camouflage to match the terrain.

The bridge windows on the Leopold were mostly broken out and birds were coming and going through the gap from time to time. Some parts of the ship were missing, one of the maneuver drive units looked like it was completely gone.

Kipenzi and Fig stayed with Skylark. Sam, Leon and Medicus were our away team. Sam brought his drone. There was not much on sensors that we could detect - the ship was very dead. Jason’s note said the safe had the Eye, so Leon took extraction tools, a power unit for bringing up the computer and his version of lockpicks, an iris valve opening tool.

We wore grav belts but didn’t really need them most of the time. The gravity is light about 60%. It was an easy jump onto top of the ship to enter through the iris valve.

We went down a ladder to a hallway, noting the matching iris valve in the floor, probably leading to the cargo bay. There was another one on the wall at the end of the hall next to us, likely leading to engineering.

We ignored that one for now and walked toward the front of the Leopold and then around the corner to what looked like the galley and common area.

Working an iris valve, they entered and eventually found the computer. The team carried a power source and hoped to be able to bring up the ship’s computer in situ. First couple tries didn't work.

While they were trying to bring up the computer, Kipenzi and Fig picked up some chatter from aircraft that sounded like they were looking for something. The Skylark’s holo camo was on, luckily. We all picked up the pace a little, and after many a try we got the computer powered up and running.

Kipenzi and Fig detected two rotary winged vehicles about 200Km east on the ships sensors.

Sam retrieved the Leopold’s safe combination from the computer and some small celebrating was curtailed by Medicus hearing a low growl coming from somewhere in the aft end of the ship. Everyone checked their weapons. Whatever it was, it wasn’t getting any closer so they continued with their mission.

With the password to the safe, all they needed to do was find the safe. We brought an X-Ray scanner to help with that.

Using the scanner on the first door, they found an autodoc in what was probably a medical bay. They kept on looking.

They noted that in a lot of ways, The Leopold was a lot like the Skylark in terms of layout.

Medicus found the safe in the Captains cabin, no X-Rays needed. He also found some old blood stains, but no bodies.

One password later the safe was open - Sam pulled out a wooden box with what looked like an eye inside, a bundle of cash, and some printouts. All into a bag and out they went, shortest and fastest way possible.

The helicopters were approaching much closer by that time, and the size made it believable that they were carrying troops.

As Medicus started going up the ladder, something large and growling hit the iris valve next to him from the other side. Everyone rushed up the ladder and flew back to the Skylark speedily before whatever it was could break through.

The Crashed Leopold

Up, up, and away before the choppers got close enough to spot us.

As soon as everyone was on board, Kipenzi launched us straight up and out toward the jump point at best performance. We had a week to get to jump so we had plenty of time to discuss our next step.

The bundle of cash contained 524,116 credits.

The printout was an article by Chapman Singh - it looked like might be a graduate paper researching the eye.

Chapman Singh

Research on The Eye

The story that it is an artifact of the Sindal Empire was a story concocted to keep the Imperium from claiming it.

The Eye was found in 1010 on T’yana in Egyrn Subsector of the Trojan Reach Sector, just a few years after the world had been recontacted by the 3rd Imperium.

It was found in a cave in the eye socket of a skeleton matching no known species. T’yana is not reported to have any Ancient Sites on it.

It was placed in a museum in the capital city of Shalimar where it stayed until 1032 when someone broke into the museum and stole it.

It had been reported several times over the next 50 years on various worlds in Five Sisters and District 268 Subsectors. It is unknown where the name “Eye of Yasterdray” came from, possibly from the Eye itself.

It was during this time that The Eye picked up its reputation. It is possible that it is some kind of psionic device giving the ability to read minds as well as granting the ability to see in all wavelengths. It also binds with the wearer, making them unable or unwilling to remove it once worn.

It was last reported being worn by the pirate Griffith Prytherch in 1085 who reportedly could use it to disintegrate his enemies. He was killed when his ship was hit in the Tarkine system and the eye has not been sighted since then. It is possible that it was destroyed at that time.

We had decided before hand that the best thing to do with The Eye was to drop it into a star or destroy it in some other way, but once it was in hand, some had second thoughts about destroying such a valuable artifact.

It seemed calling to Sam, probably telling him how easy it would be to have the Skylark all to himself... maybe not, but he was definitely against destroying it. No one was talking about having an eye removed so they could wear it, at least not yet.

Maybe there are more of these on T'yana, which is only 11 parsecs away on the other side of District 268 in the Trojan Reach. The Trojan Reach has long been known as pirate territory, we would need to be careful.

Looking up T’yana, it was a lost colony of the First Imperium, recontacted only about 100 years ago. Still fairly low-tech but developing, rich and predominately agricultural.

Continued in Skylark and The Eye.

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, The Bloodwell, ANNIC NOVA, The Kinunir, Kesser's Return, Justice and Mission to Mithril.