The Last Flight of the Amuar - Part 1

After making a delivery to Pax Rulin, the crew of the Skylark 2 begin looking for a missing ship, the Amuar.

This chapter is based on Carl and Kay‘s notes from our May 2, 2020 session. Since we are scattered around the country, we use Discord for voice communications and the Roll20 online virtual tabletop to connect with each other. I modeled the image in Sketchup and rendered it in Twilight Render.

Continued from: Glisten.

Location: The Romar system in the Glisten Subsector.

Imperial Date: 006-1109

The Skylark decelerated to the jump point for Doradon with no incidents and jumped at midnight.

012-1109 1330
Out of jump space in the Doradon system.

On the way in to the main world, we passed a 20-ton launch that belonged to the Scout Service. We said “Hi” and continued on to the planet.

It took about 5 hours to get to Doradon and we were on the ground at 1830.

Once on the ground and parked, Medicus woke up the low passengers. They were both OK.

We got some news. The Amuar, an 1,800-Ton merchant cruiser owned by McClellan Factors, ‘went Outrim’ as the saying goes. She is long overdue, presumed lost.

The other bit of news was that there is a 52 Km comet passing within 400,000 km of Berengaria in a few weeks, a near-miss of the rich, agricultural world one jump from our destination, Pax Rulin.

No other news or rumors as we passed through the spaceport and environs.

This time we buy refined fuel and take off after only five hours on the ground.

013-1109 0500
Outbound for Pax Rulin while celebrating Fig’s birthday.

020-1109 0703
Out of jump and into the Pax Rulin system. The local star is a M8 III giant, it would take us three days to reach the main world.

Kipenzi got on the comm and asked about port fees and piracy reports right away. Due to the distance, it was nearly an hour to get a response back (28 light minutes each way). Port fees were 135 Cr/day for a pressurized bay, no recent attacks by pirates reported - which matched the low piracy rating in the database.

On the way in we passed the 1,000-ton liner, Pride of Gazulin, inbound from Alexin.

Pax Rulin is all grey and orange from space, with almost no air and the water frozen at the poles. Not many people there outside of the starport, naval base and subsector admin building, the official population listed is only 400.

023-1109 1130
Down at the port and parked. Sam got on the comm to tell McClellan we have arrived with their cargo.

Pax Rulin is a subsector capital and on an X-boat route, so we expected to get some updates on the progress of the war, but there was nothing new reported.

Medicus woke up the low passengers with no problems.

Later that afternoon, McClellan Factors arrived to pick up the cargo and transferred 1.1 million credits to our account.

Once he was satisfied with the paperwork from McClellan, Sam went off looking for cargo, something that would sell on Doradon on our way back to Glisten.

Fig and Leon hooked up the hoses and started loading the tanks with our usual 44 tons of unrefined fuel.

When evening came, Fig, Kipenzi and Medicus went out and wandered about a little bit. Soaking up the atmosphere and sights. This was the first stop we had in a while that wasn’t ‘gas and go’.

The starport was mostly automated and nearly deserted. There were only two bars listed, The Lone Star and The Octagon Lounge. They decided to check out The Octagon, at the TAS hotel.

Erek Raedelli

 

That was where we met a retired McClellan executive, Erek Raedelli.

He was someone who looks like he’s spent years in comfortable offices, high class but occasionally lapses into spacer slang from time to time and we could tell he knew his way around a starship.

Erek earned his fortune by climbing up ranks in District 268 and Pax Rulin, first as a steward and later as a diplomat and manager. He worked his way up to purser on what he calls “The Mighty Amuar”, a leviathan-class merchant cruiser. He retired after the last cruise; when the crew got bonuses, his share was large due to his position.

Erek is trying to put together an expedition to find the Amuar, which is missing. It turns out that his nephew was on the ship when it disappeared. He had used his pull to get him a berth on the ship and he has a family obligation to find him.

He told us that McClellan Factors would offer a reward, and he would supplement it. The finder’s fee for locating a 1,800-ton merchant cruiser would be considerable, being that it was worth nearly a billion credits.

His initial plan fell though due to lack of crew and was starting over. While he initially thought he would try to hire us to crew his ship, after learning a little more about the Skylark he became interested in the whole enchilada. He knows our reputation.

The Amuar was headed to Belgard, but there was some slack in the schedule and the routing is not definite. They made it to Belgard but nothing is known about where they went after that.

Kipenzi remembered that Belgard is only two parsecs from Ganulph, a red-zoned planet where an explosion at an Imperial Navy base stripped off the atmosphere during the 4th Frontier War. There was a rumor there were experimental weapons at a Naval Research Station located at that base.

Our route would be Pax Rulin – Berengaria – Bantral – Vior – Gollere – Belgard, the last known port.

Erek offered to pay for our life support, fuel and use his connections to help Sam with any trade out to Belgard.

Sam asks about the finders fee for ship, passengers and crew. Erek didn’t know, but was sure that McClellan Factors would pay well; they have a good reputation.

The Amuar left Pax Rulin on 162-1108 and arrived on Belgard on 213-1108. It’s been missing for 5 months.

Looking up the ship’s statistics, the ship needs 33 crew minimum to operate, this ship only has a 100T cargo capacity – unusual for a ship that size.

The rest of ship are engines and fuel. It has duel jump and maneuver drives. One jump drive does Jump-3, and the backup does Jump-2. Maneuver drives do 4G and 2G. It is fast and it would take a lot to stop it. Fuel for 16 weeks of operation. On board fuel processor refines 300 tons/day.

The Leviathan class is partially streamlined, it can land on vacuum or thin atmosphere worlds. A fairly tall ship, seven decks from top to bottom.

It has multiple subordinate craft:

• 1 - air/raft
• 2 - 20-ton launches
• 1 - 40-ton pinnace
• 1 - 100-ton shuttle

The computer is a Model 10 bis/fib. Not too bad... and a Model 5 bis/fib on an auxiliary bridge.

31 standard staterooms, 6 high passenger staterooms, and 1 luxury stateroom. 6 low passenger berths.

4 workshops, hydroponics and a cargo crane.

Unarmored, looks like the design uses speed and redundancy for protection.

Offense:

• 6 Double Turrets (beam laser)
• 2 Fixed Missile Mounts
• 2 Torpedo Barbettes
• Missile Storage (48 missiles)
• Torpedo Storage (12 torpedoes)

We get a printout of the crew positions and a list of the names of all on board and what positions they filled.

Thinking about “The Last Fight of the Amuar”, Kip thinks of four reasons it could have disappeared:

1. Back on Glisten, Fig heard a customs and excise official bemoaning a lack of Navy control over privateers. Trane/Glisten is rumored to have given letters of Marque to one or two corsairs operating in Pax Rulin subsector.
2. Also on Glisten, Medicus met a brash young trader who boasted of how he evaded a squadron of pursuit ships of strange design, when down on an Outrim planet procuring trade goods. He went on at great length about the overpowering armament of the strangers, and all the tricks he used to escape, but avoided all questions about the planet except that it had a standard atmosphere.
3. Zhodani operated here in the last war, they might be back with the 5th Frontier War underway.
4. McClellan’s rival company, Baraccai Technum, could be trying to cripple McClellan after being shut out of District 268.

024-1109 

Sam got a comm back from McClellan with details on the reward for finding the Amuar.

McClellan will pay

• 2 MCr for ship location.
• 2 MCr for retrieval of computer logs.
• 15 KCr for each crew and/or passengers (50 crewmembers).
• 84.5 MCr if we find and deliver the ship.

Fig said, “Fortunately, the possibilities are limited by jump distance. Sorta like when we were looking for the Twilight's Peak resolution...” Well, that analogy broke down fast, since we spent a LONG time searching out that one.

Erek has his own ship and was staffing it when we showed up. The Voidskipper, it is a 200-ton modified Type A3. It has Jump-3, 4G acceleration, military grade sensors, 2 low berths and a fuel processor. Similar in performance to the Skylark, but faster.

It has a pair of double turrets with pulse lasers in one and missile racks on the other.

He has an Ex-Scout Vargr Jack of all trades type who can pilot, astrogate and run engineering and a former Marine who is his bodyguard who can also pilot. Neither one of them can operate the ship’s weapons.

We definitely need more crew for The Voidskipper. Finding quality crew will be tough on a world like Pax Rulin. We start by calling around the Naval base and the McClellan Factors office at the Starport.

024-1109 Afternoon
We found a couple of people who were interested and we started interviews right away.

The first was Kevin Trigosa.

Kevin Trigosa

He joined the Navy when he was 18, worked a diplomatic post, left the Navy and enlisted in the Marines at 22, was injured and got a medical discharge. After he recovered, he went to work for McClellan Factors for a few years before joining Screaming Meteoroid Freight. They lost their only ship to pirates in Sindal subsector and went out of business.

He is now 35 and had been working his way coreward toward Glisten when he stopped in Pax Rulin. He has engineering (power systems) and mechanical skills and knows gunnery.

Dai-su You

 

Dai-Su You is a former Scout who worked in Survey for twelve years and then flew X-boats for another eight years. He retired from the Scout Service on Gazulin and was heading to Glisten to look for work.

His skills are in astrogation, mechanic, pilot and can operate a sensor board. He knows how to run a gunnery console, but has never used one except on simulator, has no combat experience. He got along well with Fig, they started swapping old Scout Service stories. He also knows how to tame and train animals. Not all that useful on a ship, but then you never know on a mission like this.

Francisca Kharirshuri

Francisca Kharirshuri is a former Scout who worked in the exploration division. She was injured in a docking accident and has been working as a security guard for McClellan Factors since she recovered.

She applied for the astrogation and gunnery positions.

They all seemed reasonable competent and Erek hired all three of them.

We also spent time with his existing crew.

Ueinsadz Kasheshshuaar Brandywine

 

The first was Ueinsadz Kasheshshuaar Brandywine, Erek’s Vargr engineer and pilot. Ueinsadz (he Galanglicises his name to ‘WineSadz’ though this is not the correct native pronunciation). His experience is mainly way stations and X-boat tenders at the end of a jump rather than wild outback worlds. He seems about 25 and his primary traits are a very laid-back attitude and casual disregard for bins, stowage areas and anywhere that stuff should actually be.

Ueinsadz normally carries a blade when outside the ship, mainly as a survival tool rather than a weapon. He has a distinctly random assortment of small tools and handheld sensors about his person at any given time.

Marianne Amshika

 

The second was Marianne Amshika, ex-Marine Lance Corporal and Erek’s bodyguard and pilot. Marianne is in her late 20s or early 30s, clearly in good shape. She is a former marine, not long out of the service and used to a regime of physical training and hard work. This manifests itself in a constant need to be doing something physical – moving stuff around, randomly bashing out a few chin-ups on an overhead support, or just prowling around the ship, along with a general impatience with anyone who seems to be faffing about instead of getting things done.

She has a habit of picking up Ueinsadz’ discarded food wrappers, balling them up tight and flinging them in his face. She does the same with beer bottle caps, books and anything else he leaves lying around, which has soured relations between them considerably.

She commands an impressive marine-issue vocabulary which she uses constantly – even in polite company.

Marianne owns a cutlass, several knives, an advanced combat rifle and autopistol, as well as a flak jacket. She will normally be armed outside the ship unless there is good reason not to be, but does not advocate hauling around large amounts of ordnance. Indeed, she is strongly opposed to Travellers who have more guns than sense wearing them around the ship or festooning themselves with ironmongery, and will strongly advocate a more low-key approach.

It looks like we have all positions on the Voidskipper covered, with some overlap in case there is trouble:

Pilots: Kevin Trigosa, Marianne Amshika, Ueinsadz Kasheshshuaar Brandywine, and Dai-Su You.

Astrogator: Dai-Su You, Ueinsadz Kasheshshuaar Brandywine, and Francisca Kharirshuri.

Engineers: Ueinsadz Kasheshshuaar Brandywine and Kevin Trigosa.

Mechanics: Kevin Trigosa, Dai-Su You.

Sensors: Dai-Su You

Gunners: Francisca Kharirshuri and Kevin Trigosa.

We recommended some software upgrades for the Voidskipper’s computer; hardware would have been better, but we would have had to order a new system from Glisten for that. Erek concurred and had it downloaded right away.

Sam worked on getting cargo to fill both ships, items that would sell on Berengaria, our first stop. Erek made some calls to his local connections to make sure Sam got the best deals.

Fig went shopping for extra life support, food, medical supplies, a couple of extra hardened vacc suits and spare parts for the ships. He spent over 10 KCr and when he was done, we had boxes stacked in the common area, in engineering and packed in and around the air/raft.

031-1109
With both stocked and loaded up and set to go, we both took off and headed for the Berengaria jump point.

034-1109
Both ships jump for Berengaria.

Continued in The Last Flight of the Amuar - 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, The Bloodwell, ANNIC NOVA, The Kinunir, Kesser's Return, Justice, Mission to Mithril, Outback and Skylark and the Pit.