The Last Flight of the Amuar - Part 2

The Voidskipper and Skylark 2 are ambushed by a pirate as they enter the Berengaria system.

This chapter is based on Carl and Kay‘s notes from our June 7, 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: The Last Flight of the Amuar - Part 1.

Location: Pax Rulin in the Pax Rulin Subsector

Imperial Date: 028-1109

We are off to search for the Amuar, a missing 1800-ton merchant cruiser.

On the three-day trip out to the jump point we set up several conference calls with the crews of both ships. One topic of conversation was the “Commodore problem”. It is a problem that has bedeviled groups of ships traveling together for thousands of years. Two ships who jump at the same time will not arrive at the same time, on a worst case, we might come out of jump space 35 hours apart.

Does the first ship to arrive head straight for the planet or wait for the other ship? What if the other ship mis-jumps and never arrives?

We had some discussion of whether or not to 'admit' we are traveling together and decided that we would head in as soon as we arrived in system and meet up after we arrived on world, and act as if we just met. If someone was watching the Voidskipper, the Skylark crew might be able to spot them if they didn’t know we were together.

The plan was that we would meet up at a bar once we were on planet. Erek recommended a place called “The Spacer’s Rest”, a bar and grille near the starport. We would meet at 2000, on the day after both ships had settled in.

Sam calculated the astrogation numbers and both ships jumped for Berengaria at midnight.

034-1109 2300
The Voidskipper arrived in the Berengaria system. It was a good jump, 1 hour early and within 75,000 Km of the target point. Comet AS11050825 was nearby as expected, about 140,000 Km away and 45 degrees to port, the tail was close enough to fill half the sky.

Ueinsadz did a quick check of the drives and then Kevin ran the acceleration up to 4G and headed toward the planet. About 10 minutes in, Dai-Su detected a missile launch from the surface of the comet, with six missiles incoming. Kevin took evasive maneuvers and Erek got on the radio and called the Navy for help.

Dai-Su spotted the ship the missiles came from; it was a 400-ton type T and it was accelerating towards the Voidskipper out of the comet’s tail.

Francisca, on gunnery, hit one missile; five were left.

Capt Woodrow “Blackjack” Guruns

 

Erek, still on comm, got a message from the ship, whose transponder was reading “Grim Reaper”, “Drop your cargo or you’re toast, we can keep shooting missiles at you all day.”

Erek replied, “We have no cargo.”

The response from the pirate was, “That’s too bad.”

The Navy dispatched two Gazelle-class escorts, the ISS Antelope and ISS Khteioiyw. They were headed out at 4G, but the battle was going to be over before they would cover the 800,000 Km to where the pirate was.

Francisca was able to target and hit all of the missiles before they reached the Voidskipper. It was close, with one nearly reaching the ship. She was so busy going after the missiles that she didn’t have time to shoot at the Grim Reaper.

The pirate fired it lasers at the Voidskipper but was at extreme range where only a very lucky shot would have hit. The pirate turned back outward toward the 100-planetary-diameter jump radius once it was clear that he would not be able to close with his target before he would be in range of the Navy’s weapons.

035-1109 0030
The Skylark 2 exited jump space at 50,000 Km, 15 degrees off of the target point. Before we could congratulate Sam on his expert astrogation, Medicus, who started looking for the Voidskipper as soon as we came out of jump, said, “We got trouble”.

He had the Voidskipper, two naval vessels and the Grim Reaper on sensors. The Grim Reaper was halfway between the Skylark and the target jump point, moving at high velocity, accelerating toward deep space at 4G.

As the Grim Reaper passed, they radioed, “Drop your cargo!”

Our answer came back in the form of all four beam lasers.

Fig said, “Take that, pirate scum!”. Never mind that once upon a time WE WERE pirate scum too...

Taunting the pirates was ineffective but enjoyable.

Sam put up the hologram of an Imperial Naval ship and Kip tells them, “Look at what you’re shooting at”. It didn’t help since we were still out of visual range.

Medicus confirmed all lasers hit; he was detecting vaporized hull and what looks like a sensor hit, they are apparently unarmored. The Grim Reaper was attempting to get a target lock on the Skylark and it abruptly cut off.

The Grim Reaper returned fire and missed the evading Skylark. Yep, probably a sensor hit, judging by the wild shooting.

By this time the Voidskipper has reached the 50-diameter line, flipped and started decelerating. The Navy ships passed her and continued accelerating toward the Grim Reaper.

Fig continued to fire the lasers and launched sand in case they got lucky. “If they hit, the pirate could do major damage with its two triple lasers.”

Fig hit again and and says, “Correction. That is one triple laser.” Medicus could see debris scattering on the sensors; it looked like a cargo hold hit.

Fig says over the open channel, “New plan. You drop your cargo!”

The Grim Reaper adjusted course; they were running for the gas giant. Unless they take a drive hit, they can stay ahead of the Navy indefinitely. They have been outside the 100-diameter limit since we arrived, why haven’t they jumped already?

“Maybe they can’t due to damage.”

Medicus spots another salvo of six incoming missiles and we evade them while Fig shoots three of them down.

The Grim Reaper jumps out. Looks like they could jump after all.

Fig says, “Lucky pirate filth, coulda kilt yew there!”

The Navy started getting into range. The Antelope takes a shot at the last three missiles, but misses. The Khteioiyw shoots and takes them out. Between the Skylark and the Navy all the missiles were now gone.

We thank the Navy and send them our sensors logs on the pirate ship showing the damage done.

Fig says, “Too bad we didn't get in system first, could have nailed that pirate.”

We continued in to Berengaria, with all the reasons we would ever need to talk with the crew of the Voidskipper.

When we got to the main world, the Navy wanted to debrief both ship crews. The Imperial Navy rep said that it was audacious for a pirate to ride the comet through the inner system. The Navy had ships doing exercises near the comet earlier and didn’t detect them.

Berengaria is an agricultural world with a population of just over 3 million. It serves as a breadbasket for the local region, supplying the Imperial Navy’s bases with food. The system itself has a small naval base which can handle vessels of up to cruiser size but is normally home only to small escorts and patrol craft. Larger vessels are mostly based at Pax Rulin’s much larger base, and stage through Berengaria when undertaking missions outside the Imperial borders.

Both the Skylark and Voidskiper got inspected before hitting port. We were approached by a cutter with a single fighter acting as an escort.

Our inspectors were a young ensign, Frida Tiggs, and older chief petty officer, Benson Emlerdi. There were also two personnel standing by the airlock door with submachine guns. They were not introduced.

Ensign Tiggs was extremely courteous and respectful, phrasing what could be delivered as commands as polite requests. She looked over the bridge and checked our cargo manifest.

She asked “What is the ship’s mission and destination?”

Sam said, “Making profits, Spinward”.

She frowned at that, and asked “Which foreign powers will be visited?”

Sam replied, “Anyone with profit.”

She made some notes on her data pad and had no more questions.

The CPO checked the cargo hold and verified that it matched the manifest.

We were carrying Gold, Ruthenium, Industrial Isotopes, Rhenium, Deckplate and Tools, all just industrial stuff.

We docked at Berengaria High which was modern and well run. It was fairly large for being in orbit around a backwater agricultural world.

Once docked and settled in, we headed out for a much-needed adult beverage and some wind down time.

We found that some bars are picky about serving only navy or scouts. Given the inter-service rivalry that sometimes develops, it was probably a good idea.

We don’t have to pretend not to know the Voidskipper’s crew – as we both had a very visible encounter together, we can meet up in public as new-found friends.

Medicus and Kipenzi met with Erek and Marianne at “The Spacer’s Rest”. Fig and Leon stayed with the ship.

Sam headed towards the brokerage district to sell our cargo and buy something that will sell on Bantral, remembering that he needed to buy enough to fill the Voidskipper’s cargo hold as well.

Before he left, he had a long conversation with Erek, detailing his contacts and other information about the Berengaria market.

Back at the bar, Erek told us how he was disgusted by standard ship fare and how he prefers to bring fresh food along. “Many of the best brands are manufactured on Berengaria, but good trash is still trash.”

The Spacer's Rest was a friendly place and Erek said that the Amuar’s crew went there a lot.

He chats up the bartender and locals, but no one there at the time remembers the Amuar, it would have been just another ship to them.

Later we checked the port records and it confirmed that the Amuar came here on 162-1108 and left for Bantral; they bought normal supplies, mostly food.

We thought about the possibility of foul play involved with company rivals, but found no evidence of any.

By mid-week, Sam reported that we made a 1.5 MCr profit on the cargo we brought from Pax Rulin.

We spent about a week on planet, talked to a lot of people, and pretty much got nothing to show for it. No one noticed anything abnormal, no troubles and no suspects. Berengaria was pretty much a box to check off en route to the real search for the Amuar and whatever caused the its disappearance.

Continued in The Last Flight of the Amuar - Part 3.

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.