The Last Flight of the Amuar - Part 3

 

The Crew continues their search for the missing merchant cruiser and has dinner with an ambassador before visiting a planet mostly populated by cannibals.

This chapter is based on Carl and Kay‘s notes from our July 5th, 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.

Continued from: The Last Flight of the Amuar - Part 2.

Location: Berengaria in the Pax Rulin Subsector

Imperial Date: 043-1109

Having done all the talking and looking around that we could, we are ready to go to Bantral now that cargo is loaded and both ships are ready.

For the time being we are going to keep on with the story of the Skylark and Voidskipper 'not knowing' each other.

050-1109 0200
Out of jump in the Bantral system.

We arrived before the Voidskipper this time. It was about 4 hours transit to Bantral at 3G, and we headed in to the high port. It is unusual for a C-Class port to have both an orbital and ground component. Mostly C-Class ports are just “down” ports.

Voidskipper popped into the system at about 0630 as we were preparing to dock.

The ships that dock at Bantral are mainly just big Baraccai Technum freighters. The port seemed happy to see two independent traders arrive in the same week.

0930
The Voidskipper docked three hours after us. We start filling the tanks with unrefined fuel and Medicus wakes up the low passengers.

Baraccai Technum (BT) runs most of the station and they operate 24/7.

Sam publicly offered broker service to the Voidskipper and they accepted. This would cover any communications that we have between the two ships as well as explain his buying cargoes for both ships.

Later that afternoon Kipenzi talks with the rest of the crew about the possibility of breaking into the BT corporate database. Emails, interagency memos, or some such might shed some light on our search if BT is involved with the missing Amuar. There should be some opertunity to break in at both high and low ports Not our first choice but it was on the table. We kept it in-house for now. We know it would NOT be easy, and surely fraught with risk.

First things will be barhopping and talking to the locals.

Erek recommended Phil's Place, so Kipenzi, Medicus and Fig went off to check it out. There were a number of BT people there, so we got a chance to interact with them. Never know who will have heard a rumor and be happy to share it for beer.

We found that the BT folks don't much like McClellan Factors, griping about playing dirty (hiring mercenaries, attacking ships, etc) though more often it is just cutthroat competition, especially in District 268 - where McClellan completely shut them out.

We met someone who actually remembered the Amuar. Some of the crew got in trouble portside, and the ship was not a happy one. The captain was very unpopular with the crew. She had the impression that the problem had only recently been present. That is, on the last journey that the Amuar made. “Couldn’t have been all that bad, since none of the crew stayed behind.”

The crew that got in trouble (fighting) were all spacers, no officers.

Amuar had come through a few times over the past years, though not often.

Kipenzi asked the bartender about what he thought about McClellan and BT and he said that both companies can play rough, especially outside the Imperium – good to know about both.

Learning that McClellan and BT are at odds a lot made us a little more cautious thinking about our dealings with the Voidskipper. While Erek is officially retired from McClellan, he still has his loyalties to the company.

Asking if we could learn whether or not a specific friend had passed through here, we would probably need to justify it. Probably take a couple days.

Down at the brokers, Sam learned that the Amuar loaded up with agricultural goods and headed out for Vior on 176-1108. That is more than we knew before.

051-1109 Morning

Medicus and Kipenzi went to Station Admin to see if claiming 'contact tracing' on the Amuar crew could help learn if any of them had been through here since the ship last officially came through.

Medicus learned that someone had minor injuries from a fight when they came through on the way out, but none of them ever passed this way after that.

Even no information is information of a sort.

Sam had learned stuff from the brokers too, and shared that with us. Loading food made sense.

He also learned a bit about our next stop, Vior. It may have the remains of what the Scout Service believes is a lost Vilani colony from the Second Imperium period. They are isolationist folks, discovered by BT while they were doing mineral surveys in 1105. They speak a variant of Vilani, with no Solomani words at all, unlike modern Vilani, which has a lot of them.

The settlement on Vior was discovered by the Leviathan, which is the same class as the Amuar and was built at the same shipyard in the Glisten system.

We sent an encrypted message to Voidskipper with what data we had found. They had not learned anything of substance.

Early afternoon, Sam got a message from the Imperial Ambassador. Invitation to dinner, of all outlandish things. Ulain Deveraux, Imperial ambassador, and also the Factor for the BT company on Bantral had invited him to dinner.

According to his biography, Deveraux worked his way up the ranks, starting as a broker then as a brokers’ broker. He represents the BT company on planet, he is well connected and negotiated his connections into an Ambassadorship.

He has a palatial estate outside the capital city not far from Bantral Down, the starport’s ground component.

We got a message from Voidskipper that Erek had also been invited. The dinner was on 052-1109 at 1500 on Deveraux’s estate, at the “West Plaza Gazebo”.

Kipenzi went as the plus one. Leon advised on wardrobe, which included the button cams and ear comms.

052-1109
Dressed for the occasion, Kipenzi and Sam took a scheduled shuttle down and then hired a taxi to take them the rest of the way.

Marianne, with Erek, was wearing an Imperial Marine dress uniform with no badges or insignia. It looked really good on her. When Fig saw her through Sam’s button cam, he said, “WOWZA !!”

Our “away team” was soon out of range and went to record-only mode on the button cams.

People at the shindig were all trade group or union head types. Plus a bartender.

• Benedict Riddell Zenith Domain
• Ulain Deveraux Imperial Ambassador, BT Factor
• Adofo Serahuli Allied Guilds
• Dorothy Devereux Head of the City Union, Benedict's Sister.
• Dmitri Devonald Keystone Group
• Mirii Darby Universal Trading
• Newton Jadin Bartender

The dinner was excellent and a good time was had by all. Erek was the main target for information getting, seemed like he and Deveraux might have known each other a while. Battle of wits with bland answers all around.

Looked to Kipenzi and Sam that the comm between us and the Voidskipper were not so secret after all, and that he knew we had tried to get information on the Amuar. Mostly he focused on Erek, but Sam was not completely left out.

After a while, Deveraux said that the Amuar passed through but did not return this way. Confirmed the unhappy ship status, with an unpopular captain. Erek told him that his nephew was on the ship, and that is why he was here.

Erek told Deveraux that he knew he had files on everyone who worked for McClellan and asked if he would look up his nephew.

Deveraux pulled out a datapad and a few seconds later he had the file and showed it to Erek. There was virtually nothing in it; a junior steward from a McClellan Factors ship came ashore and had some leave. He did not get into trouble and returned to his ship. There was nothing more.

The conversation turned to trade and Kipenzi asked about Vior trading and one of the reps from Universal Trading replied that there was nothing to buy or sell there. “There are some scientists, scout service anthropologists studying the colony and the privately run starport with minimal services. That’s it.”

Vior might eventually be a good hub between Bantral, The Belgardian Sojurnate and T’yana, but right now trade from here goes toward the Imperium not in the other direction. Part of the problem is the strict protectionist trade policies on T’yana.

After the party the crew discussed the button cam video and next steps.

Kipenzi said, “Deveraux figures we’re working for Erek and doesn’t give us much thought.”

Someone pointed out that Marianne doesn’t drink alcohol at all.

“She’s always on duty”, says Kipenzi.

Deveraux was very well informed and connected but not hostile to us.

“Or at least he gave us that impression.”

Erek recommended not planning to trade on Vior but wanted to stop at Vior anyway and see where Amuar went from there, but other than that a gas and go was the order of the day for Vior.

We discussed optimal travel times and settled on heading for Vior’s gas giant first, traveling to the world, doing some quick investigations and then heading back out to the jump point for Belgard. We would refine our fuel mostly while traveling between the gas giant and the main world.

057-1109
Jumping for the gas giant in the Vior system.

063-1109 2245
The Skylark came out of jump 100 diameters out from the gas giant. The Voidskipper had arrived half an hour earlier and was waiting for us.

064-1109 1045
Both ships arrive in low orbit around the gas giant, which didn’t have a name, just a numerical designation.

As we were coming in, we passed the Dinomn Messenger, a 100-Ton Scout ship which had just refueled and was heading out toward the jump point. We hailed them and they were friendly and surprised to see us. They had no news on the war, we updated them on what we knew. They were heading back toward the Imperium from Belgard. We asked about the Amuar, but they only knew that it was reported missing.

We planned to have one ship doing high guard while the other refueled, swapping positions once the other ship had scooped up enough gas.

The Voidskipper refueled first, while we kept sensor watch. Francesca spent eight hours, but wasn’t able to scoop a full load. It turns out that this was her first gas giant refueling and she was having trouble. Sam transferred over and completed the load, show Francesca some tricks as it went.

Skylark went next with Medicus on the pilot console while the Voidskipper kept watch and started processing their gas into fuel.

065-1109 0945
Finally headed into Vior together, we started processing our fuel on the two-day journey to the inner system.

067-1109
Landed on Vior. The plan was to stay 12 hours and check the place out as our fuel was refined before heading back out.

It was a good thing we scooped our own fuel; it turns out that the port was out. They usually had unrefined fuel, but they were still waiting for their next delivery.

We checked out the star port lounge, there was not much there. We were advised not to visit the underground city, it was dangerous and off limits.

Port records confirm that Amuar was here, filed a flight plan for Gollere en route to Belgard.

The port receives the occasional ship but this is a very isolated outpost on top of a cave full of possible cannibals – it is not a popular place to live or work. The most frequent visitors to the port are trade ships making the long haul across the Outrim Void and navy vessels – typically obsolescent destroyers assigned to frontier patrol – out of the Berengaria naval base.

068-1109 0615
Departed Vior and both ships jump out at about 1030.

075-1109 0945
Skylark arrives in the Gollere system, Voidskipper was already at port. As we approached, we were put into a holding pattern, and got to watch a chemical rocket blast off. Once the rocket was clear of the base, we were given clearance to land.

1345
We arrive on planet and parked at the starport.

Gollere’s population of around seventy million are spread out all over the globe, but population density is significantly higher around the original colonial hub. Here, Gollere’s Class D starport and rocket base are collocated with what passes for a capital. In practice, there is little centralization of power; clans have their bases wherever their people live.

We find Gollere’s starport to be run in a rather amateurish way. Starships are rare, so most of the time the port serves as research center and launch site for missions to their space station.

Sam found that while suspicious of outsiders, the traders were glad to see him and his cargo.

Until recently, the only offworld contact Gollere had was with Belgard, and this was intermittent at best. Typically, Belgardian ships would trade machinery and technical components for large quantities of agricultural goods. If someone offered a better deal – trade ships out of Imperial space for example – then Gollere would be an enthusiastic trade partner. The problem at present is that the world has little to offer except agricultural goods.

The clans of Gollere are keen to trade, and present offworlders with a wish-list of items they want to buy. Some of these might be aboard a passing ship; most are valuable on Gollere but not so much elsewhere and thus unlikely to be carried as speculative cargo. The trade delegates hope that if they make their requirements known to passing ships, eventually someone will come into their port carrying everything they need. Whilst a little over-optimistic, this approach costs nothing and might someday pay dividends.

In the meantime delegates are keen to trade for whatever they can get, high tech industrial stuff mostly.

Erek is keen to get out as soon as possible, partly to seek information and partly because Gollere’s starport might have fresh vegetables for sale. His near-pathological hatred of starship rations has become a running joke, but he is passionate about getting decent ingredients.

While we were fueling up, we find that the starport staff is a little distracted.

076-1109 0800
The port staff seemed to be busy with something they were keeping quiet. Initially trying to get a clue met with rebuffs.

We started wondering, “What are they hiding?”

Continued in: The Last Flight of the Amuar - Part 4.

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.