The Last Flight of the Amuar - Part 4

The Crew makes friends by rescuing a failing space station and then get some clues when they meet with a former crew member of the Amuar.

This chapter is based on Carl and Kay’s notes from our August 2nd, 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 made the model for the illustration in Sketchup and rendered it using Twilight Render.

Continued from: The Last Flight of the Amuar - Part 3.

Location: Gollere in the Egyrn Subsector

Imperial Date: 076-1109

On Gollere, wondering, “What are the Gollerians hiding?”

Port authorities were busy with something they didn't want to talk about.

Kipenzi planted a bug in the port area to see if we could get a clue as to what they were up to.

Medicus and Sam met with local brokers to sell our cargo. They seemed mostly interested in the medical equipment and supplies that we brought.

1600
Many hours later we learned that their space station (in low orbit) has a problem. It is a small research station about the size of the Skylark. We had noticed that it seemed to be in a lower than normal orbit when we approached. We found that they had launched a repair package and it was giving them trouble.

They considered asking us for help but weren't sure they could afford it.

Power problems, perhaps more. Skylark and Voidskipper could easily move the station back into proper orbit. We spoke with Erek about it and decided we would talk to the port and see if they need help with the station. "We noticed it seemed a little low as we came in".

After helping out, we planned to ask about the Baraccai Technum and and tell them that we are in search of the Amuar.

The starport officials were glad to accept our help once they learned that we were not going to ask for an exorbitant fee.

They gave us information on the station, and after checking the numbers, we find that the station is fragile, and could not be pulled back up into a higher orbit without us doing serious structural damage to it. What might help is our computers and sensors calculating the needed force vectors for the booster they sent up. The computers on our ships are far more powerful than anything they have, especially the Skylark’s. Our military grade sensors should be able to detect any problems well before the Gollerians.

We could calculate and monitor, and keep them fully in the loop.

They also had an experimental fusion reactor that failed, shorting out some of the electrical systems. Perhaps we could go onboard and help fix it.

The station can support six crew members, currently three were on at this time.

They gave us the protocols for contacting and data exchange with their systems.

Sam does a complete computer check before giving them access to our computing power. When someone told him that nothing on their low-tech systems could possibly infect our computer, he explained that just because they are low-tech, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they were not carrying a high-tech hazard left behind by a visitor.

Kipenzi, Leon and Ueinsadz work through the night planning with the Gollerians and get back to the ship in the early morning.

077-1109 1200
Prepared and rested, our away team was ready to approach the station. Skylark and Voidskipper were both station-keeping off at a safe distance, but in range to help if needed.

Sam had stayed groundside with the air/raft in case a rescue was needed (rescue us that is).

Except for Leon, who stayed outside to check the booster couplings, our team cycled through the small airlock and onto the station.

We found the inside of the station disgusting, there was moisture and mold everywhere. The crew had been living in near-freezing conditions for a while and were bundled up to keep warm. They hadn’t had a hot meal in over a month.

Ueinsadz is amazed at the sight, and says, “This place is like a museum”. He is both horrified and fascinated by the place.

We met with the crew, Professor Elian Uurra, Dr. Seshush Shireriimi and Colonel Kukuk Dugas.

Kipenzi examined the reactor to see what she could do for repairs. One big OOPS !!! Kipenzi must have sneezed, or something, when she started working on the reactor. Major parts will be needed for the fix now. Plan B --> use the booster for repositioning the station into a more sustainable orbit.

They still have the solar panels, but problems with their electrical system prevent them from drawing full power.

Ueinsadz suggested running power cable to the station from the Voidskipper to charge up their depleted batteries.

Leon and Colonel Dugas guide the booster in and help dock it with the station. Structurally and from a connection view, all was set up as well as it could be.

We broke for the evening meal.

At first Professor Uurra and Dr. Shireriimi were a bit shaky on their feet after being in zero-g for so long but soon adapted to gravity again. They also took advantage of our offer to get a hot shower.

Erek had come over to the Skylark earlier with fresh food and prepared and excellent meal for our Gollerian guests. The Colonel had insisted in staying on the station, not wanting it to be left uncrewed.

After dinner they set off the booster and put the station in a stable orbit with no problems as the Skylark and Voidskipper paced the station from a safe distance. Our sensor data on the station’s structure under stress should be valuable to their engineers monitoring below.

1900
Ueinsadz successfully strung a cable from the Voidskipper to the station and we immediately started having trouble connecting it to the station power system. We had to move slow since any mistake would fry the stations power system. The Gollerians did not use imperial standard power protocols and we needed to create some adapters.

Fig went over to try and help with the electronics, but had trouble as well.

078-1109 0300
By 0300 we were still flailing. Sam took a look remotely but was no more successful.

0700
The Colonel came over and joined us for breakfast and got some hot food for a change.

The power is up to 50% on the solar panels but a power load from unknown sources are draining it, so Kipenzi used our sensors to check for power drains.

Later, we got the power up to 70% and got the fans and heaters running, with some left over for recharging the batteries.

We turned our engineering bot loose with a shop-vac to clean up the moisture and mold.

We took the Skylark back down to the starport to pick up more supplies.

While we were below we discovered that they were not totally helpless here. While they could not take on the Imperial Navy, they have missiles that could easily shoot down a starship if needed.

0930
Back up to the station with fresh batteries and other equipment. We took a break while the crew installed the new batteries and stowed the spares that we brought up.

They got the station up to a better power situation than when we arrived, if still absent the reactor.

2000
Power at the station was holding at about 70%. We were ready to try the cable hookup again.

Ueinsadz tries again to hook up cable, still no success.

2300
Fig tries and succeeds, which was good since we were starting to run low on unfried circuit breakers.

The station was now at full power and charging the batteries, it would take 24 hrs to fully charge using the power from the Voidskipper. There was still work to do on the solar power system, but we were getting there.

079-1109
By late night the power situation was pretty well set up. Too bad about the reactor...

We went over to the Voidskipper where Erek had prepared a dinner for the astronauts. Kevin said that he had been on a lot of small ships where the crew filled multiple roles. He has been on ships where the captain is also the pilot and on ships where the captain is also the engineer, but this is the first ship he has been on where the captain is also the steward. It was a good thing since Erek is such a great cook.

Meanwhile back on the ground, Sam had sold the cargo and made a 3 million credit profit. The medical equipment provided the bulk of the profit and more than made up for what he lost on the wasabi. It turns out that they grow their own wasabi here.

2300
The batteries are up to full power, and the solar panels are at 90%, which allows them to run most of their equipment.

The reactor was not necessary to the functioning of the station, but rather an experimental part of the research, so things were pretty good. We offered our analysis abilities to see what the problems might have been.

We analyzed the reactor problem. While we all had a good idea of what it was, Leon absolutely nailed the issue. Unfortunately the parts needed are not available. They would take weeks to manufacture the parts.

We offer to deliver the parts on our way out of the system. It was welcome news to ground control, they had expected to have to replace the whole reactor.

Ueinsadz de-cabled the Voidskipper and we headed back.

080-1109
They throw us a banquet and give us plaques.

At the party afterwards, we had occasion to bring our questions about the Amuar.

Amuar had called at Gollere, and gouged the locals even worse than the Belgardians, trading a few pieces of equipment and some components fabricated in the ship’s workshops for a large quantity of mid-tech firearms and agricultural produce. Her captain was extremely arrogant and rude, and openly contemptuous of the locals’ space program. He also had a blazing row with another official from Amuar. From the description, this sounds like the mission director, but it might have been one of the ship’s other senior officers.

Arguments are not uncommon, Erek knows, but having one in front of clients is bad form, suggesting that Amuar was indeed not a happy ship at all. Erek knew the Amuar’s Captain when he was still an XO, he’s competent, he was fine as XO but would not be good as the Captain of large ship, he had no diplomatic skills, very bad form.

We also learned that Gollere does not have good diplomatic relations with Belgard.

We confirmed that Belgard was the next destination of the Amuar when they left on 199-1108.

We looked up Belgard.

During the Imperial Civil war in 620, Admiral Argon Kevin Beauregard left the Imperium, with his faction after the Battle of Sulgami and disappeared. He took his fleet with him; one dreadnought, four battleships and a siege engine as well as a handful of non-capital ships.

The war and the reign of the Barracks Emperors ended in 622 when Grand Admiral Arbellatra took out Emperor Augustus and declared herself Regent instead of crowning herself Empress. There was a half-hearted effort to find the missing fleet afterwards, but they soon gave up.

In 1008 the Imperial Scout service discovered a small pocket empire in the Trojan Reach, the Belgardian Sojournate, and much to their surprise, it consisted of the descendants of Admiral Beauregard’s crew.

They are mostly isolationist and do not have a good relationship with the Third Imperium even today, although the political fight that resulted in their exile was resolved nearly 500 years ago.

The original Amuar plan was to go to Belgard and try to find new trade routes and contacts. (Big arguments in front of potential customers is probably not a winning strategy.)

086-1109
With the reactor parts ready to deliver, Erek’s larder restocked, and the cargo bays of both ships full, we were ready to head off. Next stop: Belgard.

2359
After having dropped off the spares at the station we jump out for Belgard.

While we were in jump, Sam did some math regarding the Amuar’s path. The Amuar can do jump 3.

Amuar had agricultural goods and weapons (that may or may not have been legal at their destination).

They left Gollere on 199-1108 and should have arrived in Belgard on 206 or 207 - unless they did a side trip to drop off the weapons somewhere hinkey, then they would have arrived later.

093-1109 2315
The Skylark arrives in the Belgard system where we found TWO Type-A ships waiting for us, the Voidskipper and a Belgardian Navy ship, Lancer.

The Lancer was not in good condition, there were hull plates missing and signs of damage incompletely repaired. We got confirmation from the starport that they really were a Belgardian Navy ship and not some freelancer as they were moving into range.

Voidskipper had already been inspected, having arrived nine hours earlier.

They did not seem really well trained as inspectors and a bit paranoid. It was an aimless and pro forma inspection, and eventually we were allowed to go.

The inspection took about an hour and it took just under six hours to get to the main world.

As we approached the world, we got a look at Belgard High, the main station. It was the carcasses of two old far traders and a bunch of cargo containers all welded together. On inquiry we found that they have a weekly shuttle down to the capital.

Sam wanted to head for the down port, since there was probably not much trading going on at the high port.

Belgard Down was on the edge of the capital, which is the only major settlement on the planet. It shared its field with Belgard’s main naval base.

094-1109 0600
Down on Belgard.

Belgard’s atmosphere is breathable but tainted, with dust particles creating a constant irritant effect. The world is mostly badlands and desert, with small bodies of water here and there. It was plain to see why the Scout Service tagged Belgard as a Hellworld.

With a little magnification we could see right into the naval base. It was run down with a ship on the flight line half torn apart and a row of fighters standing ready. They looked like they had seven hangers, at least three of them would hold the Amuar easily.

Fig said, “Pretty skanky place, overall.”

We order our usual 44 tons of unrefined fuel and Fig and Leon hook up the hoses and start the pumps.

Sam and Medicus go looking for brokers. They go to the dockmaster’s office, the staff there treated them with guarded politeness, but were glad to see someone with cargo. Our people got the impression that they didn’t get a lot of traffic here.

They said that the Amuar did not file a flight plan, but they thought they went to Eleson after leaving Belgard.

After leaving the dockmaster’s office with the directions they needed, they are suddenly confronted by a party of four. Two are obviously flunkies and have very plain versions of the uniform worn by the third. The fourth wore a sober but fashionable three-piece business suit of a sort currently favored in the Imperium, with a pin bearing the emblem of McClellan Factors.

Sam recognized the man in the suit as Ian Kuuasami, mission commander of the Amuar. Things were getting interesting.

Ian Kuuasami identified himself with the title of Imperial Trade Delegate to the Belgardian Sojournate. He introduced Commander Alicia Forster of the Belgardian navy, and led the way to a suite of conference rooms. Sam knows that there is no official title of Imperial Trade Delegate, but keeps it to himself. Kuuasarmi has clearly insinuated himself into a position of influence by claiming to represent the whole Imperium rather than just McClellan Factors.

A meal had been prepared for our brokers and their hosts. Although a hurried affair, the Belgardians have done a reasonable job, with cold cooked meats, cheeses and fruit accompanied by an odd-tasting but surprisingly good bread.

Kipenzi, monitoring the button cams from the bridge of the Skylark, sends the feed to Erek. Erek recalls the last time he came through Belgard, and realizes Kuuasarmi has implemented a more effective business attitude here. The xenophobic locals previously made no effort to make visitors feel welcome and thus to grease the wheels of commerce.

Erek never served with Kuuasarmi but they do know some people in common, including former comrades still aboard Amuar when Kuuasarmi joined her.

Kuuasarmi is concerned about his old friends, who were supposed to come back through Belgard before heading home. There has been nothing he could do until now, and happy to cooperate in helping in any way he can. He told them that the Amuar arrived here on 206 and left on 213.

This confirmed the dates that Sam had got from the dockmaster earlier. No intermediate stops.

Commander Forster asks a few questions of Sam and Medicus. These mainly concerned the Skylark, what cargo it carried, and conditions on neighboring worlds. She was rather obviously (and clumsily) trying to gather intelligence.

Amuar set up the trade delegation and left them behind, with Kuuasarmi and a half dozen people. He has been setting up deals. (Kipenzi was of the opinion that the Captain had probably chosen the crew members he wanted to get rid of to man the delegation, but kept it to herself in front of them.)

Kuuasarmi is extremely keen to strike a deal with the Skylark that brings something useful into Belgard’s tiny economy.

Kuuasarmi wants the Travellers to sell him (and thus the Belgardians) whatever they have that might be useful at a price favorable to him. He is basically asking a favor here, and hoping that Sam will be willing to take a loss on the trade or exchange something they cannot immediately sell in barter. This is in the interests of the Imperium and McClellan Factors, since it will help create a friendly market in the Outrim Void. The Belgardian economy is small but could grow, and even just having Belgard’s worlds as friendly ports will be of benefit.

He also has another scheme to shift attitude of Belgardians to outsiders a little, he has researched the Ganulph disaster. The Belgardians have an aversion to Ganulph, partially due to its bad reputation and partly because it had an Imperial cruiser in orbit above the main world for some time. The system is still officially off limits to all non-Imperial Navy vessels, and the habit of avoiding contact is deeply ingrained in the Belgardians.

The Travellers could go to Ganulph and assess the situation. There is probably no Imperial presence there now – there is no real need to maintain one – and the Travellers’ ships could innocently skim fuel at the gas giant before moving on; only the main world is interdicted, after all. If there is no navy presence, there may be something salvageable on the surface. Ganulph had a TL5 society at the time of disaster, so even though the munitions base will be gone there may be salvageable items in distant communities. These could be sold on mid-tech worlds, and of course there is the possibility that some remnants of Imperial presence could be found. The chances of being caught are very slim, and there is a profit to be made here, it would help the Belgardians to know that cruiser is gone.

Kuuasarmi suggested that the Travellers visit Ganulph en route to Eleson, then make a jump-2 transit via 985-373, Velscur, Pa’an and Hadara to Odin which was where the Amuar was headed.

Kuuasarmi doesn’t realize that both the Skylark and Voidskipper can do Jump 3 and don’t need to take a route like that.

After Odin, Captain Bryant’s plan was to head down to Dpres, Kuuasarmi advised against it, being notorious pirate territory, but the captain would have none of it. Chances are Amuar met her final fate somewhere in that region, though Kuuasarmi has always harbored a faint hope that she might have returned home the long way round by way of the Sindalian Main.

Sam is non-committal, and invites him to dinner and goes to the other brokers to see what our cargo is worth to the locals.

The Sindalian Main is notorious PIRATE territory. Amuar was well armed and they may have felt safe.

Evening
We hit the bars. The Voidskippers were invited to come with us. Ueinesadz, and Francisca joined Kipenzi, Medicus and Fig. The place we visited, the Shiny Comet, was a dive.

In addition to the planetary dust, the atmosphere contains a lot of industrial pollution, so Kipenzi bought bottled imports, being less likely to be poisoned by pollution. They like Imperial credits, so the bottles were not as expensive as they might have been.

The bar patrons hadn’t seen a Vargr before and Winesadz struck up some friendships. He learned that that there was a rumor of a trade ship bringing in a smashed up small craft of advanced design, maybe a 20-Ton launch, from Odin some months ago. It was damaged and looked like it might have gone down in a swamp. It was probably still in one of the hangers at the starport.

On the way back to the Skylark, Fig says, “Do I see midnight madness on the horizon?”

Continued in The Last Flight of the Amuar - Part 5

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.