The Last Flight of the Amuar - Part 10

In our 100^th Session, the crew of the Skylark finishes searching the wreck of the Amuar and heads back to Imperial Space to find that the Fifth Frontier War is not going well for the Imperium.

This entry is from our March 14^th, 2021 session and is based on Carl and Kay’s notes.

Continued from TheLast Flight of the Amuar – Part 9.

Location: The Pa’an system in Egyrn Subsector, Trojan Reach Sector.

Date: 130-1109

0500
Local Sunset. High Tide.

Back on the Skylark, plotting and planning our next trip back to the Amuar. The next trip should be our last and we will be exploring the lower decks that are under water when the tide is in. We should have about a four hour window, starting about 2200 tonight.

1600
After taking a rest, we headed back to the Amuar area. It was four hours after local sunset, half of G-Deck and all of H-Deck was still underwater. We spent the next two hours flying around and doing a scan of about a 16 km radius around the ship, looking for signs of humans or the Amuar Predators.

1800
We found a huge variety of amphibian creatures in the water and on the many islands of the estuary, but nothing that matched the profile of humans or the Amuar Predators. No signs of fire or construction of any kind either, or anything else that might point us toward crewmembers.

It takes about 2 hours for a deck to get emptied out, or at least pretty unsoggied, so we have plenty of time to get ready before going back inside the Amuar.

1900
Back on the Amuar, we were ready to start looking again. A quick hop up to check A deck to make sure nothing has snuck up to be behind us. Sam's probe was really helpful for that.

With the probe doing initial recon, we moved down and cleared as we went. Also checked for any skulls or interesting tidbits that we had missed earlier.

We found more human remains on E deck, and recovered them as we went along. Five in the main jump drive area.

We also bagged up a shotgun and the axe that was part of a trap that hit Medicus the day before.

We also noted the body behind the wielded-shut door in lower astrogation and decided to get that one last.

When we got to F-Deck, we found the 40-Ton pinnace in the port ship’s boat bay.  The bay on the other side normally held the shuttle, which had been shot down after it had been launched by desperate crewmembers.  The boat bays are two decks tall and fill the forward half of F and G Decks. There was still about 40 cm of water covering the floor and flowing out of the open door on the pinnace.

There were signs that someone had been living in the pinnace, probably two someones. There were also small creatures swimming in the water. Kipenzi used her scanner rather than sticking her head in the water to look at them. They looked like rats with fins.

Moving back up to the upper level, we went aft and found more remains, including a Vargr skull. That left five more sophonts to still account for.

Checking compartments, we found storage rooms containing survival and exploration gear and another empty rifle lying on the deck.

There were more remains in the fresher. Medicus picked up the skull and other bones and put them in a bag, tagging them with the location found.

The main hatch to engineering was welded shut and there was a metal plate welded over the open iris valve.

Kipenzi used her x-ray scanner on the wall and could see a predator pacing back and forth on the other side – it was the one Kipenzi has slammed the hatch in front of when it had leapt at her the day before and looked like it was still trying to figure out how to get out. She also spotted an arm bone lying on the deck in front of the backup maneuver drive.

She took aim with her gauss pistol through a gap on the edge of the metal plate and shot at the predator. She dropped it with a single shot.

We went up the elevator shaft to the level above and down the hatch to get around the welded hatches. Examining the dead predator, Medicus determined that it was female and was carrying seven mid-sized offspring in her pouches. He terminated them.

There was still a lot of water on G-deck, so we so took the time to transfer the cargo and survival gear out of the Amuar to the Skylark.  Then with the draining more complete, we continued searching G-deck.

The water had mostly drained out of the pinnace, so we closed the airlock doors so it wouldn’t flood again.

We could see a high-tide line on the walls and there were some sort of barnacles growing on the walls here and there. There was still 10-15 cm of water on the deck near the starboard bow, showing the ship was tilted slightly, but the waterlines on the wall indicated that the ship hadn’t settled any more unevenly since it had landed.

Sam, piloting the drone from the Skylark remarked, “It looks like plants in here”.

“That would be hydroponics”.

“All of the plants look like they are dead.”, he replied.

With G-deck cleared, there was nothing much to do until the rest of H-deck finished draining.

2200
With the water lower, we re-opened the iris valve to the Auxiliary Bridge on H-deck. We recovered Captain Bryant’s body, leaving his hat and the bloody wrench on the deck.

Opening the iris valve to the next compartment, we found an equipment store room and stairs leading down to an airlock.

The airlock led to a bay where launch #2 was normally docked. It still had a lot of water in it and not much else except the gantry.

There was a hatch in the floor that according to the deck plan, lead to “C” turret. When Fig opened it, it contained just mud and torn metal, the turret having been torn off in the crash.

131-1109 0001
Back up to E-deck to recover the body behind the welded door.

Kipenzi cut the door open and discovered a 2^nd body inside. While Medicus was bagging them up she checked the ceiling hatch to upper astrogation and no one was in there. At this point all of the crew has been accounted for. Clearing out the last of the predators was a definite plus, too.

0200
Back at the Skylark, checking the status on the fuel processing. It will take another day and a half before we will be ready to jump.

While we are waiting, Sam wanted to do another scan around the ship for escaped predators. While not as bad as the Chamax, they were bad enough. Creatures like that could seriously disrupt the world’s ecosystem if they get established.

Fortunately we didn’t find anything.

132-1109
Leaving Pa’an.

We have one launch with six survivors in cold sleep, six cargo containers containing crystals and weapons, and six tons of loose cargo, mostly survival equipment.

The Voidskipper has four more survivors, three in cold sleep.

Before we left, we sent a message to the Zhodani settlement on Pa’an, Zhdantspanon, telling them of the possibility of alien predators loose in the area.

Our mission is complete, we now just need to get back to Pax Rulin alive.



2359
Jump to 985-373 with the Voidskipper.

The world is red zoned, but there is no blockade.  We will land to get water for fuel and leave without approaching the formerly inhabited regions.

985-373 is a Terra-Prime world, with conditions almost exactly right for human habitation. There are clear indications that the world was once inhabited by a technological civilization; debris and an assortment of satellites in decaying orbits, and radioactive craters where cities once were. Some areas of the world are dangerous due to radioactive contamination, but levels have fallen in most places to a safe level. Remnants of smaller cities remain, but are not inhabited. It is not clear if the devastating conflict was internal or the world was bombed by some other power. It is possible there are survivors somewhere, but if so they have become accustomed to avoiding the cities.

139-1109   0200  
We came out of jump with Voidskipper getting there first, having arrived six hours earlier.

Once we got to the world, we found an uninhabited island with a rocky area near a shoreline that looked like it would support the weight of the ships.

Fig and Leon ran the hoses to the water and our refueling was uneventful, aside from having to reverse the pumps to clear the screens of the local creatures that were clogging them from time to time.

The weather was nice and the background radiation was only slightly elevated, but we kept our suits on anyway and lifted off once we had fuel.

We spent the next three days processing our fuel and timed our 10-hour trip to the jump point so that we would arrive as the processing was complete. With their larger fuel processor, the Voidskipper had finished a day earlier.

On the way out to the jump point we encountered a 100-Ton mining survey ship from the Florian League. We said “Hi”. They were not friendly or hostile, just kind of odd. The ship didn’t have a name, just a string of digits. The Florians are a separate human species who have an empire Spinward-Rimward of where we were.

142-1109
Jump for Eleson, we decided against going through Ganulph.

Eleson has an E-class port, which is basically a fused rock landing area and a navigational beacon. There is no fuel available at the port and the world is mostly covered with desert, but does have a number of lakes that we could refuel from.

149-1109 2245
Out of jump in the Eleson system. Voidskipper arrives two and a half hours later.

We find a suitable lake and landed, not contacting the Belgardian mining colony on the other side of the planet.

153-1109 0200
With fuel processing nearly complete, we headed for the jump point five hours away.

Soon after starting to accelerate away from the world, we were accosted by the 50-Ton cutter Hell-Born, who identified themselves as belonging to the Belgardian Navy and demanded that we stop accelerating and hold course.

They wanted to board to do a customs inspection. Sam was suspicious that they might be pirates impersonating the Belgardian Navy. The transponder checked out, but we know those things can be spoofed.  The weapon looked like a 15-mm autocannon; at close range it could damage the Skylark if it got in a lucky hit.

We told them they looked suspicious, they sent us their credentials and said, “We don't have to justify ourselves to anyone.”

Sam agreed to an inspection and they said that they would send over a three-person inspection team.

Still suspicious, and knowing a 50-ton cutter wouldn’t have a jump drive, he asked, “How did you get here?”

They responded that the cutter was carried onboard a cruiser.

They kept us waiting for five hours until their backup arrived. When it came into sensor range, their 200-ton “cruiser” turned out to be a Type-A, it looked like it was the same model as the Voidskipper.

As they arrived and matched course with us, we noticed that they had two triple-laser turrets pointed at us.

We were ready to fire if need arose, but did not point our turrets at them.

Sadly, we were NOWHERE near the jump point, having ceased acceleration at the initial encounter.

We suited up, and invited them to come aboard.

The inspection party boarded the Skylark, three of them as expected. They were armed, we were armed.

They asked what we are smuggling.  We said nothing, they searched, we told them our story of salvaging the Amuar and showed our contract.  Referred them to the Voidskipper and told them we were carrying cargo for McClellan Factors and Belgard was our next destination.

They took a lot of notes, on paper instead of datapads.  After about an hour they left and headed for the Voidskipper.  They searched the other ship and sent us on our way.

154-1109 0100
Along with the Voidskipper, we jumped for Belgard.

160-1109 2100
Out into the Belgard system. Voidskipper arrived four hours later.

As we accelerated toward Belgard, we radioed ahead to the trade delegation.

Ian Kuuasarmi was ecstatic about finding the ship and survivors, and was sad that most were dead. Notably, he had no kind words for Captain Bryant.

He was willing to pay a finder’s fee for the cargo, but didn’t want the launch full of crew in cold sleep. We would need to take that back to Pax Rulin.

We complained to the Belgardian Navy about their ship hassling us. They took our report without apologizing.

Over the next week, Sam bought cargo to fill the space used by what we had delivered to Kuusarmi.

167-1109 2400 
Jumping out for Gollere.

174-1109  0700
We arrived in the Gollere system, Voidskipper had been waiting near the jump point for the previous three hours and we went to Gollere together. Erek was happy to get some fresh food and to get away from the Belgardians, the rest of us were as well.

We sold our cargo and bought for Bantral rather than Vior, since there is only a Scout base there.

181-1109 
Jump for Vior.

188-1109 0045
We arrived in the Vior system and Voidskipper came out of hyperspace only 10 minutes later. This was record timing for us.

The next 17 hours were spent travelling to the gas giant.  We elected to hit the gas giant instead of the Scout base and scoop our own fuel.

The Voidskipper acted as high guard while Medicus dived in and looked for a hydrogen-rich layer.  Five hours later we had full tanks and started the refining process.

1800
With Ueinsadz piloting, the Voidskipper dived in while the Skylark kept watch.

Ueinsadz is really not a very good pilot. He seems to be able to do just about everything, but he is not really good at anything in particular.

His attempt to scoop fuel resulted in sensor damage to the Voidskipper and no fuel.

Afterwards, we thought it best to go to the starport and buy fuel and see if they had parts to repair the ship.

191-1109 1100
Parts for the sensors were not available at the port. Being a class D port, that was not unexpected. Ueinsadz and Kevin worked on the damaged sensor array with what they had and somehow managed to make it worse.  Sam came over and, using a couple of parts from Skylark’s stock, got the system back up and running, although it was not pretty.

1800
Both ships all fueled up and ready, Voidskipper with their larger fuel refiner, had already refined the fuel purchased at the starport.

2400
We jumped for Bantral.

198-1109 0700
Out of Jump in Bantral.

While we are waiting for the Voidskipper to arrive, we pick up the TNS newsfeed:

RHYLANOR/RHYLANOR (2716 A434934-F)	338-1108
¶ The TNS has just reported that Heya (Spinward Marches 2402) and Beck's World (Spinward Marches 2204) have fallen to Vargr forces. This information was obtained from an anonymous, highly-placed source. ¶ The Office of Naval Intelligence declined to comment and Army Vice-Marshal Adam Lord Bryor could not be reached. Ω

REGINA /REGINA (2314 A788899-A)

362-1108

¶ The office of Admiral Santanocheev announced to the press that Mirriam (Spinward Marches 1315) and Calit (Spinward Marches 1515) have fallen to overwhelming Zhodani forces. It was further announced that communications with the naval bases at Denotam (Spinward Marches 1413) and Frenzie (Spinward Marches 1116) have been cut off due to fighting in those systems. ¶ The officer reading the announcement declined to comment further, or to answer any questions on the progress of the war. Ω

 

REGINA/REGINA (2314 A788899-A)

021-1109

¶ In a recorded message to the press, the office of Admiral Lord Santanocheev announced that the Naval Base at Ghandi (Spinward Marches 1815) is under attack by Zhodani naval and ground forces, including several units of the elite Zhodani Consular Guard. The statement indicated that the garrison at Ghandi had recently been reinforced because of the Zhodani presence at Calit (Spinward Marches 1515). ¶ This announcement has fueled speculation that a major Zhodani push is underway, with Rhylanor as its most likely target. If Ghandi falls, it will be a major blow to the Imperial war effort, possibly a fatal one. Ω

 

The TNS report told us that the war was not going well six months ago. Hopefully by now the war has turned around in our favor.

While everyone was talking about the war and the implications of what was on the TNS newsfeed, Kipenzi looked out of the front window on the bridge and said, “Where is the planet?”

At 100 diameters, Bantral should show a visible disk, and it wasn’t there.

 

Continued in: The Last Flight of the Amuar – Conclusion.


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.