The Last Flight of the Amuar – Conclusion
The Crew of the Skylark winds down after their search for the Amuar, collects their reward, and travels back to the Spinward Marches.
This chapter is based on Carl and Kay‘s notes from our April 11, 2021 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 10.
Location: The Bantral system in Pax Rulin Subsector,
Trojan Reach Sector.
“Where’s the planet?” said Kipenzi, as she looked out of the bridge window.
That got our attention for sure.
Bantral should show a visible disk at this distance and there was nothing out there.
The news feed signal was weak, did we misjump?
It felt wrong, the usual nauseous feeling wasn’t there, this time.
The Voidskipper wasn’t there, but that was not unusual – timing exact jumps are rare for ships in a group.
Sam and Fig checked the astrogation numbers and they looked good.
Sam, on comm, finds the planet about 20 hours away. It is not where it is supposed to be.
Getting the starport time sync signal, we found that our clock was 6 days off. The day is 204 and ship time says 198. It drifts a little after jumps, but it is usually by seconds, a few minutes at most.
The starport had NOT seen hide nor hair of the Voidskipper either. The longest arrival time difference we had experienced was about 8 hours, so we decided to wait.
We began running ship diagnostics while we waited.
1130
About 4 hours later the Voidskipper arrived and we hailed them. Their
ship clock was about 20 seconds different from what ours had been.
Researching the logs, Kipenzi found that Belgard, where we had last synced our clock, was off by six days. Since then we had been doing wilderness refueling, mostly around gas giants that were large enough or that didn’t move fast enough for us to see a big change in position. We had not talked to any starports, so we didn’t notice until now, where we got an actual cross-check from a planet.
Either the Belgardians deliberately had their signal wrong, or accidentally, or the Zhodani did something, or some other reason. This was unprecedented.
205-1109 0730
Down on Bantral.
While on Bantral, the Voidskipper got their damaged
sensors fixed and Sam sold our cargo and purchased another load.
213-1109 2400
With loaded cargo we jumped out to Pax Rulin.
220-1109 2000
Jump into Pax Rulin. The Voidskipper had arrived 16 hours earlier. That
was our BIGGEST jump differential ever !!!
There is some news on the TNS feed:
|
⑆ INTHE/REGINA (2410 B575776-9) |
059-1109 |
|
|
|
In more news from the war. Jewell, at least 5 months ago, was still holding off the Zhodani war forces.
We were down on Pax Rulin about four hours later. Once parked, we napped until things opened up during business hours.
221-1109 0830
There is more activity than usual for a small spaceport, but basically the
spaceport IS the place where everything happens here, being a low population
world that is mostly desert.
They have refined fuel here, but we ordered unrefined since we would be here
for a while and can refine our own.
The naval base here only has small ships for pirate control, all of their
capital ships are up on the front fighting the Sword Worlds. The latest news
was that the Sword Worlds have been hitting Lunion Subsector, but not going
into Glisten or District 268.
We checked for an Oberlindes office, but they don’t operate this far rimward.
Checking in with McClellan Factors, they were impressed that
we not only found the Amuar, but rescued live people and recovered all
of the remains.
They paid nicely, plus a bonus for recovering the launch. It was in such good
shape that they planned to refurbish it and put it back into service. We now
have good relations with them. That may be worth something in the future.
The live crew members were OK, except for the ones that had gone feral after being assaulted by the Zhodani. They would require extensive psychological help, not available on Pax Rulin.
Over the next few days, we replaced our consumed life support packs, replaced Kipenzi’s damaged heavy vacc suit and Medicus lost EVA maneuver unit. Sam sold the cargo he bought at Bantral and picked up something to sell at our next stop.
We discussed “Where to go next?”
We talked about following the X-Boat route back toward home, to get some
updated information. Trading options would be a major consideration for the
specific route, but getting a better idea of what is/was going on sounded good.
We decided to head toward Glisten.
227-1109
Marianne and Winesatz were getting along again but happy to be getting out
of each other’s hair, we held a celebratory party for all of the Voidskipper
crew before saying goodbye.
228-1109 1600
With the cargo bay full, we headed for Cyan.
2400
Jump for Cyan.
236-1109 0021
Out of jump into the Cyan System.
On the way to Cyan, we passed the 300-ton Deneb class merchant Centaur. We said “Hi” to each other. They were outbound for Doradon.
We find some news on the TNS feed:
|
⑆ RHYLANOR/RHYLANOR(2716 A434934-F) |
128-1109 |
|
¶ No further details are available at this time. Ω |
|
This was not far from our outing to the Haunting Thunder. Memories…
243-1109 1600
Sam finished selling and buying cargo and we were ready to take off.
Before we left the system, an X-Boat arrived with some news of a shakeup in the
Navy:
|
⑆ REGINA /REGINA (2314 A788899-A) |
132-1109 |
|
¶ In a terse communique, his Grace the Duke of Regina announced that Admiral Lord Santanocheev has been relieved of command immediately. Acting with the authority of an Imperial Warrant, the Duke has taken personal command of the 1st Provisional Fleet.
¶ Members of the Duke's staff declined to comment further other than to confirm that the change of command has taken place. Nothing is known as to the reasons for Santanocheev's relief, or his present whereabouts. Ω
|
|
Buried lede: The Duke of Regina has an Imperial Warrant. He could have just had the Admiral killed and it would have been within his rights.
243-1109 2400
Jump out of Cyan for Romar.
250-1109 0330
We arrive in the Romar system, having crossed the sector border. We are
back in the Spinward Marches.
Decelerating into Romar, Sam, on sensors, spots a cargo container in our path,
moving at high speed in the opposite direction.
We decided to intercept it.
1000
Medicus matched its vector and put us alongside it an hour later.
As we got close, we could see that it was an open frame with
a ground vehicle inside.
Sam said that it looked valuable and wanted to put a beacon on it and claim it as salvage.
Kipenzi performed an EVA to take a look at it. It looked
like a tracked ATV. The sort of thing you would use on a desert expedition.
Scanning showed some minor damage. She checked the manifest and it said that
the ATV was from Brown and Becker AgroIndustrial, which matched the logo on the
side. It weighed 16 Tons and was addressed to SNP Ltd for repairs.
She attached the beacon to it and then she and Sam tied it down to the front of
the ship and we spent the next five hours putting it into a stable orbit. We
informed traffic control we were parking it for pickup later and filled out the
required paperwork.
1600
Once down at the port, Sam looks up the details on the manifest. The ATV had been loaded on the Ruby Goose,
a 400-Ton Type A4 free trader. It was reported missing two weeks ago. We gave
the vector information to the local Navy and they said they will go check it
out.
We buy fuel and Sam starts making inquiries toward selling our cargo.
254-1109
Sam has sold the cargo and our cargo bay is empty; we are talking about going up and getting the
vehicle.
We have found that Brown and Becker doesn’t have an office here, they are based on Craw. They shipped the vehicle to Romar for repairs.
We contacted SNP Ltd about a delivery commission, but they just said, “Talk to Brown and Becker.”
Sam found someone who would buy it “as is”, but we have to
deliver it. We went up to orbit and picked it up and delivered it later that
afternoon. Sam got 20K Cr for it.
256-1109
More news via the X-Boat:
|
⑆ KINORB/REGINA (2202 A663659-8) |
083-1109 |
|
¶ Having regained orbital supremacy of the world, the
Imperial 85th Infantry Field Army was moved in to secure the surface of Heya.
Ω |
|
The filthy Vargr invaded Yorbund and Heya but also lost a battle squadron. Heya was recovered by the good folks. So who let the dogs out?
257-1109
With the ATV delivered to the buyer, Sam started taking delivery of the cargo
for New Rome.
261-1109
Loaded up, gassed fully, ready to go.
We got a message from System Defense. They had tracked back the trajectory of
the ATV we found and discovered several other cargo containers, all containing
low value items and there was no sign of the Ruby Goose. It looks like
we were right, it was piracy.
It would be risky to commit piracy in this system since there was both a Navy
and a Scout base here. On the other hand, people wouldn’t be expecting it and
might let their guard down.
2400
We jump out for New Rome.
267-1109 2000
We arrive in the New Rome System. No encounters inbound.
268-1109 0400
We land at the starport and sleep until the local offices open up.
Checking the TNS news feed we got:
|
⑆ RHYLANOR/RHYLANOR(2716 A434934-F) |
147-1109 |
|
¶ No reports of the battle or of any casualties among
the forces involved are available.
|
|
The latest war news was promising. We retook Calit, which is well inside Imperial borders.
We refuel, sell and buy cargo. There was nothing worth noting going on.
275-1109 2400
We jump for Glisten, the subsector capital.
282-1109 0030
We arrive in the Glisten system. No
encounters beyond the usual traffic around the starport.
There was some news on the TNS feed:
|
⑆ BECK’S WORLD/REGINA(2204 D88349D-4) |
122-1109 |
|
|
|
This was more good news concerning the war. The last remnants of the Vargr battle fleet from Yorbund were run down and destroyed in the Beck's World system on 122-1109.
Fig remarked that we were 70 days from our scheduled annual maintenance on the Skylark and Glisten has the highest tech and best quality shipyards that we were likely to see this side of Rhylanor.
Checking with the shipyard, we could get in in 9 days from
now, and it’ll take a week for maintenance.
We checked into the TAS hotel for about half a month. Two of us are members so
we get a discount.
While waiting on the ship, we took advantage of the training opportunities and
signed up for classes.
Medicus and Sam sign up for exercise classes at a Zero-G gym.
Kipenzi takes an advanced electronics class.
Fig takes a piloting course.
288-1109
We celebrate Kipenzi’s 43rd birthday.
296-1109
Medicus tells us that he’s been having dreams of the Eye of Yasterdray ever
since we moved back into the ship after the annual maintenance. The dreams have
been weird, are bothering him and he doesn’t know why they are happening. He
also says that they may have been going on longer, but this is the first time
he really noticed them. He did not remember for sure when they started. He
wasn’t sure if he had them when he was away from the ship, but now that he is
back, he is having them, and he remembers having them before.
We decided to open the ship safe just to be sure the Eye was
still there. The box was there. Someone suggested using the engineering bot to
open it up rather than touching it ourselves and everyone agreed.
The Eye was still in the box, and it looked unchanged. Checking for radiation,
it was slightly warmer than the surrounding area, but no other radiation.
We had a serious discussion about what to do with the Eye, sending it into a
sun was the No. 1 suggestion, followed by a drop into a gas giant. Under no
circumstances should this fall into the hands of the Zhodani.
Until we could do that, we decided on some more secure storage. The new box would use biometrics and require at least three of us to open, preventing a mental takeover of one of us and midnight madness onboard the ship.
We also modified the ship’s safe to hide the door. Wonder why we never did that before?
298-1109 2400
Jump out of Glisten for Bendor.
Once in Jump, we celebrated Leon’s 40th birthday.
The plan after Bendor was to move a bit further away from the border with the Sword Worlds, so we headed toward the Trailing side, more or less following the X-Boat route toward Edenelt.
Our flight plan:
Glisten – Bender – Burtson – Edenelt – Katarulu – Palique – Maitz – Fornice – Mora
305-1109 0730
We arrive in the Bender system no encounters.
Continued in One Crowded Hour - Part 1
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.
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