IY 6027.026
SAFCO begins the session still on Prometheus, their mission having been accomplished. Research regarding the sentience of the Pachyderms of Uetonah has been delivered to the Office of Sophont relations, action will likely be taken against Samson Mining. They now catch a ride via the passenger ship Moloko Velocet back to Listo, where they plan to rejoin Silvonius Janx aboard his ship, the Fortunate Son, and continue home to Mylor.
Upon reuniting with Sil, the old trader tells them that while they are a great crew, they also get him into some very dangerous situations. He thanks them for their help, but wishes to retain his current, boring crew. In return for them letting him out of their contract, he will pay high passage back to Mylor aboard a Jump-4 ship, which will get them home in a little over 2 weeks, rather than 5. SAFCO decides to take him up on that.
They make the jump to Overon and then to Mylor.
3 weeks have passed since they left Prometheus.
The team spends a few days R&R. Barney of course checks the engineering work on their ship, the Rambler-II, after the many weeks of maintenance it has required as well as new parts. It all looks good. Caliban thanks the dock workers he recruited to keep and eye on the ship.
As the team relaxes one evening at the Happy Gluck they are approached by a scientist named Barislav Tamorow. He is on Mylor with a scientific expedition, and wishes to contract their services. He explains that as his team’s ship was in the skies to the northwest of Mylor City his very sensitive science sensors detected anomalous radiation readings below, in the heavy forest. He wanted his team to investigate, but they declined, wishing to proceed on their current work. They went on without him. SAFCO is a bit surprised about what he says he’s found, but he reminds them that Mylor is largely unexplored beyond Mylor City and a few settlements. Tamorow is not sure what is there, but is kind of a scientific wildcatter, and sees gold in every hill. In this case, he suspects the anomaly may indicate a discovery worth money. After some bargaining, Caliban negotiates a contract in which SAFCO acts as his partner in this exploratory venture, in exchange for 25,000cr and 25% of any profits pertaining to discoveries made on this expedition.
Tamorow tells them the anomaly is about 150km from their current location, but it may not be possible to land a ship very close.
After some discussion, SAFCO decides to load Tamorow’s ATV aboard the Rambler-II and take the ship up for recon and scanning.
The team gets ready. Lucky picks up the new, finely-made auto rifle he had built. Flint procures a dozen smoke grenades and the chainsaw sword he had made.
In the morning the team and Dr. Tamorow take off for the anomaly zone.
As Roger flies the ship, Barney uses the ship’s sensors, while Flint and Lucky get in the turrets to get a look at the ground below. It takes the Rambler-II very little time to arrive at the Dr’s coordinates. Below they see a heavily forested area for kilometers. The Scout-class sensors, under Barney’s expert control, easily detect the radiation anomaly, but nothing can be seen through the trees. They locate a clearing large enough to land the Rambler-II about 5km from the center of the anomaly and land.
The team loads most of their typical gear aboard Tamrow’s ATV, which has lots of scientific gear aboard already. Fardt will stay with the ship. Flint, Lucky, and Caliban take grav bikes and fly alongside the massive ATV. They proceed slowly through the forest.
They detect radiation, but not at a dangerous level, says Tamorow. Barney asks what kind? “Various forms of radiation, but most interestingly some tachyon emissions.” Tamorow is excited.
They continue toward what they believe is the center of the weird activity. As they travel, suddenly Caliban notices that the other two grav bikes and the ATV have stopped, as has the whole world around him, frozen in place! He stops his movement. After 20 second everything returns to normal. He reports what he experienced. Lucky reports that to him it appeared Caliban simply “jumped forward” without crossing the space in-between!
They continue. Flint reports that for about 6 seconds he was seeing after-images of everyone around him – like ghosts.
Tamorow agrees with them. The tachyon emissions have increased. Barney gets his sensor records and forward them to Fardt, to run them through the ships computer for analysis.
Flint increases his altitude on his grav bike, and sees a structure off through the trees. Lucky prepares the drone for some scouting.
Fardt returns the data. Barney makes an engineering roll. To him, the graphs and data remind him of emissions created by a Jump field. Not the same, but similar. He reports his findings.
Lucky sends the drone off through the forest. Through the drone’s cameras he sees a compound comprised of a 3 meter tall stone wall and a large stone building inside. He observes about a dozen people inside the walls and outside. All women, dressed in camouflage gear, carrying weapons. They all have close-cropped hair. No markings on their clothing. He starts to bring the drone back and loses contact with it (fails an Electronics roll). Flint joins him to see what’s up. Lucky reestablishes contact. One of the drone’s rotors is out of commission and the drone is on the ground. The camera is pointed straight up. Lucky can move the camera around a bit. Looking across the ground he sees two red metal feet and legs walk up to the drone. He scans the camera upward, and sees the red face and head of a humanoid robot. A red metal hand reaches out toward the camera, and the screen goes black.
End of session.
IY 6027.052
Elapsed time: 502 game days (1 year 142 days)
