Stellar Drift EP 2 – Aboard the Argo

The story continues with the team onboard the Argo, attempting to unload two large boxes of pre-tech parts, as well as a military crate labelled “FORCE DOME”. They hear footsteps coming from the above cabin, with a voice shouting out, asking if they are Keelex or Sasha. Billy quickly moves out of a hiding position and takes on the persona of a government inspector for the Kallisto government. RV-96 approaches, showing the military crate they found in the smuggler’s hold. Datum expresses concern, indicating it isn’t his, trying to pull up data on his drone to show he didn’t bring it in. Rayner releases his control of the drone, but Datum is surprised that there is no recent history of the team walking up to the ship. Billy indicates he should invest in some high quality drones and passes him his business card.

RV-96 and V1CK3 begin to carry the FORCE DOME crate off the shuttle, indicating they intend to confiscate it for inspection. As they carry it down the cargo ramp, RV-96 notices what looks to be Keelex and Sasha arguing with a service technician on the other side of the hangar bay. He hastily brings the crate back onto the ship, much to Billy’s surprise, and indicates the FORCE DOME has been ‘activated’ and they only have minutes before it goes off. RV-96 indicates they need to commandeer the ship to get to a safe distance, requesting V1CK3 take over. They manage to convince Datum into following the false situation, getting him off the ship, and walk upstairs to the rest of the shuttle craft. V1CK3 makes her way to the pilot’s chair but finds that the ship’s hangar bay release is locked, pending payment. The team quickly call Yanis Markopolis, the owner of the landing berths, and relay the ‘situation’. RV-96 implies the illegal weaponry is targeting the admin building where Yanis resides, which scares him enough to release the hold on the ship.

The ship takes off, with V1CK3 a little rusty but comfortable enough to get it into the air. To ensure the ‘show’ continues, they decide on firing something off the back of the ship for show. They inspect the cargo hold and find a number of large batteries. Opening the cargo door, Rayner throws a battery out the back, with Billy shooting it with his laser pistol. He hits, causing a minor explosion that, they hope, will fool those on the ground looking up at the ship. The ship flies off, with their destination being the radio telescope operated by their client, Stavros.

A short time later, they arrive in the upper mountains just outside Kallisto, and bring the ship down near the main administration building in an open field. At this point it is late at night, so Stavros approaches in his pyjamas. He expresses some concern with the time of day they arrived, but is overall thankful on their quickness in recovering the pre-tech spare parts. He sends them the remainder of their promised funds, 500 credits per person, and asks if they’d consider helping him install the parts around the telescope in the morning. They agree to rest for the evening, with the humans of the party offered accommodation inside the administration building. Rayner seeks out some late night food by raiding a vending machine, V1CK3 starts to perform a full diagnostic of the ship, and RV-96 secretly installs some monitoring devices, designed to pick up a copy of the expected ‘signal’ that is due to be received in the next few days.

In the morning, Stavros eagerly assigns the team to different tasks, including physical repairs using the parts on the telescope itself, as well as re-programming the ancient mandate-era control terminal to re-position the angle from the horizon. RV-96 helps Rayner with the programming, able to find some old reference manuals which discuss the required button mashing. V1CK3 handles the physical repairs outside. Billy is asked to wake up Stavros assistant, who is known to be unreliable and lazy. As Billy approaches to wake him up, he realises this is one (of many) of the people who owe him a bit of money. He pushes him to help Stavros, and expects payment when he sees him next.

With the work complete, Stavros thanks the team and indicates that if they are nearby, he expects to have further work for them once the radio signal is received in a few days and has been decoded. As they regroup on the ship, V1CK3 looks through some data on the ship and finds out it has been wiped in the past few months, but the overall hardware indicates it is of mandate-era design. They decide to look for some smaller jobs in the meantime to make some credits, repair the ship and get it capable of operating in a vacuum.