The story continues with the team debating on how best to make some credits, while they wait to hear from their first client on some further work in a couple of days. Out of game, the players discuss character advancement, and confirm some goals for their players. Most notably, everyone wants to make money. Some long-term goals include V1CK3 wanting to pilot a large ship, while RV-96 wants to explore more the concepts of what it means to be an android, and what it means to be human.
The team review the planet-wide data net, and find a series of available jobs:
- A salvage enterprise on Dakia, “Spritos Salvage and Sons”, has exclusive rights to salvage the crashed space station Pantheon, which once served as the administrative capital of Woll before the collapse. The company subcontracts short term workers for as little as a day at a time, paying standard rates per cubic ton of scrap recovered. Additional reimbursement is provided for acquisition of pre-tech artifacts, trinkets and technology from the untouched sections of the station.
- The government of Syros is readying for an annual celebration, recognising their establishment as an independent power on the planet. In preparation for the day’s events, the government has an open tender for starship captains that can transport goods from outer regional towns to the capital, though chatter on the datanet indicates that some locals aren’t too friendly with the hardline Syros government.
- A group of research students from Yunsa, home to the Courtesans, are seeking a chartered flight to take them, and their bulky equipment, to one of the functional terraforming engines on the planet which has started to give off odd readings. They are presently stuck in a port bar in Kallisto.
They elect to take on the last job, and reach out to a woman named Decima Marcia Aurius who posted the job, agreeing to meet at Orion’s Bar & Grill within Kallisto itself. The team express some concern that the ship, technically-but-not-really stolen from its former occupiers, could be tracked and choose to disable the transponder completely, and temporarily names the ship from “Argo” to “Argofuckyourselves“. V1CK3 takes the ship up, and they fly towards the city, seeking a landing pad to go to Orion’s. To their surprise, without an active transponder code, most legitimate businesses avoid dealing with the ship, leaving V1CK3 to take the shuttle craft down in a less reputable yard further away from the city, where the owner is happy not asking any questions. They pay a small landing fee and head into town.
As the team arrive at Orion’s they find the interior is laid about with ancient spaceship parts, presumably used during the liquid fuel era. Rayner makes his way to the bar and immediately orders whisky and ribs, taking the entire bottle. Billy looks around, and spots what looks to be their contact for this job, a woman wearing a dress with gold thread, conversing with two male figures in similar formal attire. With his experience, Billy overhears them speaking in Latin, the ‘formal’ language of the aristocrats of the Courtesan society in Yunsa. Billy introduces himself, before bringing the others into the conversation. The Courtesans introduce themselves as Decima Marcia Aurius (or just Marcy for short), Mamercus Juventius, a short, red-haired eager technician, and Lucius Antius, a tall figure with dark hair, armed with a laser pistol. Marcy explains that they are research students from Yunsa, eager to learn more about pre-tech terraforming machinery. Recently, they were informed that a terraforming station a few hours outside the city started giving off odd readings, and received clearance from the local government to investigate it. They explain the job itself is straightforward, to deliver their large research and monitoring equipment into the terraforming station itself. The team agree to the job, and have the students bring their gear to the shuttle for transport, taking off a short time later.
In mid-flight, the team find time over the two-hour journey to raise questions to the students. RV-96 makes the most of this opportunity, speaking with Mamercus about the intricacies of the science behind it. Approaching the tower itself, they see a large dark green tower that sticks out of the ground that rises several stories high. V1CK3 finds a suitable location to land, and they begin to unpack the equipment. Stepping outside, the team notice that the air smells foul, with V1CK3 and Billy picking up a strong gassy smell, which is determined to be higher concentrations of Methane. The research students indicate it is possible the station is putting out an incorrect atmospheric mix, and everyone prepares appropriate breathing gear to tolerate the interior of the station. Walking up to the main door, they find it appears to be in a ‘lockdown’ state, with a large, bulky security door in-place. Rayner approaches and connects via a small terminal to see the technical abilities of the station. He finds the station itself is in a low-power mode, with the station keeper program, M.I.R.A, on standby to conserve power. Rayner proceeds to lift the lockdown on this main door, but notes that many other doors will also need a manual override without a station-wide network online.
Entering into the station, RV-96 warmly indicates that the details of the contract have been fulfilled in that the equipment has been delivered to inside the station. The research students express some concern, given they can’t proceed further past the lockdown, and renegotiation updated contract terms to have the team investigate the problem and get the equipment to the atmospheric mix room. The team look around and follow some signage that directs them towards M.I.R.A, finding in a small room a single terminal with a blinking console. As he approaches and begins to type into it, a static, friendly voice fills the room and introduces itself. It asks for valid authorisation for the team to be present, so Rayner quickly hacks an input terminal to produce a fake reading. M.I.R.A. accepts this, assuming they are a technician that is over 600 years late for the scheduled maintenance. M.I.R.A. indicates she cannot lift the station-wide security lockdown until power has been restored, as she is currently operating on emergency reserves. They enquire more on why the lockdown came into effect, and find on some security footage that several bipedal creatures, grasshopper-like in appearance, walked into the station several weeks ago using a pre-tech access pass to walk in. RV-96 notices these bipedal creatures as the Grashnar, a species indigenous to the Kraz system, one jump away from Woll. RV-96 mentions to the party that the Grashnar’s home planet does have a higher concentration of methane in its atmosphere, which could indicate what the mix has been changed to. For now, they decide to fix the power problems for the station so that they can get the equipment to the right location.
Travelling under the station, they eventually arrive in what appears to be an industrial area, designed to perform some sort of power generation for the station. They walk up to the main administration console, and find a dog-sized native animal dead next to a set of high-voltage cable lines, presumably having tried to chew through them. Looking around, they do see signs of more of these animals being present, including animal droppings and marks. V1CK3 leads the charge in getting the electrical repairs fixed, getting some initial works done first to get additional lighting back into the industrial area. The others seek out some spare equipment from a storage closet M.I.R.A. directs them to, bringing it back for V1CK3 to work with. RV-96, continuing his steadfast managerial duties, notices in an upper railing several additional creatures, similar in appearance to the dead creature near them, are approaching rapidly down a set of stairs. RV-96 informs the party, and they prepare to enter into combat.