81452.12
We're three hours out from Dump Down. The run from Patrano Station to Oshumamba, some 40 parsecs or 130 Light Years, has taken just over seven days. So far, an uneventual trip. Even after all that time in Deep Orbit around Patrano, Malvoisin has performed without a hitch. 'Asmall', the Malvoisin's AI, has commed me a list of matters that need servicing/updating/cleaning or generally fiddling with but, as far as I can see, nothing beyond the capabilities of 'Asmall's flock of drones and bots. In cases where lists run to more than three or four pages, I tend to hit SELECT ALL and then AGREE to ALL, and then go Dirtside before the invoices hit the Purser's InBox.
81452.15
Fortunately, on a Void Ship the size of Malvoisin there's enough space that everyone can get a bit of 'alone' time, if they so need it. We've only warmed up three of the ten decks on this run, but several expeditions into 'the Dark' have been organised, and 'Asmall' has informed me of several solitary explorations as well. As long as no one falls down a lift shaft, or leaves the hatches open onto the warm decks, I don't really care. The biometric control cuff I have locked around my wrist gives me Override controls for Engineering, Life Support, Weapons, and Navigation, as well as ultimate control over 'Asmall' and all the other ship systems it manages. So there's little danger of sticky fingers taking the FTL drives, say, offline accidently.
And, speaking of which, we're Dumping Down right now ......
..... I have always hated Dump Down. The Run up to Light Speed is a nice, gentle, constant acceleration and, before you know it, you're Translux. We've been cruising along at something over eighteen times the speed of light for the last seven days and then we hit the gravity well around Oshumamba. The FTL drive goes into standby and we come shooting down the energy curve until we've shed enough delta Vee for our Sublight Engines to fire up. But, ship's stable. No near range debris on Scan. The ship's Navigation computer has locked its telescopes onto the required number of pulsars to fix our position and the information wavefront from the system navigation and comm beacons is stable. Looks like we're down and safe.
81452.21
We have just been directed into a parking orbit around Oshumamba. The six hour trip in from the Drop Zone was fairly tedious, but did allow us to update our database on the system. The primary is an F Class Main Sequence star and Oshumamba, the main settled world in the system orbits it at around 1.16 AU. The second planet, Irtne, orbits at 1.17 AU and has a spectatcular, but incomplete, ring system, while the third planet, Amion, at 1.49 AU, has an extreme axial tilt. Planet four, Narcy, hangs out way out at 4.91 AU. There's speculation that there was a bit of planetary shenanagans in times past, with a missing fifth planet, or exo wanderer, getting a bit fresh. Amion got slapped silly in the ensuing punchup, while Irtne lost most of a moon and gained most of a ring. The rest of the moon ended up impacting Oshumamba, giving its main continent its characteristic pattern of ring shaped lakes, while the exo planet got slung out of the system like a drunk out of a bar.
Oshumamba specialises in Bot Manufacturing and has an Essenaro Congress Military Base on planet. The indigenous inhabitants, the Shophunumba, originally dwelt in the marshes around the ring lakes. Now, they're just as likely to be found in modern, multistory arcrologies, or piloting Void Ships, like our friend – I use the term in the negative sense - Captain Phuamba Phanu of the Void Ship Serendipity Accent. Speaking of which, we think we detected the Accent outbound from Patrano Station on our heading back on 81445.09, but by then we were moving at a fair percentage of c on our run up to Light Speed and all trailing scan signals were red shifting to max. We haven't detected Serendipity Accent in the Oshumamba system as yet, so they obviously haven't over-jumped us. With a bit of luck, we'll conclude our business here, and be on our merry way before their drive signature blights our longscan.
81452.23
Guurta and Cath are now fit for duty, while poor Latka is still stuck in medbay. I have set up a working ship account onplanet, and we will head on down the gravity well first thing in the morning.
81453.07
Dirtside bound in the Malvoisin-B, our hand-dandy lander. We're heading for Amunashunarma, planetary capital and main Downport.
81453.08
Locking up the Malvoisin-B at the Downport, we established ourselves at “The Gardens of Neuphanuptra”, a three-star establishment two blocks from Meusualampha Avenue, the main street in the business district of Amunashunarma.
K3K4 has remained aboard the Malvoisin-B as he and Repair Bot#1 have to fix K3's Military Rifle. This was damaged during our run-in with the skulkers from the Serendipity Accent, back on Patrano Station. Ksae is off to explore the local area, and to see if he can locate the owner of the trinket he picked up back on Patrano, during the same incident. I've sent Illya to check out the local bourse to see if we can offload some of our trade goods, while Guurta's gone looking for signs of any of our rivals. The only people I'm concerned about are Phuamba Phanu and the crew of the Serendipity Accent and, as yet, we've seen no sign of them in this system. I think we can safely ignore the WARDEN agents. We're just too far from Andralassian Hegemony space for them to still be looking for us. And Cath and I are heading out to see if we can pick up any local work for the crew.
81453.16
Illya has just reported in. She's managed to sell one set of Trade Goods. The other set, unfortunately, has spoiled. Just too long in cannister storage. She has done some other trading as well, so it looks like we've nearly paid for the trip here.
81454.09
Ksae managed to locate the owner of the trinket he discovered in Shuttle Bay Lower 425 on Patrano Station. The owner was suitably grateful. Ksae has been wandering around with a dreamy look on his face and saying how much he likes Amunashunarma City. I have an inkling that when we come to leave Oshumamba, he may very well choose to stay behind.
81454.17
I just took a call from our passenger, Asrik McKee. She has a job for us. McKee Industries has contracts with Ashualahpha BoTtech, a local Bot Manufacturing concern and a subsidary of Weyland Genomics. Sira McKee's contact at Ashualahpha BT, Phuamba Phey, has dissappeared. She would like us to have a hunt around and see if we can find him.
81455.10
Guurta finally concedes that neither of our two rivals, the Serendipity Accent crew nor the WARDEN agents, are lurking on Oshumamba. Actually, I'm secretly glad Guurta has been so persistent with his investigations. I have no wish to run into either group while we are here.
81456.05
We've picked up some information that Phuamba Phey has been sighted in the old Shophunumba settlement just outside of Amunashunarma City in the marsh near the ring lake. Locally, it's known as Swamp Town, and consists of some ruins, several meres and pools, and some swamp scrub. More traditional Shophunumba, such as older members of the Consolidation of Sarasumama moiety, feel obliged to spend at least a week every few years camping at such traditional sites to reconnect and honour their phyles.
Taking a flitter to Swamp Town, we expected to locate Phuamba Phey, interrupt his honouring of his phyle, and return him to Amunashunarma City so that Sira McKee might conclude her business with him. We were surprised to discover Phuamba Phey and three companions. The companions, we later discovered, were Osiralan Clade Hegemonising Swarm motiles, and Phuamba Phey was in the process of being converted.
As the motiles advanced on us, taking cover behind the ruined pylons, we tried to make our way around the pools and bogs. Cath waded through a patch of bog, while I attempted to get through a mere and reedbed. I got hopelessly lost, struggling through cloying mud, stagnant water and walls of reeds. All I could hear over the racket of the reeds, was gun shots.
I was told later that Illya had taken cover near another pool, and then took out the autorifle-armed motile specialist as it peered around a pylon. K3K4 was taken out by a lucky shot from one of the other motiles but Cath, who had just slogged through a bog, managed to clip the offending motile, sending it scuttling into cover.
The rest of the motiles were now in cover behind the pylons and Phuamba Phey managed to down Cath as she was struggling to get out of her bog. As the motiles began to filter forward, Ksae managed to down the last motile on the left hand side of the field.
The motiles tried to flank Ksae, but Guurta managed to down Phuamba Phey as he was moving forward. In a final flurry of shots, Illya missed the last motile, who missed her. Guurta hit the motile, knocking it back so that Ksae, who had worked around to the flank, could down it.
There was a sudden silence in the swamp, and I managed to fight my way out of the maze of reeds, soaked, covered in mud, and stinking like a Karabechi Lung eel.
The crew's mirth at my state was tempered by the fact that Cath was hurt and K3K4 was knocked out again. Scooping them up and placing them in the flitter, we quickly scoured the battle site. We found an electronic key fob for a starport locker containing, we later discovered, starship parts. We also discovered proof positive that the Osiralan Clade Hegemonising Swarm plans to invade Oshumamba. The motiles we battled were the advanced scouting party. As we were about to leave, Illya found a couple of Kiranin Crystals. We all piled into the flitter and headed back to “The Gardens of Neuphanuptra”.
81456.09
Arriving back at the “Neuphanuptra”, Guurta contacted the authorities to pass on the invasion intelligence, while I reported in to Sira McKee about the fate of Phuamba Phey. Illya and Ksae took Cath and K3K4 back to the Malvoisin-B. Illya checked out Cath in the medbay. Her wounds are minor but she's going to be on the sick list for a week. Ksae dashed over to the storage locker we had found the key fob for and quickly loaded the starship parts into the Malvoisin-B's cargo hold. He and Illya then had a look at K3K4. Our poor battered bot is a bit worse for wear, and will take a week to fix.
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The Crew: Left to Right: Guurta Mung, Cath Canchari, Illya Mechanovic, Ksae Soun, K3K4, Oleg Sebastianovich |
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Osiralan Clade Hegemonising Swarm Motiles - Specialist, two motiles, Phuamba Phey |
81457.04
I was woken by an automated call from Oshumamba Orbital Traffic Control. My first thought was that the Osiralan Clade Hegemonising Swarm had launched their invasion, but OTC Longscan was only showing a single Void Ship inbound from the Drop Zone. I was about to go back to bed, when I suddenly got a bad feeling. It took nearly thirty minutes for the scan data to firm up, and I was eating breakfast when my comp kicked out a scan solution. It is our old friend – I use the term in the negative sense – Serendipity Accent.
81457.11
After summoning all crew still upright and unperforated, we had a meeting.
Reasons to leave Oshumamba:
Immenient invasion by Osiralan Clade Hegemonising Swarm. By its very nature, a Hegemonising Swarm is a bad thing to all non-Hegemonised lifeforms it encounters.
Imminent arrival of the Serendipity Accent. We kicked their butts on Patrano Station, but we also caught them by surprise. Such conditions don't exist here.
Our quest to locate the Annalagoan Underground and return the pendant we found on Patrano Station has reached a deadend here.
Reasons to stay on Oshumamba:
None.
Well, that was an easy decision. So we packed out of “The Gardens of Neuphanuptra”, and loaded up the Malvoisin-B. The thrusters were warming up, and we were all set to dog the hatch and scramble up the gravity well when Ksae suddenly said, “Sorry guys”.
While the others howled in disbelief, I took Ksae aside. Pretty much as I had suspected, Ksae has fallen in love with Oshumamba, and wants to stay and try his luck. In spite of the imminent arrival of Serendipity Accent, in spite of a threatening Osiralan Clade Hegemonising Swarm, he wants to stay.
What can you say in a situation like this? I transferred some credits to his account, promised him a berth aboard if he should ever need it, shook his paw, and stepped back into the Malvoisin-B. As we lifted off from Amunashunarma Downport, I could still see Ksae giving us a final wave, his fur ruffled by the backwash of our thrusters.
It was a quiet trip up to rendezvous with the Malvoisin.
81457.17
We are moments from Jump. The run up to light speed has been without incident. As we're heading for Vengion, our departure track is in the opposite quadrant to the Serendipity Accent's approach from Partrano Station. And we're accelerating while they're decelerating.
The mood aboard is rather subdued. Latka, Cath, and K3K4 are on the sick list, which leaves only Illya, Guurta, and me, and our guest, Asrik McKee, rattling around. We have a nine day transit to Vengion ahead of us, and the FTL drive has just started to cycle up.
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