So, while we hear clunking and ominous sounds coming down a hall, Ash is investigating some tech in another room and we learn where (we thought) the missing members of the Orca are (that would be a skittermander, a kathasas, a lashunta, and a human engineer; all male). Not dead exactly, but suspended in liquid-filled tubes. I never got a good look, as we were suddenly fighting an orb-shaped robot, clearly attempting to defend whatever this place has become. We take it down, but then hear three more heading towards us. I convince one of the three hallway doors to close, and it’s at least a little easier to take the robots on one at a time. (Widget wants me to add that he took out the last one by himself.) That was exhausting. Then we get to see what Ash has been doing. Good news and bad news. He accidentally killed the lashunta trying to figure out how to get him out of the tube. Good news is, that it has underdeveloped organs– just a clone. Wasn’t sure how we were going to manage with all these extra crews on the wrong side of the galaxy anyway….
Crew Personal Logs
Diaries of the crew on this mission.
Take a look into my eyes Tell me, is it me?
So, I shoot me, and Ash is up on the bridge shooting himself. Then the mining colony gets a bit hostile with weapon locks and stuff, so we allow the figures to reappear, with apparently no problem with having just been shot by us. As soon as they touch the computer consoles, the weapons stop targeting our ship and it is allowed to land.
I’m dubbing this system Ah Ta Ree.
The mining station/colony is devoid of life. We find a mining vessel Mithral 7, definitely from the Diaspora belt back home. We also find crew quarters, and while investigating, find a photo of a dwarven family from thirty-three years ago. I’ll have to do some research there– they obviously found something other than what they were mining for. Other than the photo, the dwarven quarters look completely… sanitized.
We continue to explore, going through the spokes of the station, and find an exam room. With bodies. Two– a skittermander and a shirren, as well as the remains of a drone that looked a bit like Widget. From what we can remember, the two bodies look like two of the missing crew from the Orca. Ash wants to leave immediately, and Widget hears something clicking down one passage, and then he swears he hears a “woo” from a drone coming towards us….
Is anybody out there, anybody there
So, we load up the oddly blank computer system for the PDSU and head for the coordinates I-9 has provided for us. The system is considered “unexplored.” It certainly isn’t “unexploded.” We have to keep navigating around gravity wells (we really miss Brock!) and asteroids. There are also pockets of space/time– a solar system has been destroyed.
Suddenly, we pick up a power source ahead and a small vessel bears down on us, clipping our ship. It dissappear immediately.
We soon come to another object– it is a Dwarven mining vessel. We can see it’s a rock jumper built by the Ulrikka clan holdings (Dwarven consortium from the Pack Worlds). And then there is a large power source ahead. We opt to check it out and find a Dwarven mining station.
As soon as we are in orbit, we notice a few things. Dwarven mining vessels, of course. But also, we see two other ships: the bounty hunter’s vessel Servitor, and beside it, the PDSU. No life signs on either.
And then suddenly, as I see something forming from a wall in engineering, I hear yelling from the bridge and weapon discharges. The ripple on the wall of engineering is starting to look like a creature. I shoot it, and it is absorbed back into the wall. It kinda looked like me….
The Search for Brock
We are back on Absalom Station! It feels like we’ve been away for centuries. In other news, the PDSU is also back. It arrived, devoid of Brock or any pilot whatsoever, and parked itself down in the Puddles, which meant we had to take some interesting routes to avoid having to swim. Luckily, the ship itself isn’t a huge lake. Sadly, with no Brock here, we have to go looking for him. First, we have to reinstall much of what we need to the remaining computers on board, as it is all wiped. Hard to tell if Brock did it or whoever stole it.
Coming Home
So, we are sitting there in the submarine, looking that this ancient looking city, with a vaguely looking Vesk 2 architecture. We are suddenly contacted by Vakpod city– the Celi are asking us not to venture any further. Well, I normally like a good dig into ancient ruins, but I’m not interested in exploring this one. We all pretty much agree we are done with Vakpod, and we return to port. It takes four days, but we’ve had so little sleep that we pretty much enjoy the downtime.
Surprises await us. Cornpuff and Jasmine departed a day after we left in the submarine, presumably to find our ship. Widget seems confident about it. We head up to the orbiting station finally, and I may have started demanding a ride back home in a ship I feel Vakpod owes us after losing our ship. And suddenly, I look up and there’s Venn, here to rescue us again! The trip back to Absalom Station on the Resolve will take two days, but it’s just so nice to be back in space after all that… water.