The Chazov Belt, Pamyat System
We made arrangements to use a shipyard’s facilities in a nearby system, Pamyat, in a small pirate station; Joker made the arrangements. Unfortunately, not long after we dropped out of Jump, we were fired upon by a pirate cruiser. The batarian captain Me’er Safra, of the Crackskulls pirate vessel Fracture, demanded that we turn Joker over to him.
Merrick ordered ramming speed. We took a fair amount of damage. An almost-disastrous incident with atomic mining charges caused significant damage to the cargo bay, but also blew a sizable hole in the Fracture. Not large enough, however, to let us get out of their way, so Joker went back to Plan A: a hard dock. It took the batarians a few minutes to burn their way through our airlock.
It was almost disappointing; there were only four of them on the other side. We determined that some of them were coming over the hull, probably with breaching charges. Merrick and Joker headed up toward the bridge, while Max and Grend headed out over the hull, and Torvendis and I dealt with the four at the airlock.
Things then moved very quickly. They tried to put a breaching charge on the Durendal, but Grend and Max managed to get it activated and attach it to the Fracture. It went off, doing enough damage to finally drive the Fracture off.
As we limped back to the station, Joker got in communication with his contact, Koto. Koto swore that he had nothing to do with the ambush, and while he was telling the truth on that account, he was distinctly nervous about something.
Moloch Station
We disembarked upon the station, meeting Joker’s contact Arlo Koto. He was distinctly nervous, despite the presence of his two large bodyguards. As we approached his office, we discovered that at least one of his bodyguards had a stylized jellyfish tattoo on the back of his neck: an operative of Jelial the Traitor, aka the Jellyfish.
After getting Koto separated from his bodyguards, we found out that Pike, Jelial’s lieutenant, is here, and looking for us…
…and has a thug with a pistol screwed into Torvendis’ ear…
