The journey from the gas giant was another long and tedious one, this time lasting a little over two days before they can see the planet appear on their long distance viewscreen. It’s the middle of the night when they are close enough to worry abut the possibility of being seen by the Overbluff’s Type-M.

Jie closes down the active sensors as they get closer and they proceed using just their passive sensors in the hope that, if the Type-M is expecting them, then they will see the Overbluff’s ship before it sees them.

As can be expected from such a backwater system, there is very little traffic visible. Jie on the sensors pick up a Type-S, an A2 and a Type-R either leaving or heading to the planet, but none of these ships are in orbit or heading anywhere close to intercepting the Princess.

Cautiously they continue onwards, spending the entire morning in closing the range, Jie watching the sensors like a hawk for any kind of threat. All seems quiet as they get closer, however.

The surface of Noctocol, swathed in clouds of poisonous vapours, reveals little as to what lies beneath. Will continues onwards until the Princess is at optimum sensors range. There is still no sign of any Type-M’s or any other activity from below that seems unusual.

Putting the ship into orbit over the planet’s south pole, Jie nervously switches over from passive to active sensors. Will gets ready to make a rapid getaway in case this leads to an increase in radio chatter, but it seems as if it has had no effect as all remains quiet down below. Emboldened, Jie starts to sweep the area with the sensors while Will maneuvers the ship in a pattern spiralling out from the pole.

It takes a little over an hour before Jie starts jabbering excitedly. It looks like she found the Overbluff’s base. She brings up the image on the holoscreen. With the area obscured by the clouds, the image is blurry and she goes through the entire spectrum in order to build up a reasonable picture of what lies below. The party members see that the fort is actually tiny – a lot smaller than it appeared on the mural being only 20m square.

There is no sign of any ship on the ground, but a large opening close to the fort indicates that there may well be a large facility beneath the fort.

The party members discuss their strategy, but there is really no way of making plans with such little intel. They decide that they need to head down there to get a closer look.

Leaving Autumn and Miranda onboard the Princess, the party members suit up and grab their weapons and then set off in their new AGC which Max pilots away from the ship on a wide arc so as not to appear on any radar that the Overbluff’s troops may have scanning the skies. He brings the AGC down close to the surface a couple of hundred km from the base and then sets the controls to skim over the surface at a height of just a few metres in order to avoid detection. Grim rides shotgun, guiding Max towards the coordinates of the base.

It’s late in the afternoon when Grim says that they are now just 1500m from the base. Max brings the AGC down to the ground and waits in the driver’s seat while the others disembark. The party members then cover the last 1200m on foot.

Visibility is still poor even this close to the fort and so the party members realize that they are going to get very close to the fort in order to build up an accurate picture as to the base’s defenses. Taeva is the obvious choice for the job and so heads closer as the rest of the party wait for her report.

She is gone for half an hour before she returns to tell the party members what they are up against. The northern approach is quite heavily defended with two teams of three mercs hiding in waste piles. The southern approach is less well guarded, with just two solitary guards in foxholes and one guarding the main entrance to the fort. There are also three guards on sentry duty travelling around a set route.

They decide to approach from the south and so all move around until they are at the edge of visual range. Taeva goes ahead and carefully and cautiously takes out all of the guards covering the southern side one by one without raising the alarm.

With the southern approach now open, they advance towards the opening that leads below the ice cap. Once again Taeva goes ahead to scout out what lies below. She sees that indeed the Type-M is berthed inside a large cavern with a handful of mercs visible working upon it.

The remainder of the party follow her in and take up positions. Once they are all in cover, they try and take out the mercs one at a time without raising the alarm. They manage to take out a couple of them before one of them is just wounded and cries out an alarm. A brief firefight ensues during which time all of the mercs below are taken out, with Jie getting dropped in response.

The party members get ready for a counterattack, but it seems as if the mercs are not so quick to make one, giving time for Will to patch Jie back up. During this time, Taeva lays charges beneath the ice ready to blow them if the mercs try to attack in force.

No sooner is she back on her feet that the inevitable counteroffensive begins, with the remaining 11 guards charging through the entrance to the tunnel. Taeva’s charges take out several of them, with Grim’s Mathilda taking out many of those who survived, with the other party members mopping up the remainder. In such a way, the mercs are quickly despatched.

The party members hold their positions for a while, but it seems as if the Overbluff and the remaining mercs are holed up inside the fort and waiting for the party members to come to them.

Will and Grim stay with the ship, checking it carefully in case any more mercs are hiding onboard while the others get into position for the final assault upon the fort, with Stian and Jie coming up from the stairs that lead from the ice cave and Taeva coming through the main door. They call Max and tell him to bring the AGC closer in case they need to make a rapid getaway.

As they enter the fort, they see that the remaining mercs have indeed set up a defensive line and Jie is injured once again during the brief firefight upon entering the building. The mercs are now lacking in numbers though and so are quickly taken care of.

The three of them advance on the upper levels. It is Taeva who gets the first glimpse of the Overbluff, who is holding a gauss pistol to The Connoisseur’s head. Taeva tries to shoot, but the Overbluff is wearing battle armour and so her shots just ricochet off. The Overbluff responds by sendinga wave of mental energy towards her which nearly knocks her off her feet.

While the Overbluff is distracted by Taeva, Stian rushes in and grabs The Connoisseur, pulling him out of danger. With the Overbluff now alone in the room, Taeva sends a HEAP RAM grenade at him, which finally manages to drop him. After the smoke clears she limps over and removes his helmet, emptying a gauss magazine into his head.

All is quiet inside the fort. The Overbluff has been vanquished and The Connoisseur has finally been rescued.

As befitting a man of the cloth, The Connoisseur does not appear to be panicked by the attack or his many months of incarceration. He does seem to be a little confused as to what has been going on and who the party members are. They explain to him that they are working for Miranda and have been sent to rescue him. The Connoisseur is very keen to meet up with Miranda as soon as possible.

The party members spend a while going through the items in the fort, but there is not a huge amount of interest other than plenty of weapons and ammo, plus provisions to last a while, some of them of very high quality for The Connoisseur to cook for the Overbluff. They also find a large quantity of precious artwork, all of which The Connoisseur informs them were looted from their monastery on Mertactor. It would seem as if the only item of major value other than the Horkalite artwork is the Type-M.

The party members spend quite a while deciding what to do with the Overbluff’s ship. It is certainly a very valuable prize, but one that offers great potential for getting the party into a lot of trouble as it does not belong to them.

While the others debate what they should do with it, Will realizes that it would be best to bring the Princess down to the base now that there is no more danger and it will also be necessary for loading any goodies as space on the AGC is limited. As a result, Max shuttles Will back up to the ship, which he then lands on the ice plain right next to the fort.

Miranda is overjoyed to be reunited with The Connoisseur and to see that he is safe. The Connoisseur is pretty happy as well. They spend a while catching up with one another and discussing what they should do next while the party members continue to discuss whether they should take the Type-M, or any parts of it, or just to leave it be.

Once the Connoisseur and Miranda have had time to catch up, the Connoisseur addresses the party to give them his sincere thanks for all of the hard work that they have undertaken in order to rescue him. As a way of thanking the party, he presents them with one of the most valuable items from his collection of artwork. It is a 3 million year old cave painting by the sentient isopods of Flexos showing some astrological calculations of utmost complexity for such a primitive society which outdated the Ancient by thousand of millennia. The artwork is vast having been cut from walls by laser. The object is a good 20m2 in size and weighs over a ton.

Will’s eyes light up when he sees the object appealing as it does to the planetologist in him. Max’s eyes light up when the Connoisseur tells him that the lump of rock with primitive daubings on it is worth around Cr. 2 million.

“Well if it came from Flexos, Flexos is where we ‘ave the best chance of sellin’ it – or at least to learn where we can find someone who is prepared to pay top credit for it at least,” says Max. “It’s only a jump away anyway and it’s heading in the direction of Darrian where Taeva wants to go anyway.”

“But what about Miranda and the Connoisseur?” asks Autumn. “Surely they need to return to Mertactor?”

“We have already inconvenienced you enough,” says Miranda. “All we would ask is that you escort us to the starport and wait with us there until we can find a ship heading for Dallia or Tarkine in case there are any retribution. Once we are off Noctocol,then I think that there is little chance of our running into any more problems now that the Overbluff is dead and his organization is in total disarray.”

The party members are happy enough with this, not having any great desire to return to Mertactor once again.

The party members finish their discussions regarding the Type-M. Neither the ship’s sensors nor computer are worth a great deal and extracting any of the engines would be a massive task and so they vote to simply leave the Type-M where it is and head off to Noctocol starport before heading off to Flexos as soon as they have the Horkalites and their cargo safely on their way.

The party members scavenge the best of the Type-M’s vacc suits, the best of the gauss rifles, all of the ammo and the best quality foodstuffs they can find and load them onto the Princess together with all of the artwork. It’s a tight fit to get it all into the cargo hold when it is almost full of magnesium, but they eventually manage it.

With that, they assume their regular positions onboard the Princess and Will takes off, leaving the empty remains of the Overbluff’s ice fort behind them. It is then just a 30 minute journey to the patch of empty bedrock which serves as Noctocol’s only starport.

Eventually an ATV comes to meet them and transports them to the airlock which leads to the underground city of Noctocol. It is late by the time that they have gone through the customs formalities and so they head for the Offworlder’s Hotel and get a decent night’s sleep.

After a rather dull and uneventful flight due to their being no passengers onboard other than Miranda, the Princess emerged from jump in the Noctocol system the previous afternoon.

Not wanting to approach the Overbluff’s fort on an empty tank, Jie had selected a spot to emerge from jump just outside the diameter of the system’s gas giant. There is still a 12-hour journey ahead to get within range of the large planet though and so everyone simply continues with their training activities.

It’s the early hours of the morning when they are close enough to the gas giant to start skimming fuel.

Throughout the period, Max looks longingly at the moon where the party members hidden the cargo of pheromones that they took from the defeated Black Panther. Max is practically begging them to stop off and pick them up, telling them that they are worth a fortune and there should be no problem in moving them on a low law level planet. The other simply ignore him though, which makes Max more and more exasperated. When he realizes that there is no chance of getting the others to change their minds, he heads off to his stateroom in a huff.

It takes a little over half an hour before Grim tells Will that the tanks are now full again. Jie plots the course to Noctocol, inputs the coordinates for Will to follow and he hits the gas as the Princess starts on the long journey to the planet.

The party members are up early to prepare for the morning departure. The buyer for the av gas turns up at 08.00 as planned, but there is no sign of Max yet. It seems as if he did not return from Delis during the night.

Autumn sighs and takes care of all of the paperwork while Jie and Stian help load up the barrels onto the 18-wheeler that was sent to collect the barrels.

Once the loading is complete, they head back into the ship. Will is already starting his pre-flight routine and Grim is turning over the engines.

Just ten minutes before departure, a cab screams to a halt outside the ship and Max rushes out of it before heading up the gangplank.

Taeva immediately notices that Max is covered in the remains of some yellow feathers.

Max grins at her:

“Well I ‘ad to check to make sure, didn’t I?” he says with a smirk. “And was was wrong. She most definitely does have a cha-cha, which I spent the night filling with my salsa.”

He strolls off to his stateroom, whistling a happy tune and then promptly falls asleep.

Unguin’s Princess is cleared for launch and so, without any more ado, Will pulls back on the controls and sends the A2 into the air. With no passengers onboard, they are able to dip for fuel this time and so Will firsts heads out over the ocean, skimming the surface until Grim tells him that the tanks are now full. With that, Will brings the ship’s nose up and heads for the skies.

The journey to jump diameter is an uneventful one and, a little after 14.30, Unguin’s Princess safely slips into hyperspace.

Max is gone all day. The magnesium that he ordered arrives during the day and so the party members have some activity as they help to unload the remaining barrels of av gas onto the apron around the ship and check the containers of magnesium. All is in order with them and so Jie positions them into the cargo bay, completely filling it.

Max returns at 17.00 telling them that he has found a buyer for the av gas and at a decent price too. Altogether, the last cargo run from Pagaton to Tarkine has brought in Cr. 611,000, more than the cost of replacing the AGC.

He tells them that he concluded the deal too late in the day for the delivery to be made, so he arranged it for first thing in the morning. As a result, he tells Will that it should be OK to get a departure slot at 10.00am the following day.

He then tells the others with a sly grin that he thinks he left something at the motel in Delis and so needs to go back there to get it. Before anyone can make any further inquiries, he is out of the door and hailing a cab.

Having had an early night, the party members are up early and discuss their plans over breakfast.

Obviously Noctocol is the next destination and they need to get there as soon as possible as the Connoisseur’s life is in danger – not to mention the fact that the party members are starting to tire of chasing the Overbluff across the entire subsector and want to finish this job before the Overbluff moves on again.

Passengers would just be too much of an inconvenience when the Princess will need to make a stealthy approach to the planet, but Max is adamant that they need to haul some cargo over there to maximize profit margins.

The others agree and so Max sets off to try and find buyers for the diesel and some new cargo to replace the items that he sold in Delis.

As Max goes about his tasks, the others talk about the strategy for getting to the Overbluff’s castle. They realize that arriving in a pastel pink A2 is not the most subtle approach – they really need a smaller vehicle to make the final journey and start to bemoan the loss of their precious AGC.

They soon realize that they need to replace it, but Tarkine does not possess any anti-grav technology and so it’s not going to be possible to simply head into a showroom and pick up another one.

Jie decides that she will have a word with the Marines – reckoning on the fact that they owe the party several favours now after foiling the Overbluff’s plot which would have caused a major crisis in the subsector, not to mention defending Moffatt Field from the rebels last year.

So Jie leads a delegation to see the Marine Commander to see if there is anything that he can do. The Marine Commander is very sympathetic to the party member’s plight and tells them that he thinks that he can help. The Marine Company’s aging TL10 AGCs are currently in the process of being upgraded to the latest TL15 models from Glisten and so he says that he can sell them one of the older models for the knockdown price of Cr. 500,000. This the party members readily agree to. They also ask him if they can replenish some of their spent ammunition. Again the Marine Commander agrees, saying that he will charge it at cost.

The party members all hand Jie their shopping lists and she arranges for delivery of the ammo while Grim goes over all of the AGCs in order to find the best one. They are all showing their age and are battle-scarred from their years of service, but Grim is able to find one that looks like it will do the job and will provide them with several more years of use. He then spends the rest of the day servicing the vehicle.

Jie notices Stian diligently punching in data requests on his hand comp about the new destination. She admires his need for preparedness, but realizes from experience that factual information about the small, volatile world of Noctocol is rare and hard to come by. She stows the requests for items and Ammo that she will take to Gunnery Sgt. Jeitter in hopes that he can provide some needed fire power for the loaner AGV and pulls from one of her multiple pockets a Holo-crystal.

“The Princess docked at Noctocol less than a year ago. A…er… Documentary was made of that expedition. You may want to view this to gain an insight as to the dangers that lay ahead of us, Mr. Løkkeberg. This just may save your life.” Jie says to Stian with a very serious (as usual) look on her face as she passes over the obviously well viewed Holo-crystal.

Max is back late at night, feeling in a good mood after having bought 60 tons of Magnesium at 45% off wholesale. He tells the others that he just needs to unload the fuel that he is still struggling to find a buyer for and then they can head off to Noctocol.

The party members don’t get long to sleep as they have to be awake before 5.00am in order to pack and check out of the hotel.

They arrive at the field outside the city just before 6.00 to find that it is a hive of activity as people get onboard ahead of departure time. The party members are dressed up in their finery in order to try and blend in with the upmarket crowd that will be onboard the airships.

Having already taken out most of their weapons to give to Autumn in order to take them back to the ship, the others try and smuggle through just their most hardest to find items. This was a wise move as the Mercs on security check them all carefully as they arrive onboard.

A porter escorts them through the vast ship to some cabins in the centre of the ship and tells them to assembled in the main ballroom for breakfast. The rooms are small but sumptuously appointed. Realizing that they could very well need to make a swift exit from the ship, the party members don’t bother to unpack – they simply stow their bags and then head down to the ballroom.

The ballroom is packed with an assortment of different dignatories. There are some minor Z-list celebrities there, some minor nobility and some rather unsavory looking characters who look like villains who are there with their trophy wives/mistresses. All seem to be having a good time as they wait for the race to commence.

The party members try the breakfast buffet. As expected, it is exquisite. Either the Connoisseur prepared it himself or else he trained whoever is responsible for it. The party members discuss their intentions. They decide to try and check out whether the Connoisseur is in charge of the catering by asking if it is possible to pass their compliments on to the chef. Eventually the guards agree to this and the party members are allowed up to the kitchen. They are disappointed, however, when they are introduced to an ordinary-looking guy in his late-twenties. They keep up the charade by complimenting him and then head back down to the ballroom.

It’s close to 8.00am now – the official start time for the race and the airships are untethered from their docking towers and are positioned in a long line. There is a vast crowd now assembled outside to watch the start of the race and several news helicopters hovering around to record the race.

At 8.00am exactly, the umpire fires a flare into the air and the airships surge forwards. Within a matter of minutes, it is obvious that the Baischormth is the ship to beat as it is already starting to open up quite a lead on the other entrants. The Imperial entry, Pride of the Ancients is somewhere towards the rear of the field.

As the Baischormth continues to increase its lead, the passengers interest starts to wane a little and they go back to chatting and drinking. With little attention being paid to what is going on outside, Stian takes the opportunity to release his recon drones over the side of the observation deck. Over the next few minutes, he manages to get a very good idea of the layout of the ship from the outside, but most of the rooms are closed and so it is not possible to enter them. It would appear that the top floor of the airship is where the Overbluff and the crew have their quarters.

The party members discuss their options, finding them quite limited. Later in the morning they decide to stage a medical emergency in order to Will and Taeva can gain access to the upper decks. While they are allowed up to the ship’s Med Bay, they are escorted by guards and so they are unable to find out too much more information.

So it’s back to the drawing board.

The morning passes with the Baischormth continuing to increase its lead over the other airships which are now barely visible on the horizon. Now the Thunderhead mountains are approaching in the distance.

The party members continue to discuss what they should do, starting to run short on ideas. Although they have no idea as to the amount of mercs onboard, without much in the way of weapons, the party members know that they are no match for them in a regular firefight.

The party members learn that there is a VIP section on the top two decks of the airship, at the front – this is where the Overbluff is likely to be. The party members realize that this is where they need to be if this is where the action is and the Overbluff is unlikely to come down to mingle with the hoi polloi.

As usual, Max is sent to do the talking. With a little time and the usual combination of bullshit and bribery, Max presses a couple of G into the guard’s hand and is given the nod that it is OK for them to go on through into the VIP area.

The party members head on in to see that the section is even more luxuriously appointed than the rest of the ship. The small area is quite crowded – with the same types that occupy the rest of the ship. Through the crowd they see the Overbluff, who is flanked by a couple of guards. He is making small talk with some of the other visitors, but his attention does not seem to be fully upon them.

The view from up here is excellent. They can see that the Baischormth has started to descend. The other airships are now catching up with them. Pride of the Ancients has made its way up the order during the morning and is now running in third place. The party members overhear the Overbluff tell the guests that they need to go down to check on the engines but that there is nothing to worry about – they still have full control of the ship.

As the other airships get closer, the party members realize that this must be the time that the Overbluff is going to take out the Pride of the Ancients and that there is no time to lose.

Realizing that there is no time for planning or complicated strategy, Taevae seizes the initiative by backstabbing one of the Guards. Turning to the Overbluff he laughs, and then, much to everyone’s surprise, the vanishes into thin air.

It’s pandemonium now in the room as the non-combatants all hit the deck while the guards reach for their weapons. The other party members are on them like a shot. Jie gets hit in the skirmish, but not enough to drop her, while the two guards are quickly downed.

The party members grab the guard’s dropped weapons and then Taeva leads the way in moving further into the ship. She sees that the bridge is immediately behind the room and piles into the four crew members who are manning the controls. It seems as if they are trying to maneuver the ship into position so that it can take a shot at the Pride of the Ancients. Taeva takes down the first of the crew members and fights off the counter attack by the others.

She is joined in the room by Jie and Grim. Together they finally manage to take out all four crew members without injury and without the ship being able to draw a bead on the Imperial Ship. Will comes forth in order to pull the craft’s nose well away from the Pride of the Ancients in case there are other ways of firing the weapons while the rest of the party members grab the crew members’ dropped gauss pistols and take up positions in order to stop the inevitable counter attack from the guards.

Taeva takes down a couple of them as they try to come around the corner, while Stain sprays through one of the interior walls, taking one down and panicking the others. A couple more are shot as they emerge round into the corridor.

With only one narrow corridor from the guard’s quarters to the bridge and with the party members now armed with the guards’ weapons, they are in a good defensive position, able to take out any more guards as they come around the corner.

The guards have obviously figured this out for themselves as there is a lull in the combat as they come up with a new strategy. Will takes advantage of the lull by seeing to Stian’s wounds.

The Gards make their final all out counterattack with many of the mercs rappelling down from ropes from the ceiling of the ship. On the way down, it’s like shooting fish in a barrel, but the numbers are on the side of the mercs as they flood in. Jie gets badly injured and close to dropping as she fights off the descending mercs in the front of the ship, and Max finds himself totally outclassed at the side, getting dropped after taking a couple of them down, leaving Grim to finish the job.

The mercs are all down now. On the bridge, Will sees that a Ship’s Boat has left the ship from the rear and is heading up to orbit at maximum G. The weapons on the lumbering airship are no match for the swift craft and so there is nothing that they can do but watch as the Ship’s Boat heads out of sight, presumably with the Overbluff on it.

Will is in communication with the local defense forces. They tell him to bring the ship down and to wait for further assistance which is now on its way. Will does as he is bid, bringing the Baischormth down, allowing the panicked passengers off the ship.

With that taken care of, Will goes through the computer and other contents of the Overbluff’s private quarters. Will’s attention is drawn to a mural of what appears to be a Medieval style small fortress on a plane of ice. He pays close attention to the constellations visible in the night sky above the fortress and cross-references them against planetary charts on his handcomp. After a while, he deduces that the fortress is located somewhere in the southern hemisphere of Noctocol.

Will then goes through the files on the computer. There are more references there to ‘the Chimp’ being located there and that the the Overbluff is starting to tire of him. Will relays all of this information to the others. They realize that this must be where the Overbluff is heading for.

By the time that Will has gone through everything, the Imperial Marines have arrived. The rest of the afternoon is spent being debriefed by the Military Police assigned to the Marines, a long and laborious process where all of the party members are asked countless questions. It is early evening by the time that the MPs are satisfied that they have all of the information that they require from the party members and offer them a ride back to Moffat Field in their APCs on the way back in thanks.

It is quite late by the time that the party members return to the ship and many of them are still pretty beaten up from the fight. As a result, they decide to have an early night.

The party members awaken at a reasonable hour and meet up over breakfast. They discuss their plans for the day.

Firstly they decided to head back to Hortalez et Cie in order that Stian can cash in his four ship shares at the bank in order to become a part owner of Unguin’s Princess. They head over there immediately after breakfast is finished and spend the rest of the day filling in the paperwork. Once it is all completed, the Bank Manager shakes Stian by the hand and congratulates him on his purchase.

Once that is completed, they realize that they had better try again to find some way on board the Overbluff’s airship as there is now less than 24 hours until departure.

They head back to the field where the airship’s are moored, but find that little has changed since they were there the previous day – there still appears to be no easy way onboard. Instead the party members ask around, looking for more information. They discover that there is another big party tonight at the Cobra Cabana and hope that they have more luck than the previous evening in making some connections there.

Running out of leads now, they head back to the motel and spend a leisurely afternoon there before getting dressed up again in order to go out.

Max had spent the day looking for buyers for the trade goods while the others continued their investigations. He managed to get a decent price for both the diesel and the two mining vehicles, swelling the party’s coffers by around Cr. 380,000 which he was happy enough with. He did not get a decent offer on the jet fuel though and says that he will try again to sell it after they have finished with the airship investigation.

There’s just enough time for a swift one at the bar before it’s time to head back to the Cobra Cabana. Once again there are long lines to get into the party – longer than the previous day, in fact. Also as before,the bouncers are none too keen on letting the party members into the club until Max gives them a bung to let them in.

The party members once again start to mingle with the crowd in order to try and find some more clues. After a while making investigations, they learn that the Overbluff is holding a private party in the basement and get the password to join in with it.

They head on down and see that the party is fairly packed. They look around to see if they can see the Overbluff, but can’t find him. Either he is not there or is very well-disguised. They spend a couple of hours at the party and are just about to give up when Taeva gets in conversation with a rather ill-looking playboy who is also about to head off. The playboy tells her that he has tickets for the race for himself and several of his retainers, but he is feeling very rough and so thinks that he will have to cancel. He offers to sell them to the party members for Cr. 1000 each. Still a little wary after nearly falling for the fake tickets the previous evening, Taeva asks Max if he can check them. Max is talking to a girl and is not that happy at being interrupted until Taeva throws him one of her scowls, at which point he reluctantly comes over to take a look at them.

He checks them carefully and nods:

“Yeah, they’re kosher,” he agrees, and pays the man for the tickets.

He then quickly heads back to try and resume his conversation with the girl, only to find that she has gone.

With the race starting at 8.00am, the party members decide to head off in order to get some sleep and then to check out of the motel in plenty of time.

Max takes some persuading at coming along with them, but eventually agrees as he still can’t find the girl.

He is very sullen on the cab ride back to the hotel. Autumn tells him to get over her:

“What was so special about her anyway?” Autumn asks.

“Her name was Lola,” Max sighs. “She was a showgirl. With yellow feathers in her hair and a dress cut down to there. At the Cobra, Cobra Cabana.”

“Oh I saw her yes. Fairly convincing for a Transvestite,” says Taeva with a glint of malicious amusement. “I didn’t realise you swung both ways Max but you live and learn.”

“Bollocks was she,” Max replies grumpily. “I checked. She let me cop a feel.”

“With Max’s…er…enhancements, there’s enough to satisfy both sexes! He could probably roger a barnyard full of animals to boot and never get fatigued. Why, I happen to have a copy of his cyberAug statistics right here, just in case I need to perform field repairs, and did you know he can…” as Grim reads down the spec sheet everyone gets more and more disgusted until Max breaks in,

“Enough you bloody wanker! Even I don’t want to know all the gory details!”

“Ah yes” interjects Grim “That brings us to section 4.2a. Did you know that wanking with the ‘firehose’ setting on high can lead to severe dehydration?”

“Well, at least we found out why there’s a year’s supply of electrolyte tabs in the cargo bay,” says Stian.

“So now I now why the robojanitor’s mop keeps getting so gunged up so we have to replace it every month,” laughs Autumn, wrinkling up her nose. “Gross.”

“Oh just fack off the lot of you,” Max shouts back at them.

He sulks all the way back to the motel, where everyone heads off straight to bed.

After a thankfully quiet and uneventful jump, the Princess safely emerges from jump at 02.00 and starts on the four hour journey to Moffett Field. As the ship gets closer to the world, they can see that there are a lot of ships in system, many of which are in orbit above the downport, with shuttles hard at work transferring passengers from the ships to the surface.

Fortunately, as the Princess is relatively small compared to most of the ships in system, the SPA is able to allow them to land. As Will taxies towards the spot of empty tarmac on the edge of the downport, everyone looks around. They have managed to patch up the starport well over the past ten months since they were instrumental in defeating the rebel attack on the base and everything looks calm, although Jie notices with interest that there is still a large Imperial Marine presence and they are obviously on high alert due to the presence of so many important offworlders.

Customs is fairly strict here and so it is a couple of hours before Autumn and Max have gone through all of the paperwork and all of the passengers have disembarked.

Max immediately gets to work on trying to find a buyer for the trade goods, wanting them out of the way in case the Princess needs to make a rapid departure. While Max does his rounds of the merchants, the others try and get information on the Overbluff and his airship, the Baischormth.

Jie heads over to the bar and heads up straight to the first group of off-duty marines she can find. It only takes her one quick round to discover that there is not much going on here at Moffatt Field – all of the VIPs and the airships are to be found in the capital, Delis.

The party members decide that, this case, that’s where they need to be. They call Max over the commos and tell him that they are heading into town. Max asks them to pay the mortgage off at the Hortalez et Cie branch while they are there as it’s 10 days overdue now. He tells them that he will catch up with them in the evening.

The party members grab a couple of ground car taxis and make the short 25km journey into town, stopping off at the bank. While they are inside, they spot the manager, Sergei Petterson, who was the one who did the deal with them to buy the Princess off Kiimii. He remembers them well as a result of the party members saving the bank from the armed robbery. He invites them for a drink and a chat after they have brought their account up to date. He seems happy enough, avoiding asking any difficult questions about the fact that their payments indicate that they have not been keeping to the routes that they said they would be taking.

With the race not due to start for the best part of 48 hours, they realize that they need someplace to stay and so start looking for a hotel. Due to the number of VIPs in town for the race, all of the decent hotels are full, but they eventually manage to find room in a run down motel on the edge of town.

Once they have checked in, they ask where the race is being held and discover that it is being held in a field a couple of km out of town to the north of the city. They get back in the cabs and head over there to take a look.

They see that there are ten airships moored at the field – expensive machines which use a combination of helium and anti-grav technology to create vast, sleek craft. The Baischormth is quite easy to find, standing out among the others. It is being guarded by some members of the Nattichippin mercenary Company, while security for the entire event is being taken care of by Imperial Marines.

Realizing that there is no easy way onboard the Overbluff’s ship, Jie leads the party members to speak with the Captain who is in charge of security here. The Captain remembers the party members from last year and is generally very accommodating. Jie tells him what they have learned about the Overbluff’s nefarious plans. The Marine Captain is a little skeptical, however, explaining that they have checked each of the airships very carefully and there are definitely no weapons onboard any of them. When he sees that Jie is not backing down from her claim that easily, however, he tells her that they will check the Baischormth again closer to the start of the race.

With all of the airships being tethered some 50m off the ground and access only being possible from a tower, there are no easy ways of getting onboard the ship and so the party is going to have to try something other than stealth if they want to check the ship themselves. They ask around and find out that most of the dignatries are going to be attending a party later that evening at the Cobra Cabana – the hottest club in Delis.

Seeing no point in staying on site any longer, the party members head back to their motel in order to get changed into their eveningwear collection, realizing that they are going to have to smarten up if they are to be allowed into the club. Autumn gives Max a call and tells him where they are. Having had no luck in finding buyers for the party’s trade goods at the starport, Max heads over to join them.

They head down to the club at 21.00. They see that there is a long line of people trying to get in. It would appear that simply dressing the part is not going to be enough to get them in. The party members attempts to talk their way in does not get them past the bouncers and so it falls upon Max and his bribery skills plus Cr. 500 before the velvet rope is lifted.

Once inside, the party members start to mingle. After an hour, Jie comes up to the others sounding all excited:

“I found a guy who has some spare tickets,” she says. “And they are only Cr. 100 each!”

The others don’t share her excitement, realizing that there is no way that genuine tickets to such a prestigious event would be going so cheaply.

The party members ask to meet the seller and Jie directs them to a weasel-faced man. The other immediately shuffle him into a corner and start to apply pressure upon him. Once he sees what he is up against, he breaks down and admits that the tickets are faked. He is a forger – and not a terribly good one at that – he doesn’t seem to have any connection to the Overbluff.

While the others are deciding what to do with the forger, Taeva spots a familiar figure slipping out of the club – it looks like the Overbluff. She immediately decides to follow him at a safe distance. She follows him down a dark alley and watches on while he changes his identity before heading out of the other side of the alley and onto another main street. Here he hails a taxi and then heads off. Taeva tries to hail a taxi for herself to continue the pursuit. She is out of luck this time, however, as there are no other cabs around and so is forced to watch the Overbluff disappearing into the distance.

With a sigh, she returns to the club to tell the others what she has seen.

The party members hang around for another hour, but with the Overbluff definitely not there any more, there seems little point in staying longer. Having not gotten much sleep the evening before due to the Princess’s early arrival that morning, the party members decide to head back to the motel to get a good night’s sleep. After all, they still have another 30 hours before the start of the race.

After spending three weeks dirt (or water) side, all of the party members are quite pleased to get back to the modern conveniences of the Princess and to their normal routines.

It’s time for monthly repairs which Grim doesn’t mind at all having missed his time with the engines. Max and Autumn spent the whole day looking for cargo and passengers respectively.

Early on the day of departure, Will pulls the Princess away from its berth and takes her out for a quick orbit of the planet so that Grim can check on the drives. Will brings her down far away from any of the landmasses of the world and then starts to skim water in order to refuel the tanks. Once the gauges are showing that the tanks as full, he pulls her back up, bringing the ship back up to the highport.

During the afternoon, the trade good which Max bought start to arrive – 50 tons of petrochemicals that he bought off a trader who didn’t get a good enough price for them on Pagaton, plus a couple of bulldozers which all but fill the Princess’s hold. With Arvor now gone, Stian is roped in to help Taeva check the cargo for any traps or stowaways before Jie loads them into the hold. They find nothing untoward there, however.

Late in the afternoon, the passengers start to arrive. Autumn has done a good job in selling tickets, filling all of the low berths and also the staterooms with Mid passages. Taeva checks all of the passengers documents and possessions carefully, suspicious that the Overbluff may be trying to sneak someone on board. None of the passengers are armed, however – they mostly seem to be workers of different classes heading to Tarkine in the hope of making a better life for themselves than in the crowded low-tech cities of Pagaton.

By 20.00, all are comfortably onboard and so Will pulls the ship away from the highport once again and sets off for jump diameter while Miranda sets to work on feeding everyone. The party members in their dress uniforms mingle with the guests during the welcome dinner, keeping their ears open for any signs of trouble, but the passengers all seem to be a fairly decent bunch. They stay up drinking after dinner has finished, past midnight until a little after 2.00am, when the ship safely enters hyperspace. With all of the viewing ports now closed, everyone finishes off their drinks and heads for their staterooms to get a night’s sleep.

The party members wait until 2.00am to ensure that everyone in the place who should be asleep certainly is.

Taeva makes the first move, opening up the door that leads from the guest rooms to the main part of the building. She sees that there are two guards stationed down the corridor precisely to stop anyone from doing this. Taeva mumbles some apologies about looking for the bathroom and heads back inside.

Instead they look at exploring the building from the outside. Climbing through a window is simplicity itself for Taeva. With there being no sentries on the ground – only a guard at the front door and the two on the roof, she finds that it is simple enough to move around outside unseen providing that she stays close to the walls. Stian also sends his recon drones out of the window to assist Taeva with the recon.

After 30 minutes, they have a pretty good idea as to the layout of the place. There appear to be quite a few people in the rooms either side of the main entrance but, apart from that, the place appears to be relatively quiet – everyone appears to be sleeping.

Taeva returns and they make their plans. They decide to make sure that, if it all ends up in a big fight, that the Overbluff can’t escape or communicate with their ship. Taeva and Grim head off to make preparations. Taeva heads off to the communications array and places charges which she can trigger remotely if needs be.

Grim, meanwhile, heads to the landing strip and removes the start motors from both the helicopter and the executive jet. Neither of them run into any guards while they are on their mission and, an hour after they left, they slip back into the guest rooms once more.

They spend a while planning on their next course of action before Taeva heads out again. This time her target is the basement of the building. She manages to get in and out of it without waking any of the guards. She finds eight more of them asleep in their bunks, but there is no sign of The Connoisseur. She heads back to the others to report.

Having now explored the basement and realizing that it is too risky to explore the remainder of the ground floor, the only other part of the building worth checking out is the upper floor. Stian’s recon drones have determined that it looks as if there are only a couple of people sleeping up there, with a couple of guards posted as look outs.

Taeva sees that she can explore much of the area without alerting the guards and heads back up there. She enters an area which seems to be a lounge area and takes the only other door off there. She is in luck – this appears to be the Overbluff’s private office area – an office area which contains a computer.

Silently she heads back down and alerts Will. Will comes with her and, although the Captain is no stealth expert, with Taeva’s assistance, she manages to get him up to the office without alerting any of the guards.

Will’s computer skills allow him to bypass the Overbluff’s password without too much difficulty and he spends half an hour rifling through the contents of the computer while Taeva keeps watch at the door.

The contents of the computer lead him to believe that The Connoisseur is not being kept on the island – although he was definitely here a couple of months ago. Will’s eyebrows raise in alarm as he pieces together the Overbluff’s nefarious plot. It appears that he is currently on Tarkine where there is a major airship race planned in around three week’s time. The Overbluff is planning on taking down the Imperial entry, which will be filled with some of the most important Imperial nobility and dignitaries from District 268 and neighboring subsectors.

Realizing that this is where the party members need to continue their investigations, he logs off and heads back to the guest quarters with Taeva to reveal the information to the others. Realizing that they have all of the information that they need from the island and not wanting to tip off the (fake) Overbluff to their intentions, Taeva and Grim quickly head out to remove the explosives from the communications array while Grim replaces the starter motor on the helicopter and jet. By the time that they have both finished, they just have time to return to their quarters before first light creeps over the horizon.

The party members have time for just a couple of hours of sleep before the Overbluff’s Lieutenant invite them for breakfast with the Overbluff. The Overbluff is looking rather worse for wear still after the excesses of the previous evening (as is Max). Neither he nor the Lieutenant give any indication that they were aware of any nocturnal pursuits.

Once breakfast is wrapped up, the Overbluff shakes each of them by the hand and thanks them for their company. The party members are then escorted back to the helicopter in order to make the return journey back to Soumester.

After an uneventful ride, the party members arrive back in the bustling city a little after lunchtime. The helicopter pilot heads back immediately after dropping them.

Realizing that there is little left for them to do now on Pagaton, most of the party members stay where they are, awaiting for the next shuttle to take them up to the highport. Jie and Taeva, meanwhile, head back to the port so that they can give the gunboat crew the message that they should return to their floating village. The gunboat captain is a little disappointed that the party members aren’t going to help with the SeaHarvester problem, but wish them the best on their mission.

Jie and Taeva return to the skyport and take a later shuttle up to rejoin the others back on the Princess. Autumn is very relieved to see everyone back and is also happy to have some company, having gotten rather bored being on her own for the past few days. Max is at work already in selling off the cargo and getting some new goods for trading, well aware of the fact that replacing the AGC is going to cost some serious cash and there is another mortgage payment due. Autumn starts looking for passengers, having set departure time for 20.00 on 212.