The characters settle into their cabins on the Pioneer Moon for the weeklong jump to the Solod system. The ship has taken some damage during the escape from Pryden and the fuel tanks will have to be re-filled. Solod has a type A Starport and the system has one gas giant. The plan is to jump to the gas giant, re-fuel, then proceed to the Starport to arrange repairs on the ship. While exploring the ship, Nevada finds an open low berth in the medical bay. Taking this information to the rest of the characters, they are concerned that they may not be alone onboard. They begin to fan out to the various decks in search of any possible stowaways. Nevada goes back to the Medical Bay to inspect the open low berth. All he can tell is that the berth was sealed months ago and opened around the time they got onboard on Pryden. He also sees the numbers “1451-9” noted in the low berth’s log, but apart from that there is no other information. Fred and Ethan search the cargo bays on the mid and lower deck, while Jack proceeds to the upper deck. While searching the galley Jack finds a half-eaten sandwich and a nearly full glass of milk on a table. This looks recent and wasn’t there when they boarded. Looking into the open door of the port side storage room, he can see a few boxes knocked off the shelf. Rather than go in alone, he calls the rest of the crew to join him. They take covering positions as Jack enters the storage room calling out for whoever is there to come out. Peering around the tall shelves, he doesn’t see anyone. Threatening to shoot if the intruder won’t reveal themselves, he hears a noise coming from on top of one of the shelves. Climbing down from her hiding place is a young girl about 11 or 12 years old, looking very afraid. The girl has dark hair and curious facial tattoos and is too frightened to speak at first. Tegan helps calm her down a bit and when Nevada asks, she says her name is Kiza A’lcaan. They ask if she’s hungry (she is) and then sit her back down at the table with her sandwich and glass of milk. According to Kiza she was abducted, along with her parents, from her home world of Traak. She doesn’t know why and doesn’t know how she got onboard the Pioneer Moon. She only remembers men breaking into her family’s house, putting a bag over her head, and then passing out. When she woke up, she was in the low berth on board the ship with the door open. She avoided the guards and when she heard shooting, she climbed the shelves in the galley storeroom and hid until it seemed over. When it got quiet for a while, she came back down to find something to eat. Then hearing someone coming up the ladder (Jack), she ran back to the storeroom to hide again. Nevada thinks the tattoos look familiar but can’t quite place them. Feeling more comfortable, she gobbles down her sandwich and milk, then asks Nevada: “How did you know to look for me?” “Well, Kiza, you left the door open on the low-berth, so we knew someone was here,” he replies. “No I didn’t.” she says, “I made sure to close it behind me.” The characters and Tegan look at each other as they realize Kiza wasn’t the only stowaway.

Taking a taxi to the address provided by Tronstadt the characters and Tegan find themselves on a dimly lit street in front of an unmarked door. High walls topped with razor wire block the view of the large warehouses and windowless buildings of Pryden City’s industrial district. With no one else about at this late hour, the characters mange to force open the exterior door. A second door locked door is behind the first, but it too is forced open to reveal a long, darkened hallway. Making their way forward into a lit portion of the warehouse they peer past two large hangar doors into a larger chamber containing cargo boxes and barrels and an air car. A few workers are going about their business while a couple of guards stand by. On the far side of the room are two much larger double hangar doors, both of which are closed. One, however, has a built-in, human sized door that is open revealing what looks like the landing gear of a large spaceship. This must be the Pioneer Moon. Tegan enables her stealth armor, while the rest of the characters creep around the North side of the smaller chamber, avoiding the attention of the guards. The are detected, however, just before reaching the small door. A gun fight ensues, as the workers dive for cover. Tegan is nowhere to be seen, but she has presumably made a run for the ship. Following along as they engage the guards, they make it past the hangar doors into the much larger chamber housing what is indeed a 200 Ton Beowulf Class Free Trader. More guards arrive but are cut down by the accurate fire of our seasoned veterans, and eventually all make it aboard the ship. Tegan has in fact made it in ahead of the characters and is warming up the engines for a quick take off. Fortunately, the overhead hangar doors are open. A few more guards are encountered onboard the ship, but these are also dispatched, as Tegan rushes from the engine room to the bridge. She draws up the boarding ramp, seals the airlocks and initiates the launch sequence. When clear of the hangar doors, she engages the main engines, and the Pioneer Moon races upward to escape Pryden’s atmosphere with Fred in the Co-Pilot’s seat. Before leaving the system, they need to rendezvous with “The Barge” which is in orbit around Pryden. “The Barge” is an experimental, one-of-a-kind, Jump extension drive. It is essentially a large, detachable, self-contained Jump drive that can work in conjunction with the Pioneer Moon’s drive to extend Jump range. It attaches to the Moon by the “mass umbilical” so called because its mass is sufficient to make the Barge and the Moon seem like one unit when Jump is engaged. It also carries fuel and control signals between the two drives. The Barge is not streamlined and thus cannot enter a planet’s atmosphere. It also has no landing gear. It must be “parked” in orbit before the Moon can land on the surface of any planet. Racing to pick up the Barge they are attacked by three light fighters attempting to prevent their escape. The fighters are nimbler, but the Moon is well armed. Ethan, Jack and Nevada man the guns while Tegan operates the ship’s defenses, letting Fred pilot the Moon toward the barge. The fighters score hits on the Moon as Fred maneuvers the ship to simultaneously reach the Barge and provide the gunners with the best possible shots. After several exchanges of laser fire, the expert piloting and gunnery of the Moon’s new crew cause them to abandon the chase, having taken as much damage as they could stand. The Barge is recovered, and Tegan sets the Jump coordinates for the nearby Solod system where they can re-fuel and repair their damage.

Back in the Pryden system on Space Station Arges, the characters and Tegan meet German Reade who gives them a quick debrief before they all meet with Nolan Malik. “Just let me do the talking”, he says, and gives a sideways glance towards Tegan. Inside Malik’s office they find him seated at an immaculate desk on a slightly raised platform. Standing to his right is a dangerous looking woman who looks coldly at the party as they enter and seems to regard Tegan with particular contempt. A large, scarred, man in battle dress is standing on Malik’s left. Unlike the woman, he pays no real attention to the party at all, mostly looking bored and distracted as though he’d rather be somewhere else – drinking or fighting most likely. In addition to these, two armed Arges security guards flank the characters, Tegan, and Reade. Malik gives a long look at Tegan without saying anything, then turns his attention to Reade. “Well,” he says, “looks like you’ve found what we were looking for.” Reade nods and says nothing. “I trust you’ll file a report with the relevant details.” Malik continues. “Of course,” Reade says. Malik then turns his attention to Tegan, barely noticing the rest of the party. “I think you have a debt that needs settling,” he says to Tegan. “100 Million at last count.” “You know I don’t have that kind of money,” she replies, “and you know I don’t have any way of getting it without the “Moon.” “This is about precedent,” Malik says, “the money is secondary.” “Money is never secondary with Helios,” says Tegan, “also you know what happened on that last job was a total…” “What happened on that last job was that you lost some very valuable cargo,” he interrupts sharply, “and the company would like its money back.” The trace of a derisive smile can be seen on the face of the woman to Malik’s right, the man on his left remains more-or-less disinterested. “Ok, so what then,” Tegan says, “you’re gonna kill me here, in front of everybody to make a point?”, then turns to coldly meet the smiling woman’s gaze, visibly turning her derision into anger. Malik says nothing. “Look,” Tegan continues, “I know where we stand, and you don’t owe me any favors. But, you know that last job was a fluke and I can get the money back for you, I just need the Moon.” “As I said,” Malik replies, “the Moon was sold.” “And even if it wasn’t, who would crew for you with that kind of debt hanging over your head? You can’t pay them, and mercenaries generally want a share of the profits.” Tegan is silent for a few seconds, “These guys will be the crew,” she says glancing back at the characters who seem a bit surprised. “They’re your men after all, and they can keep tabs. You trusted them to bring me back here, didn’t you?” Malik, for what seems like the first time, acknowledges the characters presence in the room, then looks at Reade, then turns back to Tegan, “and you’ve discussed this with them?” “Of course!”, Tegan says, “they’ve completely agreed.” Malik looks again at the characters who can tell he’s not really buying Tegan’s story. Nevertheless, he looks back at Tegan and says: “The Moon was sold to a collector on Pryden, Galen Tronstadt, about six months ago. Its likely still on the surface somewhere. I won’t help you get it, but I’m willing to take care of any issues that might arise with the authorities. Reade, pay these men what we owe them and ask them again if this is something they really want to sign up for. This is the last chance Tegan.” The angry woman looks disappointed as the characters, Tegan and Reade leave Malik’s office. “That went well.” Tegan says. “Nobody died, now we just have to go get the Moon.” Reade pays the characters the money they are owed, and the characters agree – for real this time – to crew on Tegan’s ship, once they get it. When asked, Reade says the two people in the room were Malik’s “special” assistants, Keva Veillon (the woman), and Eric Raschke. With that the characters grab their belongings and grab a shuttle to the planet’s surface. After checking into a hotel and stashing their stuff, the characters head down to a local lounge that Tegan is familiar with. Slipping a few credits to the bouncer, they’re allowed in and being to mingle with patrons and, hopefully, get a lead on the location of the Pioneer Moon. Eventually Fred discovers that a card game is being played in the back room. After bribing the bartender with enough credits they are allowed into the game where, amongst the other players, they find Zayne Solari. Solari, was the agent for the Proteon-Arburg medical company who, previously on Arges, offered them more money than Henna Calder for the Ambustio Cerritum vaccine. Solari and the party members exchange a few terse words, when eventually the bar proprietor Hoyt Kennet comes to greet the new players. The characters quickly get down to business interrogating Kennet who reveals that the ship is being kept by Tronstadt in a warehouse in the city’s industrial district. With that they head back to the hotel, collect their things, and go to liberate Tegan’s ship.

“Because I’m the Likhamii Sapphire”, says Tegan Sabine. The characters seem to have achieved their mission on Pratt, although they didn’t find exactly what they thought they were looking for. Sabine explains that she and Malik were “partners” once, freelancing as mercenaries, smugglers, spies and nearly anything else for clients with enough credits. Malik’s ambition, however, led him into an official position with Helios Light Shipping, a frequent client. Tegan, uncomfortable with being so closely associated with a large organization, went her separate way while Malik rose quickly within Helios. She continued, however, to work with Malik and Helios until a double cross by a client in the Capital system left her owing Helios nearly 100MCr. While Tegan and Malik weren’t completely estranged, she knew that he couldn’t ignore that kind of debt and so she decided to flee to the Solomani Confederation to lay low and maybe even stay to start a new life. Malik had seized their old ship, the “Pioneer Moon” so Tegan hijacked a ship on Shaia and began making her way toward the Solomani Rim. Calling in some favors, she was able to make it via ERB to Peart. From there her destination was Patuxant, just inside Solomani space. At Jump-2, this took her through Pratt where a major malfunction in the maneuver drive forced her to land. Scanning the planet on her way down, she found the location of an abandoned mine that would likely have parts she needed to make repairs. The broken maneuver drive, however, wasn’t going to let her choose her own landing point. She managed to bring the ship down in one piece, but in the jungle, far away from the mine. While aware of Pratt’s industry, she was reluctant to make contact and risk revealing her whereabouts to Helios. It was unlikely that her “crash” would have gone un-noticed, but maybe she could get back and repair before anything was done about it. If not, well, she’d work that out when it happened. Concealing the ship as best she could, she then set out for the mine on a motorbike that had been stashed in the cargo hold when she stole the ship. Avoiding Grungs and the mine’s new inhabitants, she made it to the main power plant on level 3 and began stripping some of the generators. Midway through she heard laser fire in the rooms West of her and knew she was no longer alone. When questioned, Tegan claims to know nothing about Rovane. She speculates that whoever he is, he must have found the ship and must also have some ties to Helios. For whatever reason, he was happy to let the characters think they were trying find some kind of gem, but Tegan doesn’t know why. Clearly Rovane has been lying for some purpose of his own. Tegan agrees to follow the characters back out of the mine and deal with Rovane, figuring that’s still her best shot off the planet. She collects her tools and scavenged parts, and they head back to the wire she had placed leading up to the second level. Getting down the wire was easy enough, but climbing it requires a special harness which Tegan has. Nevada agrees to let Tegan go first, which she does. As she disappears upward into the darkness, Nevada realizes this may have been a mistake. After a few awkward moments, however, Tegan tosses the harness back down and the rest of the characters make it back to the second level. Continuing upward, they avoid the killer robot, and giant spider on the way out, and are glad to see sunlight once they reach the surface…for a little while anyway. The characters truck is where they left it, but when Fred goes to retrieve it he is narrowly missed by a shot from the West. More shots follow and the party scrambles for cover. On the Western edge of the mining pit, Rovane and his security forces have gathered and are sniping at the characters from behind large rocks. It’s clear now that this was a set up. Rovane followed the characters here to take the “Sapphire” for himself and get all the credit from Helios. The characters return fire as best as they can, but are hopelessly outnumbered. As they begin to consider an exit strategy, they notice some of Rovane’s men taking fire from beyond their position to the East. Looking behind them they see Derrick Burcham and a large group of Burchamites positioned on a ridge above a deep gully. The Burchamites provide covering fire as the characters begin to climb down their side of the gully and make their way toward the friendly forces. Just as they reach the bottom, the high pitched whine of jet engines are heard coming over the ridge. Pitor Racine, has also come to their rescue with his ship, the “Tonai Courier.” As the Buchamites continue firing on Rovane’s forces, Racine puts the spacecraft down at the bottom of the gully and lowers the boarding plank. Amidst a cloud of dust and screaming engines, the characters and Sabine, hurry on board. Racine then lifts back off and then, as the Courier accelerates and banks hard to the left, the characters see Rovane himself fall to one of the Burchamites shots. Back in space, Racine tells the characters that he was tipped off to Rovane’s plan by Sibyl Kehoe and, through her, contacted the Burchamites to help with the characters extraction from the mine. The Burchamites were all too happy to oblige if it meant confronting Rovane in their territory. With that the characters and Tegan settle in for the long trip back to Pryden.

It’s been about a 1 ½ weeks since the characters left Tammuz on their quest for the so-called “Likhamii Sapphire”, a valuable item being sought by Nolan Malik of the Helios Corporation. They’ve been directed to search the mine by Vissi Rovane, the plantation manager for Carthen-Si on Pratt, however, after conversations with Derrick Burcham in his jungle camp, some of Rovane’s information seems a little dubious. While his claim of a crashed ship seems to be true, Burcham denies Rovane’s explanation of how the Sapphire was lost. Arriving at the site of the abandoned mine in the dusty highlands of Pratt, they find the entrance, but also find evidence that someone else has arrived ahead of them. The characters are now in the cool and musty depths of the mine with only the dim emergency lighting and their own flashlights to illuminate their path. Having fought numerous insects and arachnids and one powerful, but clumsy, security robot they have discovered an open ventilation shaft with a wire leading down, obviously left by the other, preceding intruder. Descending to Level 3, the characters find themselves in a similar but somewhat quieter atmosphere. With Jack and Ethan’s armor badly damaged by the security robot, they cautiously make their way down the darkened corridors. Following a hallway South, they discover an area that leads into a larger room with what appear to be tanks for cooling water. Whether they are empty or full is impossible to say as they are too tall to see over. Searches of the smaller rooms in the area reveal nothing of value, but as Nevada approaches the Northernmost room, he spots, and is spotted by, what appears to be a giant centipede hiding behind one of the water tanks. A battle ensues, and the 1st centipede is quickly joined by another coming from the Southern water tank. While the other characters retreat into the hallway, Fred stands his ground at the entrance. As the hungry chilopods gnaw on Fred’s head, the other characters fire round after round into their segmented bodies until eventually they fall, leaving Fred’s helmet in disrepair, but the rest of the party relatively unscathed. Going back into the hallway they discover a pair of double doors. Unable to break the lock, they head North again to try another route. Moving through a few more non-descript rooms, they notice that beyond a cracked open door to the South, the area appears to be fully lit. Beyond a couple of small chambers, the area opens into a much larger section with a lowered floor that holds what appear to be several generators. On inspection, some of the generators appear to have been tampered with and one, in particular, has a ladder propped against its side and some tools scattered nearby on the floor. Moving further into the room Jack explores the raised Eastern section while Fred moves quickly off in the in the direction of the previously discovered locked doors to the West. Nevada and Ethan search the area around the generators. Fred believes he senses motion to the East in the area where Jack has searching. Looking closer he sees nothing but moves to investigate. Nevada and Ethan surmise that parts were being removed from the generators and that whoever was disassembling them left in a hurry. Ethan searches several of the crates lying about looking for armor repair parts, but then experiences the same sense of motion that Fred did, only this time near the Northern entrance to the generator room. Nevada quickly moves in that direction and when he arrives can see what appears the be the blurry outline of a figure standing in the small room through which the characters had entered moments before. The figure has seen him as well and while a face is difficult to discern, he can tell that there’s a weapon pointed directly at him. “Who are you?”, it asks in what he can tell now is a feminine voice. “Who are you?”, he replies. “I have the gun” she says. “Good point.”, says Nevada then goes on to explains that they’ve just been sent to look for a lost item. “Who sent you?” “Nolan Malik”, Nevada replies. “Nolan Malik?”, she says. “Yes”, says Nevada, “we were sent here to find a rare gem, the `Likhamii Sapphire`”. “Let me guess, you’ve never actually met Nolan Malik, have you?”, she responds. “Well, no. We were sent here by Vissi Rovane, but how would you know that?”, says Nevada. Suddenly the blurriness resolves into the figure of an attractive, though a bit grimy, woman, about 5’3” (160cm) with brown skin, bright green eyes, and wearing a dusty blue leather suit with a tall cap. “Because”, she says, lowering her weapon, “I’m the Likhamii Sapphire.”

Continuing their quest for the Likhamii Sapphire, the characters have descended into the depths of an abandoned mine on the remote planet of Pratt. According to Vissi Rovane, plantation manager for the Carthen-Si corporation and Helios’ contact on Pratt, the Sapphire arrived on the planet after the original thief had crash landed in the jungle near one corpration’s farms. Rovane claims that after apprehending the thief, his security forces were ambushed en-route to the capital city of Tammuz and the Sapphire was once again lost. He blames this attack on the so-called “Burchamites”, renegade followers of one Derrick Burcham who have left Carthen-Si’s employ to establish their own autonomous state deep in the jungle. Rovane suspects that the Burchamites have taken the Sapphire to the abandoned mine in the Northern highlands and lends the characters a vehicle and some supplies to retrieve it. After informing their pilot, Piotr Racine, that they’ll likely be away for a week or so, the characters head out for the mine. Following the rough and winding jungle road Northwest from the Starport, the characters stumble into the Burchamite camp. After a tense moment or two between the Jack, Ethan and the guards, the situation is de-escalated and all the characters are invited into the camp by Derrik Burcham himself. Burcham claims no knowledge of the Sapphire or responsibility for the attack on Rovane’s security forces. His assistant, Xeno, however does seem to corroborate part of Rovane’s story, having heard rumors of a crash landing Northeast of the Starport. Burcham has some knowledge of the mine, as his men used to go there to salvage scrap metal, but says now that the main entrance has collapsed, they’ve made few trips. The characters accept some anti-venom for Burcham as well as some warnings about the native Grung population – vicious, poisonous frog-like creatures. The characters take their leave of the Burchamite camp and head on to the mine, arriving a few days later and a little worse for the wear after fending off a Grung ambush. The mine is located in the much higher, much dryer mountains above Pratt’s thick jungles. There’s no obvious way into the mine amongst the debris, but after some searching, they discover a motorcycle propped against some cinder blocks and apparently hidden underneath a sheet of rusty metal. Closer inspection reveals that the cycle is operational but missing its energy cell. Shortly after this discovery, another sheet of metal is found to be covering an un-bolted and open hatchway with a ladder going down. This is the entrance they’ve been looking for, but it would seem that someone else has gotten here ahead of them. Climbing down the ladder they find themselves in a darkened hallway alcove. The mine’s emergency lights are on, but it is still difficult to see requiring the use of flashlights. Cautiously making their way down the dim passages they encounter several giant scorpions nesting in the debris. Fighting through these they eventually come to an open elevator shaft that leads down. Climbing the service ladder until the reach the bottom they find themselves in another dimly lit hallway down which they can make out more ant-like insects. Jack fires at one, damaging but not killing it outright. It, with another ant, then turns to attack the party. The two are easily dispatched and the party makes its way East, then South at a junction hopefully to find some way of repairing their armor which has been battered by both Grungs and scorpions. Following the South corridor, they discover a breach in the wall through which the ants have been presumably entering the mine. Curious they decide to explore the ants’ lair. Crawling through the tight, un-lit passage they find themselves in a cavernous area with an eroded pool of greenish water. Several ants are milling about in the dark corners and on the ledges of the cavern. Once attacked, the ants begin to swarm down from the tunnel to the North to defend their nest and possibly their queen. A desperate fight ensues as each of the characters is beset by multiple ants, gnawing at their already diminished armor with their sharp mandibles. Fred and Ethan take the worst of it, but eventually all of the 1st wave of ants are killed and the characters wisely decide to retreat back into the mine where they can recoup. The odds of the Sapphire being in the ants nest would seem to be low in any case. Back in the mine, they continue South, eventually finding a room that served as quarters for some of the mine’s security staff. Here they find desperately needed replacements for their broken armor plus a few weapons. Exploring further they enter a room with a raised platform, on which sat a long desk with several toppled chairs, a few crates, and an unusual number of cobwebs. Pressing further to Ethan notices movement in Southeast corner of the room, which is revealed to be a giant spider. The spider, however, doesn’t seem intent on attacking, but instead watches each character as they move. Ethan and Fred explore the desk while Jack covers them. Nevada presses East in the direction of the spider, the further he moves toward it the more aggressive it becomes, but still doesn’t attack. Fred and Ethan open some of the desk drawers on the West side of the table finding little of interest, except for a key that seems to fit another desk drawer. Ethan takes this key to the East side of the table, catching the spider’s attention, and opens a drawer to find a differently shaped key. Ethan retreats while Nevada tries to press his luck with the spider by moving further east in the room. The spider advances toward him, but again doesn’t attack. Seeing that the room is a dead end, the party heads back North towards the elevator shaft where the passage runs further East, leaving the spider to guard its web. Continuing down the passage the corridor turns South where they encounter a handful of ants, but don’t engage, allowing them to wander off into the darkness. A doorway and stairs on the Eastern wall lead to a storage room, which then leads into what looks to have been a kitchen. Here they find more ants, but these are dead already, apparently killed by some sort of energy weapon. To their South they can hear a faint, irregular clanking sound. In that direction the kitchen opens up into a mess hall where they find more ants amongst the wrecked tables and benches. The clanking sound is a bit louder. Determined to find the source of the noise the Jack moves forward followed by Ethan and Fred. Nevada thinks he sees some movement through a doorway to his West and moves in that direction to investigate. Climbing up the platfrom on South side of the mess hall Jack and Ethan move into a small room and discover the source of the clanking sound. A security robot has somehow been activated and is dutifully clearing the mine of intruders, insect or otherwise. The bot is humanoid and looks damaged with one leg dragging a bit and some scorch marks on its chest plate, but its weapons, a powerful laser rifle on its right arm and crackling shock baton on its left, seem to be working fine. Jack takes a powerful hit from the laser which wrecks his torso armor and shaves off a fair number of his hit points as well. Fred and Ethan take position behind cover as Jack retreats, while Nevada, still on the mess hall floor moves in the direction of the action. The next round from the bot is aimed at Ethan, who, in spite of cover suffers the same fate as Jack from the bot’s laser. Fighting in this constrained space seems futile so Jack, Ethan and Fred retreat to the mess hall. Jack drags a table across the doorway to slow the bot down as the rest of the party take position of cover. The bot, however, doesn’t seem to advance. In fact the clanking of its movement seems to be headed in the other direction. Taking advantage of this, the characters move to explore the East side of the mess hall where they find a narrow passageway leading South. Following this they pass a T back to the West where they can hear the bots steps coming back in their direction. Hastening South, they come to a corner that turns back to the West. On inspection they notice that in an alcove, one of the ventilation grates in the floor has been removed. There is also a metal wire and hook attached to a pipe on the wall that hangs down into the ventilation shaft. Someone has been this way, and it seems reasonable to think they might also be looking for the Sapphire, so one-by-one, the characters descend the wire down to the mine’s third level

Still speaking with Derrick Burcham, the characters learn that the company who had been running the now abandoned mine, IPT Consolidated, left the planet after control of Pratt was turned over to Carthen-Si. The operation simply became unprofitable under Carthen-Si’s lease terms and IPT left the planet about 5 years ago. Burcham says that occasionally his men go up to the mine to scrounge for scrap metal, but those trips are rare now. He has heard that a cave-in has sealed the mine’s old entrance, but that there may be elevator shafts or other ways to get in. The characters then take their leave of the Burchamites and head out for the mine. The first two days are uneventful, jungle travel having become somewhat routine after nearly 5 days on the road from Tammuz. They are just beginning to gain some elevation and can now clearly see the mountains whenever a gap opens in the dense canopy. Everything seems normal when, suddenly, the front of the truck drops and they are brought to an immediate halt. They can see that the truck has fallen into a shallow pit that has been dug in the road and concealed with dead branches and leaves. This is plainly some kind of trap. Skyburn, with Fred’s help, gets out to try and free the truck using the winch while Ethan and Jack take up lookout positions. For a while, nothing happens, but once all the characters are out of the truck and separated, Fred hears a “thunk” on the hood of the vehicle, and sees that it was, in fact, an arrow. Fred calls to the others to let them know they’re being attacked, while Ethan and Jack are suddenly confronted with multiple, bi-pedal, frog-like creatures rushing from the dense undergrowth and brandishing knives. The Grungs are springing their trap. With their weapons, claws and sharp teeth set in wide amphibian mouths, the set about attacking Jack and Ethan, while Nevada is pelted by arrows from a concealed enemy on the ridge above him. Fred takes cover and provides supporting fire for Ethan who is beset by two of the dreaded Red Grungs, the moist poisonous of the species. Fred and Ethan both damage the two Red Grungs, but one of them manages to pierce Ethan’s armor with its sharp teeth. Ethan can instantly feel the effect of the poison and withdraws back to Fred’s position to administer a dose of antivenom. Meanwhile Jack is slashing at the two non-poisonous, Yellow Grungs attacking him. Jack’s armor seems to be absorbing most of the damage, but the cutlass is less efficient that his rifle, and the armor can only hold up so long against the small, but resilient Grungs. Nevada can barely see his attacker, but manages to land most of his shots while his helmet deflects the arrows being launched at him by the Green Grung in the trees. Just as Fred and Ethan are finishing off the “Deadly Reds”, a Gold Grung bursts from behind the vegetation riding a large quadra-pedal lizard. The lizard and its rider charge at Ethan and Fred. Fred shoots at the lizard and connects as the Gold Grung dismounts to confront Fred directly with its poisonous blade and fangs. The lizard attacks Ethan, while Fred faces his new attacker, all doing and taking damage as the bullets, claws and laser beams fly. Meanwhile Jack and Nevada have dispatched their Grung aggressors, and can now turn their attention to the last remaining Gold Grung and its steed. Against superior numbers and firepower, these go down quickly and the characters are free to inspect the remains. Apart from a few knives and some leather goods, the Grung bodies don’t have much to offer, so the characters set about freeing the truck to get back on their way. Nevada, figures out how to string the winch cable under the truck to a tree behind, allowing the winch to pull the truck backwards and freeing it from the pit. That done, the characters are now back on their way to the mine. Gradually, the characters work their way out of the dense, humid environs of the jungle and up to the arid highlands where the mine is located. Following the old, sun-baked road up to the part one of the mine’s boring operations they arrive to find a terraced pit with an un-healthy looking pool of water and the rusty remnants of a large drilling apparatus. There are weathered concrete pads, with old, mostly empty barrels and piles of bent scrap metal. The characters park the truck and begin searching for an entrance. Their search reveals a circular “man-hole” type plate on a concrete pad, but it appears to be well and truly stuck, and the characters do not have a wrench large enough for the rusty bolts. Searching further Fred sees what looks like an elevator North of the pit, and with Jack and Ethan following, he begins making his way in that direction. When crossing the pipeline Fred catches the glimpse of a reflecting surface coming from Northeast near where a stack of cinderblocks sets covered by some sheets of rusty, corrugated metal. Nevada climbs up to the top of the elevator, covering the rest of the group as they investigate the cinder blocks. When the corrugated metal is pulled aside, it reveals a motorcycle, propped up against the blocks, and missing its fuel cell. Nevada has spotted another, similar piece of corrugated metal, and, with no indication of any immediate threat, climbs down from the elevator and heads toward it. While Jack, Ethan and Fred re-cover the motorcycle, Nevada pulls aside the other metal sheet which reveals another man-hole, only this one has been opened. A ladder leads into the darkness below, and all four characters climb down into the depths of the mine.

After completing their mission for Henna Calder, the characters meet back up with German Reade and his assistant Jarred Desai in the atrium of Arges Security Sector 2E. They are accompanied by another Helios employee, Ethan Kingston (Greg’s player character). German informs them that he’s met with his boss, Nolan Malik, who wants a team to go the planet Pratt (Old Expanses, 2039) to retrieve a lost item. Malik doesn’t care who Reade sends, and since the characters are here on Arges they are offered the job. According to Reade, Malik didn’t say what the item was, only that their contact on Pratt, Vissi Rovane, would tell them when they got there. Pratt is a very long way from Pryden and the travel expenses for the characters through the Pryden ERB are not insubstantial. Since the Helios company has operations in the Old Expanses, Reade speculates that this must be something Malik is personally interested in, or just doesn’t want that branch of Helios involved. Regardless of motives, Reade hands each character, Kingston included, papers that will get them all the way through to Pratt. A shuttle will take them to the “Sebe Courier” which is preparing to make the jump to Veraq (Old Expanses, 1306) in about 6 days. From there they are to transfer to the “Gaime Clipper” that will take them through the Veraq Class-C ERB to Peart (Old Expanses, 1834). After that they will be met by Piotr Racine on the Peart ERB transfer station who will take them on his ship to Pratt via normal Jump. The shuttle to the “Sebe Courier” will take nearly 5 days and the jump from Peart to Pratt will take 2 weeks. Travel through the ERBs is nearly instantaneous, however the transfers take a few days. In all the trip will take around 3 ½ weeks, a short period of time compared to the nearly 36 weeks it would take going directly from Pryden at Jump-6 (including re-fueling). The characters meet Racine, who seems agreeable enough and claims only to have been anonymously hired to take them to Pratt and wait for them there until they’re ready to go back. He’s on per-diem so after dropping them off on Pratt in the main city of Tammuz and checking in with customs, he tells them to call when they’re ready to leave again, then heads off. Pratt is basically a backwater agricultural planet on the edge of the Imperium and the Solomani Confederation. The entire planet is operated by Carthen-Si Consolidated, which runs several plantations scattered in the coastal jungle regions of the main continent. There was once also a small mining operation in the highland desert which has been abandoned for about 5 years. Residents of Pratt all work for Carthen-Si Consolidated and the character’s contact, Vissi Rovane, is the plantation manager for the entire planet. Once introduced, Vissi informs them that the lost item is the “Likhamii Sapphire”, a rare gemstone. According to Vissi, a ship crash landed on Pratt months earlier and that when his security went to investigate, they found both the pilot and the sapphire. Rovane recognized the value of the sapphire and ordered it returned to him along with the presumed thief. Unfortunately, the security caravan was attacked on the way back to Tammuz and the sapphire was lost. The thief was “interrogated” but revealed nothing of his intent, although Vissi is convinced he was headed for sanctuary in the Solomani Confederation. The thief, unfortunately, expired while under interrogation. Vissi claims that the attack on the caravan was carried out by the “Burchamites”, a group of renegades, former employees that have made an independent colony for themselves somewhere in the jungle, and for whom Vissi has no small amount of contempt. He claims that he simply doesn’t have the resources to go looking for the sapphire, but at the same time seems offended that Malik hasn’t trusted him with its recovery. He speculates that the Burchamites have taken the sapphire to the abandoned mine for safekeeping and suggests the characters search for it there. He is willing to outfit the characters for the expedition – charging the to Malik of course – and directs them to Sibyl Kehoe in the motor-pool who will provide them with a vehicle for the nearly 1-week overland journey to the mine. With that Vissi takes his leave. Sibyl is brusque, but cooperative after she confirms the characters are working for Vissi. Her disdain for Rovane is apparent and she chafes at having to send one of her working vehicles out into the wild, but she nevertheless provides the characters with what equipment she has available. Her view of the Burchamites is a bit more forgiving than Rovane’s. Led by Derrick Burcham, the so-called Burchamites do often raid for supplies, but very rarely kill any of Carthen-Si’s employees[1]. While loading the truck, Kehoe warns them of the “Grungs” which are some of the planet’s native inhabitants and who live in the jungle. Grungs are frog-like reptiles slightly larger than chimpanzees, and every bit as strong if not stronger. They come in different varieties, some of which are poisonous. She gives them some anti-venom just in case. The characters let Racine know their estimated return time, then depart Tammuz for the abandoned mine. The roads are good for the first part of the journey and the characters make good time. As they get deeper in the jungle, however, road conditions deteriorate, and the going is much slower as they wind their way along muddy pathways out to the mine. Driving uphill alongside an embankment, Skyburn sees an ATV pass across the road in front of them. The driver is going fast and does not appear to have seen them. When safe, they climb the hill with the truck and notice several tracks headed back toward the East as well as a thin column of smoke above the treeline. Jack and Fred go on foot to investigate while Ethan and Nevada remain with the truck. Moving off the road through the jungle the Jack and Fred find a thatched roof encampment with two guard towers sporting heavy weapons as well as a few armed guards on patrol. As the encampment appears to be well defended, they approach in hopes to parlay with the encampment’s inhabitants. The guards are quick to train their weapons on the interlopers, and to demand that they raise their hands and explain who they are and why they’re here. Jack and Fred explain to the best of their ability and the guards call their leader. A bearded, stocky and shabby looking man in a wide brimmed hat and tattered military fatigues approaches and introduces himself as Derrick Burcham, leader of the so called “Burchamites.” Jack and Fred once again explain the situation, and though suspicious that they’re working for Rovane, accepts their story. Ethan and Nevada join the group and Burcham invites them back to his hut where Jack shares some of his whiskey. Burcham claims never to have heard of the Likhamii Sapphire and was not involved in its theft from Rovane. Burcham acknowledges that Rovane would like additional resources to stamp out the Burchamites but cannot directly ask his corporate superiors as that would invite increased scrutiny of his operation. Nevertheless, he doubts that Rovane is trying to acquire the Sapphire for himself, as he would have no place to sell it on Pratt and wouldn’t trust anyone to take it to Peart or Veraq. It’s more likely that Rovane is trying to curry favor with Helios and collect any reward money by simply returning it. Nevada asks about the ship crash that Rovane had told them about, and while Burcham has no knowledge of it, his wiry gofer Xeno, tells them in broken Imperial that he has heard of a ship crash off to the Northwest of Tammuz and the Burchamite camp, confirm that part of Rovane’s story. [1] This is consistent with Rovane’s story in that none of the security personnel in the caravan were killed when the sapphire was taken.

The characters, German Reade and Jarred Desai (German’s assistant) arrive on Space Station Arges, orbiting above Pryden (Lishun 0316). Arges is a Coriolis class station that provides facilities and lodging for the crews of merchant ships trading on the planet, exchanging cargo, or waiting for passage through the Pryden ERB. Arges also houses thousands of full time residents providing ship and crew services as well as hosting many shipping company corporate offices, including Helios. The characters disembark in Security Sector 2E and are given cards by German which will allow them access to the sector. German also provides them with modified “non-lethal” weapons they hide and use while onboard. While German and Jarred go to meet with German’s boss, Nolan Malik, the characters are free to roam the sector. After stashing their weapons in their respective rooms, the characters make their way to the sector lounge for some refreshment. Pip the bartender servers up the fellow’s favorite libations while Nevada strikes up a conversation with a fetching young lady next to him at the bar. Her name is Octavia Corwin, a general space worker for another transport company awaiting her next job. Nevada tells her they’ve been doing “odd jobs” for the Helios corporation. She mentions that there was a woman in the bar earlier subtlety attempting to solicit some work from one of the shadier looking patrons. Octavia says she last saw the woman at a table in the Atrium and describes her. Commander Fred immediately heads off to find this woman with Jack following close behind. Nevada has a few more words with Octavia, pays Pip, then rushes to join his friends. On entering the Atrium they pass a man sitting idly on a bench near the entrance who eyes them as the pass. The woman described by Octavia is easy enough to find, sitting alone at a table working on a holo-tablet device. Commander Fred wastes no time, charges up to the table and greets her with a robust “Hi!”. Instead of calling security, she chooses to engage Nevada and Fred in conversation while Jack lingers at the bottom of the staircase. She introduces herself as Henna Calder, and despite the weirdness of this encounter, admits that she is indeed looking for someone who can help her with a “recovery.” Henna is trying to obtain several samples of a medicine being stored in a special handling section of one of the sector’s secure cargo bays. The medicine, Henna explains, was developed by an independent lab on Pryden and is a promising cure for a deadly lung disease called “Ambustio Cerritum” that is devastating the population of here mining community on Havland (Vland, O927). The lab, which Henna used to work for, was bought out in a hostile takeover by UniMed, a large pharma conglomerate. UniMed intends to bury the drug because one of its secondary effects is to inoculate against the Hydromus virus, the treatment of which is a lucrative market for UniMed in the Capital Sector. Henna offers the characters 7,500 Cr to obtain 5 samples of the medicine. She gives them a card that will open the crate in which it is stored and describes its location in the secure cargo bay. Henna tells the characters that the bay should be un-occupied – by humans anyway – around 10pm. She can open the doors for them and disable the motion sensing alarms, but cannot disable the robot sentries or the laser turrets which operate independently. She also gives them a “burner” communications device they can use to let her know when they are ready. When they’ve gotten the samples they can meet here in the docking station. The characters agree to Henna’s offer and proceed down the hall to work out their plan. Along the way they notice that the gentleman by the door has left his seat is is walking in their direction. Down some stairs and around a corner near the sector PX the characters sit down to let the man pass before discussing their options. Instead of passing however, the man walks up and introduces himself as Zayne Solari. Solari states simply that he will offer 30,000 Cr for “the same thing as Henna”. Solari, it happens, is an agent for a UniMed rival chem company called Proteon-Arburg. He ups his offer to 40,000 Cr, with 5,000 Cr up front, but the characters, un-interested in money, refuse. Solari says to see the concierge if they change their mind and he will have the earnest money for them. After Solai rleaves the characters, on a long shot chance, go into the sector PX to see if they can buy any electro-magnetic weapon, that they can use, along with the devices they obtained from German, to disable the robot security. Jack attempts to describe the sort of thing they’re looking for without revealing their true intent, however the store clerk, Monte Greaves, figures out what they want to do. The PX naturally does not sell weapons, however Monte is a bit of an electronics nerd and has a couple of devices of his own making that he’s willing to sell them for 200 Cr each. These are “grenades” that can disable electronics within a 10m radius with an electro-magnetic pulse. The characters buy both grenades from Monte and head off to get into the cargo bay. As promised by Henna the door is open for them when they arrive, and no human personnel seem to be present. The characters slowly work their way along a wall, behind some crates avoiding an eyebot. Pressing on they get the attention of a laser turret but use one of Monte’s grenades to disable it. Working their way to the far side of the cargo bay they spot what appear to be bodies on the ground just in front of the special handling area where the medicine is held. The 2nd, and last, of the two grenades is used to disable another laser turret and another sentry robot, and the characters slip forward to inspect the three bodies. Nevada recovers a handful of credits and a couple of laser pistols from one, then moves up to the terminal that controls access to the special handling area. Nevada attempts to hack the computer and gain entry but fails. Meanwhile Jack has found some more credits and laser pistols on one of the bodies, and Fred has found a notebook with some writing. The writing implies that these people were also trying to get into the special handling area and were part of a radical group called “Aareal”. With the help of some information in the notebook, Nevada is able to hack the terminal and gain entrance to the special handling area. Inside, Nevada and Fred investigate while Jack keeps watch. Fred finds the box with the medicine, opens it using the card Henna provided, and takes seven vials. Meanwhile Nevada investigates two low-berth type stasis chambers containing an elderly man and woman, both bald with tattoos. Unable to gain any more information on the people in stasis, and with time running out, he and Fred join Jack and make their way out of the cargo bay. While they avoid any other sentry robots, a 3rd laser turret fires on Jack as he makes his way between the cover of crates but misses. Jack and Nevada head for the door, while Fred advances on the turret from beneath the catwalk and disables it using the taser given to him by Reade. After leaving the cargo bay, the characters go to meet Henna in the sectors docking bay. She gratefully takes the seven vials from Fred, pays them the agreed upon 7,500 Cr., then hops on a departing shuttle, presumably on her way to Havland.

Having discovered the cargo container that was holding the saboteurs, and having accounted for four of them, the characters know that there are possible three remaining. They search a bit more near the hull breach but find no clues as to the identity or origin of the intruders. Moving further forward they find a comms terminal and relate what they’ve found to Reade and Landau. Landau asks them to scan the ID module of the open container. Jack and Fred move quickly over a raised platform to the starboard side of the forward section while Nevada and Tenken scan the ID module. As Jack steps back down onto the main deck, a laser beam streaks by him and hits the back wall. Fred pushes himself toward the starboard wall and takes cover behind a container as more laser fire lights up the darkness. Nevada and Poole soon arrive to support Jack and Fred. Fred attempts to grapple one of the intruders into submission, but just as he is about to succeed, one of the other invaders shoots his companion dead. Their foes clearly do not mean to be taken alive. A second intruder goes down leaving only the one that shot Fred’s captive and presumably the leader. The characters try to capture him as well, but before he can be subdued, he commits suicide by ripping off the glove of his own vacc suit and asphyxiating. The bodies are searched, but as with the others, there are no identifying marks or symbols on either their suits or their persons. With all the intruders accounted for, the characters and Poole recover all the bodies, including the dead crewmen and begin moving them past the heavy doors between the forward and mid sections. Poole closes the doors and atmosphere, and gravity are restored to the mid-section. Back on the bridge, the characters consult with Reade and Landau. Based on the ID module scan it’s been determined that the cargo container holding the intruders was loaded on Mimere and headed for Pryden. The motive for blowing the hole in the cargo bay was uncertain, either deliberate sabotage or escape. Reade suspects that the low berths were on timers, and that the intruders meant to wake up when on Pryden, but instead exited early due to Reade’s unplanned side trip to Khunimmam. Reade suggests that the characters make no mention of the sabotage when on Arges as Helios and Malik will want to make their own “arrangements” before involving the authorities.

As I've said before, the original Traveller rules (circa 1981) are a little unclear and/or overly simplistic. It was, at the time of its development, made for pencil and paper gameplay and, with particular respect to space combat, also for tabletop miniatures. It clearly wasn't fully thought out at the time of its original publication, but it was a great concept that gained a lot of popularity. And for good reason, RPGs were catching on and lovers of the Sci Fi genre wanted in on the action. Fast forward to today. After many years of revisions and licensed spinoffs, Marc Miller (the original creator of Traveller), started a kickstarter for "Traveller 5" in 2012, with the latest edition "Traveller 5 v5.10" being released in 2019. T5 is an extremely ambitious effort to refine and expand all the rules from character generation to space combat. While I applaud the effort and am impressed with the level of detail contained in T5, the core rulebook (5.09 anyway) is virtually unreadable, sometimes contradictory, and often indecipherable. Not to start grousing too much, but the apparent fetish Miller has for using letter designators for EVERYTHING gets confusing pretty fast (e.g. Starship Mission designation on p286). Also consider the melee combat equation on p. 185 where success is 2d6 < (Attack MN) - (Defned MN) + mods. If MN is the same for both the attacker and defender and there are no mods, then the attacker has to roll 2d6 < 0? Really? Just two people swinging at each other (and missing) for eternity? (Here's a friendlier third party T5 review) Anyway I don't want to go on too long like this because there are some aspects of T5 that I really like, even if they aren't well implemented in the official rules, particularly Nd6 vs d20. I'll probably expound on that in particular at some point, but my real purpose here is to explain the reasons for having a few special house rules. In a nutshell, that reason is to make the game more sensible and realistic without overburdening the gameplay. To achieve that, we'll be including some, likely modified, T5 rules to enhance the "depth" of the experience, and making some new rules up from scratch (which, to be honest, is kind of fun for me). Most of T5's complexity we'll just leave on the table, possibly to pick up on at a later date, or maybe never. I get that since most of us have been playing 5e for years and years, this may all seem a little complicated, but I think its really just getting used to something new. Sure it'll be awkward and slow at first, but the differences are ultimately aimed at making the games play out and "feel" like "realistic" sci fi adventures. Rules are in essence limitations. Bad ones, or too many, stifle creativity, but good ones, in the right proportion, stimulate it by requiring you to work within their bounds to solve problems and overcome challenges. (Thank you for listening to my TED talk.)

After settling into their cabins for the weeklong jump to Pryden, the characters mill about getting to know some of the crew members; - Isaiah Landau, Captain; Bradwin Decker, 2nd Engineer; Jennifer Hoover, Boson; Quincey Hooper, Medical Officer; and Sage Jacobs, 1st Mate. The Helios Bright Beacon is a Cassette type freighter so named because of its enormous external cargo “cassette” holding thousands of individual cargo pods. The cassette is roughly a rotating cylindrical shape located external to the main hull. It can easily be detached and swapped in its entirety, or individual pods can be unloaded onto cargo lighters in the destination system. While in transit, pods are routinely added to, removed from, or re-positioned on the cassette. These operations are performed from the cargo handling area which itself stores hundreds of pods. The cargo handling area is separated into three sections: forward, mid, and aft. When cargo operations are underway, the forward section is evacuated to allow moving pods to and from the cassette. The mid-section is separated from the forward by large environmentally sealed doors and is sometimes evacuated along with the forward section. The aft section is used for support equipment, is never evacuated, and is separated from the mid-section by a large airlock. As the crew are making their final preparations for exiting jump – about 48 hours prior – a ship’s alarm is triggered indicating a hull breach in the forward cargo handling area. Power, gravity and atmosphere have all been lost as a result of the breach, and, because the doors to the mid-section were open, it is affected as well. Reade, with Landau’s consent, suggests that the characters be sent to investigate. Landau tells them that one of the cargo handling crew, Tenken Poole, is in the aft section and will help them get through the airlock. Making their way up to the cargo handling area, the meet Poole who provides them with vacc suits and laser rifles; projectile weapons being tricky to use in zero-g. On exiting the port side airlock, they find the mid-section dark except for a few dim emergency lights. Cargo pods are stacked in various locations along the sides of the cavernous chamber, but securely fastened to the deck according to protocol. Jack proceeds first into the hold pushing himself upward to the top of one of the stacks. Almost immediately he is fired on by laser rifles from the direction of the forward section. Taking a big hit, Jack finds cover behind one of he pods and the rest of the party do the same, slowly making their way forward to confront their attackers. By pushing off and stopping themselves against the walls and stacked pods, they gradually close to within visual range and engage the intruders. Laser fire is exchanged as both sides alternately, and awkwardly take cover, reposition, and attack in the zero-g environment. Jack and Nevada take hits but bring themselves back up by strategic use of stim packs. Tenken Poole arrives to assist and eventually the characters defeat their foes leaving four dead bodies floating amongst between the cargo pods. Searching, they find that the intruders are wearing similar vacc suits but with no distinguishing markings. Though all are men, the bodies themselves don’t appear to have much else in common. Making their way to the forward section the find the hull breach, bodies of dead crewmen, and something else… One of the containers is open. Peering inside they find that it has been equipped for the transportation of people, not cargo. Lockers and ammo crates line the walls as well as several low-berths, used to carry humans in suspended animation over long voyages, now all empty. Counting the number of berths, they find seven, three more than have been killed so far. Clearly there’s more work to do.

Seeming to have killed the raiders in the camp the characters begin to search the various buildings. Almost immediately after letting their guard down, three more raiders appear from the bunkers at the end of the fences. These are dispatched relatively quickly, and the searching begins again. The camp contains mostly stolen supplies, ammo, a few heavy weapons and the raiders’ personal gear. Fred, however, breaks the lock on a desk drawer and finds a small box of well-worn dog tags, one of which seems to have been dyed blue. Oddly, there are no names on any of the tags, only numbers. Fred pockets the blue one and resumes searching. As Jack is collecting the heavy machine guns, the dust cloud of an approaching vehicle is spotted to the East. The characters pause their exploration of the camp and prepare themselves for another fight. Wisely choosing to wait for a positive ID before opening fire, Nevada sees that there are two vehicles approaching one being driven by Brian Cooper and another, the one the characters took from Haierburg, being driven by an unknown person. Cooper pulls up to the camp, congratulates the characters and introduces his assistant as Anton Bolkova. Cooper and Bolkova drove out from Haierburg to check on the characters early that morning. They found the vehicle Cooper had loaned the party and brought it with them once they had determined that the raiders had, in fact, been eliminated. Fred shows Cooper the blue dog tag, and Cooper claims that his father had one like that, but he didn’t know the significance of it. Jack and the rest of the party load up the weapons and anything else then can carry and head back to Haierburg. Before leaving, however, Cooper explains that instead of getting a ride back to Mimere through Shiigus Downspin, German Reade will be picking them up from Khunimmam. He is, in fact, currently in orbit above the planet onboard the freighter “Helios Bright Beacon.” The characters sell the weapons and other items they’ve taken from the raider camp, and Cooper give them a lift to the star port where the Bright Beacon’s shuttle will pick them up. Before boarding the shuttle, Fred gives the blue dog tag to Cooper who thanks him for it and wishes them luck. Onboard, Reade tells them that his superior, Nolan Malik, has called him to Pryden for an unknown reason. Reade has decided that this may be something he could use his new recruits for. Plus he doesn’t need them talking to Darron Kampf about anymore “soil sample” expeditions. The characters settle in for the weeklong jump to Pryden and get to know some of the crew.