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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ptolemy" data-source="post: 9276568" data-attributes="member: 1412">211-1080Week 1We spent three days in confinement and were almost constantly interrogated. On release we had the freedom of the Starport but couldn’t leave. Not that we could without Highndry. Our team included an ex-scout, an ex-marine and a member of the high nobility. I didn’t have anything going for me other than that paper I had written on the end of the Ancients which had a load of citations. But at least it made me look like a regular citizen. We booked into a hotel and tried to relax. After a couple of hours we met up for dinner and ran into some ex-military buddies of Lilly’s. One anyway, a Vargr named Hurgen who had been a gunner on a ship Lilly had served on. He was with two others, both ex-army, Rexacora, a female Aslan who had been a tank driver and Adhza who was a mechanic. It isn’t common that you meet female Aslan in the Imperium so Rexacora piqued our interest. She seemed normal enough, less of the bravado than the male Aslan. We all got on.Over the following days Peter made repeated requests to be given parts to repair Highndry and permission for us to go back to Mithral. Naturally, each request was denied. Helena spent a lot of time putting together a something-or-other. She still believed that we had a legal right to the ship we took from the mercs. Some kind of anti-piracy salvage law. It sounded gibberish to me, but then what do I know. Vasquez and I spent time in bars and exploring the starport. The Bothildrs met up with us after a few days. There were due to jump to Biter the next day. We all went for dinner and listened to their plans (which include returning to Mithral!) and they wished us well. They are a nice enough family and we genuinely wished them well. It made me feel better. It was good to know the Bothildrs didn’t think of us a monsters.Week 2We received a reward for recovering the Sword Worlder spy’s data. 25,000 credits, not a huge amount but not bad either. Peter had been told that for diplomatic reasons Mithral was closed to Imperials, so recovering Highndry was not going to happen anytime soon. It was getting boring on Wardn Starport but we didn’t have clearance to leave. It was obvious that we would be cleared of wrong doing after we received the credits for the data chip. The encrypted data on the ship had turned out to be highly incriminated including orders to kill everyone at the base . It also included information regarding the people who had employed the mercenaries. A group of smuggler-traders had feared that the spy had collected data which would reveal some of their dodgy dealings so had wanted him eliminated. They probably succeeded. Warrants were being issued. Helena assured us that the diplomatic problems and the closing of Mithral to Imperials was the normal posturing which both sides indulged in and didn’t mean anything. It might last some time, though. Peter found some dataset news programs which named the Highndry as a “Imperial asset” and speculated on what had happened. A variety of conspiracy theories sprang up. It was quite amusing but also a little worrying.Week 3Peter joined us for lunch late today. He had be delayed by a call from a naval officer who introduced himself as Captain Wight.“Funny thing, he was wearing a naval officer’s uniform but no rank insignia.”“F***. That means intelligence. What did he want?” - Helena."He said that he had heard that we are currently stranded without our ship and that maybe he could move things along for our group. But he is distracted by problems in the Gorram system. A search and rescue team quit and they were having problems replacing them. Long story short, he wanted me to step in and be temporary S&D for Gorram. Three months tops. I would need a team of 6-8 and a mix of skills, but nothing out of the ordinary. He said he can get us cleared to leave Wardn and will pay for middle berths to Strouden where he will cease to have anything to do with it. He is just helping out a friend. Well, what do you think? We get off this station, get in the good graces of the Imperium and it might speed up getting Highndry back?”“Did he mention Highndry?” I asked.“No, only that he could help speed some things up,” Peter replied with a frown.There wasn’t much to talk about. We all felt bored here, and a little apprehensive about what would happen to us. We liked the idea of getting away from here, a few credits in our pockets and to be seen to be keen to help the Imperium. None of us are keen to help the Imperium, but we want to be seen to be keen.“Okay, he asked me to let him know by the end of the day. I’ll send a vid.”“We are only four, though…” - VWe talked it through a bit more and then went to see if the Vargr and Aslan who we had met the other day were still on station. They were and they were still looking for work so we hired them. We didn’t know rates but we had decided we would pay a going rate to anyone we hired and pool our own share of the pay. The Vargr and Aslan were hired by us, not the navy. Peter left to make his call.At Lunion 255-1080The liner we booked on came out of jump smoothly enough, but ran straight into problems after Tenalphi. We had taken berths on a free trader from Wardn to Tenalphi where we only stayed for a couple of days. Then we took passage to Shirene on the aforementioned liner. Tenalphi is a strange place. A mixture of Imperial and Sword Worlder cultures. It’s pretty high tech and it seems anything goes. Certainly almost any weaponry is available. The four of us bought good quality stunners. All our weapons apart from our sabres had been impounded on Wardn. We wanted to be able to defend ourselves without killing people, if possible.Instead of approaching the Starport and engaging in the usual negotiation regarding docking priorities we just waited. It was only when we didn’t get an update on arrival times that we thought to ask the stewards. Apparently there was a problem at the Starport. Peter jumped online and a few moments later he called us over.“You better look at this,” he said in a deadpan voice.We all watched the news in horror. A bomb had gone off in the customs area of Shirene Starport. Ine Givar had claimed responsibility. A retaliation for the unprovoked incursion on Mithral and the attempted annexation of that planet by the imperium! What the f***? We didn’t know what to say or think. I know I didn’t, anyway. It had only happened a few hours previously and all ships were being redirected to Lunion. Tankers were making the rounds providing sufficient fuel for a single parsec jump. We had to wait for our turn to re-fuel. The jump to Lunion and then a subsequent jump back to Shirene would put at least two weeks on our journey. So it goes.Lunion Starport was overcrowded which made it an unpleasant place to stay. Hundreds if not thousands of people sort lodgings and sustenance. Bars and restaurants were busy and hotels were expensive. We witnessed a couple of fights and had to restrain Vasquez at one point when some tipsy Aslans barged past us rudely. Rexacora didn’t like Lunion. There are a lot of Aslans and she doesn’t conform to the common gender roles of mainstream Aslan culture. Vasquez understood, although she was argumentative at first. We booked on an A2 headed  towards Strouden after only two days of being stranded on Lunion and considered ourselves lucky. We had more luck when several other passengers were taken on at Sharrip who all wanted transport to Strouden. The diversion only set us back three weeks.Stroudon 283-1080Captain Hammond was a decent bloke and we all got on with him. After two jumps in Mark’s Moustache and a few days in Sharrip we had become friendly. Arriving in a system like Strouden when you are on the bridge is very different form being in your stateroom playing Annually on your comm. We had virtually zero velocity when we entered and therefore when we left jump-space, which I was glad about. Blocking the planet entirely was the vast bulk of a Galika class freighter, nearly 200,000 tons displacement. Jane, the only crew member who wasn’t a Standard Engineer Droid started the dance with the Starport regarding docking times. We received the usual order to go into orbit and to wait for a time. There was over a dozen minor ships: As, A2s and Empresses, along with an array others. There was Mary-Ann and Yamamoto, both Galoof class freighters the size of light cruisers, passenger ships, subsidised liners and jumping in behind us a Maru class merchant, the Leong Xin’ai. We looped ‘round the Galika, Ip Man, and made for the planet. As we got closer we adjusted course to slot into the designated holding orbit. A Subsided liner, the Aimshi, slide out of the Starport and found a space between the passenger ship Mauritania and a Reach class freighter, Kaagira. Shortly after entering into orbit we received our docking time, over 4 1/2 hours wait! Round we went. The ships computer uploaded the local net as soon as we left jump-space and everyone’s personal computers and comms updated from the ship. We had waited a good few hours when we had an update putting us back a ship. We all knew we would have to wait for the heavy freighters to be dealt with, particularly Ip Man, but it was annoying when an executive yacht, Helena’s Fancy, jumped in and stole our slot. The look on Helena’s face was unreadable when Lilly said, “Hey, Helena, it’s your yacht, pulling rank”. It was her yacht, which her father had named after her when he bought it as a graduation present for her. But we didn’t find that out until she started ducking round corners every time she thought she heard her brother’s voice on the Starport.</blockquote>

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