(Played on 27^th October 2024)

From Tremen's notes

After a short break to clean up and have a short nap we return to Section 9's offices and discuss the latest findings. More importantly though there are have been another 5 masher-style murders overnight while we were in the sewers. The murders all occured between midnight and 1am and were spread out around the city night with no obvious pattern and clearly physically impossible for a single person to do (and clearly not Masher as we were all in the sewers at the time).

After an extensive search of the net Wakiya discovers that the symbol crops up more than once, although it is slightly different each time the basics remain the same. The top search results are a Mercenary company in South America called "Isqun Umayuq Mach’aqway", a publishing company in South Africa called "Inyoka yamakhanda ayisishiyagalolunye" and an antiques company called "Neuf mères". Of these only Neuf mères has any presents in Newport City, a small warehouse on the waterfront in the port at Dejima.

In fact the team discovers (with Ricky having the best memory) that the nine pointed star was used as an emblem by the thugs we encountered just a couple of days ago. In fact it rapidly becomes apparent that the Neuf mères warehouse was one and the same warehouse where we found the body of Hoga Itami. Pulling up the survelliance camera for that area shows that the area is now relatively clean and tidy (there is still the wreck of a burned out car, but that's actually about it for the debris from the fight scene. The camera just about shows one of the outside edges of the Neuf mères warehouse. Pulling the maps and plans for the area shows no obvious overlook for the warehouse, which has several windows on the upper storey, a main loading roller door and a couple of double doors on side walls.

After discussing equipment options and requistioning a Tachikoma as backup we head to the warehouse.

The warehouse is strangely clean, tidy and, despite having many boxes and even shipping containers, remarkably empty (the boxes and shipping containers are empty). After some considerable searching we find a grate in what should be a bathroom (it only has a washbasin apart from the grate). We lift the grate and it reveals a shaft and ladder about one person wide leading downwards.
We head down the ladder - it is a long way down (well below the water level of the adjacent harbour!). In fact our ears pop as we descend and eventually arrive at a small 8x8 metre room with a corridor leading onwards.

Heading down the corridor there is a long window on the left hand side of the corridor which shows outer space as far as we can see. We seem to be in some sort of asteroid or microsatellite!
Despite that worrying view we continue to the end of the corridor where there is a similar 8x8 metre room with a shaft and ladder leading up. At this point Tharbinsan realises that perhaps we should left the Tachikoma know where we are and heads back.

The rest of the team climbs the ladder into a cave! The scene that greets us as we exit the cave is unnerving to say the least. We are stood on an outcropping jutting out from an escarpment
that stretches of east and west. From this vantage point you look out over a vast forest that extends beyond what our eyes can see. Everything is bathed in a harsh green light, the air is breathable but there is a slight musty taste to it.

As we watch there is subtle movement out over the forest and a slowly building hum. The hum builds and builds and then there is a blinding flash and a view of a beam of light launching itself into the sky. There is also the appearance of a pressure wave heading our way and we rapidly retreat back into the cave and down the shaft and back to the warehouse.

Alien world?

As we emerge back into the warehouse there are several rumbles and crashes and then a fountain of seawater erupts from the grate and subsides. Shocked and bemused (and, in Tremen's case at least, worried about our sanity) we return to Thatbinsan and the Tachikoma (Tharbinsan is unable to find any evidence of hallucinogenics).