Traveller Session 13

Game Date

211-1105

Location

Iderati → Ucella → Bularia → 886-945

Preparations for departure have gone smoothly and you've completed the small amount of maintenance needed between jumps (The annual maintenance covers the major overhauls and servicing, but there is always some inexpensive checks that must be made between jumps).

Chase and Earl hear that Captain Vexar's activities have picked up lately.

Permission for take-off is denied as we await agents, four of them arrive at our dock with a warrant to search our vessel based on reports of us carrying Imperial contraband. We are only carrying standard cargo, so permission for them to board is given as we have nothing to hide. They will not provide us with any information on our accuser. Masuyo however accompanies them and makes sure they make quick work of their search, they are thorough and make a general search, the only information we get from them is that it came from an anonymous tip off... Masuyo asks Chase to check on all recently departed and currently departing ships. The Customs agents do not find anything, all the paperwork has been thoroughly checked and signed by Captain Earl. Only two ships have left within the past hour, a Far Trader and a Bulk Cargo Freighter. Junebug is suspicious in regards to our delayed departure. Launch clearance is finally given and our jump plot is successful.

Masuyo asks me to look through all the engine and power systems and to keep an eye on things just in case of sabotage. As far as I can tell everything is running fine. The standard Jump nausea has passed so it should all be fine, but I will keep a watch on everything anyway.

The view of Ucella Town as seen during the approach.

We reach our destination without incident and plan to land at the D-class star port, as we radio for landing permission, we are instead directed to land in a nearby playing field next to the river, we request authorisation to refuel from the river which is granted. LSP have had an accident of some kind is what we have been told. The star port will send trucks to us for unloading our cargo. Junebug decides to stand guard on-board for this as she is again suspicious. As we come in for our landing Chase makes a flyby the Star port which is no longer there, (smog causes visibility issues) but what we can see is a 10,000 ton freighter lying in what was the star port. We land and set up our hoses for the water refuel transfer.

I make quick check on all our power systems and all is good.

According to the star port staff LSP are crap, they have been planet-side for twenty years and own the star port for their freighters, but sometime within the last week one of them took off then crashed a few minutes later taking out the star port as well as the freighter. They are not overly forthcoming with information on repair times etc. The Merchants Hall is open for us to be able to acquire more standard cargo for our next stop.

There is nothing of note happening (aside form the crashed freighter) for the day that we are on the planet surface, no strange incidents, we do have Kimbley sniff at the cargo as it is loaded to check for anything untoward which is great practice for her.

We request launch approval and offer to pass on the information regarding the star port to Bularia which is our next stop. Our Jump this time was slightly more turbulent than usual and the nausea lasted a bit longer than normal as a result. I need another 8 week study period to up my Engineer(Power) to 2.

View on approach to Bularia Town

We reach 110 diameters from Bularia (due to Jump), and contact star port control for landing permission and are assigned docking pad 7. We are informed that refuelling is 100 credits per tone of unrefined fuel. We pass on the news about the star port on Ucella, and we are thanked for the news and told an advisory note would be issued. We land and offload our cargo and pay for some fuel. We don’t take any cargo from Bularia as our next stop does not have a star port but they seem very keen to sell us their grain, we ask if they can keep 20 tons of it for our return trip. Bularia is an agricultural world.

We all decide that this is a great opportunity to have some down time, 2-3 days, Chase heads to the pub to glean some information/gossip, and finds that a fair amount of non Imperial traffic comes through here from the Sword Worlds, Zodani and Darrians. Chase is approached by a journalist about the LSP freighter on Ucella but declines to give any information. He does ask about entertainment in the area and is told that there are dances and radio stations available and there is gambling as well (music and dancing is 1930's style). Chase tries out the gambling with a few bets and breaks even, while doing this he hears that pirate activity has increased which is unusual for Bularia. Traders have seen some action with laser scoring on the hulls. There is no specific route which stands out as being targetted. Masuyo and I offer to keep watch on the ship so Junebug can Get Kimbley out for some much needed fresh air and exercise and longer walks. Our downtime winds down and we plan for our next Jump.

Launch clearance is given and we perfectly plot and execute our Jump. The trip is smooth and we all continue with our training/education. We emerge from Jump and a familiar level of static comes across on comms. We head for the systems gas giant as fast as possible, as the jamming affects the sensors too. We all dash for the windows to see if we can visually see anything unexpected, Cyn tries the sensors again but we are sitting in a ball of static and it's no use. Possible pirate activity, there are no active scans only passive ones. The jamming does appear to be coming from the plant we have been sent to survey, which seem to have a frontier style installation. We put the gas giant between us and the planet and any further scans do not net us and further information. The jamming does not appear to be affecting any of the other plants in the system, so we discuss our options for approaching the plant. We talk about trying to approach when the installation is on the dark side of the plant but as it is tidally locked to the gas giant this is not an option. we decide to approach with minimal systems online to leave as little signature as possible for any scans, which will essentially make us appear as a falling rock. as we will be running with very minimal life support we all put on our Vacc suits and put Kimbley into an emergency Vacc ball, then we turn off all no essential systems and head for the planet. We aim for a near miss by the installation so we can try and land on the backside of the planet as fast as possible.