Body Snatchers 0.1 Death Notice Jewell in the Spinward Marches, where the Survey Service dropped them at their base, was more like a combined factory and military base than a planet, but at least is was back in civilisation. Firstly it was decided thy needed transportation. They spent some weeks searching before finally settling on a  Free Trader, Type A. She was second-hand of course, more than 50 years old and a bit battered and bruised in places, but she would do. Even with the ship-shares traded-in and various discounts applied, the mortgage they had to take out with First Ducal Bank (trading heavily on Bartie's name and family connections) was still eye-watering. A month later she was comissioned, fuelled and ready to go, and they still had the bulk of the cash given them the SWA as hush-money to keep quiet about the Ancient city they had found. Enrico and Clarissa had christened the ship  Rainbow's End  and she was duly registered, as was their Free Trading company under incorporated articles. Aaron was appointed cargomaster and with able assistance from Enrico they began seeking out likely cargoes. Bartie meanwhile had recived a piece  of bad news from the Public Order Commision on Regina. His "uncle" Vlen Backett, had died and he had been appointed exectutor. Vlen was actually his mother's cousin and he hadn't seen the old rogue for years, still family was family and duty called, and besides, according to the notification from the POC, there was a substantial sum placed for expenses for recovering his remains and effects and returning them to dear old Alell. He called the others in, inviting them to dinner, at his rather posh accomodations, and they agreed to accompany Bartie to pick up his uncle's remains and transport them home. Enrico and Aaron managed to secure a cargo of several tons advanced manufactured goods and also picked up a really good deal on there tons of  cybernetcis. They also managed to pick up a couple of freighting jobs before heading out to Regina.They arrived a couple of weeks later, and were met at the starport by Inspector Norrim of the POC. Wile the others dealt with the mundane matters of trying to dispose of their cargo, Bartie was ushered off and told the shocking news that his uncle had been murdered and apparently was involved in the illegal narcotics trade.   It didn't take Inspector Norrim long to work out that not only did Bartie not know much about his uncles activities, but that he didn't know much about anything! With a heavy sigh he handed over the paperwork that would release Vlen's body and personal effects and told Bartie he could pick up the body planetside from the Credo Public Order Office. 0.2 Investigations in Credo The party spent some time working out a route from Regina to transport Uncle Vlen's body home. Eventually they settled  on Hefry > Forboldn > Knorbes >Whanga > Alell. Having decided on a route Enrico and Aaron began putting out feelers for cargoes or freight to be delivered. Clarissa meanwhile began putting the word out to anyone seeking passage. Once this had been done, they finally  headed planetside to recover Vlen's body. Eventually they made their way to the Credo Public Order Office. Despite the fact the place was mobbed with (mostly irate) citizens and harried POC officials, Bartie's insouciant charm somehow breezed them part all the normal administrative roadblocks and in short order they were escorted into the  morgue and were looking at Vlen's body. He seemed to have been shot a close-range with a single shot to the heart, but aside form that there was little apparent damage. Bartie quickly made arrangements for the body to be shipped up to the Rainbow's End, and took possession of Vlen's belongings after which they headed back up to the hIghport. There was nothing particularly interesting in Vlen's belongings other than the fact there was 13,400 credits  there - so the motive for the murder was not robbery! After a while they decided to visit the TAS hostel where the murder had taken place. The porter on duty was more than happy to show the relative of the deceased (and fellow TAS member) the room where it had happened, but other than the fact a cleaning robot had found the body there wasn't much else he could tell them. He suggested they speak to the night porter who would be in later that evening. Aaron asked if he could examine the cleaning robot and managed to dump some of it's memory. Somewhat curiously he discovered that the robot had discovered the body as someone had summoned it to the room to do a clean-up, rather than as part of it's regular duties. The porter did tell them that a message had come for Vlen a couple of days ago and offered it to Bartie. The message proved to be from a Professor Ujinka asking Vlen to come for  a meeting. After Enrico checked the professor out with the University of Regina, Bartie gave her a call and arranged to visit the next afternoon.   They spent the rest of the afternoon wandering round Credo doing some sightseeing. While out and about, Aaron hear a voce call out to him surruptitiously, telling him that if they wanted to know more about the murder to be in the Flotsam bar at 10 pm!   That evening they went back to the TAS hostel and spoke to the night porter. The porter showed them some of the security footage which showed Vlen accompanied by three other men, two of whom were obviously muscle as they took up guard positions outside the door.. The third was careful to keep out of camera shot, although they could see he had red hair! Vlen spent the last two hours of his life with the three men in his room. One  of whom disappeared off on a errand for about 45 minutes at one point. Suddenly the three men left hurriedly, one of them making a call on his comm as they did, and the feed suddenly cut. The porter explained there had been a power outage just at that point. 0.3 Professor Ujinka, I Presume That evening after, Kemphit joined them from the ship. They decided to keep the appointment so mysteriously made with Aaron. On the way to the meeting Kemphit was sure they were being followed, and as a precaution Clarissa slipped the driver of their cab an extra 20 to lose the tail.  The Flotsam turned out to be every bit as appealing as it's name and was located in a thoroughly run-down sector of the Downport. About 20 minutes after they took their seats they were approached by a twitchy, nervous individual who introduced himself as Office Oday of the POC. Oday seemed to have some anger management issues, not to mention a nervous twitch of epic proportions. He told them that he had been investigating the activities of a local smuggler called Ven Yasha, and was convinced that Backett's murder had been ordered by him -either as a reprisal for a deal gone wrong or because uncle Vlen had something the smuggler desperately wanted. He also identified one of the men in the video footage as Gaius Labre, a known associate of Yasha.   the next day they headed out of town to the country estate of professor Ujinka. The professor's house was set in extensive grounds in the middle of the exclusive Dancado region. When they arrived they were met by a snooty robot butler who escorted them up to the lounge on the first floor, where a few moments later they were joined by professor Ujinka. The professor was an elderly woman, at least 100 standard years old, but moved with the energetic hyperactivity of someone who has just undergone a course of anagathics. After instructing her butler to bring the tea trolley, the professor told them that she was working as a research project that would enable the easier identification of Ancient sites. After some prolonged, and somewhat random discussion and the arrival of tea and scones she eventually got round to telling them she had been meeting with uncle Vlen to discuss funding for a new expedition and provision of a ship.   Suddenly  as she was speaking, the power failed in the building. The professor moved to the window to look outside when a shot rang out and the professor crumpled to the floor blood staining her tweed jacket, At the same time the party heard the sound of the front door  being broken down. A cursory examination of the professor assured Bartie she was beyond help, so he then assisted Rodrigo in dragging a chaise longue across the door to the room. Aaron, spotting a pair of antique Darrian daggers mounted on the wall grabbed one for himself and tossed the other to Kemphit.   The intruders tried to get in but were unable to do so, firing a flurry of slugs through the door in frustration. They withdrew however when Kemphit threatened to toss a grenade out. To ensure that they had, they opened the door a crack and Kemphit tossed out a paperweight he found on a sideboard.  He and Aaron followed cautiously into the hallway only to find the bad-guys had simply retreated to the end of the corridor and were firing.  Fortunately both missed and followed by Kemphit, Aaron charged  down the corridor brandishing the, it had to be admitted  somewhat blunt, dagger! Rodrigo meanwhile had secured the tea-trolley and pushing it before him like a battering-ram was charging down after them. Bartie, having snaffled a bottle of port from the sideboard sauntered along in everyone's wake.   In the face of this somewhat bizzare assault, even more bizarrely the bad-guys decided to retreat, making their way back down the stairway firing-off rounds as they went. - this time hitting Rodrigo and Aaron. Kemphit launched himself off the landing attempting top grab one of the retreating bad-guys unfortunately her missed and went crashing to the floor of the hall below! Rodrigo had more luck, catapulting the tea-trolley down trhe stairs and managing to bowl over the escaping assailant. Aaron meanwhile chased the other one out through the door - managing to get a couple of hits in with the dagger - which was satisfying though did little to penetrate the flack jacket the assassin wore.   Rodrigo, ably assisted by some louche commentary from Bartie, secured his prisoner. Aaron and Kemphit, after grabbing the slug-thrower from the captive, chased the other assailant across the driveway and into the forest. There was a brief scuffle as Aaron tried to stop him geting into a ground-car, but eventually he made good his escape - pursued by a shot from Kemphit that smashed the rear windscreen. As they watched the ground-car speed off into the distance it's escape was intercepted by the rapid descent of what looked like a POC air-car. Because of the trees, they couldn't quite see what happened next but a few moment later the air car took off and sputtered off to the west.   Bartie meanwhile called-in the incident to the POC as the power outage seemed to suddenly sort itself. While they waited for the authorities they interrogated their prisoner. Bartie recognised him as one of the men in the video. The assassin, KInson, confirmed he worked for Ven Yasha but told them that he had gone to the meeting with Vlen simply to provide security for Vlen Yasha's aide Harlen - the red-haired man in the video. he had no idea what went on, as far as he knew Harlen and Backett seemed to be getting on well when suddenly there was a shot from inside the room. Harlan had emerged from the room clutching a strange-looking statuette and a data tape with which he had fled. He told them he did not know where Harlan was based as his orders came from a Llellewyoly named Exceedingly Discreet.    A few moments later several POC aircars, accompanied by an ambulance, arrived. While the paramedics treated the wounded the POC took charge of the scene and began taking statements from everyone. 0.4 Winter Shipping The party set about trying to locate Exceedingly Discreet, Enrico and Clarisse searching the local nets while Aaron and Kemphit ( after some extreme grooming) hit the area around Startown. Eventually they discovered that the Llellewyoly was connected with a shady Brokers firm called Winter Shipping. They spent a couple of days casing the joint and keeping the company's employees under surveillance. They discovered Winter Shipping had two offices , one in Startown and the other just across the fence in the Downport, they also had a warehouse beside which a 20-ton cargo launch was berthed.   After some debate about the best way to proceed, Kemphit volunteered to try going in the front door, meeting with the receptionist trying to convince her he was acting for someone  who had a dodgy cargo they wanted to shift. After waiting fruitlessly a while for a call back, they decided this approach didn't seem to be panning-out, so they decided to try a more direct approach.   Eventually, suitably clad in newly purchased ninja gear and balaclavas, and bearing a brand-spanking new electronics kit they head to the Starport offices of the company in dark of night . Enrico managed to disable the security systems, relatively easily and they were inside. In short order they found Exceedingly Discrete in the building who did not seem at all surprised by their unwarranted intrusion.   The Llellewyoly, seemed friendly, though it's mannerisms were somewhat odd and it's speech patters oddly stilted, they came away with the impression that Exceedingly Discreet found the whole thing something of a game and had the sense that it had at best a tenuous grasp of human legal systems, finance or indeed much else! However, they did manage to get from it that Harlan had taken the statuette and the data tape to an orbital station used by the company. Exceedingly Discrete also told them it suspected Backett had been killed as he brought bad news of some kind and that it had no idea why Professor Ujinka had been killed and thought it an extremely illogical and silly move by Harlan 0.5 Smuggler’s Rest After repairing to the bar at TAS hostel, the party discussed their options, eventually deciding to head back to the ship and check out the coordinates given them by Exceedingly Discrete. Convincing Regina Spaceport Control that they were heading for Assiniboine to refuel and undertake some preventive maintenance they headed out in Rainbow’s End. A sensor sweep of the coordinates provided by Exceedingly Discrete showed only empty space, so they decided to tray and track Winter Trading’s ship after it launched from the warehouse. The tracked it to the LaGrange point between Regina and Assiniboine, where a navigational hazard was recorded - according to the database a massive storage area for  unused containers. As the Rainbow’s End was far too large to take into that environment they decided to head back planeside and appropriate the smuggler’s own launch.  Arriving planeside they made their way to the warehouse and somehow managed to sneak in and hide. Once ensconced, using the gauss pistol they had taken from the Professor Ujinka’s assassin they kidnapped the warehouse keeper and bundled him into the launch. Fortunately the autopilot on the launch navigated them safely through the hazards of the container storage area to the makeshift space-station. The station had itself been cobbled together from unused containers, but they managed to dock securely. Aaron and Kemphit set up and ambush just inside the airlock as two smugglers entire to unload whatever consignment they were supposed to be bringing. After a brief fire-fight in the cargo bay – three smugglers lay dead and the last was spilling his guts to Bartie who was impersonating Inspector Norrim! The smuggler told them where to find Harlan and they set off, though a labyrinth of passages. Eventually they arrived at Harlan’s office, who seemed not at all surprised to see them , noir indeed particularly bothered, he had the statuette and the data tape on his desk in front of him. As Aaron and  Kemphit began questioning him, Harlan sighed heavily and somewhat surprisingly activated the stations automated self-destruct sequence!  Having a health respect for their skins, Clarissa and Bartie grabbed up the statuette and data-tape and fled looking for the nearest escape pod. Aaron and Kemphit remained behind for a another minute trying t get something from Harlan, who simple regarded them impassively in silence.  As the station artificial gravity failed, Aaron and it joined the exodus. After a couple of fire-fights with escaping smugglers, the party eventually made it to an escape capsule and ejected into space. Behind them, the station erupted in a violent explosion that buffeted their capsule as it sped away.  As they fled Bartie noted somewhat surprised that no other capsules had made it . An hour or so later they were picked up by the emergency services as the injured were treated by medical personnel, Bartie was subject to another uncomfortable interrogation by Inspector Norrim. Bartie spun the Inspector a thrilling yarn about being kidnapped by smugglers and valiantly fighting their way out against insurmountable odds. After the interview the good inspector suggested somewhat acerbically that the Raibow’s End may like to seek opportunities elsewhere in the Regina Sector!

Annals