0.1 The Chlaer Radical  Six weeks after the incident with Rogan, Desna Greer summoned the group to a meeting in the Factory's common area. She announced the Factory would be ready to move in six weeks time. Their task was to delve deep into the Chlaer Radical and find a planetoid of at least 1,000 metres in radius to form the staging post for the Factory's first forays as a working unit. Basically they need to find a large enough rock with a good yield to put the Factory's capabilities to test. The Master of Enterprise was need to help finish the commissioning work, so the group was assigned The Free Radical for the survey mission. After a day or so prepping the  Free Radical, Clarissa laid in a course and they set of. The trip across system was uneventful, but when they reached the edge of the asteroid belt, Aaron picked up an automated distress beacon. As required by law, they immediately diverted to investigate - finding a crashed Seeker Singleship in a large crater on a rocky asteroid. Clarissa successfully undertook the manoeuvre to land the ship near the crash-site. While Anna and Kemphit suited up and went to investigate; Aaron (considering they were there anyway) launched a mining drone to investigate the local geology.   The prow of the Seeker was completely smashed in, but the stern was relatively intact. Cautiously they made their way into the ship – Anna headed for the power-plant, which she discovered was in danger of going critical, and began working to get it under control. Kemphit meanwhile headed on deeper into the ship.  Unfortunately there was no cargo to be salvaged, but he did find a survivor in a low-berth and passed the information back to Aaron. Aaron notified the authorities as Anna and Kemphit began the process of moving the low-berth from the wreck to the Free Radical - a task aided considerably by the low gravity.   Lacking the necessary medical equipment to revive their frozen guest, the low-berth was stowed in the cargo bay until a couple of days later when they were hailed by a navy ship the SWA Avenger and they transferred the survivor to their care.   The Free Radical spent the next month or so surveying the area, finding a few interesting rocks on which they set claim beacons – but nothing really suited for the Factory’s needs. They were beginning to despair slightly after being informed by Haro that the factory was departing. At the last minute however, they fortunately discovered a suitable site.   0.2 Moving into Business Over the next six months the Factory was set-up in hits now home and fully commissioned. While Desna was left in charge of the Factory the group, still crewing the  Free Radical,  ferried Haro and Jennia on their return to Vinen Habitat. Once back in civilisation, Aaron’s long-delayed hearing was finally  held on the negligence charges . Fortunately, he chose to use the LFC’s lawyer rather than let Bartie represent him. After a tense hearing, he managed to avoid a jail sentence but was fined 10,000 credits.   After the relief of the hearing, Aaron decided to apply for the job of one of the two Factory managers who would rotate duties. Somewhat to the surprise of the others, he was successful! Returning to the Factory, work continued on getting the Factory fully operational in it's new home. Aaron now had the additional responsibility for managing the “day" shift. His first major challenge came a few weeks later when the crew of a visiting Tchain Combine ship were found selling Steam – a recreational drug - to the Factory’s crew. Somewhat uncharacteristically, Aaron dealt with the whole thing diplomatically and a potential crisis was averted. 0.3 An Offer You Can’t Refuse About a week after the events with the Tchain gang, Aaron received a private comm. from Haro, asking him to come to a meeting at the LFC Headquarters. Aaron rounded up the gang in the Free Radical and they set out. About two days out, Aaron and Clarissa were on the bridge, Kemphit and Enrico were resting in the ready-room; Bartie was getting the wrong side of a bottle of port in his cabin, while Anna was in the engine room when disaster struck! An object impacted the ship - causing a hull-breach in the cargo hold.   While Clarissa fought to keep the ship on course, Aaron thinking quickly, depressurised the cargo hold. Which, although it almost certainly stopped further damage, had the unfortunate side-effect of trapping the rest of the crew where they were as all the ship’s iris valves automatically sealed shut. Once Clarissa had the ship back under control, Aaron suited-up and went out through the airlock. He gingerly made his way across the exterior hull and began working to patch the breach. It was a difficult and complex task - working on his own in a bulky vac-suit and it took him the beat part of four hours before he was satisfied. Returning to the bridge, he somewhat gingerly re-pressurised the cargo bay, leaving it a half-atmosphere for a while to check the seals. This enabled the others to be freed from their temporary prisons and Anna soon set to work on a more substantial repair to the breach. Once repairs were completed the Free Radical set off again, reaching the Vinen Habitat without further incident.   Next morning, they turned up to the LFC’s office to be shepherded into a conference room. Haro then appeared and asked Aaron to accompany him, taking him along the corridor to this office. Sitting behind the desk was someone who introduced himself as Mr Jonson- a representative of the SWA. He advised Aaron that the SWA had some trouble filing the recent charges against Aaron as there was no record of him having been born on Sonares Prime, Sonares II or any of the Belter habitats – in fact there was no evidence of Aaron having existed prior to 18 months ago! After pondering his options, and looking pensively at Mr Jonson’s bodyguards, Aaron eventually decided to tell the truth that he was in fact from the Imperium – though he stressed he was not acting in any official capacity. At this, Mr Jonson, seemed to relax and quizzed Aaron for some time about his background. He than asked if Aaron’s compatriots were also off-worlders, which Aaron confirmed. Mr Johnson then led Aaron through to the conference room were Haro waited with the others. Mr Jonson spent an hour or so chatting to them about their experiences over the last year in the Sonares System, before eventually turning the conversation round to the recent events at the Factory – and particularly The Sphere. Eventually Jonson made them an offer -  the SWA wished to retain them as “independent parties” and the resources of the LFC for a “research project”. If they took the contract it would leave the LFC in a very favourable light for any future government contacts that might arise.  Jonson then left giving them time to consider. Haro, the thought of lucrative government contacts lighting up his eyes, was keen to take the job. The party slightly less so – particularly those with previous experience of government work. Eventually Haro offered to double all their salaries and they agreed.   Next morning they returned to the LFC headquarters where Mr Jonson (without the bodyguards this time) ran each of them through a “security interview” – which fortunately they all passed. He then briefed them on the mission. An independent Belter had found what he believed to be an ancient alien habitat inside an asteroid in the Spindrift Radical and had taken some grainy footage to back up his claim. The SWA wanted them to verify the claim and investigate the site – any official survey would take months to set up wading through h all the politics and inevitable draw the attention of Maas and other corporate interests the government would rather keep at arms length. The SWA would provide recording equipment and Haro offered the Free Radical and an expenses budget of 10,000 credits for the mission.   The group spent the next couple of days equipping for the survey mission, before setting off for an uneventful trip in the Free Radical. Eight days later, Clarissa cautiously edged the ship into orbit around the mysterious asteroid. 0.4 Alien City Clarissa halted the Free Radical about 100Km from the asteroid and Kemphit began running a sensor sweep. On first inspection the asteroid appeared unremarkable – mostly rock with nickel, iron and a small amount of radioactives. The asteroid was tumbling slowly but looked really unremarkable, that the only feature of note was three impact craters regularly spaced around the asteroid’s circumference.   Clarissa edged the Free Radical into a closer orbit about 1km above one of the craters and Aaron began a more detailed survey. That survey sweep revealed that there was a void at the centre of the asteroid and that three craters were not natural, they were too regularly spaced.  They also discovered where Souhl had drilled a shaft into the interior from the base of one of the craters. After some debate the decided to land near the crater and Enrico and Clarissa suited up. Bartie, in a attempt to do something useful, checked  through the inventory of gear for the mission  in the cargo hold  several times. With some help from Kemphit, Clarissa and Enrico rigged up a hoist over the shaft and lowered Clarissa down with a camera.   The shaft descended some 90m, before Clarissa emerged into a void. Below her she could see alien looking conical structures emerging from the inner walls. After taking some preliminary footage – which looked vaguely similar to that they had viewed back on Vinen - she returned to the surface safely.   They regrouped back on the Free Radical to discuss their plan of attack. Following Aaron’s suggestion, they decided to set up a base-camp beneath the access shaft and suited up and began transferring their gear down the shaft. The process took several hours working in the clumsy vac suits, but eventually they finished. It was late, but they decided on a swift expedition to the nearest conical structure.   As they neared what is soon became clear was a building, they could see it was covered in a weird alien script. In front of the building, seven “totem-poles”, carved from the rock of the asteroid stood in a solemn semi-circle. These too were inscribed with the alien runes, this time arranged in a double-helix arrangement.   Aaron and Kemphit were first in. The lower floor was completely empty, but a spiral ramp wound upwards round the outer wall of the structure – so they headed up. As they did lighting panels began to illuminate the rooms with a reddish glow -  but the light felt strange and alien, as if it was working on frequencies unsuited to the human eye. There were seven levels in total in the building - most were empty and featureless, but on the sixth the walls were embedded with crystal globes. When some of the globes were pressed a holographic map display lit up the room – though no-one recognised the sector of space it displayed.   After a night’s rest back on the Free Radical they decided they needed to map the whole city. Led by Anna and with Bartie’s helpful oversight they dismantled the mining drone and then re-assembled it at base camp. Aaron then flew the drone round the city and from the drone’s video feed, assembled a composite map.    Armed with the map, they split up into two teams for their next foray into the city. Aaron and Anna, with Bartie on camera took one building while Enrico and Clarissa, with Kemphit on camera took another. As they went round the buildings they noted that the strange internal light’s were interfering with the video recording, causing the footage to be grainy but still useable. Bartie’s group found another star-map in the building, this one displaying a different sector of space, but not one any of them recognised.   On one level of their building, Kemphit’s group discovered a short fist-sized shaft. On inspection, the shaft contained a large crystal. There was little else in the building, but Kemphit did notice his nagging headache was returning as he explored the building. Enrico also noted that although there was no radioactivity in the buildings, there did appear to be atmospheric pressure.   Alter the two groups covered near one off the “totem-pole” displays. They discovered that one of the poles rotated when touched, and with Clarissa also noticed the symbols on the rock lined up with hitherto unnoticed markings on the floor of the cavern. While the others speculated on the complex mathematical relationships between the engravings, Bartie wandered off into a building across the “street”. Filming everything, he made his way up to the top of the structure where he discovered something new the ceiling and walls were covered in what looked like a thick layer of unpleasant looking solidified resin.   Unnoticed as he filmed, and unheard inside his vac -suit helmet, the thick resin above him started to crack - as if something within was attempting to break free. 0.5 Xenomorph Suddenly, even the hapless Bartie realised something was wrong, and swung round urgently. Through the viewfinder of the camera he could see a horrific visage full of needle-pointed teeth leering at him out of the rapidly breaking resin. Quite sensibly, he took to his heels - just as the creature finally broke free!   Outside, the others, having realised they'd lost Bartie began searching. Clarissa headed for a building to the south, Kemphit and Aaron headed northwards while Enrico headed across the "street". Bartie meanwhile, was heading hell-for-leather down the ramp - well as fast as his bulky vac-suit would let him. Fortunately for the noble knight the creature seemed somewhat stiff and awkward from it's long hibernation and he managed, just, to keep ahead  for it down the ramp.   Kemphit and Aaron found little of interest in the building they had picked, but did find a curios patch of what looked like a grey algae somehow surviving in the hypoxic environment. Clarissa's building too was empty, though she did find what was obviously a technological device though based on some kind of crystalline technology.   Enrico meanwhile, ran straight into Bartie - heading the opposite direction at a rate of knots. Unfortunately, the creature he had awoken was hot on his heels and with a swipe of it's claws finally managed to land a blow on the hapless aristocrat, rending the back of his vac-suit and causing a fine spray of blood to jet out and instantly freeze in the low temperature.   Enrico, armed only with a Geiger counter, backed off rapidly, but not before the creature had a vicious swipe at him too. Leaking oxygen from his rent suit, Enrico began urgently calling for help over the radio as he headed out the alien iris valve. Bartie meanwhile, his wounds sealed by the intense cold flew past, the iris valve shutting behind him. Fortunately for them, for some reason, the iris-valve didn't open for the creature.   Alerted by the calls for help Aaron and Clarissa arrived. Fortunately they had brought weapons and set up position ready if the creature emerged from the doorway. Kemphit, as he emerged from the building he had been searching, picked up the frantic radio messages and drew his own weapon.   Once Aaron was in position, Clarissa moved forward and activated the door. The creature was still there and Aaron took advantage and fired off a bolt from his energy weapon, which hit the creature squarely. It didn't stop the beast however as it rushed forward, spitting a glob of acid towards him. The acid fortunately missed him and Clarissa opened fire from n ext to the doorway, catching the creature in the back. As the creature fell to the ground, Aaron stepped forward and put another bolt into it's head, finishing it. As he did he noted it's greenish blood fizzing and bubbling in the low atmosphere and where it spattered along the floor was eating slightly into the rock. As Kempit joined them, they examined the body cautiously, noting needle-sharp teeth, the razor-like claws, and the armoured carapace that partially covered the body.   Bartie and Enrico meanwhile had made it to the safety of base camp. While Bartie made straight for the medicinal brandy, Enrico began patching them up using the med-kit. Some time later, as the others joined them, he began patching the vac-suits sufficiently to get them back to the Free Radical.   Before they left, Kemphit decided to retrieve the strange crystal he’d found in the nearby building. As he neared it he found his nagging headache returning and when he finally reached into grasp it his mind was assaulted with a million images of death and destruction where entire solar systems were snuffed out in an instant.  Somewhat shaken he bagged the crystal with the other evidence they’d removed and joined the others as they headed back to the Free Radical   Once back in the ship Bartie and Enrico were installed in the makeshift med-bay, where they would spend the next three or four days recuperating.   A couple of days later, Clarissa began investigating the strange device she’d found. At first it seemed inert, but then as she ran her fingers over the embossed runes it suddenly began humming and emitting a strange blue light. Dropping it, she just made it to the comm. Unit and got a warning out to the others before she was engulfed in a  wave of blue energy.   Kemphit, sent by Aaron to investigate, opened the cabin door do see misty blue sphere. It looked similar, though much smaller, to the one they’d seen on the Factory asteroid. He reported back to Aaron who came to investigate. Their initial reaction was to seal off the room, but once they had established that the energy fields wasn’t expanding, they sat down to ponder what to do.    They established that the field was a hemisphere this time rather than a sphere and that it wasn’t having any effect on anything else on the ship. However, neither could anything on the ship affect it! Aaron pondered that it might be some kind of stasis field  - he’d heard about them back in the Imperium being discovered in rare caches of Ancient technology.   Bartie and Enrico joined them for their deliberations but beyond leaving things alone , came up with no ideas. Finally, after consuming half a bottle of port, Bartie proposed that as it appeared to be a hemisphere rather than a sphere, they might be able to drill into the device from below the bulkhead and destroy it. He did observe somewhat laconically that it might explode and destroy the ship, but the others though it might work!   Enrico ran some computer simulation and a couple of hours later, Aaron was in the crawlspace beneath Clarissa’s floor with a diamond-tipped drill in hand.   Somewhat astonishingly for one of Bartie’s plans it worked! 0.6 The Last Stand While Bartie continued recuperating in the makeshift sickbay, Kemphit started out on a detailed external survey of all the buildings, firming up the details provided by the original drone survey, he noted that while most of the buildings were in good condition some were damaged and a few little more than ruins. Enrico suddenly remembered the sample of algae they’d recovered from one of the buildings only to discover that over the last 3 days  in the oxygen-rich environment of the Free Radical it had grown exponentially. It had burst out of the small vial it had been contained in and now covered the bench on which it had rested in a thick grey carpet – it was also starting to extend along the floor and up the walls towards the air-conditioning vents near the ceiling. Fearing a potential bio-hazard, he sealed the door and called Anna and Clarissa, after a brief discussion they decided the best thing to do was to vent the atmosphere in the cabin and drop the temperature to that of the surrounding asteroid (about -178°c). Anna with help form the other two began the laborious process of rerouting the air vents and disable the heating for that cabin.  Six hours later, Enrico suited up and armed with a spray pump full of bleach cautiously entered the room. Scraping a layer of thick frost off the bench, he took a sample of the algae, bagged it and withdrew. They gave the sample to Bartie, still in his sickbed in the next room, to watch over - and waited the results!   An hour or so later Bartie reported that the sample had defrosted thoroughly and was now a grey-pulpy mess in the bottom of the bag.  Fortunately the errant nobleman seemed unaffected by such close exposure. Still unsure however they decided on a thorough decontamination of the cabin, scraping all the algae off all the surfaces and liberally spraying the area with bleach. The samples of algae were then returned back to the building from which they’d been taken.   The next day, armed now with the detailed ( and labelled) map provided by Kemphit, they returned to surveying the building interiors, Most of the buildings were empty however a few contained some remnants of the alien technology. One room contained a holographic display of some kind of alien lifeform. Aaron commented that, from the look of the creature’s heavy musculature, it didn’t belong in a microgravity environment like the asteroid. Kemphit, recognising the creature as one of the two races engaged in the horrific war of extermination from his vision, kept silent.   Towards the end of that day, tragedy struck as Anna brushed against one of the monoliths that stood outside one of the buildings and it came crashing down on her and Clarissa. Fortunately due to the micro-gravity they weren’t crushed to death, but they were injured and their suits ruptured. Thinking quickly, Aaron hustled them into the nearest building where the minimal atmosphere inside would provide at least some protection from the extreme cold and vacuum of the city’s exterior. Enrico then quickly administered first aid. Anna was the more badly wounded and there was little Enrico could do, but Clarissa he was able to offer more help. Both were made relatively stable, the more concerning thing being that due to the ruptures in their suits they were venting copious amounts of oxygen and heat.   While Anna and Clarissa huddled together for warmth in the balmy -25°temperature of the interior, Kemphit volunteered to head back to the Free Radical and get some spare vac-suits and headed off. As it would take a couple of hours to make the trip back to the ship and back, Aaron and Enrico headed  to base campo and began disassembling the two portable airlocks. Packing it all away they moved it to the building, where they found Clarissa and Anna freezing cold, but still alive. Quickly they set up the two airlocks, and Anna and Clarissa clambered in and sat out the rest of the wait for Kemphit in relative comfort.   Once Kemphit returned, the two ladies quickly suited-up. Anna was too badly injured to walk but Kemphit offered to carry her back. It was a laborious trip, but soon the engineer was safely ensconced in the sickbay (incidentally dispossessing Bartie) under Enrico’s medical care. Clarissa retired to her cabin to rest. With so many injured and Enrico seconded on to medical duties, the next two days survey crew was reduced to just  Aaron and Kemphit. They made relatively good progress – and fortunately as they had no backup - managed to avoid any confrontations with the xenomorphs. They did find one building with evidence of the resin on the walls, but swiftly backed out – marking the building as unsafe. One thing they did note in that building was a skeleton with curiously avian features, the back of whose skull was cracked and broken. Again Kemphit, recognising the form from his vision, remained silent.   Next day, Bartie, and Clarissa were well enough to join the survey, Anna remaining on the ship and piloting the mining drone to support them. They all suited-up and headed on down to the city. The first few buildings they surveyed were empty, though Bartie did have a close encounter with a collapsing floor, however the fourth one’s door opened to reveal a twisted mass of disarticulated skeletons in the now familiar dull-red glow of the buildings lights.   As the camera lights played over the scene of carnage, the group moved through the mess grimly. Aaron speculated that this was where the inhabitants had made a last stand. Kemphit grimly commented that it might have been a larder. Suddenly, as they stood there surrounded by death, Aaron realised the implications of what they were seeing and called on the others to get out quickly. Reacting swiftly, they piled back out into the darkness city. However it was too late, Aaron looked up in horror his helmet lights catching the shadows of the alien creatures as they poured out through a large rent near the roof of the building. 0.7Alien Queen As the alien creatures swarmed out of the broken top of the building the party began edging back. As they did, they noticed that these aliens were smaller than the ones they’d previously encountered and looked like immature specimens. The aliens launched themselves off the building into a hail of gunfire. In seconds the creatures were among them their claws and teeth biting and rending their vac suits. Enrico and Aaron who were nearest took the brunt of the attack, and shortly their suits were venting both air and frozen droplets of blood. As the skirmish raged, Bartie began running all over the place trying to get out of the creatures way while Kemphit began blasting away with his handgun – to little effect.   Aaron and Clarissa’s energy weapons seemed to be doing the most damage and had the positive side effect of not spattering acidic blood across the area. Enrico got somewhat isolated and two of the creatures swiftly brought him down. Anna, sitting back in the ship piloting the drone, tried to target them with the mining laser, but it proved a cumbersome weapon against the swiftly moving creatures. Eventually however, the party gained the upper hand and one by one the creatures were slain, their part-formed armour less resistant to the party’s weaponry..   Bruised and battered the party retreated into a nearby building – once ensuring that it was clear – and forted up. Clarissa began administering first aid while Aaron began patching suits. Enrico was the most badly wounded and would require hospitalisation, but the others weren’t too badly off. Kemphit took up a position at the base of the ramp, his weapon drawn. Anna, stood the drone on guard outside and anxiously tried to interpret the sensor data being fed to her screen. Unfortunately she wasn’t focusing the sensors upwards and didn’t spot two of the adult creatures taking advantage of the micro-gravity to lea from the roof on a nearby building and begin using their acid saliva to cut through the roof of one they were sheltering in. Kemphit did notice however a few minutes later when two of the creatures came down the ram and leaped at them. Kemphit managed to get off a shot and hit one of them in mid-leap, badly wounding it before it hit him claws and teeth rending through his vac suit. The other alien headed straight for Aaron, who managed to get a shot off before crumpling under the renewed assault. Enrico, despite his grevious wounds, struggled to his feet and began firing as did Clarissa taking down one of the creatures before it could kill Kemphit. Bartie, seeing Aaron fall, scampered round to retrieve the laser carbine, just as Clarissa and Enrico killed the other alien.   Anna looked in horror at the camera feed from the drone as it picked up more of the creatures in frame. This one was twice as large as any they’d seen yet and was surrounded by a horde of the immature aliens. In horror she realised this was probably the alien queen and her brood.  The huge creature headed purposefully toward the building, completely ignoring the drone, as Anna struggled to target the mining laser on it. Moving straight to the door of the building, the queen ripped it apart effortlessly.    Inside the room, the still conscious members of the party froze in horror at this new arrival. Somewhat futiley, Bartie took a step forward raising |Aaron’s laser carbine. Suddenly Anna  had a flash of inspiration, and  manoeuvring the drone round behind the queen, she activated the drone’s pincer arms and grabbed the huge creature. Despite it's struggles, she moved it bodily into the ravening beam of the mining laser. Though the creature struggled and writhed against it's fate, the beam relentlessly burned through it’s carapace. With the queen dead, the surviving brood were quickly dispatched, mainly using the same method that had dispatched their mother.   That proved to be the last of the alien threat. The rest of the survey was carried out with no incident and a month later they returned top the Vinen Habitat. They received their bonus pay and a 100,000 Cr payment from the SWA. After he had paid them, Mr Jonson strongly suggested that the party might like to avail themselves of the fact that the annual visit by a Survey ship was due in two months and return to the Imperium.

Annals