01. The Shoranan Habitat Run After a couple of weeks R&R the Travellers were call to the LFC building in the Vinen habitat for a meeting with the Desna Greer,  the LFC Logistics Director.  Desna told them that she wanted them to take the Master of Enterprise over to the Shoranan habitat and pick up a consignment of spare parts for the Factory from the Mass Corporation. There was no real urgency and the trip would take a couple of weeks, but the spares were essential for the upcoming operation to get the Factory operational, as the Factory was built by the Mass Corporation and used proprietary parts.  After the meeting they headed on to down to the docking bay to prep the Master. Anna fired up the engines and started running engineering checks while Enrico started checking out the computers. Aaron, who was doubling up as pilot on this trip as Clarissa was getting over a bout of food poisoning, started brushing up on his astrogation while running the sensor suite through its checks. Meanwhile, Kemphit set about arranging the re-supply of the ships store, fuel, water and oxygen with a shore-side chandler. Up on the bridge Sir Bartholomew ran a cursory check on the comms system. Unfortunately he managed to block out the emergency channel - much to the irritation of space traffic control – before retiring to his cabin with a good book and a bottle of port. Next day they launched – even making their nominated departure slot – and set out on the 7 day trip to the Shoranan habitat. The journey was relatively uneventful , however it did take a couple of days longer than expected due to Aaron’s inexperience with the controls, but that aside, they arrived safely, docking at the Mass spaceport on the industrial side of the habitat. On docking,  they were met by Jedran Khaer, Mass External Partner Liaison, who somewhat unctuously ushered them into this office. He explained that Mass had had to source some of the parts from storage back on Sonares Prime and it would be another couple of days before they arrived. In the meantime he explained that Maas had arranged for rooms for them at The Grange – a small hotel in the Narrows. Kemphit decided to remain on the Master , looking after Clarissa. The others took the monorail to The Narrows, where they quickly found The Grange - a basic if functional hotel.  After booking-in, they decided on a little sightseeing. Sir Bartholomew and Enrico headed off to the nearby Clade Garden Park They noticed, as they passed the grav-ball stadium, that there was a game on that evening. Anna, meanwhile, took a stroll down the strip checking out the local shops and bars. They reconvened that evening in The Grange for dinner. After the meal Sir Bartholomew, Anna and Enrico decided to go to the grav-ball game. Aaron decided to head back to theMaster and check up on Clarissa and Kemphit. The ball game was quite a thriller, with the local team - the Shoranan Senators -  just edging the result in the final minute. After the game , they decided to head for a few beers in The Narrows. They found a bar that seemed to be frequented by belters and settled down for a few drinks. After several rounds of drinks, their table was approached by a rough looking miner with gold teeth gleaming in a bearded face. He appeared to be quite drunk and equally determined to pick a fight with Sir Bartholomew – accusing the LFC of getting into bed with Mass to screw-up the other free traders in the belt . Inevitably a punch was thrown, and with that little incentive, the entire place erupted in one huge brawl.  Anna managed to hold her own in the melee, but Enrico and Sir Bartholomew were getting thrashed. After Anna intervened on his behalf, Sir Bartholomew tried crawling away under the tables as the melee raged round him. As he got near the door, however, he came face to face with a pair of highly polished jack-boots! Looking up he just had time to take in the uniform of the Authority Security Service before a stun baton slammed down on his head bringing blessed unconsciousness.    02. Death of a Warehouse keeper Anna woke up in the morning, rubbed the bump on the back of hear head, and looked nonchalantly round the cell. Quickly dshe decided it was pretty similar to every other cell she’d woken up in after a night on the town! After a while, the gaoler brought breakfast – orange juice, porridge and coffee. When she had finished, she was put in front of the judge opted to pay the 50 credit fine for “drunk and disorderly” . Enrico followed suite, however Sir Bartholomew, filled with righteous indignation, refused to pay the fine. Protesting his innocence at some inordinate length, he insisted on a full hearing at which he would defend himself! Somewhat wearily, the judge arraigned him and set the hearing date for the next morning.Still volubly protesting at the malicious prosecution and threatening legal action, Sir Bartholomew was hauled back to the slammer! Aaron meanwhile went down to breakfast and quickly discovered that that others had not returned to the hotel after the grav-ball game; he put in a call to the Master, quickly establishing they weren’t there either. Clarissa, who was feeling better, took the monorail to The Narrows and joined him at the hotel, just as Anna and Enrico arrived in time for lunch.  After bringing the others up to speed, they spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing. Kemphit, back on the Master, got a call from Khaer, telling him the parts had arrived from Sonares Prime at the warehouse and they should be delivered early next morning. Next morning, while Clarissa and  Enrico went to the court for Sir Bartholomew’s hearing – which after an impassioned (and lengthy) plea from the accused the judge dismissed the case -  the others took delivery of the crates of parts. Safely stowing them in the cargo hold, Anna fired up the engines and Clarissa piloted the Master out of the docking-bay heading towards the Vinen Habitat. The first days transit passed uneventfully. However, late on the second day, when Clarissa was checking the cargo stowage she noticed something odd – a piece of cloth or something was caught in the vacuum seal of one of the crates. Calling Anna from the engine room to help, she opened the crate to find it was full of broken bits junk – not the expected air-conditioning unit! They quickly opened the other crates, finding that they too were full of various bits of junk – not the needed spares for The Factory!  After a quick conference, they decided to turn the ship around and head back to the Shoranan to find out what had gone wrong. One the docked they calling in to see Khaer – who seemed visibly shocked that something had gone wrong with the transaction and apologising profusely he handed then an insurance claim form to submit to head office.  They called Desna to inform her - needless to say the Logistics director went apoplectic. An insurance claim was useless – they  needed those parts or the whole Factory project would be put back at least six months and the cost overruns could put the LFC out of business. After the dressing down from Desna, they decided to investigate what might have happened. Their first stop was the Maas warehouse; the goods had been consigned from. The found the warehouse a have of activity as Khaer had ordered a full audit of the inventory following the incident. Kemphit  spoke to one foremen who told him that the warehouse keeper – Smiffo  - hadn’t turned up for work that day. Asking around, they discovered he hadn’t turned up the previous day either, nor in fact had anyone seen him on the day they first departed Shoranan! Checking through the phone directory, the discovered there was only one Smiffo listed in the basic hab-zone. Taking the monorail they made their way to the address – but there was no response. Fearing the worst, Kemphit stopped one of the Authority Security Service patrollers – telling him they were concerned. As they waited outside, the patroller got the door locks overridden and entered the flat. A few minutes later he emerged grim-faced and calling for back-up. Smiffo was dead – the back of his head stove-in with a blunt instrument. 03. Second Battle of the Factory After giving statements to the ASS, the party headed back to the scene of the bar-room brawl a few days earlier. Anna and Aaron, asked the bar staff, while Kempit and Clarissa checked out the patrons -  a few vaguely remembered the bearded man with gold teeth, but one of the bar-staff also  remembered that he hadn't been drinking which didn't gel with a drunk miner picking a fight. Checking back with the night-shift at the warehouse confirmed that the consignment records for the deliveries had been tampered with - presumably by the late lamented Smiffo! The guys on the night-shift also confirmed that the day before the delivery to the Master and almost identical number of crates had been made to a ship called the Pride of Paradean . On further checking with the delivery driver, he recalled the consignment had been signed for by a bearded man with  gold teeth who gave the name  Vesna Clant. More detailed checking revealed that the Pride was registered to the Hezeera Prospecting - one of the LFC's smaller competitors.  They returned to the Master to ponder their next action. Something didn't quite hang together and they spent some time tying to puzzle out what was going on. This was all - the  murder in particular - way over the top for a business dispute between two of the Free Companies! They decided to check in with Desna -  she was able to discover the Pride was currently on a survey mission in the Spindrift Radical - she also informed them that Vesna Clant, the captain of the Pride was in fact a woman! That left them with the fact that whoever was responsible was someone who had the ability to spoof not only their ship's ID but the individual crewmen as well. It had to be criminals.  Kemphit postulated that someone might have stolen the goods and were planning on ransoming them back to the LFC - but if that was the case why had no ransom demand had been received? late that night Anna came up with the answer - It wasn't about money, it was about time! Seizing the spares would put the Factory project back at least six months - until they received the spares there was little point in the LFC putting repair crews on board. Someone was trying to buy time before the LFC engineering crew arrived - it could only be the pirates who had been using the abandoned Factory as a base. After Kempit cleared their leaving with the ASS, Anna fired up the engines and Clarissa piloted the Master out of the docking bay, heading at top speed for the Factory. During the two-day trip Aaron checked the modifications he'd made to the mining lasers - converting them to offensive weapons. As they got to within 10,000 km of the asteroid, Aaron headed to the starboard gun-turret - just as a ship detached from the Factory and headed towards them on an intercept course. Kemphit managed to get a brief sensor-lock on the opposing ship, before his sensors were jammed. Abandoning the now useless sensors Kemphit headed for the port turret. As the two ships closed laser beams began stabbing-out across the void. Aaron and Kempit proved the better shots, although as their opponent was armoured, initially they did little damage. The Master did not escape damage, taking several hits to the hull and one to the sensor array. Finally Aaron scored a telling hit to the other ship's M-drive - causing it to slow but continue to coast towards them on an un-powered trajectory.  The pirate ship was by no means a sitting duck and continued firing from both turrets - scoring first another hull hit and then a hit on the Master's M-drive. Both ships flew towards each other carried by their intrinsic velocity and both continued firing. Finally Aaron scored another telling blow - one beam got through the pirate's hull-plating hitting the other ship's bridge which began venting oxygen into space! For a few moments the firing stopped. Clarissa got on the the comm to the other ship ordering them to surrender, but it hung silent in space. Both respective crews struggled with damage control, but despite Anna's best efforts, it was the pirate ship that got it's M-drive back on line first. The ship suddenly swung away - heading off on a new vector at maximum thrust. As soon as Anna managed to get the M-drive back online, Clarissa was all for giving chase, but wiser heads prevailed, and she took the Master in and docked with the Factory. In the small hanger, wher they had found the pirates before,  they found several decking plates had been  removed revealing a hidden storage area. Much of whatever had been there had obviously been already loaded on the pirate ship - but there were still several dozen containers of high-grade ore left behind in the wake of the pirate's hurried launch. More importantly, discarded to one side,  they found the Maas crates containing the spare parts where the pirates had dumped them.

Annals