Fortress Enders: Last Depot Standing

Adventure of Fortune's Child

• Kile Ransom (Frank) took command of the StarMerc ship, Fortune's Child, 3 months ago.  He served on it for a couple years and the captain was retiring.  The Bank of Enders quickly backed the purchase except for the need to find partners to complete the buy out the ship.  Otherwise, the bank would own a significant portion of the mortgage.  The Bank has a tendency to want multiple owners on merc vessels.
  
• Over the 3 months he's found Jaz Nazdyth, who brought in a friend, Jessie Burton.  They have 3 equal shares of the vessel and profits.  The crew was filled out  but a need for merchant brought Alfonso Mcgee. Now they only had the budget left for 1 more pilot.  Although, the crew could be composed of another 28 mercenaries and a couple more pilots.
• The players and crew checked out the ship and got here ready for flight, getting the last bugs controllable.  Basic supplies and weapons are purchased.
  

• Jak (Jamie) decided to explore the inner workings of TAS. He found and was urged to hire fighter pilot Beth Conners .  They took one of the ship's fighters for a spin around the planet.
• Jak inquires about his friend Jessie, whose been in his cabin extremely sick. Doc Wilson says that he'll be ok in a day or two and that its only a flu bug.
  
• Alfonso (Jim) went with the Ursa Monk, Ugla Woods, to a bar, Star's End, but ended up in the sickbay for a couple days after getting into a bar fight with 4 marines.  Urga didn't mean to hit Alfonso but he was preaching to the Marines...they weren't listening so...
• Lt Commander Ransom met up with Rear Admiral Gear, his old commander. He was sent to the offices of the First Citizen where a tasty project was being hired.  Deep under the capital,  the beautiful First Citizen decides to offer Ransom the opportunity to help her out of problem.  He was offered an important "smash and grab" assignment outside of the bounds of the Commonwealth. The crew is traveling to Strand to recover a Kinunir class ship, the Luuru. It took part in the attack on the Depot Corridor' gas giant station over 90 years ago and disappeared with a highly sensitive cargo. It would be horrific if this cargo fell into Virus hands.  Ransom is offered the standard Merc rate plus salvage rights.
  
• First Citizen is interrupted by the defense grid activating. A Virus ship is attempting to break through and infect the planetary network.  Ransom watches as 5 DMG sites activate on the monitors and an orbiting Vicious class capital ship is sent to intercept.  The DMGs make short work of the vessel completely obliterating it.
• After discussing Ransom's record, First Citizen shares her not-so-secret, secret with Ransom.  She is left over from before the war, an Imperium Avatar responsible for the complete defense of Depot Prime, the Enders System and the Strand Commonwealth.
  
• Ransom gets back to the ship and announces the exciting mission.  A fuel grav tanker truck shows up and replaces all of the vessels fuel with Superfuel. Ransom orders the ship's departure after review a couple systems problems.  A quite trip to jump point results in only passing a maneuvering Naval Squadron. At the jump gate, they are informed that the costs of using the gate are deferred for this trip by the compliments of First Citizen.   A jump gate saves the use of 1/2 the outbound fuel.

• While in jump space, Ransom, Jak and crew plan their boarding of the Luuru. Alfonso( Al) begins practicing his efforts in self defense with the merc ship's troops.  Sgt "Piper" begins teaching Al self defense techniques.
  
• Fortune's Child precipitates from Jump Space in the Vigh system. Half of their journey to Strand begins by a nearly immediate, active sensor scan. The vessel identifies herself as the Battlestar Galactica. A new TL 16 ship of the line for the Commonwealth. It demands that Fortune's Child stands down for immediate inspection and boarding.  With all the trouble in the bordering worlds Ransom quickly agrees and meets the Lieutenant and 6 battle dress ready marines at the air-lock. 
  
• After checking the papers the Lieutenant is given a brief tour of the ship. He informs the crew to be on their way.  Everything checked out this vessel didn't appear to have Virus, Vargr or contraband.
• Fortune's Child activates the Jump Drive and continues on her way to Strand. Continuing with strategizing and maintenance on the way.

• Precipitating from Jump Drive at systems edge didn't allow them to go undetected.  A 400t Vargr Corsair is seen one and a half days out.  Further investigation discovers that the Corsair is actually three corsairs.
• Ransom has the crew running silent  until a laser communications makes some suggesting on avoiding the three patrol ships. One day later they meet up with the Loraine, a Commonwealth Serpent Scout.

• The Vargr have traced the point of entry in into the system and now are searching for the new vessel.
  
• Ian has the two ships sailing close to the asteroid field to mast their signatures. Within 1/2 day he's found the Luuru again. And is invited to join the boarding party.
• Beth Conners flies the Kestel2 combat lander into dangerous part of the field.  The grid power coil burns out during a jarring maneuver and the combat lander looses all power. Ransom and Ian quickly jury rig the vessel together...several times.
  
• Beth swings around the very dented Kinunir colonial cruiser examining the exterior. A few weapons and asteroid impact points dot the hull.  Severe bottom damage is the most notable issue.  Beth slides past several asteroid impacts and rotates. The landers bottom slides across the Luuru's bottom for a turn.
• The Luuru has been gently nudged into a less active point on the asteroid belt where she can be safely boarded.
  
• Kile tethers to the Luuru and Ian slides across to the rear top deck hatch of the Luuru. Rigging power to the locking mechanism allowed him to open the out hatch.  When everyone was in the airlock and the outer hatch was closed, Ian opens the inner hatch and no air enters the lock.  The deck is decompressed vacuum.
  
• The adventurers find several useful items;.
  
• The secondary bridge is intact but weapons fire could be seen throughout the ship.
  
• Al grabs a 1110 bottle of wine produced in Core from the observation deck bar,  a laser blast had left the liquor cabinet doors open,
  
• A suffocated, dead marine in a grav/APC, otherwise A deck is clear of dead,
• A drop capsule is missing from the Marine DC Bay,
  
• plenty of weapons fire damage throughout the ship,
• On the way, to the bridge they see the computer room nearly completely destroyed. The bridge has been opened to space by weapons fire,
  
• Deck C has an atmosphere. The boarding party finds filters and an air tester in sick bay. Its stale, tainted but breathable.
  
• In the boat deck the find the Pinance completely intact. A few minutes work and Ian has the power plant fired up and sort of working.  They use the power feed for the boat bay to feed power back into the ship.
• Ian opens the iris entering engineering. Kile enters finding a large pedestal with a shinny globe sitting ontop. The black sphere is sharp looking after all of these decades.  The vessels original black globe is still intact,
  
• A few minutes working on the power grid allows small amounts of EP to various ships systems. The Luuru's powerplant does not look stable enough to start. Ian begins to look uncomfortable or nervous as he provides power to air filtering and iris controls.
  
• The ship essentially look bruised but clean. It looks like they were not taken by surprise.
• They enter deck E and the Cargo Hold via the elevator. The first thing they see are 4 dead Vargr floating off the deck.
  
• Their are also 10 crates in the hold;
  
• One meets the description of the 2.3t storage container they were looking to find.  It appears to be properly sealed.
  
• There is also a 7m crate that makes Ian more uncomfortable. He quickly opens it to find an operational, emergency 1-person lowberth.  A quick test determines that its still occupant is alive after 90 years.
  
• Sgt "Piper" McDonnell sees that one of the other 1-ton crates was already opened. The Sgt pulls it open again to find an Imperial warbot.
• The combat lander pushes Luruu from the asteroid field while the FC's crew rigs lines for moving people and cargo between the two ships.  After reviewing the damage they decide to bring Luuru to Strand for basic repairs before attempting a minimal, mated jump. They begin rigging the two vessels together for re-entry. Four hours until the 4 corsairs catch up with the FC.
  
• Kile organizes the crew into moving the storage container, lowberth, warbot, armor and weapons to the FC. 
  
• Luuru and FC maneuvered towards Strand as the crew finishes the preparations for a mated, gravitic landing.  Ian on the Ranger's Serpent class Scout determines the corsairs have changed direction and should be at the planet 1 1/2 hours after them. He also identified a jump point energy signature about 8 hours away. They appear to be a 2,000t and 600t vessel.
• Kile and Jak attempt to land the mated ships while Lisa assists. The scout and combat lander fly shotgun should any sort of interceptors attempt to intervene.
  
• Difficulties occur during landing and Kile changes the estimated touch down location, in the old starport, when he realizes that half of it was nuked. Without agility he hits hard in a standard Imperium Landing Bay blowing the hydraulics on the FC.
  
• Efforts are made to checkout the area. Marines look in surrounding bays and main buildings while fighters fly recon.  They all take cover as the corsairs enter orbit.
• Doc Wilson revives the person in the Emperor class Low Berth. He finds a lovely woman, Anna. She begins recovering quickly as Kile and Jak begin to question her.  Its fairly clear that she's of noble birth and was being protected from the battle by putting her in a low berth.
• According to Anna her ship was involved in smash and grab operations with a fleet and participated in the raid on Depot's Gas Giant Station.  They would then leave some of the materials captured in Caches' on various planets.
  
• They had just completed setting up a Cache on Strand when the Luuru is separated from the fleet and cornered by several Corsairs.  All Corsairs and the crew of the Luuru were lost in the battle. The ship drifted into the asteroid belt.
  
• This doesn't clearly explain the 4 dead Vargr's found on the Luuru and the lack of crew bodies but Kile and Jak have drawn some conclusions
• Anna gives Kile the access codes  to her Warbot security team. Jak sets them up on the perimeter of the landing bay.
  
• Jak continues searching for the materials on the Luuru. He's collected up all of the loose valuable items he can find.
• Anna feels well enough to help Kile work on the Luuru and FC's computer system, including the execution of a special project.
  
• The engineering team says that the exterior repairs on the Luuru would go better if they had additional Grav Plates to repair those that are not operational. Jak takes the marines, two Grav/ Vehicles and starts out searching the starport and Navy base for the plates. They find less than a dozen useable plates on one of the burned out hulks.

• Alfonso leads Urla and a marine on a search of the local facilities. They find a pile of rubble and start digging finding a loader and a number of parts.  On the missions they come across 2meter high volcano like hills. These little volcanoes appear to eject primordial ooze. 
  
• Alfonso spends the evening repairing the loader. Everyone makes an effort to get some rest while a couple people, sensors, and robots stay duty. Doc suggests that the ooze varies based on organic purpose.

• In looking for the cache, it is determined that they should examine the ancients site off the coast.  They take the raptor lander and head for the site.
• The Alpha Ancient's Site shimmers on the skyline.  Rectangular outlines and a force shield appear to cover the top of the structure. The island appear perfect maintained and the multi-story temple could be decades old instead of thousands of years.
• A review of the site finds an obelisk in the center. Its purpose is unknown. 
  
• Several power boats with soldiers come blazing across to the Alpha. Kile goes to meet them alone. Having everyone else in defensive positions.. The gray haired, lead soldier introduces himself as General Crane of Copola island, once capital of Strand.  Kile mentions the Cache and offers the contents to Crane if they can have the grav plates it supposedly constrains.  He invites the characters back to the island city for further discussions..
• At Copola they meet a member of the local senate, and see the TL9 infrastructure and tools that have kept Copola a human community.  Crane says that he is able to act as the leader of the military and would willing support the players initiative. He sends two wet navy cutters to control the starport shoreline. He also provides a squad of troops and engineers to assist the players.
  
• 1pm back at base its decided the players must begin searching the starcity for the cache.
• The two air/raft, gcarrier head off to the Starcity where they find the battles and neglect have taken their toll on the city. It appears deserted but while investigating the postal center, looking for signs of the cache, they hear shots in the distance.  Kile does not want the team involved in local skirmishes but as they move north to a General Products building its soon obvious the battle is moving in their direction.
  
• Alfonso and Anna move to the roof top to observe the moving skirmish. It appears to be on guy against 10 assailants. The hunted man quickly cuts down two but is  running out of options.
• The team include the General and a few troops work to cache the human runner from the hunters.  Alfonso spies robotics attachments on these troops and suggests they might be virus. Alfonso begins sniping targets.  Jak takes the GCarrier, Col Rivera and Urla and swings around behind the hunted mans building. As Kile, Crane and their force is about to instigate a cross fire, Alfonso spots additional forces of 10 strong moving against Kile and Crane.  Col. Rivera opens fire on the sneak attack with their GCarrier mounted fusion gun. 
  

• The cross fire leaves one of the generals forces dead and the General injured.   All 20 Virus troops are killed and John Harbor, a fellow Commonwealth citizen, is saved. They mention the cache to Harbor, an Ashima great hunter, and he offers them the grav plates he has and access to his area maps.
• General Crane is rushed back to the ship for medical attention and should make a quick recovery.
  
• They go back to John's 200t Animal class hunting vessel. It crash landed on a mountain side 10 years ago and will never fly again. He lets them bring up techs to begin removing grav plates from the ship.
  
• Anna goes through the formal ritual of placing a flag in the soil and claiming the planet for the Commonwealth.
• The maps show the probable location of the Regency cache. The players stay overnight and head to the cache in the morning.

• The builders left trace radiation and radiation signs on the exterior of the building. The players blast their way into the building through a tower door.  It is Star Lite Construction. Examining the facility shows a 200 person bunker, stores, fusion powerstation, manufacturing plant, arm for a 100troop army, and 2 400dt System Defense Boats.
• Ransom and the crew realize that the Strand humans are not ready for some of the equipment they've found.  Alfonso went to the computer systems to review the capabilities of the construction facility. And to get it started on the construction of training equipment is paramount.
• Ransom and Jak head to finish reviewing the materials and to get their grav plates.
• In the storage facility, they accidentally activate an LSP PR317 Warbot that was left to protect the facility.  The Warbot is in obvious disrepair but manages to shoot Jak. Both Jak and Ransom do severe damage to the Warbot, requiring to switch from its built-in Laser Rifle to a built-in Body Pistol. Ian rushes into the room and deflects a shot with a plasma sword and dismantles the Warbot within a combat round. 
  
• Alfonso, Ransom and Jak work to prep the manufacturing facility for operation.

• General Crane is back on his feet the next day and announced that the Representative of Copola request Anna, Ransom, and Alfonso's presence in a discussion about the manufacturing complex. Ransom takes one of the air/rafts and the team to the government center on the Copola island city.
  
• Jak stays behind to review ship construction capabilities of the manufacturing facility.  Ian starts working with the Copolans to develop their understanding of the systems they've obtained.
  
• Magistrate Gogran and many representatives are introduced to the Commonwealth mercenaries and Anna. A rough conversation quickly develops between Anna and Gogran. He quickly agrees to her terms. And suggests to Random and the others that it would be appropriate if they headed the first olive branch effort to establish peace between Copola and the Vargr city of Vizarkoaa.  Alfonso meets the representative that negotiates most of the Vargr deals,  Representative Lesra.  Who also owns one of the talest complexes, the Tower of Lesra. 
  
• The Magistrate announces the plan to the Representatives and turns the floor over to Anna, introducing her as the the Duchess Anna Vakora-Kaasu.  All are humbled in her presence.
  
• The team takes Lesra and Crane back to the starport. Crane stays to take over defenses while Lesra will continue onto Vizarkoaa with the negotiations team and Ugla. Ransom switches vehicles, using the Combat Lander to transport the team to the Vargr city star/airport. 
  
• At Vizarkoaa starport, the combat lander ends up close to a negotiations oriented, open-air structure. The Vargr leader, Vsifsff discusses peace with the humans but is completely opposed to nuking the neighboring Virus city.  Anna quickly assumes control of the conversation, in classic Vargr and explains acceptable terms of the peace. The humans and Vargr will equally share in the success of re-populating the starport. The starport ownership and planet will remain in her keep and request membership in the Commonwealth.  Several Vargr and human leaders will be knighted as leaders of the reconstruction.   The Vargr agree completely.
  
• The team returns to the starport with the intent of blasting off. The Luruu and Fortune's Child are ready 12 hours in advance of the planned timeframe.   Human soldiers are flowing into the starport preparing to hold it. John Harbor decides he'd like to return to Enders.  The humans have asked to takeover his wrecked ship as a watchtower/ base.
  
• Fortune's Child, Luruu and Ian's scoutship, Loraine blast off for orbit but not all is well. In orbit they scan the remains of a battle 150,000km distant.  A Regency vs Corsair battle has gone badly for the Regency. Their 600dt troop carrier has been destroyed and the 2000dt Stephon cruiser dissabled and ablaze. Two remaining 400dt Vargr Corsairs are reduced to one fully and one partially operation corsair.  The two corsairs breakoff their efforts against the detached cruiser and make way for the Commonwealth squadron. Ransom launches fighters once Vargr missiles are in flight. 
  
• A running battle with the Vargr continues resulting in the loss of Beth's fighter but she ejects in time to later be picked up by Jak. A lucky bridge hit dissables the weaker corsair and Luruu's automated weapons tear it apart.
• The remaining Corsair closes on the mated FC and Luruu blasting them with missiles. The blackglobe fends off the worst of the blast.  Missiles and fire from the squadron obliterate the remaining ship.
• The severely damaged Regency Stephon cruiser moves away at 2G. The Luruu and FC have been moving in a different direction and will not be able to intercept her.
  
• Ransom decides to jump home while the scoutship Loraine (and Ian) head back to Strand's starport to keep a watchful eye.

• They stop twice under the additional strain of carrying the Luruu for 1 month to return to Enders.
  
• Jak works on gunnery skill while in Jump space and Alfonso continues his combat training. He also adds some armor training to his schedule.
  
• When they reach Vigh the usual precautions are taken to review the FC-Luruu and crew for Virus infection.

• The FC-Luruu makes it to Enders where the Commonwealth uses a Grav Lifter to bring them planetside, to the Depot.
• First Citizen meets the vessel as it lands, takes the positronic cargo and meets Anna.  Later, in the day, she announces that the Ransom and Alfonso (those of adequate status) are invited to a party in Anna's honor at the royal palace.
• The players and crew spend the rest of the day discussing details of Fortune Child's annual maintenance with Navy personnel. Per the agreement the refit is part of their payment for services on this mission. 
  

• A naval lieutenant informs Kile that they reviewed the status of the Luruu overnight, since it was sitting on their naval base. The black globe is in bad shape and has a 40% chance of implosion in it's present condition.  The are moving the crew to base housing, per First Citizen and putting the FC in a repair facility for its annual maintenance/refit.  It will be in maintenance about 1 month due to its age.
• The MercGuild sends Simon (a liason and butler) to assist Kile in preparing for the evenings party.
• Simon sets Kile up with a Lady of the Court. Essentially, she's an unlanded noble acting as a guest escort. And prepares his cloths for the evenings events.
  
• Simon also arranges to move the Luruu to an empty pad in the starport.
  
• Alfonso contacts a relative, Vini McGee, to get assistance in moving the materials they've discovered. He quickly finds out that he's in demand after the announcement that he's an official merchant of the Duchy of Strand.   With hundreds of messages piling up, only 4 are oriented to the sale of Luruu.  By the end of the day, Alfonso will know more about the offers.
  
1. Navy Offer - 50MCr for Luruu with Black Globe
2. Stanley -  His benefactors will repair the Luruu and give partial ownership (royalties) to the FC owners.
   
3. Unknown Inquiry
4. Duchy of Strand - 25MCr for the Luruu and a negotiated amount for the Globe.
   
• Alfonso requires a new suit for the Royal Ball.  A local tailor gets to work and Alfonso ends with a 25,000cr suit.
  

• Vini arranges a business manager for Afonso, Lou. Lou prepares a corporation for Alfonso named Almac, per Alfonso's request. He also sorts through the endless offers and begins the negotiations process. Lou receives 1000 cr/mo  plus commission (2% if below 1 MCr, .5% over 1 MCr)
• Jak mentions his gift from the Duchess, TAS Royalties for Strand, with Bob at TAS.  Bob attempts to give Jak some insight into TAS and offers to setup to offers from a few appropriate buyers.
• Kile reviews the captured cargo and determines what he'd like to keep.  Eventually, he hires a professional dance company to help him survive the event.
  
• Alfonso asks Amy Darts to the Royal Ball, she's excited and runs out to purchase a dress.
• Alfonso forms Almac corporation to control his operations. Lou will operate it for him.
  

• Simon guides Alfonso, Kile and Amy to pick up Kile's date, Lady Jey Renald in an Air-Raft Limo and then their offf to the noble function.  Once there Kile, Jey, Alfonso and Amy enter the royal event.
• Jak, Beth and the rest of the crew head for the MercGuild's Grand Hall for their "crew party". They King offers his appreciation to the crew for a job well done.  Jak tries to keep Ursa out of harm's way at the event.  Both her and Jak drink far too much in the process.
  
• At the Ball, Alfonso meets stuttering Stanley who offered one of the sales of the Luruu. Amy spends most of the event dumbstruck by the event.
  
• Duchess Anna sees Kile and insists on a dance that ends with an introduction to the Warrior King. His Majesty is interested in financing another project. The scenario would be checking out the remainder of Strand system, Lysio and Antiquity with his new Cameleon II class Commerce Raider.  His majesty also shows interest in the capture of a new Darrian designed 500dt Regency Patrol Cruiser by his new privateers. In the process he introduces Kile to Lady Arabella von Ericsson. Ericson is also Admiral of the Azanti High Lightning capital ship that will lead the military force at Strand.
  
• Jey identifies several nobles and members of the royal family to Kile.  Including a possible Duchess rival, Baroness Trollesk of Nubotech.  Nubotech is known for the production of vacc suit's and battledress. Trollesk squeezes Kile for information on Strand, the Duchess and the King's new ship.  Kile informs her that the new ships is heavily gunned.
• Alfonso, Amy, Kile, and Jey head for the "crew party".   Beth and Jak get involved in a card game which Beth eventually wins.

• Kile discusses the mission with Fleet Admiral Ericsson of the Azhanti Rain, AHL class refit.  She is in the process of building the squadron and expects to leave in 2 days. 
  
• Alfonso's is buried in his merchant convoy and it is growing exponentially.  It now numbers in the 40s.
  

• Kile reviews the Chameleons statistics in a morning tour.  At this point John Harbor asks him for a job. This surprises Kile but John is ready to leave Enders, even after 10 years out of the Commonwealth.
  
• Alfonso's  trade vessels are up to 93.  Alfonso does take time to order a nice, tailored vacc suit "(15KCr).  Alfonso takes the time to provide some direction for Lou and the company while he's away. Ericcson starts pressuring limitations to the quickly growing unregulated, merchant fleet.
  
• Voron (Vince), a decorated navy Vargr, is invited to the offices of Admiral Savage.  He is offered a position assisting Kile's crew in finding solutions to some of the mysteries they are coming across. While meeting Savage he sees the massive quantity of 4 battlestars being build for the Commonwealth.
• Professor Alfred Melks, the modern father of gravitics,  requested that (Jesse), a bright computer scientist, accompany him to the skyscraper offices of Duchess Anna.   There she requested there participation in the exploration of Strand and efforts to expand the Commonwealth.
  

• 1AM Ericsson sneaks the fleet towards the jumpgate. She is joined by a Fleet Escort and later a tanker.   Kile finds 4 freighters capable of light fighting and assigns them hazardous locations bounding the fleet.  Three ships of the merchant convoy did not make the cut.
  
• The fleet enters the jump gate in groups towards their J2 destination world. The next 7 days are spent training and studying for most crew members.
  

• The fleet successfully ends up in an empty parsec 2J from Enders.   The needy merchants begin refueling the contingent. 
  
• Chameleon finds the Early Warning Satellite in this parsec is gone.  It's standard passive monitoring and jumpable communications satellite provide the Commonwealth with important intel on invading Virus vessels.  Reviewing the area discovers that it was destroyed by a Virus asteroid satellite sent on a hunt and kill mission. They destroy the satellite but there are no incidents before the next jump.
• One vessel, a firefly, fails to properly jump, delaying their jump by several hours.   The Chameleon helps repairs this firefly.
  

•    7 days later in the Vigh system a normal refueling and security check is routine. The fuel tender stays while another is dispatched.
  
•    Alfonso fails his "hand to hand" combat test after a couple months of work.   He will have to retest after more practice.
• Sgt. Piper puts Olive as his opponent he hesitated "what you want me to hit a girl?" Knowing a great opportunity she laid him out flat.  More practice...
  

• An uneventful jump places the fleet J2 from Strand 7 days later.
  

•  7 days later the convoy fleet appears in Strand system.
•  Ian contacts the ship asking that they come at once.  Ericsson request docking with the both the waiting scout vessel and the Chameleon.  Ian explains that they did nuke the Virus city of Vla but only after a few ships crash landed in that city with additional Virus "robot" crews. These crews seem much more effective than the cyborgs of Strand.
  
• Voron begins researching the ancient technology in the Copla museum with the help of (Jesse) and Strand researchers.
  
• Kile lands the Chameleon off the coast of Copla and brings it into the harbor. He turns on the Chameleon systems in order to cloak the ship and impress the natives. He then participates in the Strand Council meetings calming the locals with discussion of future options versus the Virus City.
  
• Alfonso holds "meet and greet" marketing meetings with hundreds of Strand citizens in at Starport.
• Hires a planetside assistant Alfred (an acquaintance of Lesra) as a VP for Almac Strand.  Sends message back to Enders with next mail ship (promotes his cousin Lou to VP and establishes a board of directors for Almac).
• Alfred is tasked with finding an appropriate facility within the starport for the Fortune's Child crew and work on the sales of imported materials from Enders.
  
• (Jesse) starts supporting Voron's needs by moving historical data from local sources to Commonwealth databases and systems.

• Kile and Jacob take a kill a Virus botweiller for analysis.
  
• Kile, Alfonso and Jacob go on a 5-day, brief, analysis of the Strand system. Alfonso does most of the charting.  Several Imperium era communities are seen but no sign of the 2,000dt Regency detached cruiser or any sign of life.
  
• (Jesse)'s analysis of the Virus Botweiller discovers a black nanotech probes under the armor that can be distributed airborne. It appears to "puff" and be blown from the damaged warbot dog.
• Voron visits the Ancient site and does an in-depth analysis of the physical structure.  The concrete is perfect, trees don't appear to age and self-repair quickly.  Shimmering squares are seen in the background. An energy shield appears to surround the main building. The internal pedestal has a flat surface with an imprint of 3 thick lines and a semi-sphere ball.
• Voron's research indicates that a similar object was transported to the Foundation of Antiquity during the later years of the Imperium. Known as the "world of city ruins", Antiquity, was the site the Imperium choose to establish one of the  4 sites for its Foundation of Knowledge.
  

• CCS Chameleon comes across a debris field of 75dt in the Strand system. Its assumed  to be from the Regency detached cruiser.
• Kile reviews their goals while back on Strand.  It seems to be agreed that Antiquity is the next logical location.
  
• reestablish contact with the council while supporting the Azhanti Rain
• do a brief analysis of the Strand system, identifying concerns and opportunities
• review and establish contact with the Lysio and Antiquity systems
  
• eliminate and or quantify Regency, Corsair, and Virus threats throughout the star group
• capture a cutting edge Regency ship if possible.

• After returning to Strand. Alfonso heads for a meeting with Alfred regarding the corporation.   Beth and Elisa do do air support for ground troops versus Virus Robot armies. Only to have Elisa get shot out of the air.  Alfonso and Jane rescue her and wisk her off to the medical frigate, where her life is luckily saved.  The destroyed fighter sinks to the bottom of the ocean.
• Alfonso continues to his meeting with Alfred. Alfred has utilized monies from the merc duties to hire and look for a new site for the headquarters, also an island retreat.   He's found a larger ship facility with a ship still in it.
  
• Kile leads the merry crew on an attempt to circumvent boobytraps within the facility.   Two of the traps go off but no one is killed.  Melks brings the facilities fusion plant to 20%.   Dr. Vonon enters the Quasar class scout courier and explores the ship for possible traps. Jacob searches for virus infections in the facility and plant. Finding none he hardens the computers for possible future intrusion in their facility. Kile supervises bringing things under control by using the  combat lander's powerplant to open one of the large overhead roof doors.
  
• CCS Chameleon lands in the facility dome. Minutes after the plant power goes to 20% the scout cruiser receives basic power from the facility.
  

• The crew of the Chameleon sets out for Antiquity.  Alfred starts on the facility restoration and scout cruiser restoration.
• Jumping to the Antiquity system the crew works on their various projects. Alfonso succeeds at basic hand-to-hand training, Vonon studies the Ancients/Antiquity knowledge he has obtained and  realizes that the scout cruiser was also exploring the Ancients 94 yrs earlier, Jacob hardens the combat robots vs Virus incursion and Kile preps the ship with drills for combat.   Ian follows in his scout ship...catching up on that sleep.
• The scout cruiser realized that Strand system was assembled by the ancients.
• Do these systems have a common cause?
  

• Jumping into the Antiquity system the ship passive sensors detect a capital ship and space station in orbit of the main world.  Later they detect that no energy readings are coming from the capital ship and that there is a ship's boat mining the asteroid belt.  They contact and meet the miner Swann and discuss the situation on Antiquity. He beats them at poker receiving some free repairs for his troubles.
• Contacting the space station and meeting the scientists that inhabit it and telling their tale once they convince everyone they're not from the greedy Regency or violent Corsairs...
  
• The Virus capital ship was a Kokkirak that fired and sank the starport damaging the Grand Foundation of the Imperium. A collection of information and historical treasures unlike anything in history.  A column in the Ancients City came to life and destroyed all life and electrical equipment on the Kokkirak class in one shot.   It appears to be maintaining orbit with occasional corrections from the scientists.
• The scientists had moved what they could of the collections in the Foundation into the Ancients City and out of the sinking starport town.
• Looking from the space station's telescopes, the crew, realizes that the planet Antiquity is covered in ruins from many eras.
• The scientists mention that Lysio also has a Ancients town.  But nothing exists between these systems.
• The scientists state "shame Strand won't be around long enough for us to figure this out". The crew is shocked. It seems that the scientists deep space telemetry has spotted an asteroid 3 yrs out from Strand moving just below the speed of light.

• Speculation on the future of Strand and the inbound asteroid fill the base and ship's spare time.  Dr K discusses another abnormal event, the Kokkirak appear to have power hits to sensors infrequently. The source appears to be a cargo bay near engineering...while studying the energy reading another entry reading is noted on orbiting a gas giant in the outer system.
• John Harbor has gone planetside and sees a beautiful ancient city that seems indifferent to its human residents....Kile calls him back to the ship for a trip to the gas giant.  Kile sends Ian and his scout out out past the gas giant to take scans. Ian calls back warning there are 3 readings one 2kt  cruiser, and 2 500t vessels.   The 2kt cruiser appears to have power problems.  Kile wonders if its the one he saw damaged at Strand . But that vessel didn't have jump capability. Did the other vessels rescue it?
• Kile commanding the kings' ship, Chameleon commerce raider, aims for the gas giant and comes in on the side opposite the vessels through the upper atmosphere, but is working to stay unobserved.
  
• Coming up under the group within short range, one 500t ship has left the area while  the other vessels are but not completely caught off guard.
• The Chameleon gets lucky with  fusion gun and missile shots damaging the Stephon class cruiser flybridge and engineering compartments.  This vessel is the same one at Strand...it was severely injured prior to this battle.  The 500t ship is a Darrian built Baredolkin class patrol cruiser,  turns to meet the threat, closing for a nuclear kill.  Beth is prepared to provide point defense in her fighter. At close  range, Alphono fires the fusion battery allowing the Chameleon to vaporizes the Regency's Darrian built pride.  Soon the Stephron class Regency cruiser explodes as fire reaches the missile stores.
• The Third Baredolkin is 25 minutes away will she turn and run or fight??
• The third Baredolkin dives for the gas giant, careful maneuvers and patience give the day to Chameleon.

198-1212

• While the crew returns to the spacestation for needed repairs and to begin research, Ian has made it to Strand to request assistance for Antiquity.
• Arabella, with the Duchess' agreement, dispatches security forces to Antiquity.