Shadira Highport

Moath Hatab

With Nevada’s report under her belt, Feng took the plunge and made contact with Moath Hatab, meeting him for dinner on the Highport. She briefed him on some - nor all - of their findings, missing out Gutter and Kefaufer, and urged him to get eyes on Kex and the Gormenghast.

On her return, she looked up an up-and-coming band - The Blastoliths - and arranged to ship a box of “Remember Joey” shirts to them (via Armourboxes, the secure shipping corporate), to draw them into the increasing culture item that the logo had become.

Wombat went off to check out Alpha Protein Products and discovered the only the boxes they suspected of carrying the consignments had the red flash; normal APP boxes did not.

Shadira Downport/Collace/District 268/Spinward, 128/1105

Gormenghast

One morning, Nevada was told that he was doing well, and had been ‘head-hunted’ to an associated company. This turned out to be Sandoval, and he found himself working as a loader, loading the cans aboard the shuttle Gormenghast and unloading the returned ones. This went on for a few cycles, after which he was shifted to shuttle crew and actually flew the route.

Wrecked Starship

The flight plan for the shuttle took it out to Kex, via a fuel scoop at the GG Karthas, but as if by chance also included a close pass of the other satellite of Karthas, Kitono. Kitono was a worthless iceball ignored by the entire system, but the crew of the shuttle opened the APP boxes and unpacked three matt black stealth drones. The cargomaster then flew these down to the surface and inside a forgotten wreck of a capital starship, evidently there for at least a hundred years. The suttle then flew on to Kex, where it dropped the supply cans and collected the return ones in a completely normal way.

The return took them close once more, and the drones were flown back up, each clutching a sealed box - presumably the elusive drugs. Gormenghast then made the return hop and the cans were unloaded into the process Nevada had already seen.

Shadira Highport/Collace/District 268/Spinward, 150/1105

After a couple of trips, Nevada passed on what he’d learned, and the other two went and briefed Moath. He in turn had learned that a Type A trader, the Short Walk, made a habit of a rather similar trajectory while heading in-system on its usual trade visits. 

Stealth Drone

The PCs were assigned to a survey scout in need of fueling, and did a similar routine, putting a drone of their own into the wreck and coming away. Six days later, the cameras picked up the Short Walk’s drone dropping the packages into the hold - lots of them. 

Feng had kept a journal of this voyage, in detail, and was considering sending it to 'Gutter' Santiago at a later date.

The IISS and police were now ready. They knew all the stages of the process, and were confident that simultaneous raids would pick up enough operators that they’d be able to track back to the corruption in the police and clean house. The PCs were offered the chance to participate in the raids, and their choice of which to take part in. With an acquisitive eye on the Short Walk, they elected to storm the starship. After some worries about overcoming security it occurred to them that in this case, they were the authorities, and elected to tackle her at her berth on the Highport. 

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Session Date: Apr 25th, 2023