Session 1 - The Silvana Situation

After reading through the materials Curtis Winter had provided on the mission, it seemed he really had made some decent arrangmements.

Curtis has people working on the inside in Silvana. They are working in the same lab as Mae Barlowe and have some level of indirect access to the research.

Curtis’ person on the inside, Brianna Keelan, is directing some research into increasing the fuel efficiency of sublight drives.

Isaac has an appointment booked as a courier who is picking up a prototype to ship to a prospective buyer.

As Isaac leaves the gravity well of Bane’s system, he powers up the e-drive. Since Silvana and Redemption have done business before, there is a well-charted path between the two settlements.

The jouney is uneventful enough. Isaac eases out of the passage, and swaps over to the sublight engine.

As he approaches Silvana, he sees he might be too late already. There’s a smoking hole in the hull of the station, patched up by an emergency force field and several ships are frantically circling one another, sizing one another up for combat.

Foxtail receives a hail.

Silvana Station: Unidentified ship state your business or we will fire on you.

Isaac doubts if they have much attention to divert to him in the way of actual munitions, but the situation is chaotic enough already.

Isaac: Silvana station, this is Axiom. Courier here to meet with Brianna Keelan.
Silvana Station: Acknowledged Axiom. Please keep your distance while we deal with a situation. We will hail you when it’s safe to approach.
Isaac: You got it, Silvana station. Standing by. Axiom out.

Watching the skirmish unfold before him, Isaac wonders what the best course of action is.

It’s a pretty good bet that whatever is going on here has to do with the energy cubes, but it’s not certain. If he gets involved, he might not be allowed on the station. If he doesn’t get involved, someone else might get away with the research.

Isaac takes some time to scan the 3 ships in the fray.

Two of the ships are broadcasting Silvana idents.

One is a poorly-outfitted snub fighter, perhaps a second-hand defense ship that has seen better days. The other is a transport ship retrofitted with some heavy weapons.

Isaac wonders what this station spends all their money on if not a solid defense force.

The last ship is a Hunter, a small but lethal fighter. It’s broadcasting an unaffiliated ident, but marking on the hull show that it belongs to the Unity Defense Corporation, a merenary corporation with close ties to the Exodans.

But it’s unclear what’s actually going on here. Is the research on board that Hunter? Are they just trying to blow up the station and destroy the research?

Isaac: Silvana station, this is Axiom. Do you require assistance? Your defense force is looking a little ragged.

Silvana Station: Stand down, Axiom. We’ve got this under control. We have two other ships in pursuit of another rogue ship. They’ll be back shortly to help mop up this one.

Ah-ha. So the Hunter is running interference to allow the thief to escape. Silvana has got to be really want that research back to send their A-team out to retreive it leaving the station all but undefended with a Hunter at the door.

Isaac fires up a long-range scan to try and detect the location of the UDC ship or the other Silvana ships.

While the long-range scan runs, Isaac turns his attention back to the battle at Silvana. The defense force is struggling. Even more than they were.

Luckily, the Hunter mostly seems to be messing with them, buying time for their comarade on the run and not trying to do any serious damage to the station or the ships.

Even so, the Hunter is dangerous and station and its defenders are a little ramshackle. There’s a risk of unintentional disaster.

Suddenly, the Hunter changes bearing and peels off from the fight.

It turns tail and runs.

This complicates things. Isaac may be able to chase it to find the other ship, which is likely carrying the research. But if he does he’ll be outnumbered.

He watches the Silvana ships take a few last pot-shots at the Hunter before disengaging and heading back to the station to regroup.

Isaac fires up the engines to give chase to the Hunter. He plans to hang back toward the edge of sensor range, but there’s not much going on in this area of the sector so he’ll likely have trouble staying inconspicuous.

Isaac tails the Hunter. It doesn’t show any signs of detecting the Foxtail.

After several minutes of chase, they come upon the other Silvana ships engaged in combat with two other UDC ships - the courier ship under the protection of a medium cruiser.

The Silvana ships, two corvettes, are holding their own - certainly much better than the two he saw back at the station - but the arrival of the Hunter threatens to change the odds.

Isaac: Silvana ships, this is Axiom. Do you require assistance?
Silvana Ship 1: Axiom this is Jackal, I think we’ll take what we can get here.

Isaac finds an opening and slides into the battle in formation with the Silvana ships.

Isaac aims to take advantage of the temporarily-increased chaos by drawing some fire away from this Silvana ships to give them an opening.

Isaac sweeps perpendicularly across the battlefield. The UDC ships hesitate for a moment, reconfiguring their formation and changing bearing to give chase.

The Silvana ships see what’s happening and fall in behind the UDC ships lining up shots on their engines. The cruiser sustains several hits.

The Hunter doesn’t fall for the distraction. It comes in over top of Foxtail, trying to box Isaac in. But also putting itself in the firing line of Foxtail’s turrets.

Isaac locks on and fires.

Foxtail’s turrets score a direct hit on the Hunter while it’s trying ot maneuver into position. The Hunter is disabled, right in the Foxtail’s path. Isaac pulls hard right, but glances off the Hunter. The other UDC ships have enough space to reach and bear down on Isaac.

Isaac accelerates and banks hard, trying to get out of their sights.

Foxtail’s superior maneuverability against the Cruiser pays off. Isaac is able to get out of the line of fire.

Seeing the sluggishness of the Cruiser, Isaac gets an idea. He moves Foxtail in close to the Cruiser and keeps it distracted, waiting for the Silvana ships to carve it up.

The Silvana ships bear down on the Cruiser. Spread thin with 3 nimble targets in close range, the Silvanas make short work of the Cruiser. Soon, the Cruisers weapons are inactive and its engines are mostly inoperable.

Isaac opens a comm channel with all ships in the area.

Isaac: UDC Courier, this is Axiom. We’ve disabled your guardians and there are more ships en route from Silvana. Just return what you stole and we’ll let you all limp home.

UDC Courier: Axiom, we know when we’re beat. We’ll send jettison the research.

After a moment, a small pod pops out of the Courier ship.

Isaac scans it and it doesn’t seem to be dangerous.

Jackal: Thanks very much, Axiom. We can take it from here.

Before the Silvana ships can react, Isaac activates the tractor beam and scoops up the pod.

Isaac: You guys can mop up here, I’m headed back to the station anyway so I’ll drop it back for you.

Jackal: Tell you what, I’ll escort you back just in case any other UDCs are hanging out. Jester here can handle clean-up duty.

Isaac, hoping a head start will make the difference, takes off at top speed without another word.

He plots a course that takes him near, but not to, the station hoping to keep his intentions hidden until it is too late.

When Isaac breaks off toward Redemption, Jackal certainly takes notice and gives chace. Isaac is able to keep enough of a lead until they reach Redemption.

On approach, Isaac calls down the Redemption.

Jackal: Axiom, what are you doing? Return the research immediately.
Isaac: Sorry, Jackal, it’s nothing personal. But I’ve radioed down to Redemption. As you may be aware, they’re an arms manufacturer. And right now every single one of their guns are trained on you. I’d recommend you head back to Silvana.

Without a word, Jackal turns and heads back toward the station. Truthfully, Isaac feels bad about the betrayal. Stealing is one thing, but betraying someone he fought alongside feels bad.

Not much to be done about it, though.

An hour later Isaac is back in Curtis Winter’s office.

Curtis: Ah, Mr. Hammond. Back so soon? I had heard from security that you were on your way down.
Isaac: Well, it was like you said: just a simple courier mission.

Isaac drops the box he’s carrying down on Curtis’ desk. Curtis opens it up.

Curtis: Lovely, lovely. This will do nicely. Thanks very much, Isaac.
Isaac: Anything for you, Curtis. Well, anything you can pay for. Listen, I wanna get outta the sector ASAP in case things with Silvana start to heat up.
Curtis: Of course, of course. Well, you’re welcome to stay here for a few days…
Isaac: No, thanks. Just send me my payment and I’m gonna get out of here before Jackal comes back with his friends.

Isaac turns and leaves. Curtis regards him suspiciously for a moment, before turning his attention back to the box, excited to dig in.

Isaac returns to Foxtail and sets a course for…away. As he leaves Redemption behind, he pulls up the files he removed from the Silvana research about Precursor tech.

Among other things, he finds a map of nearby vaults, descriptions and experiment logs on Precursor technology. A lot of things the underweave would pay a lot of money for and a lot of things that could help him on his quest. And hopefully enough to keep Redemption from turning the energy cubes into weapons.