1322. While the Starjammer was docked at Kline highport, Marc Vachon agreed to sign on as pilot for the armed packet, making him the new executive officer to Captain Wayne Masada. Like Chief Engineer Richy Jamoor, Marc had attended the prestigious Imperial Naval Academy on Seloo (Magyar 2102, A4319BA-E), though he had not graduated. Instead, Marc worked his way up the ranks to a commission, eventually becoming an analyst for Imperial Naval Intelligence.
1347. Marc received a summons from Sir Virgilio Khan, seneschal to the Imperial subsector duchess of Walpurgis. Marc asked the ship’s surgeon, Dr. Howard Barrera, to accompany him to the surface of Kline.
1815. After a brief shuttle ride down the gravity well, Marc and Dr. Barrera arrived at the offices of Duchess Shanika. Sir Virgilio ushered the two Starjammers into a secure conference room and explained why he had summoned them.
The Kline Security Directorate, the duchess’s own intelligence service, believed it had identified a significant threat to the Imperium, but needed to corroborate its findings. Sir Virgilio explained that the high nobles of Magyar had long been concerned that the Solomani Confederation was building up its naval strength along the spinward edge of the Imperial border. For over a decade the nobles had noted the steady deployment of first strike capital ships to nearby Confederation military bases.
However, the nobles’ concerns had fallen on deaf ears with the Imperial Admiralty, who were supremely confident that their technological edge ensured that the Solomani would be badly outmatched should they ever initiate hostilities. The Admiralty believed that Magyar’s fortress worlds and sector fleet would be able to hold out against a Confederation invasion long enough for more powerful naval units from the Solomani Rim to be brought to bear.
Former Imperial Navy Commander Ginnoni Salman, taken 349-1102 (Source: Kline Security Directorate).
While Marc had been with Naval Intelligence he had worked closely under Commander Ginnoni Salman, a brilliant and charismatic officer who was a legend for his skill at recruiting high value Solomani assets, and his willingness to buck the system.
Salman had cultivated a trusted source with contacts inside the Confederation Naval Design Bureau at Keyor (Magyar 1521, A201889-E). The Keyor system lay some sixteen parsecs spinward and rimward of Kline and served as Magyar Sector Fleet headquarters for the Solomani.
Salman’s source claimed to have obtained planning documents outlining the development of an entirely new class of dreadnought, the largest and most advanced fighting vessels in any navy’s fleet. Such a development could shift the balance of power in the sector, which currently favored the Imperium.
But just as Salman was about to extract his source the commander learned that the operation had been blown: his contact had been arrested by Solomani Security and Salman’s entire intelligence network inside the Confederation, built up over the course of several years, had been rolled up by SolSec in just a few weeks.
Salman never fully recovered from this disaster, and all INI files associated with the affair were classified and withheld from circulation within the Imperial intelligence community. Just a few years later Salman was forced out of the service due to some scandalous business concerning diverted funds, and in the years since he had dropped off the grid.
Sir Virgilio explained that the Kline Security Directorate had recently obtained highly credible intelligence that some new, very large starship was currently being constructed under great secrecy at the Confederation shipyards at Keyor. The KSD analysts believed this mystery ship was likely the same dreadnought Salman’s contact had seen the plans for.
Sir Virgilio asked Marc to locate his old mentor in the hope that Salman could verify the new intel. The seneschal casually noted that the Starjammer had been provided on long-term loan by Duchess Shanika with the understanding it would be made available for exactly such services. Both Dr. Barrera and Marc agreed to look for the missing intelligence analyst.
0700. Back on the Starjammer, Marc and Dr. Barrera relayed the details of their meeting with Sir Virgilio to the rest of the crew.
Marc also noted that much more than mere arrogance might have led the Admiralty to ignore warnings about a Solomani build-up. He explained that, following the disaster at Keyor, Salman became convinced that Imperial Naval Intelligence was compromised, and that the Solomani had embedded one or more moles inside the service, and that these moles had been feeding the Admiralty bad and misdirected intel, while passing Imperial secrets back to Solomani Security.
Although Salman had been very tight-lipped about his suspicions, Marc believed his mentor had gotten very close to uncovering the mole when Salman became embroiled in the financial scandal. Marc also believed that the scandal had been a set-up and that Salman was innocent of the charges.
1200. The ship’s resident entertainer, Daren Rigby-Garner, declared that he needed to return to Kline because his upcoming spa appointment was necessary for his well-being and non-refundable to boot. His android bodyguard, Sonny, felt obligated to accompany his charge.
The rest of the crew began investigating Sir Virgilio’s claims by checking public sources available on the Kline worldnet. A news item in the Solomani Rising Phoenix News Service from late 1102 announced the award of a large military contract to the Keyor shipyards for construction of new capital ships.
A Hiver, one of the of the six Major Races in Charted Space. Their own name for themselves has no spoken equivalent; “Hiver” is simply a Human term applied to them. They are descended from omnivore gatherer/scavenger stock, and are unique in that they attained a form of agriculture before they became sentient. Hivers are highly individualistic while driven by curiosity, parental instinct, and a desire to maintain the unity and uniformity of their race both within and outside their Federation.
Another news piece from 1103 trumpeted the arrival of a Hiver embassy ship on Keyor. The Hivers were a mysterious, non-human alien species that controlled the vast Hive Federation located to trailing of the Imperium. The Hivers, which somewhat resembled Terran starfish, were highly intelligent creatures with inscrutable motivations. While considered cowards and pacifists, the Hivers were also believed to be highly adept at manipulating entire societies over decades and even centuries into eventually conforming to the Hivers’ goals.
Conspiracy theorists often posited that the Hivers were behind every Human calamity in the last 500 years, but some serious Imperial and Confederation historians had speculated that the Hivers might have somehow manipulated the Solomani into rebelling against the Imperium in order to weaken both their human neighbors.
In any case, the Hivers possessed technology at least equal to the Imperium in most areas and in some respects possibly surpassing it. Although the Solomani’s prejudice against non-humans would normally prevent them from working with such an alien race, access to TL15 items might help them overcome their inherent chauvinism.
A report published in 1104 from a Solomani Party subcommittee for economic development in Valhalla subsector touted that unemployment rates had been steadily dropping to levels not seen since the Rim War. The report also noted that on Keyor the demand for skilled shipfitters had been so high that shipyard quotas were going unfilled, and had been partially to blame for cost overruns and delivery delays.
1200. Back on the mainworld’s surface, Marc, Dr. Barrera, Brogue, and Richy visited an old colleague of Salman’s, Marrin Torrez. Marc explained that the Kline office of Naval Intelligence was euphemistically referred to as the “Local Edition.” The head of their office was the “Editor’s Desk,” while Salman and Marc worked in the “Newsroom.” Marrin worked in the “Research” department. Like Salman and Marc, she was an outsider within an organization that was largely made up of self-congratulatory, over-educated sons and daughters of the nobility.
Marrin was brilliant at cross-referencing hundreds of databases to uncover hidden connections, but she was called the “Gorgon” by her coworkers for her withering disdain for the lazy or dim.
Marrin was quite fond of Salman and by extension, Marc, and the two men were only rarely the subject of her acidic tirades. She had tried to soldier on at the Local Edition after Salman was forced out, but only lasted a little more than a year longer before she retired.
The Starjammers found the Gorgon living in Mirjam city, in a modest apartment on the edge of one of Klime’s domed parks, where she had taken up botany as a hobby. She appeared glad to see Marc, and groused that she never saw anyone from the Newsroom anymore.
When asked, Marrin claimed that she had not kept in contact with Salman, but had heard he was teaching Galangic on Shugammiir (F622ACE-C), a high population secondary world of the Kline system. During the Solomani occupation many Vilani citizens across the subsector were rounded up and forcibly relocated to Shugammiir, a dirty industrial world of over 40 billion. Since becoming liberated during the Rim War, Shugammiir had become a hotbed for Vilani nationalism and virulent anti-Solomani sentiment.
Loyal to the end, the Gorgon—like Marc—believed that Salman had been framed, possibly by the mole. Marrin said that Salman had three main suspects inside the Local Edition but he never revealed their identities to her, as he wanted to be absolutely sure before he began leveling accusations against fellow Imperial intelligence officers.
0700. On board the Starjammer, JUN0 briefed the crew on Shugammiir. This secondary world orbited Megishi, a distant red dwarf companion star located almost 2,500 AU from Pemami, Kline’s primary star. Due to the great distance between the primary and companion stars, travel to Shugammiir was almost always made via jump drive. Captain Masada made the necessary preparations for jump, including filing a flight plan stating the Starjammer would be bound for the Kanamsa (Magyar 3214, B577355-C) system.
The Kline System
| Object |
Orbital
Distance (AU) |
Profile |
Remarks |
| Pemami |
— |
M0 V |
Primary |
| Kline |
0.40 |
A642987-E |
He Hi In Po Cp Tz Co |
| Else |
0.67 |
Y100314-9 |
Mi |
| Minemkirke |
1.54 |
LGG |
Size U Gas Giant |
| Adu |
4.70 |
LGG |
Size T Gas Giant |
| Pemami V |
9.50 |
YDA4451-7 |
Mi |
| Megishi |
2,335 |
M1 V |
Far Companion |
| Shugammiir |
0.20 |
F622ACE-C |
Hi In Tz |
| Duzegan |
0.40 |
YAC5000-0 |
Tz Co |
| Niikuzega |
0.58 |
LGG |
Size V Gas Giant |
| Zadishbaka |
1.06 |
SGG |
Size R Gas Giant |
| Uuman |
1.72 |
H300532-7 |
Mi |
1153. The Starjammer unmoored from Kline highport and began making for Pemami’s 100 diameter limit.
0101. The Starjammer entered jumpspace.
2100. Richy found Marc on the bridge, querying JUN0’s library files. Marc explained that the Starjammer had occasionally been used by the Kline Security Directorate for special missions into the Solomani Confederation, and that he had been issued a backdoor code that allowed him to access the secret logs from these missions. Richy said this explained why many of the ship’s components showed runtimes much higher than would be expected based on the official logbooks.
2316. The Starjammer emerged from jump space just outside Megishi’s 100 diameter limit. Marc began piloting the vessel toward Shugammiir at maximum acceleration.
1857. The Starjammer reached orbit above Shugammiir.
1951. The Starjammer landed at Shugammiir Spaceport.
2122. The Starjammer cleared Imperial customs. Shugammiir was a grim industrial world with an extremely high law level. Any weapons were effectively banned, and state surveillance was omnipresent.
A review of the starbase arrival board indicated that an Imperial Naval courier, the INS Liebman, had arrived six hours earlier than the Starjammer.
Brogue, Richy, Howard, and Marc debarked the Starjammer. A check of the Shugammiir worldnet confirmed that Salman was teaching Galangic to factory workers at a state-run technical school. Brogue was able to map out a route to the lecture hall where Salman was currently located, and the Starjammers headed out.
Shugammiir was a dirty, claustrophobic maze of underground pedestrian corridors and maglev tunnels. The Starjammers arrived at Lecture Hall 323A just as Salman’s class was breaking up. The former naval commander was shocked to see Marc on Shugammiir, and Marc was equally as shocked to see how far Salman had fallen: the formerly proud, nearly vain man who had always been meticulous about his appearance was now unshaven and disheveled, dressed in shabby workclothes.
Brogue, Richy, and Howard hung back while Marc took Salman to a nearby dive bar, the Unda Kimginrir. Salman was clearly suspicious about the sudden appearance of an old colleague, but Marc noted that the older man had grown sloppy in the intervening years: formerly an exemplar of fieldwork, Salman had not seemed to pick up on the three Starjammers trailing them both to the bar.
At the Unda Kimginrir Marc bought Salman round after round of kassig, the cheap and acrid greenish-yellow Vilani beer—a beverage that Salman, an aficionado of fine imported Terran wines—never would have touched in his former days at Naval Intelligence.
0034. After a couple hours of harmless badinage Salman’s demeanor abruptly changed. Evidently satisfied that Marc’s motivations were likely good, Salman began bracing his friend about his true purpose for visiting Shugammiir.
Once Marc explained Sir Virgilio’s request, Salman became very agitated. Several years earlier Salman had managed to turn a Solomani Security agent codenamed SLIDE-RULE. The agent was an engineer by training, and SolSec had managed to get him placed as a tenured professor with the Imperial University at Fornorb (Magyar 2616, C997A85-A) where he was expected to gather information on advanced hull materials being developed by Imperial scientists. However, SLIDE-RULE had come to enjoy the greater freedoms and luxuries found on the Imperial side of the border, and once Salman pegged him as a SolSec agent, SLIDE-RULE was readily flipped to become an asset for Imperial Naval Intelligence.
SLIDE-RULE confirmed that the Confederation Navy was at work on a new dreadnought class. Since the end of the Rim War, the Solomani had systematically built larger and larger warships, and this proposed new “Sector United” class would have been even bigger than the Imperium’s own 500,000-ton Tigress class. Perhaps even more concerning, the class was intended to integrate advanced technologies, including stealth, new Hiver-designed power plants, and a massive meson spinal mount some 60,000 displacement tons in size. A spinal mount represented the apex of starship weaponry, a platform so large it ran nearly the entire length of the ship. Meson spinals were particularly destructive, utilizing dual-particle beams that ignored all armor and radiation shielding, which made them capable of ending naval engagements before they even begin. These innovations would allow the vessel to go toe-to-toe against Imperial ships-of-the-line.
SLIDE-RULE had signaled Salman that he had obtained documents outlining the entire Sector United program. Just as Salman had made arrangements to bring SLIDE-RULE and his intel in, the double-agent was picked up by SolSec and extraordinarily renditioned across the border, where he spent five years in a Confederation prison before being exchanged for three Solomani agents being held by the Imperium.
Salman then began to rant about the mole who was likely still burrowing away inside the Local Office. Salman revealed to Marc that he had never stopped working on his mole theory, even after being tossed out of the Newsroom. Salman’s lead suspect had been and remained none other than Lei Calderon, the Editor of the Local Office. Calderon was a fairly typical glad-handling dilettante, the third son of the Countess of Dexter (Magyar 2416 B587510-B). Salman noted that he had copies of files implicating the Editor hidden away back at his apartment.
Realizing that his old mentor was likely in great danger, Marc called in the rest of the away team and after brief introductions they hustled Salman back to the safety of the Starjammer. Captain Masada made arrangements for a hasty departure from Shugammiir, while Ronald and Boone took steps to secure the ship.
0500. The away team made for Salman’s apartment, though Howard soon noticed they were being tailed. Once the Starjammers reached their destination they saw that it had been taped off as a crime scene, with members of local law enforcement moving in and out carrying forensic equipment and boxes.
The team was approached by a man Marc recognized as Kiran Fillips, the cocksure head of the Local Edition’s “Collections” unit, ex-Imperial Marines used for internal security and occasional muscle. Fillips recognized Marc and asked where Salman was, noting that the old analyst was now wanted for illegal possession of classified materials, an Imperial crime. Fillips joked how low the once mighty Salman had fallen, and warned Marc about associating with suspected criminals.
1200. Ronald and Brogue returned to Salman’s apartment, easily slipping by the pair of local officers placed on guard. Once inside they found that Salman’s hiding place had been discovered and his files removed. On their return trip to the Starjammer they encountered two of Fillip’s boys from Collections, but after a brief tussle were able to escape without bloodshed.
1200. While disappointed that his personal files had been lost, Salman explained that they would be of little help to Naval Intelligence, as they were encrypted and set to self-destruct if tampered with. Further, Salman claimed he still knew the contents well enough himself.
Salman recommended that the Starjammers seek out SLIDE-RULE, who could likely corroborate Sir Virgilio’s intel. His real identity was Sing Habib; Salman said that as of twelve months earlier, Habib had reportedly returned to Fornorb and was working at the starport there.
0214. The Starjammer returned to Kline Highport.
0600. Marc and Howard reported the recent events at Shugammiir to Sir Virgilio, who agreed that they should track down Habib Sing on Fornorb.
2048. Ronald reported that the INS courier Liebman had returned to Kline.
1100. Marc reported that some old contacts still working at the Local Edition claimed that Fillip’s Collections team had irrevocably destroyed Salman’s files while trying to retrieve them in jumpspace.
1700. Marc, Howard, and Richy brought Salman to the Blackriver delegation for safe keeping. The Aslan clan owed the Starjammers a great debt for saving their ambassador, and were quite familiar with the complicated nature of internal politics. They pledged that Salman would be safe in their care.
0500. Captain Masada filed an erroneous flight plan with Kline system control, claiming that the Starjammer was bound for the Grendel (Solomani Rim 0111, A96A98B-E) system.
0721. The Starjammer unmoored from Kline highport, bound for the Pemami 100D limit.
2103. The Starjammer reached the Norkio jump point and entered jumpspace.
0748. The Starjammer emerged from jumpspace deep in the Norkio outer system, nearly 6.4 million kilometers from the smallest and most distant gas giant. Captain Masada ordered the ship to make ready for fuel skimming operations.
0424. The Starjammer, fully refueled, entered jumpspace bound for the Fornorb system.
0833. The Starjammer emerged from jumpspace near the 100D limit of Fornorb’s primary Makligu, a red dwarf star. Marc began piloting the Starjammer toward the Fornorb mainworld. The planet was marginally habitable, its atmosphere tainted with industrial pollutants, and locked in a resonant orbit with Makligu.
Fornorb and its primary star, Makligu, as seen from orbit.
1033. The Starjammer touched down at Fornorb Starport, located on the planet’s surface. Fornorb was a high population industrial world of over 20 billion citizens, and formerly a major shipbuilding center for the Solomani Confederation. During the Rim War the system had been the site of two major space battles and in the subsequent fighting the highport and the shipyards were destroyed by the Imperials and not yet rebuilt. Fornorb, which had been on the verge of reaching TL14, was plunged back to TL10 where it has remained for the last 100 years.
Captain Masada declared the entire ship under seal and thus was subjected to only a brief inspection of the crew manifest. As a Law Level 5 world, everyone on the away team raided the ship’s locker for a filter mask, an Imperial standard model S-4 shotgun, and handfuls of shotshells.
Although Habib was a highly educated starship engineer, he was evidently working at the only job he could find: an entry-level mechanic in the starport’s maintenance department. Richy was able to hack into the starport work schedule and determined that Habib had the day off.
1301. The away team tracked Habib to Fusion Fare, a café just outside the starport. Habib was still sharp with his fieldcraft, if a bit paranoid, and immediately clocked the Starjammers. Marc was able to quickly establish that he was a friend sent by Salman through use of a sign and corresponding countersign.
Habib was clearly embittered by his experience working for Naval Intelligence but heartened to learn that the Kline Security Directorate was digging into the Sector United program. Habib shared that he had, even through imprisonment, managed to hold onto documents that would corroborate KSD’s findings, and that these were available back at his apartment.
1522. Habib and the Starjammers reached his apartment, located in a decrepit tenement building populated with factory workers. Once inside Habib seemed to have new doubts: while eager to embarrass Naval Intelligence, he demanded assurance that his intel would actually be put to good use and not buried by KSD. Marc and Howard did their best to mollify Habib, and he eventually relented.
Habib went to a large terrarium populated with several purple-furred mice. Picking one up, he produced a syringe and took a small blood draw, which Dr. Barrera accepted. Habib explained he had encoded all of his files on the Sector United program into synthetic DNA that was carried by this line of genetically modified mice. SolSec had never puzzled out where Habib had hidden his files, not realising the mice were the carriers.
The Starjammers urged Habib to leave Fornorb as soon as possible, and Habib pointed to a go bag next to his front door. Habib explained that he needed to make a couple of vidcalls and would be gone himself in the next 20 minutes.
1708. Five or six blocks away from Habib’s apartment the Starjammers heard an explosion, followed seconds later by the sirens of Fornorb first responder units, speeding toward the apartment. While the crowd on the street was abuzz with activity, the team spotted three tails ignoring the chaos and instead marching steadily toward them. Howard and Brogue lured the trio into an ambush in a back alley.
An Imperial standard model S-4 shotgun. The S-4 has an 18mm diameter barrel and fires shells containing either six 7mm pellets or 130 3mm pellets. In each case, velocity for the projectiles is about 350 meters per second.
Although the three strangers were armed with submachine guns the Starjammers had the drop on them, and the S-4 shotguns got the job done in quick order. The team quickly grabbed the strangers’ IDs, which Richy ran through his portacomp. Richy confirmed that the IDs were high-quality fakes, and likely forgeries prepared by Solomani Security.
1840. The away team returned to the Starjammer without further incident. Given how easily SolSec and INI agents seemed to be able to follow the Starjammer across star systems, Howard had begun to suspect that Marc, the newest crew member, might be a turncoat.
Howard asked JUN0 if any unauthorized transmissions had been sent from the ship, and she confirmed that there had been several, but none originated from Marc. Instead, Chairman Meow, the ship’s robotic cat, had recently begun sending and receiving a series of short, coded bursts identified as “programming updates” whenever the Starjammer had been in port. These transmissions had been sent over the last six weeks, but JUN0 had assumed they were just the typical marketing spyware that often plagued commercial robots.
Howard then realized that the J0NZ-E line of robotic cats was manufactured by Thinking Machines, Incorporated—a Solomani corporation. JUN0 indicated that she was unable to locate Chairman Meow on board the Starjammer, kicking off a furious cabin-by-cabin search through the ship.
Brogue found Chairman Meow resting comfortably on a gravpallet in the cargo bay on Deck C. The cargomaster tried to capture the suddenly hissing cat but Howard, taking no chances, quickly racked his S-4 and blasted the robotic cat into smithereens.
