LogStormlight-Jacko-10

Game log for the 2021/02/08 session of Impulse Drive: Stormlight, as taken by Jacko

The crew continues trying to figure out who might have a mech on this rock and why they're using it to murder survey teams. Franco decides to do some research into the financials of certain folks on planet.

He finds Sholvith, a green Duzan, who has many holdings in the sector, including mining interests. There's a shadowy human named Ernest Mircun that fits the bill, a black sheep from old money, who was paid off to disappear. Both men tend to stay on planet, though Sholvith comes and goes. There's also Vols, single name, a human who isn't well known but always seems to have spending money. He comes to town enough that people recognize him but no one knows what his profession is or even where he lives.

Drix decides to approach Sholvith to see if the Duzan might be interested in the survey teams location. Sholvith is a busy man and there're a few layers of underlings and functionaries but Drix is very suggestive and convincing. He's shown in quickly to meet the man and makes his pitch.

Sholvith is curt about not being interested in non-mining concerns, nor in becoming a business partner with Drix with any venture. Drix realizes the Duzan isn't bearing him any fruit and takes his leave.

Trogruls, a Ceinerth, is a name that pops up on Janus' radar while she looks for criminal contacts. He's a known claim jumper and some folks who've accused him have wound up dead in 'accidents'. Janus finds someone who knows where his claims are but is reticent to be a narc. Janus promises him that she can get him off planet in exchange for the info and that seals the deal.

Franco continues researching armatures and mechs and finds a story from a few years back where a mech was used in a cash heist. There was forensic evidence tying the mech used to a human, Archie Herrara, who has an outstanding bounty but no one's seen him since. Still, video of the heist confirms that the mech used is the same sort the crew found evidence of on Thavrea.

Kyruss argues in favor of flying the shuttle over the survey team's crime scene and try to pick up the trail of the mech again. No one has any alternative plan and the shuttle is armored, so they decide to head out in the morning. Franco does some pre-planning of the geography, coming up with ideas of how to get past resistance, especially if the enemy is under manned.

Drix consults the Abyss that night and the murky, dark visions tell him that the mech is underwater somewhere. He tells Janus this as if it's common knowledge, which is slightly unsettling, and she rebuts that it was a possibility she had considered but she's startled by his confidence. Ember is unable to sleep and she consults the Abyss as well, centering herself on the lab at the Groasak station, finding an image of a crab logo with some gross looking coloring.

The crew piles into the shuttle and begins flying over the river. Drix's scanner picks up a rather large magnetic anomaly under the river and they're pretty sure that's where the mech is since this area is known to not have any proper minerals. The river is deep so visual confirmation is difficult and Janus decides to land the shuttle nearby behind a hill to avoid detection. Drix uses his scanner to help the crew move in towards the river quietly and quickly. He spies what has to be a concealed lookout post across the river and identifies a limestone cave nearby that might be their main hideout.

Moving across the river, the crew has to make the swim across the wide but slow river. Drix and Kyruss move towards the lookout post and find one bad guy inside, armed with an assault rifle. Kyruss is able to take him out unseen and unheard, finding his 'alarm' as a simple air horn. Drix scans the area while the rest of the crew heads up to the lookout and he finds a trap door with a ladder going down.

He finds some SCUBA gear on a hook and both Drix and Janus follow him down the ladder. She takes the gear back up while Franco moves deeper into the complex. He finds a human man reading a datapad while eating a meal and disables him with a swift, silent rock to the head. The crew surmises they might just have what they need to climb into the mech and Janus slips into the SCUBA gear and heads into the river. She can't find a way into the mech and comes back ashore.

Franco hears some folks coming to the now pitch black mess and one flicks on the lights but earns a Nano-Blade in the back. Things get hectic and shotgun shells are expended down the hallway by both Franco and Drix, return fire coming back heavy, before a few more shotgun blasts silence everything, except for a dropped grenade. Drix takes the brunt of the force but his shields take most of the pain out.

The pair move through the tunnels and find the caves are rather spartan and rough living. One of the corpses is Vols and they find some exploded bank notes, and then find the corpse of Archie. There was a duffel bag full of cash that was mostly exploded and there's little else of value to the crew, though the local authorities will find a lot of evidence of varying stripes here. Kyruss gets a new shotgun and a bounty out of the deal, at least.

The payoff for clearing the outlaws from their caves and recovering the armature makes a lot of waves with the local authorities. They had two witnesses to go along with the other evidence and the crew manages to actually get paid for once.