LogOnyx Reach-Jason-2

Game log for the 2026/06/14 session of Starforged - The Onyx Reach, as taken by Jason

Leehau plots a course back to Tachi Station, and we arrive to find that the Red Corsairs are once again out doing corsair things.

In our next hop, we reach Tinian's Run, and begin syncing comms. Nothing responds. The Black Veil ship headed elsewhere, probably New Hades.

Rook starts talking to Morton through the bulkhead, and decides he's in a manageable state. He puts the prisoner in zip ties and marches him out. Bonsoir is happy to see him. As he departs, it becomes clear from the discussion between Cade and Morton that Cade wanted the crates with the eggs. He seems unlikely to get them.

We also put the word out that Tinian's Run was overrun and only probably decontaminated.

Geneva starts analyzing the biological samples she brought back from Tinian's Run. These critters have quadruple helix DNA, and there's a sequence that looks spliced to her. She lets the crew know what she found.

JP and Johannes go out to barter for rad shielding and superior cutting tools, with which we might do a better job of salvaging some solar power systems. Word of mouth leads them to Tengus Hu. He's rail thin with a super-long mustache and a braided beard, and must be under four and a half feet tall. They find him crawling around a shuttle engine compartment, either repairing or building it. JP explains the general problem they're trying to solve, and Hu is willing to make a deal. He's got some fabric that's treated to stop radiation, which he uses all the time to protect ships from their own engines. The cash from the Black Veil's stash will pay for it nicely, and JP really connects with him.

Back en route to the mysterious solar array, we pop out of jump just a bit off course, and find ourselves in an asteroid field. The ship gets scuffed up a bit, but nothing worse. Johannes is a really skilled pilot and is able to avoid the worst of it. The next jump brings us to the red giant and solar array. Dex, JP, and Leehau all go outside to work on salvage, along with Bernie the 'bot.

Dex and Bernie go after the film with cutters, JP clamps it and holds the clamps, and Leehau secures the film with lines. The system works right up until a piece starts to tear away on its own, causing vibration in the lines and pulling him away. He has to scramble to keep his footing, and starts freaking out. JP starts talking him down, and the sad loner at least stops whimpering on comms. Dex just focuses on keeping Bernie on track as he cuts, but Bernie begins to overheat. Leehau collects himself and starts trying to math out where the cables for the next piece should be anchored, but he misreads Bernie's "intentions". He has a basic suit patch kit he can use to cover the cut, and when he's done, he goes inside. Also, he takes extra rads from the suit breach. JP tries to buck him up and assure him that they can still get the job done.

Without Leehau screwing up, things go more smoothly, but not quickly. Bernie reaches another corner, and Dex successfully coaches him through the change in direction. JP tries to find some way to do better with the process, but this solar film punishes any hint of inattention. Next cut, he focuses better, and Dex has figured out how Bernie tends to behave in this situation. They're able to finish the cuts and then use the clamps to roll and fold as he goes, so we end up with an acre or so of film in a bundle we can work with.

Geneva goes to tend Leehau's cut, and she's able to fix him up, though he's still not doing great, emotionally speaking.

Geneva then carries on to put our film sample under the scopes in the Terminus Clipper's research lab. This material is nearly monomolecular, and turns photos into electricity with extremely high efficiency. The energy from the microscope itself is enough to cause the material to arc. It's still hard to work with, because it's so very slippery.

JP tries to cheer Braxton up by sitting with him quietly, just being bros. Rook walks by and laughs at them, which sort of does the moment in.

Johannes remembers to check the data core they got from Black Veil, and find obsevations of an enormous sphere around a planet we aren't familiar with. The sphere is metallic, 2-3km in diameter, and smooth on one side, and the other is all spiky with gantries and such, all of which look oddly spiky. Looking at star patterns, he comes up with a guess as to where it might be, but it would be a dangerous journey to get there. The crew vote to go to New Hades next and look into the sphere later.

Leehau starts to plan the expedition to New Hades, but he's so frustrated and dispirited that things almost go terribly wrong. JP has to point out where he once again failed to include drift of known landmarks. The corrected course has them dropping out of jump at a white dwarf star of no particular distinction, thought to be empty... but not. Something is transmitting single beeps. Braxton brings up the active sensors and begins trying to refine the contact. Whatever it is responds to pings with beeps, and he tells JP the bearing to the contact. It's a greebly-looking cylinder with conical ends, maybe a meter long, 40cm wide. Close-up scans result in more beeps in response, and then it suddenly vomits forth a huge burst of noise. We did not manage to record it. We decide to take it on board and bring it to the lab. Geneva studies it, with Leehau camped out in the lab and talking non-stop about how amazing it is to find something like this. It's not of human origin. Its energy readings have dropped, suggesting the transmission surge from it depleted the batteries. JP checks to see if there's anything special about the system, and finds that the local gas clouds are thicker than average, but otherwise, there's nothing special here. The probe may have just been captured by the star's gravity and stuck here.

Dex has Bernie start disassembling the probe. The outer shell is worn paper-thin by space dust over the millenia. The inside is unfamiliar, all crystals and fibers and stuff. Dex cannot figure out how the thing works at a detail level, but he finds a crystal near the center that's emitting low-level radiation. He guesses that must be the power source, and decides to try to power it up. That significantly depletes our supplies, but he brings it back into some sort of operation, albeit scattered across the work bench. We send it pings again, and this time, we capture at least part of the transmission, and by changing the settings in our recorders, we get different bands next time. It seems like the same transmission every time, and the full transmission contains more data than we can store on board.

The Clipper resumes jumping and arrives in New Hades from an unexpected direction. We begin syncing comms, and the first thing that comes through is a mayday from New Hades, under attack from Red Corsairs. It's not clear how many ships are attacking. Johannes brings the ship deeper into the system to see what's happening. The settlement is primarily afloat, and a large Red Corsair vessel has landed, while two more gun boats provide top cover. McInnes isn't sure whether to drive off the gunboats or try to destroy them, but Dex and Rook convince him to destroy them outright.

Rook takes the sensors and tries to help Johannes out by scanning ahead, but the situation is too fluid. JP takes the guns and opens fire on the gunships. They return fire. Dex and Bernie start working on damage control, and are able to immediately repair the damage. The engines stutter briefly, and the gun boats close in for the kill, but those repairs give the Clipper her legs back, and also surprise the enemy. Rook opens fire and damages the gunboats, though this 2:1 dogfight is really driving McInnes nuts. He tries to fly a course that lets the gunners engage more readily, and all the ships involved trade fire. The Clipper seems to be holding together, but Johannes just cannot seem to either take them out or get to the landing pad. JP gives Rook a pep talk, assuring him that he's got the bad guys right where he wants them. Rook hammers the gunboat with more altitude, wrecking its engines, and not only does it go down, it crashes into the other gun boat on the way down.

McInnes tries to come around and stay under the fire of the landed ship's turret. Unfortunately, it depresses rather a lot, and the Terminus Clipper takes fire. He breaks off and Rook calls the settlement to see if they still need help. The Collective of Peace still needs help. Rook vows to save the settlement in exchange for repairs and supplies.

Leehau can't just sit idle now that we've sworn, so he grabs the scanners and analyzes the Corsairs' defensive fire pattern. It turns out there's a distinct pattern, and he points it out to McInnes. JP delivers suppressive fire. Johannes tries to bring the ship in to a landing, and is able to get very close to the pad. Johannes brings her in despite heavy enemy fire, shifted at the last moment, and now the ship is on the ground.

Rook looks for danger around the ship, and has no trouble finding it. Red Corsair troopers have firing arcs protecting the elevators. JP suppresses the hostiles, and drives them back. Rook then leaves the ship and bum-rushes the foe, in his full combat armor. He's like a bipedal armored platoon in that setup, which features not only a big old rifle, but ECM and chaff dispensers, filling the air around him with streams of glitter. The suits internal lights tend to reflect off the chaff with blinding effect. Rook's advance brings him right to the elevator, and he takes control of them.

Braxton and Doc remain on board, while everyone enters the station. Rook finds the elevators on lock down, so Dex has Bernie try to override locally. He struggles until Rook punches the shell of the console and rips the enclosure off it, allowing the 'bot to freely access the electronics. Braxton checks with the locals, who indicate that they have lost control of the station. Their people are sheltering in place, mostly in lab and hab areas, while the Red Corsairs loot the cargo deck. The crew head for the control area, thinking to freeze the control elevators and make it impossible for the Corsairs to steal anything.

The elevator doors on the control deck open, and the elevator is immediately on the wrong end of a lot of fire. Rook stomps out of the elevator with his customary contempt for light weapons, sprints to one of the hostiles, and crushes his skull with one armored fist. JP rushes out in the wake of the light armored vehicle commonly known as Rook, with Johannes providing extra cover fire, and things suddenly go wrong. He takes cover in a spot already occupied by a pirate, and finds himself in a vulgar brawl. Dex, meanwhile, tries to get to one of the terminals. With so many pirates distracted, he's able to move around, but not to get any closer.

Rook keeps walking through the hostiles, smashing as he goes, ignoring incoming fire. Unfortunately one of them has something that might actually have some armor piercing capacity, and he has to throw himself out of the way. The ball of weird blue energy zips past his old location and creates a burst of static on the wall. Johannes tries to move out of the elevator, and does so at the expense of a small wound. JP's melee opponent stabs him. Ow. Dex tries to get closer to the terminal again, gets spotted, and then gets shot up.

That same guy makes a stupid fast reload and dumps most of his next mag into Rook, which actually gives our local mechanized unit pause. JP keeps taking punishment in his fistfight. Johannes shoots back at the Red Corsairs, but gets shot for his pains. Things suddenly look bad for our heroes!

Rook's had enough of this. He picks up a bad guy and throws him at another bad guy. Dex keeps working toward the console, and manages to get there while the bad guys are distracted. He slaps the power kill button. Two bad guys get away, but the crew of the Clipper control the control room. He then uses the console to lock down the cargo elevators and pin the remaining Corsairs behind closing emergency bulkheads, which are set to leave just one exit. The only working lights illuminate the path to the personnel elevator. You get the idea. The retreating Corsairs tell everyone about being badly outnumbered by the foe.