Session 35-37 - Medina’s teeth

— Alexis — Darian — Jerry — Kale — Lim — Nissa — Ryker — Urs —

on CCS Queen of Sheba

Back from the pirate hunt Cat & Canary was quite - among other things - curious about how Gunter’s story had gone on. In that context three encounter’s were worth mentioning: Ryker’s team, Jerry’s mission and Lim’s entourage. During those encounters it turned out that - apart from Gunter’s story - something wasn’t quite right on Medina station. Moreover, Ryker’s team learned from Lim’s friend Accab that Lavov Industries had gotten a similar egg as C&C from Dmitri Sokolov and they planned to bring it to the Luther system.

Gunter’s story

Gunter van het Bowhuis officially was one of the members of the Triforce Corps, the joint scientific mission of Earth, Mars and Belt. Its primary goal was to gain a better understanding of how the gates work. Cat & Canary played a crucial role in the mission as they provided logistics and brought the scientist to the Zoisite Gate.

Early in the mission it became clear that there was a saboteur among the scientist. Luckily Cat & Canary could identify Gunter as the dangerous element but only after he had killed Lesebo Marsh, a specialist in general relativity.

Gunter was brought to Medina Station Security, but Alexis was smart enough to copy much of the relevant data: Scientific notes written by Lesebo, as well as the contents of Gunter’s phone. The latter was encrypted with a high security level, probably military grade. Urs, who was still convinced he knew Gunter from their common childhood on Mars, tried to interrogate him. Fruitless - the only thing he could find out was that Gunter believed he would be rescued.

The Tigres Bleues could help decrypting most of the data on Gunter’s phone. So they learned that he had been in contact with some Admiral Trejo. It is possible that Trejo is a Martian defecter, since some plant of Alec 11 is named after him.

Ryker’s team could deduce that Gunter would surely not be rescued but pose a threat to his organization. There were indications that this mysterious organization had infiltrated Medina Station Security, maybe even Renn, the head of of security.

Lim’s entourage then had to choose if they wanted to follow Lavov and prevent them from bringing the egg to the Luther system or to rescue Gunter. Eventually they went for freeing Gunter. Not following Lavov had consequences that are described later in this article.

Nissa and Lim organised their worker unions to protest against illegitimate arrests of Belters. Together with Kale they organized overalls to disguise as Archont Security members, a forged transfer order and some smoke grenades. Kale and Nissa cut the electricity in the vicinity of the prison cells. Then the three walked through the crowd of protesting unionists - Lim sent his friend Arturo flying several meters to convince the prison guards of his good intentions - and simply entered the prison. Using the overall confusion they went directly for Gunter’s cell.

On the way there they passed Renn who didn’t really notice them. But Gunter seemed to be in a very bad shape when they arrived. He was lying in his cell, curled up like an embryo, and was hardly conscious. They had to act swiftly: Nissa held his head and Lim pushed his hand hard into Gunter’s throat to force him to vomit. They suspected he was poisoned.

So, right after Gunter had emtpied his stomach, Lim’s entourage dragged him out of his cell. In a moment of clairvoyance Kale threw the remaining smoke grenade. A good move, because somehow Renn had gotten notice of the liberation attempt and soon bullets were flying.

All went alright and soon Gunter and his rescuers were among the protesters outside the prison and Gunter had to calm down. Lim’s entourage brought Gunter to the CCS Queen of Sheba where Rosmerta was already waiting. They brought Gunter to the Auberon system. But read “And the neutron star in Luther?” to learn what happened on the way there - or simply look out of the window and be amazed by all the colors visible inbetween the gates!

What’s wrong on Medina station

Troll factories

Strange information was flooding the social media. They were among other things, but particularly important, spreading misinformation about Cat & Canary, such as:

Secret weapons’ hideout

Jerry’s mission began when Jerry accidentally opened a random door (he didn’t want to talk about the ghost leading him there). Behind the door was a very strange room. There was a whiteboard with a lot of names, cross-connections and information about radicalization of the individuals listed on the board. There were also cupboards; locked and secured by some kind of explosive trap. Signs and insignia indicated that the UN Navy had created this hideout. But why and wasn’t this a red herring? Moreover, this wasn’t the first room of this kind. Cat & Canary already knew of at least two more: one in the rad zone and one on Baragaon complex.

New station security service provider

Some weeks ago Archont Security took over service for Medina station security. Archont Security is a subsidiary of Pope Industries and currently managed by Diana Smith. They implemented a dimming of the lights (or maybe it’s just a random correlation but shortly after they took office, all lights on Medina station shone less brightly). Also, they established a very strict law & order policy with a lot of “routine controls”. They particularly focus on Belters and downright harass the 0G-WG (Zero-G workers’ guild).

Luckily, at least the last point could be used by Lim’s entourage. Still, it’s important to stay alert and keep an eye on how Archont security is going to continue its service.

And the neutron star in Luther?

While Jerry’s companions were investigating the secret weapon hideout he found, Fnaan notified them that she had overheard some Lavov members planning a trip to bring their egg to the Luther system. That fitted well with Accab’s story and meant either following them immediately or hoping nothing bad would happen. It would have been up to Lim’s entourage to pursue that lead but they opted for freeing Gunter and so the LS Lajka flew to Luther. Still, Cat & Canary, eventually, became part of the Lavov experiment. Right when they took off to bring Gunter to the Auberon system, station alarms went off and a broadcast message prohibited transit through the gates. Radiation values had reached a new high. The source of the radiation was the Luther gate and the hard radiation emanating from there directly hit the hub station (the builder station, not Medina). The station started to glow very strongly and also the space between the gates, usually just a dark, black void, appeared in bright colors. Disregarding the jump ban from Medina station, Rosmerta pulled the thrust lever and brought Lim’s entourage to Auberon. On the other side she informed the crew: “There are two gates missing.” It was quickly clear that one of those was the one leading to Luther. The other system no longer connected to the hub space was Zoisite. There was no way to obtain more information before returning to the hub space, but two more consequences were quite probable:

  1. The hard radiation had probably also destroyed the Triforce research station
  2. The CCS Tershkova - most likely - was a victim of the bombardment from the black hole in the Luther system.

You can read some more details about the missions: Participant notes about session 36 and Participant notes about session 37

Session 34 - Catch up on the couch

— Jerry — Alexis — Lim — Darian — Roldy — Nissa —

This time, the recipe of the month is General Tao fricasse with Colonel Trejo sweet potatos. Since this is the first time this special animal is mentioned but it’s none of Urs’ inventions, the chicken are counted. There’s a total of 19 chicken left. They also ley eggs quite regularly. So what does this mean?

It’s a special day because Sanga visited Cat & Canary. His film is almost ready and he went through some of the details. He also collected some last interviews and original quotes. But during the evening he had to switch off his recording device. In particular when it came to how Cat & Canary solved the pirate hunt. He had been in a ship with Lim and the did not know yet what had happened on the CCS Manwe. They were particularly curious about why there was no large space battle.

Luckily, in this moment Ryker arrived but, unluckily, the booze was about to finish. It was Alexis who saved the moment. Behind a ventilation she had hidden a bottle of good brandy. Ryker immediately tried its suitability for his signature cocktail, the Donnergurgler. And only then he became talkative - yes, he had been the diplomat negotiating with Remy Leclerc.

Heroic and a little silly

“So we’re negotiating with terrorists now?”, Lim was asking. “Well, they are belters, not terrorists. And one man’s pirate is another man’s freedom fighter.”, Ryker answered. And then he elaborated on the decisions made. The Voidwalkers, albeit weird, are good people. They are on the run but not for bad reasons. The Auberon government, however, consists of collaborators. They have ties to the defected Martians around Admiral Duarte who now seal themselves off in the Laconia system. There is even a link to Gunter van het Bowhuis, the terrorist from the Triforce science station. Minister Thompson uses a similar encryption scheme on her terminal.

So, the avoided battle in Auberon can easily be seen as a win for Cat & Canary: a new ally, farting torpedos, access to stealth technology plus a way to neutralize it. And, eventually, Cat & Canary got paid.

Jerry got curious if this has to do with what the ghosts told them. “Ha, ti y ti-de ghosts”, Fnan teased him. But not only Jerry believes in these ghost. Sanga got curious and some others, Darian for instance, were witnesses to the ghost appearances. So, Jerry retold what happened at the Triforce station and how he and Kale had met John Gryante and Marcos Inaros - or rather their duplicates. They believe them to be something like tools.

When someone asked why the ghosts or “tools” were appearing as John Gryante and Marcos Inaros, the idea came up that John appeared due to his connection with Jerry. But did John Gryante and Marcos Inaros have some deal? All Kale and Jerry could understand was that there were two threats. And the ghosts should help fighting one of them, but first humans need to solve another one.

This was not directly related to what Lesebo Marsh, the murder victim at Triforce station, had been working on, but the flow of the discussion eventually led also there. During the pirate hunt in the Auberon system Dr. Carly Toor had access to Marsh’s research data. She had found out that he had formulated equations quantifying “Fermi pressure explosions” and also provided experimental data.

Merke: Nicht nur das Pauli-Prinzip der Quantenphysik führt […] zu einem Entartungsdruck.

(Garth Hambottom)

According to Lesebo’s calculations travelling through the gate from both sides at the same time could lead to particles occupying the same quantum state. The resulting Fermi repulsion would then create a significant explosion. Given the size and mass of, e.g., spaceships the detonation would act within several hundred kilometers. Could someone use this? Why was Gunter interested in this?

Luther and the egg

What about the metal egg Lim and Indira tried to bring to Luther? The egg was handed over to Roldy and Darian by Dimitri Sokolov, the former Lavov member who now resided on Zoisite II - together with two artificial dogs. He had asked for the egg to be brought to the Luther system. But there was noone there who could have accepted it. Instead there wasn’t even a planet, only a neutron star and a cloud of “stardust”. Measurements indicated that a slow increase of the star’s mass would lead to a collapse into a black hole. Interestingly, the gate was placed directly above the rotational axis of the star, so the black hole’s Hawking radiation would target directly there. During the travel there, Sokolov’s egg became significantly warmer and, eventually, Lim and Indira chose to fly back. Alexis could not understand this. She would have liked to know what had happened, if they had created a black hole.

What is a good place for a secondary office?

The general assembly had decided that Cat & Canary needs a secondary office. No efforts had been reported towards that goal.

Jerry opts for Bara Gaon. Ryker sympliy opposes any gravity well. Lim find gravity good. Ryker says that gravity is overrated. People’s Home would be nice.

Summary

Session 31-33 - Pirate Hunt - down with the Voidwalkers!

— Kale — Jerry — Alexis — Lim — Darian — Nissa — Ryker —

on CCS Manwe

Recipes of the months:

Cocktails of the month:

In the past Cat & Canary already had met the Voidwalkers on several occasions. The Voidwalkers had been pirating in the Auberon system. And now the Auberon government - elected by the planet’s population but eventually empowered by two corporations - had decided to strike back. The two corporations in power are Xi Agro and Tamyan, the latter being a subsidiary of Pope Industries. Cat & Canary was the first contractor to answer the call to hunt the pirates. Later, Lavov Industries and the Tardis joined in.

Cat & Canary had decided to throw in all of its power and arrived in the Auberon system in full power: all five ships (the Tershkova still acted as housing for the scientists at the Zoisite Gate), fully stocked and almost all cooperative members. On arrival, 4 ships flew to the Asteroid belt to patrol the area. The CCS Manwe, captained by Jerry, continued its journey to Auberon Station, also called Big Moon. They had finally asked the Tigres Bleues for their big favor. It came in the form of Erich who had been living there quite some time now and worked on creating a network and coordinating operations for the gang there. He had some intel about a probably abandoned Voidwalkers’ outpost on the asteroid KC73-14. Only issue was that this asteroid got trapped in a gas giants gravity and had already reached the outer layers of the planet’s atmosphere. It projected lifetime was quite limited.

The ship’s crew used the remaining time to prepare the Manwe for potentials fights. Kale, who seemed to understand the Voidwalkers’ stealth technology a little bit manipulated some torpedos. They could then be used to explode into a thermo-active particle cloud. Within its reach stealth coating would be rather useless, Kale assumed. The CCS Lakshmi also set course to KC73-14 and planned to arrive about a day after the Manwe - the CCS Queen of Sheba another day later.

When the Manwe arrived it found the asteroid already significantly decelerated due to the atmosphere’s friction. The sensors showed some structures on the surface and an entry to a deep tunnel. Landing was not easy but turned to be no difficulty for Darian. The structures appeared to be builder artifacts. The tunnel seemed to be of the same origin but had been decorated by the Voidwalkers. Graffiti showed slogans like „We walk the void“ and „Legs are for dirt-dwellers“.

Further down the tunnel the crew found something like quarters. Exactly then the earth started to rumble and an emergency call from the CCS Lakshmi came in. Luckily, this was already deep enough because there was some kind of control station and - thanks to the low gravity - they could easily transport all interesting equipment to the Manwe.

Darian performed a quick start and headed directly (with a high-g maneuver!) towards the pirate attack. At first the space seemed empty. Only after Kale’s prepared torpedos were launched the Voidwalkers’ advantage was gone and the ships appeared on the screen. Alexis even made use of the transition to recalibrate the sensors which would give a future benefit when trying to detect the pirates’ ships. With this surprise the Manwe dealt quite some damage and eventually all pirate ships but one retreated - that one was beyond repair. Its pilot - Sarah Clarke - was later taken into custody. The Lakshmi had also been protected. And a first contact had been made. Remy Leclerc had sent a quick message:

Today we might be enemies. Tomorrow, maybe, we ain’t anymore. Tomorrow it could only be me covering your backs.

Analysis of what was found on KC73-14 produced a detailed map of the asteroid belt with several of the rocks marked. The fleet gathered and combined with the star system’s defense force. Even the minister for transport and logistic, Emily Thompson, joined tactical discussions. Their head of Security, Jamal Khan, favoured the direct approach: attack immediately. And also minister Thompson opted in that direction but by far calmer.

Maybe, this was a turning point. The present Cats & Canaries were mainly Belters and some derogatives in that direction by the officials created a certain bias. This misalignment even increased while questions Sarah Clarke. The Voidwalkers’ pilot appeared to have acted in good faith and expressed accusations against the system’s government. But she was young and rather a follower than actively engaged in the planning. She could not finally convince Ryker, who led the questioning, of their good intentions.

In the meantime, the others could obtain some of the Voidwalkers’ ciphers from the shipwreck and sent out a message to Remy Leclerc, the pirates’ captain. The crew was generally quite pissed by the “Martian arrogance” observed in Thompson’s and Khan’s behavior. So, in a private round, Ryker, Alexis, Kale, Darian, and Nissa planned to pay the Voidwalkers’ main station Amalthea a visit to look for a diplomatic solution of the problem. Only the CCS Manwe was supposed to go there while the rest of the fleet held position since this Amalthea was not too far away.

On the journey there a tightbeamed video message arrived. It was Remy Lecler speaking:

Wa koming gut auf Amalthea! To-lowda maybe xitim tenge ein Idee, wer ich bin.

Wat pensa to-mang? Mi teng ein Idee von to-mang? To pensa maybe, mi halt to-mang nur für eine lästige Plage, dewe-ting mi must zerquetschen. O to-mang pensa, mi vedi to-mang Welwala, dewe-mang nur wanya pish!

Aber maybe mi vedi mehr. Mehr comme to-mang? Vedi gosh, vedi richa! Pensa, te-mang dort haben wowk fo Free Navy! O te-mang heve mit Voltaire Collective verteilt bodzha in Pallas Station. O wanya mehren den Gewinn von Inya Corporations? Maybe im nutzen to-mang fo kreieren das Rezept des Monats? O im nur wanya drehen Pirouetten in naterash unter empfinden lek als Ballast.

Mi ta kempf fo Inaros. Mi ta amolof Inaros. Amash na milowda ta amolof Inaros mali? Xitim mi vedi klarer. Klarer denn Inaros deng.

Xi-ting xiya ist mi-lowda na Bollwerk gegen die infidel Pomang, die infidel Staubis. Na kombat mi-lowda, baut ein Bollwerk oso!

(In plain german: Willkommen auf Amalthea! Ihr habt vielleicht inzwischen eine Vorstellung, wer ich bin. Was glaubt ihr? Habe ich eine Vorstellung von euch? Ihr denkt vielleicht, ich halte euch nur für lästige Plagen, die ich zerquetschen muss. Oder ihr denkt, ich sehe euch als Welwalas, die nur dem Geld hinterherlaufen.

Aber vielleicht sehe ich mehr. Mehr als ihr? Schaut nach links, schaut nach rechts! Stellt euch vor, die Personen dort haben für die Free Navy gearbeitet! Oder sie haben mit dem Voltaire Collective Bomben in Pallas Station verteilt. Oder eigentlich wollten sie lange den Gewinn von Erdenkonzernen mehren? Vielleicht nutzen sie euch aus, um das Rezept des Monats zu kreieren? Eventuell wollen sie nur in der Schwerelosigkeit Pirouetten drehen oder sie empfinden ihre Beine als Ballast.

Ich habe an Inaros Seite gestanden. Aber haben wir das nicht alle ein bisschen? Jetzt sind mir die Zusammenhänge klar. Klarer als damals Inaros.

Das hier, das ist unser Bollwerk gegen die abtrünnigen Marsianer. Bekämpft uns nicht, tut es uns gleich!)

This probably was the second turning point. Already upset by the Auberonoids Ryker went into discussions with Remy. Leclerc pointed out that he wanted to overcome the struggles that became apparent in the Free navy wars. He wanted to get beyond the schism original to the solar system. The Voidwalkers are a collective of outcasts welcoming everyone with open arms. They had been rejected by society and found this way of living as their only option. In Cat & Canary, he expressed, he sees some natural allies. Auberon on the other hand represented the Martian deserters - the group that initiated the Free Navy wars just to cover their disappearance. Kale asked (indirectly via chat and Ryker) about Dragon Tooth and how they are involved in this scheme but Leclerc could not shed light into this. Also, as the pirates’ ship appeared on the sensors, their sheer number made a military solution of the conflict unfavorable.

The plan was to fake a large space fight and the destruction of at least one asteroid. The Voidwalkers would retreat into opposition to Auberon to lure the government into believing they were extinct. Cat & Canary would then obtain their payment. The Voidwalkers would live on reserves and Cat & Canary would use a part of the payment to supply them a little further.

The alliance between Cat & Canary and the Voidwalkers is weak but it has been formed.

Session 30 - Missing scientist

— Kale — Jerry — Alexis —

on CCS Tershkova

Recipe of the month: The Crawler the Pepper - synthsteak marinated in dark-black sauce, garnished with deep-fried sweet potato

Cocktail of the month: Sadom and Gomera - Iced tea powder with lemon juice and any spirit

Another visit at the research station of the Triforce Corps. Kale and Jerry were waiting for the new crew member - Alexis - in the cargo storage. The latest events hat changed how the two of them saw the “ghosts”. But first, they wanted to focus on finding Lesebo Marsh who went missing as they found out recently. And Alexis might help with that.

Awet and Fnaan brought Alexis and wished her fun with the funny guys. Kale, Jerry and Alexis immediately retreated to the engine room, discussing the status quo, newest insights and plans. Suddenly, they were interrupted by Gunter, who was searching for a quiet place. After a short conversation he left but somehow the three crew members were suspicious. Alexis thought it a good time to show her skills in IT wizardry and did a quick scan of Gunter’s terminal. At first sight, it looked like a normal scientist’s device. Only after a deeper scan Alexis revealed that this normal look was just an emulation running on top of a hidden layer. The most interesting thing was that this second layer resisted Alexis’ hacking attempts and it appeared to be protected by military grade security.

Alexis’ results left the crew even more suspicious but it seemed a good idea to first focus on the missing scientist. Alexis went through camera footage. She found out that Lesebo had been doing experiments at the gate before disappearing. Kale and Jerry asked a bit around and were guided to Lesebo’s working place. There, the three met. Neele, a physicist like Lesebo, had her place right besides. She then was explaining a bit of the research to Kale and Jerry. Alexis used this distraction to access Lesebo’s terminal. He had been doing research on a Fermi Pressure Bomb - at least that was the title of the paper he was about to write.

With Lesebo’s terminal it was possible to retrieve the drones that were still floating at the gate’s surface. The three investigators quickly collected them and went through their video feeds. From these it seemed as if Lesebo had been attacked by an unidentified person in an EVA suit from the Tardis.

Kale and Alexis tried to find out who had taken a suit from the Tardis - only to find out the Tardis had less strict protocols on letting equipment. The day before Dom, Chimera, Gunter, Shin and Diana had taken suits. Only Dom and Chimera had returned them.

In the meantime Jerry did a very thorough scan with the Tershkova’s sensors and analyzed data from the past. Shortly after the attack on Lesebo the Tershkova had received two impulses. One at the rear and shortly afterwards one directly at the nose.

Since this was the closest lead, they used Lesebo’s drones to scan the Tershkova’s hull. “Ah there, go back a bit!” Kale suddenly shouted. He had seen something. In the drive cone. It was Lesebo - now clearly visible. He was dead and his body was attached to the interior of the drive with his magnetic boots. How perfidious. With the launch of the Tershkova he would have been cremated.

Right in this moment Gunter appeared. And instantly jumped off the opposite way. Kale and Jerry, suspicious as they are, pursued him instantly. At least Kale who maneuvered gracefully through all obstacles. Jerry got immediately caught by the next wall and could only continue his pursuit with a little bit of delay.

So he only saw at some distance how Gunter and Kale engaged in close combat. Kale’s stun baton drove some high voltage into Gunter’s muscles. But at the same time the “scientist” drove Kale flying through the air with a strong roundhouse kick.

Gunter went on fleeing towards the air lock. Jerry, however, used that time to ready his taser pistol, aimed and … hit Gunter right in the neck. The discharge - helped by Kale’s prior hit - immediately left Gunter twitch and eventually float unconscious in the cargo bay.

The mystery was solved - Lesebo had been found and everything looked as if Gunter was responsible for it. He would be handed over to Medina’s station security. Commander Renn offered to put Gunter into arrest. But Alexis was not fully convinced. She collected as much as possible from Gunter’s belongings to be able to do a further investigation.

Kale, Jerry and Alexis stayed on the Tershkova until the next change of shift. From now on, everything went a bit more quiet.

Session 29 - Scientist-sitting

— Kale — Jerry —

on CCS Tershkova

Recipe of the month: Gate Phò - a blue irridescent soup containing black noodles and tank grown kelp

Cocktail of the month: Flying swimming pool - a classic swimming pool treated to be contained in a thin skin so you can easily drink it in zero g; some barkeepers include a small candy figure of a naked man

For the regular crew refresh, Kale, Jerry and Fnan flew to the CCS Tershkova. There the scientists had started building some spheres out of a transparent material and two tunnels leading into the gate. On arrival they were greeted by Awet:

Mood is so lala. Kowmang is angry. Emilio tinks Inyas are all against him. Kowmang accuses others of the sabotage on the way hir. And kowting shows less progress than they wanya. Xitim imalowda are sitting in the kitchen an pasa tim befor Dom Perignan has finished cooking. Mosh gut, tolowda go there and get wating to et. Bist bien?

Fnan went directly to the bridge, checking instruments. Kale and Jerry joined the not so cheerful crowd in the kitchen. Almost the whole scientific crew and all observers were present. After some small talk Kale and Jerry went for a small discovery of the science station.

They could enter the first lab sphere from the Tershkova’s cargo room - the Love Dome. Inside they met Pias and Emilio standing at a workbench with an interesting looking robot. They learned that it was one from Pope Industries. Emilio did not waste time to clear his anger about all the involved companies using the Triforce Corps as a test lab for their equipment. What followed was a quick discussion about who’s the worst megacorp. Jerry and Kale decidedly went for Gryante. Emilio had had some discussions with the Tardis’ crew and was convinced that Pope is the greatest evil. Eventually, the discussion returned to the robot and how Emilio and Pias could alter it from being completely autonomuous to being also remote controlled.

Then they were interrupted by Natalya who was looking for Shin and Lesebo. The two of them were neither on the Tershkova nor in the lab spheres. Kale and Jerry offered to send them to her as they were currently exploring the station.

Leaving Emilio and Pias with their robot Kale and Jerry entered the tunnel leading through the gate to the Zoisite system. They were super curious about the experience that was to come. However, before, they had a strange encounter. The gate surface resembles the surface of cloudy water, slightly rippled. You cannot exactly see what’s on the other side.

And that surface is where they met Marcos Inaros and John Gryante. Not the real persons but the representations they had seen earlier, the “ghosts”. Only, this time they were not blue glowing. They seamed rather material.

Different to the times before the ghosts even reacted to Kale and Jerry. But they had other plans. Kale started some kind of rugby move evading Marcos while Jerry propelled himself to just fly through John Gryante. Kale was successful in his move. Jerry bumped into his fake brother. Marcos immediately followed Kale to the other side and now disturbing discussions started. At the end Jerry and Kale had not understood everything. The ghosts were not really the persons they were looking like. They called themselves tools for the system. Like white bloodcells, Kale added, and they agreed. They spoke of some greater danger outside of humanity and dangers within humanity. The ones within might hinder fighting the ones outside.

When they left, they simply “exited through the gate”. During the conversation it became clear that they can hardly exist outside the hub space. Another interesting detail was the uniform John Gryante’s ghost was wearing. It was kind of martian but hat no insignia of a well-known division. All Kale and Jerry could recognize were elements. Something was pointing to close-combat specialist, Jerry could make out. Kale found an indication of 0G special forces, he had heard of.

On the Zoisite side Shin was working in the lab sphere. They delivered Natalya’s wish for his presence. There was no sign of Lesebo.

In the ship, the Tardis, there was only its crew. A relaxed bunch of people that was currently playing a card game in the galley. Kale and Jerry learned about their experience with Pope Industries. In the early days of protomolecule Sebastian Pope, the then-leader of the coroporation, came into posession of a sample and was doing experiments on injecting it into humans. Diana Smith was involved. And that’s why they are not best friends with her. Only, no evidence existed anymore.

Jerry also asked about “Dragon Tooth” and if the Tardis crew had heard about them. Indeed they had and could tell that, as far as they knew, Dragon Tooth was a radical OPA faction. Strangely, they had been equipped by Mars and also had access to very advanced bone growth hormones or maybe even gene treatment.

And so, the day ended with one open question: Where was Lesebo Marsh?

Session 28 - Gather the scientists

— Urs — Nissa — Darian — Lim — Jerry —

on CCS Tershkova

Recipe of the month: Microwave Okonomiyaki

Cocktail of the Month: Triple Moon of Antares

For most of the crew it was the first time in years they entered Sol system. Darian even spent more time outside Sol system than inside.

This time they were on a scientific mission or - at least - its precursors. The destination of the trip was People’s Home. There the Triforce Corps would gather to be brought to their scientific mission. Triforce Corps would consist of scientists of different origin, some observers and two ships and their crew. One ship would be the CCS Tershkova, the other one the Tardis - well-known friends.

Besides the crew the Tershkova transported observers: Diana Smith, Sanga Velazquez, Dom Perignan and The Chimera. The Tardis already had collected more observers and some scientists from Medina station.

People’s Home somewhat resembles Medina station just subtract all the angelic stuff and resize by about a factor of seven. A massive drum housing 70 levels of housing, industry and trade rotating at a conventient 0.1g. It will, eventually, become the home of 200.000 inhabitants. Currently the count is at approximately one tenth of this.

Camina Drummer governs this first city of the Belters and welcomed the crew. After some quick words some passengers went to their quarters. The crew and Sanga went to try out the pizza at The Crazy Dough Pizzeria. The place was terrible. Everything consisted of yellow plastic but the pizza was quite good. The two pizzaiolas, Melania and Adele, even performed some dough stunts. Urs, however, was not too impressed, attributing the grace and elegance mainly to the lack of gravity. Later that night the crew ended up at The Mammoth Commander, a nice bar where they play all the 12 Star Wars movies in an infinite loop. On arrival they were playing The Empire strikes back.

Next day at 11am the mission briefing was scheduled. Except for Darian everyone was perfectly in time. Nissa was even earlier to have more time with her hero Camina Drummer. Surprisingly, there was a second high-ranking person. Dressed in a red Sari, Chrisjen Avarasala, the general secretary of the UN, was waiting next to the window front which, by the way, was currently showing Saturn in all its magnificence. Its apparent size was about how Luna appears from Earth’s surface.

Chrisjen Avarasala then explained the mission quickly. The goal was to understand more about the gates and establish reliable communication through the gates. To that end ships would be stationed on both sides of the gate, set up a permanent tunnel through it and - at the same time - communicate via entangled quantum states. “I have no fucking clue what this is, but the scientist made it sound very promising to me. Ask them for more details.” Avarasala elaborated.

She continued: “My brilliant advisors decided that this experiment will be held at the gate to Zoisite. They chose that place because it leads to an inhabited system and the experiment will probably not interfere with travel. You probably know, that I don’t give a shit about what my advisors say. So, if you have any better suggestion, I’m all ears.”

Urs immediately rose and gave standing ovations, when he was abruptly stopped by Avarasala. “Thanks for your kindness, but this is not why we’re here. Just get the job done with. Right? Camina here can answer any further questions, can’t you Camina? Fine, so I’m off here and, hopefully, we will only meet again for the debrief.” And off she was.

Next was some quick get-to-know-each-other-better. CCS Tershkova was supposed to carry the observers from before and five scientists:

Urs insisted he know Gunter from childhood on Mars whereas Darian had already played Pelota matches with hin and Nissa brought him in context with an OPA group called The Golden Bough. Jerry was quite sure that Usha, one of the observers, was a member of the Crawlers. And Lim made some remarks towards Neele not to leave any graffito on his ship.

It turned out that Pias and Shen were the spokespersons of the scientist. They organized rights management aboard the ship with Lim and were organizing the initial setup of the experiment during the flight to the gate.

Soon after departure all the devices were set up. Some entanglement buoys were sitting in the Laser trap which was placed inside the cargo bay. This part was connected to an emitter for entangled photons which was placed on the hull. The whole process took several hours and similar steps had happened on the Tardis. The measurements later that day proved that indeed entanglement between the Bose-Einstein-Condensates in the buoys had been achieved.

Urs took this opportunity to revive some old memories with his supposed teenage friend Gunter. Gunter really had a hard time with the alcohol but did not make any confessions. He merely appeared to be very evasive on Urs’ questions and eventually fell asleep.

The next morning mood was quite depressed. During the night the entanglement had been lost. But it had not simply worn off. There were three distinct events where the coherence was lost. The first one seemed to be a misalignment of the on-the-hull communicator. This event fell into a timeslot when Neele had requested an EVA suit. Surprisingly also Shen had put such a request which, however, had been rejected by Lim’s automagic access rights management (aka Lim’s aarm).

The other two events happened right during the festive carousing and right in the middle of the night. But no further signs could be made out. Tensions arose when Gunter was blaming the whole project as being overengineered. Emilio, on the other hand, was pissed because there was some critique of Xenetics contribution and he blamed the MCRN and UN delegation of accepting them only for acting as their scapegoat. Eventually the entanglement was reestablished and in less cheering mood than before the mission went on.

Indeed soon after a first success could be celebrated when the quantum information was transmitted through the Sol gate and later even through Zoisite gate. CCS Tershkova is since then parked in its direct vicinity. It’s only 5 meters from the hull to the wavering silver shimmer that mark the gate’s transit area. The distorted light that passes shows the Tardis being right on the opposite. One of the greatest experiments of mankind or as Lim put it “A small step for the Tardis but a big step for hmm, ähh, …”. The dark spot about the supposed sabotage remains. Was it someone from the scientists aboard the Tershkova or aboard the Tardis? Or is there a correlation to the three unmarked signatures Urs observed when approaching People’s home?

Session 27 - General assembly

This years general assembly took again place in the casino of the Tigres Bleues. Urs cares for food and Ryker organizes drinks. That means finger food and a lot of booze.

Since Medina station is still without gravity everyone is floating around. The majority floats close to the bar. Kale sticks to the middle of the room. Urs is, of course, close to the buffet, Lim performs security checks.

Hello from Rosmerta

“I founded Cat & Canary because I was tired of watching good people disappear — lost to bad contracts, broken stations, and the silence of space. We built this association so that no one out there has to fly alone. We don’t answer to corporations. We don’t beg the inners. We take care of our own.

The black is changing. Medina’s quiet, too quiet. And there’s talk — a name whispered in too many dark corners. Dragon Tooth. I won’t pretend I know what they’re after, but I know this: anything that moves in the dark, moves against us.

But I’ve seen what we can do when we fly together. You all have. That’s why you’re here. So let’s speak up today. Let’s vote. Let’s argue if we have to. Let’s stay sharp — and stay free. Cat & Canary is more than an association. It’s a lifeline. Let’s make sure it keeps flying.”

Welcome address from Lieutenant Renn

Acknowledge the leadership change: “Camina Drummer left big boots to fill. We’re grateful for her service—and I aim to bring the same clarity and fairness to the job.”

Personal rapport with Cat & Canary: “I’ve worked with many of you already—on the docks, in the Rad zone, even over a drink or two.”

Veiled Dragon Tooth reference: “I’ve heard the whispers. About unrest. About shadows. Let me be clear: station security is here to protect all crews—whether you fly the Belt, the void, or something stranger.”

Distraction via personal note (to deflect suspicion): “And if you hear someone’s collecting old Earth guns, guilty as charged. Some of us like our history… even when it’s loud.”

Reports

Finances (Belinda Sharik)

Fellow associates, I’ll keep this short and balanced—just like our books.

Cat & Canary is flying steady. We’re covering all operating costs, paying crews on time, and haven’t had to beg the Inners for scraps. That’s a win in this economy. But no fat in the reserves means little cushioning. Some projects are dragging—not because we lack will, but because we lack wallets or hands.

The Chicken Co-Op housing project is still a pile of good intentions and scavenged hull plating. And the ship refitting initiative? Let’s just say duct tape is doing a lot of the heavy lifting. Solid doesn’t mean safe. If we want to build something that lasts, we’ll need more than guts—we’ll need backing. So keep that in mind when you vote.

Fleet (mainly Kale)

Quick overview:

Overall Cat & Canary has a lack of maintenance personnel (only 4 personen enabled to to maintenance work). Sidenote: Cat & Canary should focus on staff for maintenance, both with new emplyment as well as additional qualification of existing crew members.

The first ballot: Can we let out a ship? We can’t use all of them.

5 yay (3 nay, 1 abstention)

Who is responsible for looking for interested parties?

A clear majority votes for Ryker.

Whom do we exclude as potential lessees?

It is also decided that Cat & Canary will lead one of

How about the unknown firmware on Lakshmi? Whom is it sending to? Urs and Kale will do a more thorough examination of the Lakshmi

Moreover Kale wants money - in particular for the warships.

7 yay, 1 nay

Chicken and dogs

Chicken

5 yay, 1 nay, 2 don’t know

Dogs

Their names are Strelka and Pollux. They are slightly apathetic. They shall be trained.

Garth can decide who is worth for training.

Crabs in the boxes and bugs from New Egypt

Intermediate welcome address by Xander, captain of the Tardis

“Hey. I’m Xander. I fly the Tardis, and we’re… mostly intact. We’ve been out there — out where comms break, hulls freeze, and alliances either mean something or don’t. I guess that’s why it matters that we’re here, all together.

Cat & Canary — you all — you’ve built something rare. Not just routes and records. But trust. And that’s damn valuable out here. If you’re smart, you hold onto it like vacuum doesn’t exist.

We lost someone recently. Storoy. Still no signal, no trace. We’re still looking. But I figured I’d say it here, since this is the place where things do get said. Just in case. There’s talk flying around. Big corps. Big plans. Big ghosts. That’s fine. Just… watch your six. Fly with people who’ll patch your suit when it tears, not auction it.

That’s all. See you out there.”

more reports

Staff

Decision made: Ryker may stay

Quick presentation of new crew members:

Lim asks about Ryker’s relation to the Crawlers? Ryker answers that he simply has much respect.

Missions

Final part was some brainstorming about ongoing missions. Notes are just bullet points and will probably not cover the complex discussions

Gryante corporation

5 yay, 2 nay, 1 unknown

Alec-11 and New Egypt

runs in the background

Pope industries

4 yay, 4 nay

Gate research

Builder artifacts - Zoisite, Xenetics, Luther; Ghosts & bugs & crabs

Nissa, Urs, Jerry, and Kale want to investigate

The “Egg” shall be the first priority.

Franchise on Bara Gaon

Typical missions for Jerry

Promovideo from Sanga Velazquez

Belinda reviews

Later welcome address by Diana Smith (Pope Industries)

Good cycle, everyone. It’s a pleasure to be part of this General Assembly — a place where vision meets vacuum, where crews carve out something lasting. Cat & Canary has shown time and again what ingenuity, grit, and a little collective madness can accomplish. From resupply corridors to colony contacts, your footprint grows — as does your reputation. [Pauses. Smiles politely.]

Naturally, not everyone celebrates your success. There are those who see independence as a threat. Progress as a problem. But I’m not one of them. As a liaison between certain Earth-based logistics branches and frontier operators, I can only encourage you: keep flying smart. Keep documenting. Keep proving that unity can win over muscle.

[Glancing at a few familiar faces] And should tensions… arise, I trust you will know which alliances are built to last. Thank you for having me. Stay resourceful.

A surprise at the end

Darian and Urs bring three well wrapped packages: Angels from Medina’s hull

Session 26 - Family reunion

— Jerry — Kale — Ryker — Lim —

Jerry had a plan — a plan he was very secretive about. One evening, he invited a few crew members to help him carry it out:

Kale and Ryker waited for Jerry in the kitchen, where Ryker had already been very busy practicing how to mix cocktails in zero gravity. And, naturally, drinking.

Meanwhile, Lim was at the protest camp he had set up with his union colleagues at the entrance to the Rad Zone. Everything there was going according to Lim’s plan — except, of course, the station management still hadn’t fulfilled their demands. Maybe that had something to do with changes in leadership: Camina Drummer had left Medina Station for another adventure, and Renn was now the new chief of station security, currently overseeing the Rad Zone entrance.

When Jerry, Kale, and Ryker arrived, they found Renn pulling Lim aside for a quiet word. Renn, no fool, quickly understood Lim’s crucial role in organizing the protest — and he was fishing for information. He even suggested that Cat & Canary might be involved in the “Rad Zone disaster.”

Lim, playing it carefully, offered just enough information to keep Renn at bay — mentioning the weapons cache they had found recently. Renn immediately connected this to growing unrest among the Inners — but it was the first time he had heard anything about hidden weapons.

Still, time was pressing. It was time for Jerry’s real plan.

Jerry pulled the crew aside and spoke in hushed tones. It was time to use family connections — but no one else could know. As Jerry revealed secrets about his past, Ryker drifted around uncontrollably, bouncing off surfaces in zero-g — but Jerry pressed on with his grave sermon.

The goal: to talk to someone high up at Gryante headquarters. And if diplomacy failed… they still had those bugs from New Egypt to bargain with.

So, off the crew floated toward Sector Green and the Gryante Gardens. Everything along the way grew cleaner, more polished — a stark contrast to the Rad Zone.

Finally, they arrived at the manicured plaza in front of the Gryante estate. Unexpectedly, they spotted Diana Smith, a fellow C&C employer, leaving the grounds and pausing for a little small talk.

Sometimes, it pays to bring people whose talents you don’t fully appreciate yet: Ryker quietly stole Diana’s terminal during the encounter — and didn’t mention it to anyone… for two hours.

The next obstacle was the receptionist. Ryker started flirting heavily to get them inside — but when that didn’t quite work, Jerry stepped up. More persuasive, Jerry got them access — not to a high-ranking Gryante, but to Dr. Viktor Kozlov instead.

Those familiar with Gryante’s Bara Gaon operations might remember Kozlov as troublemaker.

Kozlov, wearing his overpowering cologne and usual scowl, was as charming as ever. He listened to Jerry and Kale’s accusations about New Egypt with alarming casualness — but agreed to bring in Elena Petrov, who had been in charge of the project.

Even Elena, however, barely reacted to Jerry’s anger. Jerry tried to push Gryante to stop their unethical practices on the new colonies, but he still hadn’t played all his cards.

And before he could… chaos broke loose.

Kale had brought an ampoule with extracted protomolecule-altered DNA from New Egypt. And that slipped free. Without gravity, it floated wildly. Everyone scrambled, trying bizarre, frantic methods to capture the rogue ampoule. In the confusion, Natalya Volkova somehow ended up landing in Kale’s arms — though it’s hard to say who caught whom.

As the blue glow intensified, ghostly apparitions materialized once again — projections of Inaros, John Gryante, and a crowd of their phantom supporters. Jerry approached the ghostly John Gryante — just as the real John Gryante entered the room. The real Gryante’s eyes flicked between Jerry and the ghostly image, stunned — and then narrowed in recognition. Jerry, after all, was also a Gryante, John’s brother.

The ghosts flickered out as quickly as they had come. John Gryante, recovering fast, coldly invited the “visitors” into the residence.

The conversation that followed was short and sharp. John Gryante showed no remorse — in fact, he was condescending toward Jerry and the rest of the crew. The best they could wrestle out of him was a vague concession: He wouldn’t allow a repeat of the New Egypt disaster.

Meanwhile, the team Gryante had sent to New Egypt had already been redeployed to a much simpler assignment — colonizing Persephone.

Whether this counted as a victory was unclear. Jerry, Kale, Lim, and Ryker eventually left the Gryante compound, their goals only partially achieved.

But there was still one more win: Kale had cracked Diana Smith’s stolen terminal.

In the short time they had before returning it, they uncovered something interesting: Diana Smith was having trouble with the Tardis’ crew — and she was involved with a group called Dragon Tooth.

Session 25 - Drive Crawlers out of Rad Zone

— Urs — Lim — Ryker — Darian — Rosmerta — Fnaan — Awet — Sanga Velazquez —

Urs had a plan - he wanted to revitalize the Rad Zone and drive the Crawlers out of their hideout. And he had everything prepared. Even a certificate had been handed to him by station security that he was allowed to produce a new report about the zone’s state. As expected Lim was more than willing to join this mission for law and order. They quick enrolles the newest crew member, Ryker, to join this mission. He was quite hesitant, almost frightened of the Crawlers. But still, the three met at Stardust to discuss the plan. Later, Rosmerta quickly joined, approved the plan, and agreed to send the Fnaan sisters to join the mission. Luckily, and probably just by accidente, also Darian spontaneusly joined, because his zero-g pelota match was canceled on short notice.

There was still time for some preparations. Lim and Urs organized plans. Darian found out that the original survey was written by some Elly Varen, a Crawlers member. Sanga Velazquez also joined and Rosmerta kept the CCS Queen of Sheba near the central airlock as an emergency exit. That would also be the entry point - not simply through the main gates.

Next day in the morning the seven started and walked across Medina’s surface. They could admire the new rail guns installed there to guard the gates and the golden angels - a relict of Medina’s former dedication as a starshop for the Mormons. The entrance led to the room where once Cat and Canary rescued Dr. Carly Toor and Felix convinced some strange third-party participants by referring to General Tao. The Geiger counter (borrowed from Kale’s stuff) did not register any radiation there. So the crew went on.

Illumination was broken nearly everywhere and only red emergency lights drove the darkness away. Most compartments were plundered. When they finally found an intact door they also heard desperate sobbing coming from the neighbouring compartment. There was one Crawler caught in an unlucky situation. He had tried to unlock the mechanism locking the intact door and activated some dead man switch. A warning had appeared on a terminal and deducing from the smell the boy had stayed there already for quite a while. With his left hand he had to push some button behind a walled terminal while regularly tapping some confirmation on the screen.

Apparently a part of the security mechanism was already released because Lim and Awet forced the door open without anything else happening. They were shocked from the nice armoury there. Ryker jumped inside and quickly grabbed as many things as possible (3 rifles, 2 rocket launchers and a grenade launcher plus ten grenades). In the meantime Lim became impatient with the Crawler boy’s whining. When he had pulled the boy away from the terminal an alarm went off and everyone was wise enough to put on their helmets. The boy was already running when an explosion drove the crew back the corridor and a new alarm went off: loss of atmospheric pressure. The explosives had torn a hole into the station’s hull and, moreover, it suddenly stopped spinning. Free floating the crew went back home.

Result: Medina station now is without gravity. There is almost no measurable radiation in the Rad zone, only right behind the entrance, the Crawlers must have put a radioactive material. Sanga has some interesting material for his documentary.

Session 24 - Collect more bugs on New egypt

— Jerry — Nissa — Kale — Rosmerta — Acab — on CCS Queen of Sheba

Jerry, Nissa and Kale decided to visit New Egypt for a second time. Danilolah Mehra had asked for more bugs, which means Gryante had asked for more bugs. Rosmerta was this trips pilot and Lim sent Acab as reinforcement. The CCS Queen of Sheba made her second trip to New Egypt.

It was clear that Kale had the urge to make amends for the escaped bug last time. Nissa’s aim was simply to survive and to help the crew with that. Jerry was working on improving his status, so a successful mission with him as the captain could help that. Rosmerta was just piloting and Acab - well, Acab is using this opportunity to name new constellations. He is currently working on “New Egypt’s Stellar Atlas”.

This time the meeting with the settler should go smoother. Nissa proposed to offer a Tao chicken (but only one!) as a start and the rest agreed with that plan.

On arrival there were changes visible already from space. The original settle seemed kind of devastaded and there was a new tent town not far away. During descent humans could be seen in a small hill range opposite to the new tests with respect to the old settlement. The Queen of Sheba identified one as Jagdish Kapoor.

Jerry, Nissa and Kale immediately approached Kapoor. This time they were greeted warmer than the first time. Maybe the chicken helped. Kapoor was immediately interested in the present.

He invited the crew to the cavern system they now inhabited. Inside, with some fresh water, he told about the recent events. A delegation of the Gryante corporation - about 400 explorers - had been brought here to lay claim. It was a rough start but Gryante even escalated the situation with attacking the original settlement. This was, when the group retreated into the mountains. Since then there is no more contact. The attack had happened during one night and was very quick and swift. Nobody realized details. Fortunately the damage was just a couple of bruises.

From the contact before the accident the original settlers understood that the Gryante explorers were coming for the bugs. Later that day, the crew wondered if this rise in interest was actually Cat & Canary’s fault. Did the Gryante surveyors came because Kale, Indira and Igor brought two bugs to Danilolah? Has Elena Volkola obtained some information during her time on the Queen of Sheba?

Eventually, Kapoor expressed again some interest in the chicken. He had heard about Alec-11 and described it as game reservation of the Builders. If there was cattle suitable for herding on New Egypt, they would happily accept a delivery. Payment is no problem. And with that the official part ended and a small get-together, deeper in the caverns, took place.

There was one more notable event. Kapoor presented Gian, a tall man whose upper right third of the torso was completely black. Kale had already seen him from the distance during his first visit to the planet. Gian seemed physically fit. According to Kapoor, during the inital days of the colonization, they once walked carelessly through the sand when they were attacked by a sandworm. Everyone but Gian could escape and they already declared him lost when, three days later, returned - with the black body parts. Since then he does not express complex thoughts anymore.

The next day a visit to the Gryante camp was due. Entering was easy but it was also heavily guarded. The crew was quickly led to the administrator: Cui Luixian. First, he seemed very inaccessible and insisted on Gryante’s claim to this planet. This changed rapidly when there were alerts in the camp and something suddenly broke through the tent’s wall.

The create was roughly humanoid and very agile. The first soldier stood no chance. He was killed in an instant before anyone could even react. Jerry quickly grabbed the dead soldier’s rifle, Kale activated his stun baton while Nissa ran out of the tent. Kale’s attack indeed seemed to have hurt the thing which then hit Kale very hard.

While Jerry took a good aim, Nissa fought with her waning stamina and instead of continuing the escape called Rosmerta for help. Fortunately she had programmed the PDCs for in-atmosphere operations, so Rosmerta had already followed the crew with the crosshairs. Jerry fired a good shot and was in turn targeted by the black attacker. This was when the two guys inside the tent heart Nissa’s warning about incoming PDC rounds. They jumped into cover when large tungsten bullets tore through tent and creature. New Egypt seems to connect Kale with escape from danger and PDC rounds.

Gryante had tried to extract something from the bugs to create their own project Caliban hybrid. The project got out of control. And in the meantime - what the explorers didn’t know - Gryante lost the majority of their fleet to a pirate assault. Loyalty to their employer had become rather low. And on the way back the CCS Queen of Sheba took already a lot of passengers: the young ones, the elders one, some sick people. They are paying and will be paying for future transports. One part of the payment was a collection of bugs. It is still open for discussion if they shall be handed over to Gryante corporation.

Session 23 - Deliver gardening equipment to Castila

— Jerry — Felix — Fnaan Saare — Awet Saare — Korbinian Gikus — on CCS Phex

On their journey to Castila Jerry, Felix, Fnaan, Awet and Korbinian received a distress signal from the mooon of one of the system’s gas giants. Since they were the only ship in range, they changed course to rescue the survivors. There were still some days that Awet used the time musing about vampires and werewolves in space. When the CCS Phex was approaching the moon it sensors had a short glitch and the screens showed a picture of the metal egg, Roldy and Darian brought from Zoisite II.

The ship which crashed on the moon, the Ratel, was completely abandoned. From the ship’s computer Korbinian could extract that pirates had assaulted the Ratel. The description suggested the pirates being the Voidwalkers which aligns with reports that the Gryante Corporation lost many of their ships in the Castila system. While they could default the pirates they still crashed on the moon. The actual position was set by one crew member. This crew member in turn had that information from an organisation called “Dragon Tooth”. They flagged a point of interest on this moon, some enrgy signature they wanted to investigate. So landing here was slightly more interesting than somewhere else.

The flagged spot was only 100 meters away. Without any corpses on the Ratel the crew decided to look for more surivors there. Indeed, they found an entrance to some underground complex. Apparently it was constructed by the builders. The main material resembled some black mother of pearl and every were signs of the typical blueish builder discharges. Not very deep into the cavern, Felix, Jerry and Korbinian found the crew or, rather, their remnants. The place was a mess and body parts were lying around. Felix identified five crew members. Originally the Ratel carried 8 persons. Two had been found dead in the ship’s med bay, so one more was missing.

And indeed in a further chamber they found the completely traumatized engineer Cailee Raja. While trying to calm her something was approaching from deeper within the cavern. Rather fast a spider-like creature appeared and attacked without further notice. The first bullets were quite ineffective because the carapace reflected them almost effortless. Only then Felix analyzed some weakness finding vulnerable spots. Eventually the crew could defeat the thing but at rather costs. Felix and Korbinian were badly injured and also Jerry seemed rather weak on his feet. Afraid of more guardians arriving the escape was fast.

The Ratel’s cargo was transferred to the CCS Phex and brought to the small colony on Castila. Since the original cargo was farmers’ equipment, having brought the seeds from the Ratel was quite important and the authorities paid some extra credits for the more-than-asked services.

Session 22 - Catch-up

Cat and Canayry has visited the following planets:

They have the following souvenirs from builder worlds:

Cleaning plan:

Open Puzzles:

Plan:

Session 21 - Can we summon a ghost?

— Kale — Darian — Felix — Alex —

It was an evening when Sanga Velazquez had announced a quick visit. He wanted to bring together all the information about the “ghosts”.

Quickly it turned out that the common idea was trying to summon the ghosts again. They seemed to have some connection to presents persons. At least one of them: they had been identified as Marcos Inaros and John Gryante. And Jerry shares some connection with the latter one. Could someone, now working with Cat & Canary, be connected to the Free Navy or Marcos Inaros himself?

Everyone in the kitchen (that’s the venue for the meeting with Velazquez) directly started with preparations when, suddenly, it was bedlam. The Tao chickens had escaped their improvised cage and were running around the C&C headquarters. Some were already approaching doors. While Alex systematically drove 20 of them back into their chambers, Kale and Darian erratically ran from one end of the corridor to the other and Felix chased the three who had reached the street. There he was offered help by an elder men of Chinese origin. The old man, after having observed Felix’s approach for a couple of minutes, quickly explained that he was doing it all wrong. Leaving behind a puzzled Felix he ran after two chickens running towards the more crowded areas and disappeared…

Felix returned to the kitchen with the one chicken he could catch, being feeling fooled by the old man. The others, in the meantime had herded the animals into their quarters and fixed the hatch. So planning the chase for the ghosts could continue.

Darian collected equipment. Kale made sure they could perform their experiment on the premises of the Tigres Bleues. Felix organized the “crabs” and Alex did some research on the connection between John Gryante and Inaros. She found out that they were in touch about something called “Dragon Tooth”.

Right when Felix called Velazquez for continuing the ghost experiment the old guy returned with two Tao chickens in his hands. He presented himself as Jin Li, a farmer who had lived in the border region between Tibet-Tarim Shared Interest Zone and Greater Terai Shared Interest Zone. When he gave back the chickens to Felix he asked if Cat & Canary by chance needed a shepherd. He was currently looking for work and had not found anything as close to his previous occupation. Felix loosely accepted provided the security department would agree.

The experiment itself was surprisingly successful. It took place in the pool in the tigres’ hotel. Interestingly, only Marcos Inaros appeared. Next, one by one the persons withdrew from the area to check if someone could be a catalyst. But after the first attempts (the absence of Sophie and Alex did not change anything) equipment overheated. Kale dropped the control before it could burn him and Inaros disappeared. Within that short timeframe no communication was possible. But a follow-up experiment is planned.

Back to Jin Li: Lim is greatly suspicious towards everyone from Greater Terai or Tibet-Tarim but since Jin Li is an earther it cannot be that bad. Moreover, Greater Terai gained some respect after Jerry, Darian and Lim enjoyed staying on Bara Gaon complex which was mainly colonized by people from that area. Jin has no previous links to organizations that want to harm Cat & Canary and his debt level is comparable to the median among the crew members.

Session 20 - Gryante delegation to Bara Gaon

— Jerry — Darian — Lim — Korbinian Gikus — Awet Saare — on CCS Queen of Sheeba

This mission leads to Bara Gaon. It will only become clear during the mission what the Gryante corporation is really up to. Lim and Jerry speculate about this being a dirty mission about selling manipulated seeds or particular fertilizers.

When the “guests” arrive at the Queen it is five of them:

To Jerry delight, Olivia was not actually joining but was only there to see her employees off. Viktor appears to be quite an asshole offending belters very harshly. Elena Petrov is kind of a archetypical business woman and Natalia is a friendly but kind of confused scientist. Marcus seems to be quite a nice guy. He brought stuff for cooking and surprises the crew with a very good lasagna. While cooking he talked a lot. He first told about the last encounter with Cat & Canary at the artifact exhibition (Session 16). It was there when everyone learned that Cat & Canary must be pitied for their terrible cook Urs. To “urs” something is being used as a phrase for oversalting or more generally overspicing food. Sidenote: actually Rosmerta insulted Felix at that party as the worst cook in the world. They feinted an argument in order to create a distraction for a drunken Urs who tried to slip a bugging device into the purse of a Crawler girl.

Later Marcus Chen also told what they were trying to achieve on Bara Gaon. Some weeks ago Gryante lost the major part of its already quite small transport fleet. Bara Gaon has some very advanced shipyards, where they even experiment with alien artifacts as building materials. He also told that they were attacked by pirates in the Castila system. Kozlov was one of the few survivors and that at least partially explains his bad emotions towards Belters. The pirates were from the Voidwalkers - a group you also already met - notorious Ex-Free-Navy-members. Still, the lasagna is fine and Marcus can tell nice stories from Earth.

Bara Gaon is a vivid place and Bara Gaon complex, the station with the shipyards, is a real melting pot. It consists of several independently rotating rings. Inside there is a lot of trading for daily usage things as well as technical items. The Gryante delegation directly approaches their central task. Lim, Darian and Jerry try to stay on their trails (quite easy because Kozlov is wearing an intensive eau de parfume). Eventually they buy some impressive weapons built from alien material.

The next day is quite relaxed until a totally freaked out Marcus Chen calls Lim. Kozlov appeared to have bought a strange apparatus. The vendor said it was able to alter physical properties and Kozlov went into less crowded areas of the station for immediately testing it. Then he disappeared. Petrov was already caring for station support, Natalia was trying to stay on Kozlov’s heels. Now, Marcus asked Lim to also search for Kozlov.

Indeed Lim, Jerry and Darian found him in an abandoned corridor lying unconsciously in front of the door of a small control station. The alien apparatus had crushed his hand and was still locking him to the floor. It was so heavy neither Lim nor Darian could move it with their bare hands. Luckily Lim had his new weapon - an alien crowbar - with him and they could free Kozlov.

He also used it to open the control station obtaining the first aid kid deposited there. This was when he realized something was slightly off with this room. There were weapons stored there (in a locked cabinet…), tools and a table with a list of important persons in the Bara Gaon system sorted by their provenience (Earth, Mars or Belt). Rescuing Kozlov was more important at that point so they left the control room for the local authorities and went back to the Queen of Sheeba.

Two days later Petrov and Chen had finished their tasks and the Queen of Sheeba headed back to Medina station. Jerry used that time to buy a load of alien hull plating - enough for enforcing one of Cat & Canary’s ships.

Session 19 - Bringing Sokolov’s egg to Luther

— Indira — Lim —

on CCS Phex

Lim and Indira decided to bring the egg, Roldy and Darian collected on Zoisite, to the Luther system as requested. Since the rest of Cat and Canary was on missions, they took Lim’s old friends Arturo and Acab with them. A little surprise was Acab’s unexpected rise in weight. But he promised working hard. So what happened on the mission?

Lim was full of energy. The mission seemed easy enough: Fly to the target system and deliver the cargo. Three things made it somewhat more complicated.

First, Indira noticed a stowaway. It was Emilio, one of the scientist from Zoisite, who was not willing to give the egg away. Lime caught him eventually and later he was even of help, but only a little.

Second, Lavov started a chase. They seemed to lay claim on something, maybe the egg. Indira had no problems outrunning them, but since the hub space is easy to observe, they followed the CCS Phex into the Luther system, only with a little delay.

The third problem was the major issue of this journey. Luther was empty. Not in the sense that there was no colony, more physically empty. The central star was a neutron star and Acap revealed his hidden talent: astronomy. With the sensor data Indira provided he could extract that there were no particles in the space between the gate and its star. The star was on the verge of collapsing into a black hole - just a couple of tons were missing.

Someone brought into play simply dropping the metal egg. When considering this approach Lim realized the egg was already glowing lightly and building up temperature. To complicate things this was when the Lajka, a Lavov ship, came through the gate.

The astrophysical peculiarity of the Luther system was even enhanced by the fact that the gate was not within the ecliptic but right above one of the star’s poles. Would it collapse to a black hole it could blast a burst of hard gamma radiation. This would hit the gate and what happened afterwards is hard to imagine.

So, Indira developed a certain detention and urged the crew to immediately leave the Luther system. It was hard to convince the Lavov ship of letting this happen, but eventually all went well. But what shall happen with the egg now?

Session 18 - Hunting pirates

— Dash — Felix — Alex — Jerry — Nissa — Kale —

on CCS Apollo and CCS Manwe

New tasks for Cat & Canary. A rather large crew set sails on the CCS Apollo and the CCS Manwe to hunt down pirates in the Auberon system.

Already during preparation it became apparent that they had very different views on piracy. Alex considers pirates good sources of information. Felix simply throws them in a pot with all other belters. Jerry heard that in particular those pirates – commonly referred to as the Voidwalkers – are becoming a rela threat. They seem to be good in tactics.

Potentially, they also have good ships. Obtaining one in a good shape is a declared goal for Nissa. Dash is favouring a more direct approach: onwards with guns blazing in alignment with the company’s sub-slogan “Parcels to people, bullets to enemies!”.

Eventually, Manwe shall act as a bait and lure the pirates out of their hiding. Jerry spread rumours about expensive cargo. And with that everything is prepared. Is it a good plan?

Right at crossing the gate there is a mishap. Manwe has a lag of about 30 seconds and, when finally arriving in Auberon, reports severe damage to ship and personal. It is clear that they cannot participate in a battle at full strength. Luckily Kale uses most of the days advancing the system’s center to perform the most urgent repairs.

Then it is time to meet the pirates. Jerry’s deceit did not work out. For the Voidwalkers it was immediately clear that the Manwe is no good prey, and directly go into attack mode. They have 6 small fighters and seem to be very able at controlling them. The fight is hard. It includes all kinds of attacks, even pirates trying to sabotage the hull in mid-fight. At the end the Cat & Canary fleet can retreat with only little damage but almost all torpedos gone. And the damage to the pirate fleet is hard to estimate. They lost some of their ships and have some casualties. But while retreating, the pirates’ captain, Remy Leclerc, sends a “See you again”.

The reward was not as high as expected – too little the loss for the pirates. But next time, with a better preparation, the pirates should be really frightened.

Nevertheless, there were a few insights. The voidwalkers bossmang is called Remy Leclerc. His name might serve during a background research. Before attacking he offered to join his ranks. The price were the new members’ legs. During the sabotage assault, Jerry and Felix could witness two Voidwalkers without their legs. Is this a strange fetish or just some ritual?

The Voidwalkers’ ships use advanced technology. The are super fast and seem to have some kind of stealth mechanism. They can disappear at any moment.

And: High-g-maneuvers are hard for belters.

Session 17 - Recover equipment from Zoisite II

— Roldy — Darian — Korbinian Gikus — Fnaan Saare — on CCS Lakshmi

Let the belters do all the work and they earn you a whole ship! That could have been the motto of Cat & Canary’s last mission to Zoisite.

The CCS Lakshmi was crewed by Roldy (as captain), Darian (pilot), Fnaan (Navigation) and Korbinian (engineer). The passengers were the three remaining scientist from Xenetics: Ayu, Emilio and Jaqanti.

During emptying one of Jaqanti’s bottles it was decided that it was the Innyas’ fault (Urs’ and Kim’s) loosing the equipment last time on Zoisite. It must have also been their fault that Lavov came to Zoisite in the meantime. It was their ship Tershkova right next to the landing place of the CCS Lakshmi. Their ship, however, was dead cold. And on the way there, Roldy and Darian stumbled upon a corpse that was half-eaten away by who-knows-what.

Corpse of Ivan, Sergej, Alexej, Andrej - who knows

Equipment gone - going further down in the city until dogs appear

Stopped by Dmitri - make a deal

Follow-up? In any case: new ship

Session 16 - Blame the Crawlers

— Urs — Felix — Alex —

It was a quiet evening when Urs, Felix, and Alex gathered to plan their revenge against the Crawlers after the recent fight. But how should they proceed? After some quick research, they uncovered the following:

The trio considered teaming up with Gryante Corporation, another faction harmed by the Crawlers. Felix set up a meeting with Danilolah Mehra from Gryante, arranging to meet at the Stardust. Mehra arrived with Olivia (surname Gryante!) along with two bodyguards. Olivia confirmed that the Crawlers might be planning another move against Gryante.

An exhibition titled “From the New World” was scheduled in Gryante’s gardens two days later, and Tessa appeared on the guest list. Olivia arranged for Urs, Felix, and Alex to attend as well, but with one condition – no lethal violence. She was searching for someone on Medina Station, someone who might have joined the Crawlers, and hoped to find them alive.

Though somewhat puzzled by Olivia’s request, the trio moved forward with their plan. They decided to bug the Crawlers, and since Kale was unavailable, they enlisted the help of the Tigres Bleues. Sophie Lefevre, along with Nadia and Malik, joined them. Malik brought along his wooden tiger, which he amusingly fed with some of Urs’ Kibble. In exchange for their help, the Tigres Bleues asked to be added to the guest list.

Armed with three bugging devices, the group headed to Gryante Gardens. It didn’t take long to identify Tessa. Urs, ever the charmer, approached her, aided by a few glasses of wine. Meanwhile, Alex secured some contacts through Diana Smith. During a band’s break, Nadia struck up a conversation with the drummer, while Sophie vanished, and Rosmerta McDonald got drunk.

As Urs grew closer to Tessa, he saw the perfect opportunity to plant a bug. But when he tried to slip it into her pocket, he accidentally dropped it.

At that moment, Felix and Rosmerta staged a heated argument to create a distraction, drawing everyone’s attention. Amid the chaos, Alex noticed Tessa using hand signals to communicate with someone in the crowd. Acting quickly, Alex slipped her bug into his pocket. When the man left, accompanied by three other Crawlers, she followed, eavesdropping on their conversation through the device.

The four Crawlers – Jax, Lia, Dara, and Usha – were indeed plotting something. They mentioned planting an item somewhere in the building, and another Crawler, Omi, was working the bar.

Although Urs couldn’t get any closer to Tessa that evening, he managed to arrange a follow-up meeting. Tessa and her crew were regulars at the “Noisy Corner,” a popular club in the Souk.

Tessa

Session 14 and 15 - Freeing Keira

— Jerry — Lim — Kale — Garth — Urs — Kale — Roldy — Darian —

on CCS Queen of Sheba & CCS Apollo (secondary) & CCS Phex (tertiary)

Knowing where Keira was potentially being held captive, the decision to free her as soon as possible was straightforward. Cat & Canary wouldn’t lose a second in the task of rescuing her.

It was also clear that the Crawlers were mere henchmen. The real orchestrator of this whole situation was Krystal Kleen, though no information was available on why they were targeting the girl. Could it be part of a long-running experiment or series of tests?

One evening, when most people were occupied, Jerry, Lim, and Kale met with Garth, the new crew member, in the Stardust (again!). There, they learned that a Crawler was still roaming around, dressed in overalls with the C&C logo. Without hesitation, the four sprang into action and headed outside.

In the corridors, they encountered a station security technician who was repairing the surveillance systems—a hindrance to their search. Nevertheless, the suspect was just around the corner, sparking a vivid chase that ended with Jerry losing his trousers while sliding down a chute, and Lim throwing a fire extinguisher—very successfully. With some persuasion, they extracted the location where Keira was being held and immediately took this information to station security.

At the station security center, Camina Drummer explained that the Bethesda complex, where Keira was held, was off-limits. She didn’t mention any names, but it was clear that Krystal Kleen had rented the complex, and they were an influential player on Medina Station. However, she offered a distraction to aid the crew.

The crew regrouped in their quarters. Jerry and Garth somehow missed the departure, but Urs, Darian, and Roldy joined in their stead.

While the crew was still making preparations, Belinda arrived and mentioned a girl who had just visited the office with information about Keira. In a panic, the five rushed to find the girl, and indeed, she was still nearby. Her name was Celia, and she had been with the Crawlers, assigned to guard Keira. However, she realized that Keira was a friend of her aunt’s. Knowing about Cat & Canary, Celia had come to the office to drop some information. Keira was due to be transferred soon; in fact, the last transfer had been canceled when Cat & Canary members showed up at the docks. Fearing accusations of treason from the other Crawlers, Celia quickly left.

Urs promptly identified a location where the Crawlers would likely pass on their route from the Bethesda complex to the docks. There, Kale set up a projector he had built using a design from the Tigres Bleues. After careful preparation, the Crawlers’ delegation appeared. Kale’s projector worked flawlessly, creating the illusion that the crew was much larger than it was.

Lim addressed the Crawlers aggressively and successfully managed to free Keira. Before the illusion could be dispelled, Lim made his escape, followed closely by the others. Their destination was the docks, where Keira was to be put on a ship and taken somewhere safe.

In the large hall where Cat & Canary’s ships were docked, Krystal Kleen mercenaries were present, though they remained at a distance. Despite this, the rescuers encountered trouble. A group of radical Belters attacked, attempting to drag Keira to the nearest airlock. After a brief struggle and considerable effort, the crew managed to fend off the attackers and get Keira aboard the Queen of Sheba.

Soon after, three ships—the Queen of Sheba, Apollo, and Phex—departed Medina Station, taking Keira to a safe location.

Session 13 - Finding Keira

— Dash Ubuntu — Urs B. Neptup — Jerry — Felix Sanchez — Alex Pope —

The remaining members of Cat & Canary (other crews were currently on missions) gather at the Stardust bar on Medina Station to welcome a new recruit: Dash Ubuntu, a friend of Urs from Mars. Dash, uneasy and constantly scanning the surroundings, is anxious about being pursued by military police after leaving Mars under tense circumstances.

To distract Dash, Urs shares the latest news about Keira Common, a young scientist who was recently kidnapped from Cat & Canary’s premises. Keira, known for her athletic build and distinctive dark hair streaked with white, has been staying with the Cat & Canary crew long enough that some consider her one of their own. However, Urs feels differently, less committed to rescuing her than he would be for an official crew member.

As the second round of beers arrives, Felix, Jerry, and Alex join the conversation. The group continues discussing Keira’s disappearance, but no one has a concrete plan to find her. Jerry suggests reaching out to contacts on Abzu, hinting at a deeper involvement in Keira’s situation – it’s revealed that they had previously “rescued” her from there. In their tipsy state, they agree they’d go as far as offering a pod to secure her freedom. Felix shares a humorous story about how invoking the name “General Tao” once diffused a tense situation in another kidnapping event. This, in turn, prompts laughter until Urs clarifies the joke about naming local fauna on Alec-11 after Martian deserters - their General Tao chicken.

The conversation turns serious again, focusing on Krystal Kleen, Keira’s former employer and a possible player in the kidnapping, known for controversial protomolecule research. Urs speculates whether the Cat & Canary might have taken a job to kidnap Keira for a reason, questioning the crew’s moral boundaries. Dash, trying to contribute, mentions having seen Keira’s unique chopsticks near the docks.

As the night wears on, the group, now emboldened by several beers, decides to take action to rescue Keira. They stumble out of the Stardust, each heading in a different direction, only to regroup outside. Their first stop: the crew quarters to gather gear. En route, Jerry receives a call from Sophie Lefevre, alerting them that individuals in Cat & Canary uniforms are attacking the lair of Les Tigres Bleues – some see them a rival gang some dear friends. Realizing the potential danger and the threat to their reputation, they decide to arm themselves before intervening. As they rush to the hotel, Murdoch, a technician they had met on Abzu, calls to report seeing Keira being taken somewhere against her will.

At the hotel where Les Tigres Bleues are staying, they encounter the attackers - actually members of the Crawlers, a notorious gang on Medina and involved in the story about kidnapping Felix had told earlier. The Crawlers are tampering with a strange device in the foyer. Felix doesn’t hesitate, firing at them and taking down one. Dash focuses on the device, but the Crawlers retaliate fiercely, targeting Felix as the primary threat. Despite being outnumbered by the Crawlers, the fight intensifies, and Felix is critically injured when the device explodes, severely wounding him and others nearby.

With Felix bleeding heavily, the group decides to head to the Queen of Sheeba, the nearest safe haven, recently released from quarantine. As they rush to safety, Murdoch calls again telling that Keira’s transport has been aborted. The team resolves to deal with this new lead lated, as they tend to their wounded, knowing the situation with Keira is far from over.

Session 12 - Find the bug on CCS Queen of Sheba

— Lim O’Lahar — Kale Eleutherios — Darian Varro — Jerry — Nissa Airi —

It was finally time to free CCS Queen of Sheba from its quarantine. There were already rumours floating throughout Medina station.

Was it an outbreak of from kind of space syphilis? Had the ship been infected by members of the metal band? Or had they even done something illegal? Some occult ritual, morder? Some suggested the presence of alien life while other saw some competitor placing false accusations against Cat & Canary. The more paranoid considered the quarantine a covert op of the Earth, Martian or Belter secret agency respectively. Very often people claimed having heard strange noises when approaching the dock. It is not clear how many of these rumours were planted by Lim O’Lahar.

But let rumours be rumours. There were serious things at stake. Some unwanted parts could be replicated or the bug could have destroyed vital parts. The Queen could stay sealed. In the worst case station security could even hand over the Queen to some corpo for research or destroy the ship.

Of course there was also hope. Had the bug replicated or created something interesting? In the collection prior to the mission there appeared:

Nissa Airi wrote an exhaustive report.

Crew additions

We'd like to get the Queen of Sheeba back into rotation.

Jerry phones the security team to make an official enquiry about the status of the inspection. He is forwarded to Camina Drummer who is understaffed and therefore hasn't had the time to have someone look into the rumored infestation yet. Jerry offers to help out, which isn't acceptable per se, but she agrees to have the team join two inspectors and two outside witnesses to speed up the process. To adopt a threatening posture (and get a bit of publicity/some nice pictures for the c&c documentary), the inspection is penciled in for the day of the Stain demonstration.

The team is met by a small number of protesters (some demonstrating, some drinking), members of Lavov Industries who work on a ship which is docked nearby, a security expert (Renn, who has a scar across his face and an old colt on his belt) and a witness (Elena Petrov, Gryante corporation). They chat about Renn's restored weapon (sth to remember, in case we stumble across ammunition on one of our trips) until another member of the security team and gryante coop (Natalya Volcova) have arrived. The newly arrived security inspector seems to have a mechanical arm, since it makes a humming noise when moving. During small talk with Kale, it turns out that the arm comes from Bionic Dreams, Marte's former employer and the place where we checked the boxes for signs of life.

When we enter the ship, it smells slightly stale. Inside the cargo bay, there's a hole in the ground and some slimy trails hailing from some cables from a hydraulic ramp. Kale can't measure any signs of radiation, Lim looks inside the hole and is joined by Volcova. The hole doesn't seem to be too deep and the thing Volcova has been suspicious about is only a piece of metal. Ms Petrov hides a measuring device, when she is surprised by Jerry and doesn't want to explain herself, when he starts questioning her about it. Lim and Darian check some of the wiring in the hole, which is partially black. Kale also finds some black areas on the ground, which seems like parts of the floor have been exchanged - they seem to be above a cable duct. Darian takes a few of the cable pieces to Kale, who finds that the cables are black through and through, so they seem to be replicated and not only coated. Volcova is interested in the new to her material, which Kale claims to have bought at another planet. She asks for a sample for research purposes.

The group wants to check below the black area of the floor, for which Volcova offers up a small robot to put into the duct for inspection. To catch a glimpse inside, the crew climbs to an upper level where Kale promises an access vent. They put the spider-y looking robot inside. Meanwhile Darian finds a black/replicated mug in the workshops. Nissa hears some strange noise in the kitchen when inspecting the crew quarters. She secretly shares her findings with Lim and Darian, since they are not permanently monitored by the security or Gryante folks. They get a second to inspect the kitchen (there's a "repaired" bone china cup and the bar is vibrating slightly), before the guy with the bionic arm joins them. Lim informs him, that there seems to be something weird going on behind one of the walls and is ordered to open it up. He strategically places one of the wall panels in a way that noone else can join you in the kitchen. Once everthing is opened up, Lim grabs for something inside, and the beetle jumps into the kitchen. Lim and Darian throw themselves at the beetle and try to get ahold of hit. They manage to capture it under a glass dome. While the others follow them, Jerry sees Volcova sneakily putting something inside the ventilation duct. The "it" turns out to be the activated spider robot, so Jerry tries to get it out with the help of a coathanger and puts it into the drawer of one of the nightstands for the time being.

Once everyone is inside the kitchen, all attention goes to the bug under the dome. While the group discussed what to do with the bug, it tries to escape. Kale tries to calm it down with a noise generator he brought and does his best to secure it underneath the bowl with a carbon fiber cloth that Volcova offered Lim. Since everything is quite crammed, the maneuver gets quite tricky, so Darian has to support him with a freezing spray to stop the bug from fighting, which helps to secure the bug for now. (the offer to buy the beetle isn't accepted straight away) Further inspection shows a new monitor on the bridge and a hole in the reactor's mantle. A report is written with the suggestion to release the ship. When the team leaves the ship, the demonstration has turned into a 50 people rave. The beetle is given to Carly Toor for research purposes. Kale does some checks before handing it over.

Session 11 - Cat & Canary’s general assembly

The venue was quite controversial. Someone organized the general assembly to take place in the former casino of the hotel Les Tigres Bleues use as their base of operations. Kale was unhappy about collaborating with the gang. Every few minutes power supply was interrupted. The room was actually too small and catering did not meet Urs’ expectations. At least the latter was resolved: Urs prepared General Tao chicken fingerfood.

Lim had organized security: Roadies who had worked for Final Frontier Space with some of their friends. Too many, so the antechamber was quite crowded as well.

As soon as around 25 members of the corporation had gathered Rosmerta opened the assembly and welcomed everyone. This was followed by a short keynote from Danilolah Mehra who appeared several times as your employer and praised the work in the past. She ended that she hoped for similarly good projects in the futures and thanked Cat & Canary on behalf of her employer. Actually noone really knows who Danilolah is working for, but later that day Alex found out her allegations to Gryante Corporation.

The second keynote was given by Camina Drummer on behalf of station administration. She started with declaring that for her Cat & Canary was primarily a security risk. But she hopes that all issues will be resolved soon and she cannot ignore the fact that Cat & Canary more than others is representing true Belter spirit. At that point her speech was interrupted by a station alarm.

She had to leave immediately since unknown ships were arriving. The present assembly’s participants shortly discussed if they should involve themselves in these matters but decided to continue the session. Felix Sanchez cleared the alarm with a clean shot.

In all that chaos still everyone was gathering around the buffet table which in turn stood close the door. Darian spilled his coffee several times (which seemed to be his main reason to attend the assembly - the coffee not the spilling). Jerry on the other hand used every occasion to clear the table of all cookies.

Looking back

Then Rosmerta started the next point on the agenda with quick notes about a successful year. In particular she emphasized Lim’s own project on Alec-11. He was asked to share his planning and insights. Together with Urs he presented great aspirational plans about a food empire spanning all the known worlds - just not very eloquently but that’s the central points the procollant understood.

Roldy was pointing out that keeping the General Tao chickens in the dormitory would not have been his first choice. And Urs should make sure to not use all of their eggs. Who was General Tay, by the way? Probably some Martian deserters (note that they lost about one third of their forces right after the opening of the gates).

Finally Rosmerta noted that one of the problems in the last year was the lack of staff. By default one of the ships could not be manned while the others were acting on minimum crew.

Next point on the agenda was more vivid. What money shall Cat & Canary spend and how? There is the option to accept a silent shareholder with very interesting loan conditions. However, under the assumption of Gryante corporation giving the loan, Kale opposed very clearly (he had previously been employed by them). Also Jerry pointed out that he did not leave Earth just to end up in the same machinery again. Roldy put this to a different level suggesting that we chose the form of a corporation to be free of the urge to simply grow. Others were appealed by the new options offered by the additional money: a railgun, a med bay at home, maybe even a new ship. Still the final vote was a clear no.

A second, yet smaller source of unexpected income was a documentary by Sanga Velazquez about the work as a company under the transport union. He is going to pay a fee and will accompany a couple of future missions and probably also interview the crew members. This proposal was accepted, also because there was a good shared history with Sanga.

Discussion about how to spend money was not so linear. After a first round of prioritizing Felix brought back a point from the list: stocking up torpedos and PDC rounds was then put on the highest priority. Cat & Canary will work through this list in this order (given enough funds are available at that point in time):

  1. Stocking up ammunition
  2. Building a housing for the Tao chickens
  3. Staffing up
  4. A railgun (yet unclear for which ship)
  5. Constructing surveyor drones
  6. Securing the quarters on Medina station
  7. Improve juice quality on the ships
  8. Set up a med stations within the quarters

Other questions that were rejected:

Finally, there was a vote for the new slogan for the company. Options were:

  1. On time - every time (4 votes)
  2. Auf nach Laconia! (1 vote)
  3. Excellence simply delivered
  4. Devilerance
  5. Bring the Cat & Canary back into Cat & Canary
  6. The early canary catches the cat
  7. Cross the stars! On time - every time. (4 vote)
  8. We deliver! (1 vote)
  9. Loift!
  10. Our crew is replaceable, your package isn’t. (6 votes)
  11. We will have delivered the goods yesterday.
  12. Recipient was hit. (3 votes)
  13. Parcels to people, bullets to enemies (4 votes)
  14. Parcels to people, people to planets (4 votes)

For the sake of clearness a run-off vote was done at a later point between these options:

  1. On time - every time
  2. Cross the stars! On time - every time.
  3. Our crew is replaceable, your package isn’t.
  4. Parcels to people, bullets to enemies
  5. Parcels to people, people to planets

Security issues / Planning of the nearer future

Cat & Canary want to do a market survey. A lot of volunteers raised their hands for that task:

There is Keira Common who was kidnapped from the Cat & Canary quarters and there is the seal on CCS Queen of Sheba.

About Keira Common:

She was “freed” from the planet Abzu by Cat & Canary forces. Probably her former employer Krystal Kleen kidnapped her back. Diana Smith (a fixer for Pope Industries) is suspicious as well but she seemed to be ignorant of Keira’s fate. How can Keira be found? Where is a safe place for her?

About CCS Queen of Sheeba

She was used to transport “insects” (probably builder robots) from New Egypt to Medina station. One escaped during the journey. Sation security was later informed about a potential protomolecule infection on Medina station. It was actually Lim who informed station security because he was shocked by a unexpected replication of items on the Queen. But he will organize a Stain demonstration for freeing Queen of Sheba. Maybe that can be a starting point for Velazquez’ documentary.

After that the assembly ended and Kale repaired the alarm box which was shot by Felix. Someone investigated the security alarm and Rosmerta read out a message sent by Camina Drummer about the intruders. Apparently this intruder was an empty ship which had entered hub space through the Laconian gate. It carried several message boxes. It came immediately clear that Laconia will not allow any visitors to their system and any ships entering through the gate will be destroyed on sight. There were more comm buffers adressed to specific persons. Camina was not willing to share the full list, but some names became public:

Session 10 - Escort food convoy from Auberon to Sol system

— Jerry Gryante — Felix Sanchez — Alex Pope —

on CCS Manwe & CCS Apollo (secondary)

Rosmerta caught a big deal: Cat and Canary shall escort a food convoy from Auberon sent to Earth. Auberon is a fertile world which additionally already grows edible plants. Due to their surplus they export a lot of food supporting new colonies as well as Sol system.

Still before departure Jerry gets called by Sophie from Les Tigres Bleues. She offered a deal: transport their Timmy to Auberon and bring back some crates back. Timmy will work as a crew member plus an additional person (Nadia or Thierry). Eventually Alex and Jerry negotiate that you will get paid a normal transport fee for half of the crates. Moreover they will grant you one not yet specified request in the future.

Rosmerta will take over bridge, Jerry being the captain, Timmy (or Erich as he will later be called by contacts on Auberon) takes responsibility for the comms, Felix mainly cares for the gunnery station while Alex looks after engines. They fly the CCS Manwe. A second crew mans the CCS Apollo. She is captained by Awet Saare. Her sister Fnan sits at the steering wheel. Korbinian and Dr. Goldberg take the remaining places. It seems as if you need more personnel for now crew is at the bare minimum.

Travel is quiet. Soon after launch Awet challenges the Manwe for a game of strategy tabletop. Manwe wins the match and hence two bottles of liquor distilled on Apollo. This is a reason for celebrating.

On Auberon the crew gets to talk to the agricultural minister Selene Chen. She explains a bit about problems with pirates and why their small fleet cannot escort their ships. But Captain Reynold will accompany them at least for the first bit.

After a short meeting with a friend from Alex’ past, Aisha Nguyen-Schmidt, who is also Timmy’s ahh Erich’s contact and delivering the crates it’s time to get to the food transport flotilla. They are 11 huge freighters: small cabins at the front, a gigantic drive at the rear and in between thousands of crates and storage tanks. This will surely nurture many people.

Everything goes fine. CCS Manwe sits at the transport’s head, CCS Apollo at the bottom. But since no experts controls the sensors anymore (Erich stayed on Auberon) the crew misses data. A mine field severely damages many of the freighters while at the same time five small ships emerge and engage. While CCS Manwe fires on the mines to open an escape path, CCS Apollo goes to full attack mode to distract the pirates. Felix manages to create a hole in the obstacle and after having destroyed two of the enemy ships they retreat and the freight is escorted safely for the rest of the way until UN Navy Ships take over in Sol system.

Les Tigres Bleues are very happy about the delivery and send best “best wishes to their fellow kittens”.

Session 9 - Smuggle game from Alec-11

— Lim O’Lahar — Darian Varro — Kale Eleutherios — Urs Neptun —

on CCS Lakshmi

Crew chose the CCS Lakshmi to fly to Alec-11. There was heavy traffic on the way. First shipments from Auberon were sent back to Sol system.

Right after passing the gate to Alec-11 the Lakshmi was controlled by some Martians. They were complaining about missing freight papers – but took some Final Frontier Space merch as bribe. Urs and Lim reactivated their old contact, Prof. Ling, to obtain such papers and made a deal about transporting freight for her.

Darian landed the Lakshmi right at Science Campus, the place where Ling has her chair. While she was preparing the goods for transport Urs, Darian and Lim went to some pub to gather information on how to hunt here. Kale was already preparing traps.

Since there was an abundance of game on the planet, no restriction exist. The animal of choice was the Tao Chicken. As a side note: People on Alec-11 name animals they eat after traitors and turncoats. General Tao seems to be one.

The hunt itself was actually quite easy. Only disturbance was a bunch of jellyfish-like glowing things that emerged from some holes in the ground. Eventually, all 30 chicken went into the trap. Four of them did not make it through the flight.

The crate Prof. Ling brought to the ship is to be handed over to Danilolah Mehra.

Crew additions

Session 8 - Handle crate from Abzu and Keira Common

— Marte Goch — Nissa Airi — Jerry Gryante — Darian Varro —

Starting with a kind of frustrating conversation with Keira Common who refuses to tell you anythin of importance or at least the least bit interesting Nissa, Jerry and the new member Darian head off to meet with Marte. Marte made an arrangement with his former employer that allows him to use their lab. The crates from Abzu are still on the Lakshmi and the mission crew meest there to pick them up.

They observe that the Queen of Sheeba has been sealed by station security. Already informed by Belinda Sharik they know that this is due to some assumed protomolecule infection. Somebody must have notified station security.

In the lab of Bionic Dreams where Marte arranged some quiet lab time they bombard the crates first with ultrasound and afterwards with x-rays. It is clearly visible that inside the crate some moving entities reside and they are attracted to each other.

Firing x-rays onto them made them very livid so they even damaged the crate. As a side effect all four crewmembers saw some “ghosts” appear - according to Jerry the same ones they already saw when visiting the Tigres Bleues. Crates are packed inside other crates and hastily being carried back. One is hidden in a locker in Nissa’s gym, the other one abord the CCS Phex.

At some point Belinda calls that some very unfriendly guests appeared. They destroyed a door and were very rude. Eventually they left. There is no sign of Keira Common so you assume the “guests” took her.

After calling the previous emplyer, Diana Smith, it seems as if she is innocent of the kidnapping but maybe Krystal Kleen, the company behind Abzu, is responsible? The crew informs station security and since its already the second major incidence that day, security’s chief office Camina Drummer pays Cat and Canary a visit. Currently, she seems inclined to see you as innocent victims but she announced that she will keep an eye on Cat and Canary’s activities.

Crew additions

Session 7 - Sanga Velazquez wants to research rumors about ghost appearances on Medina station and asks for company.

— Felix Sanchez — Alex Pope — Jerry Gryante — Kale Eleutherios — Lim O’Lahar —

In this mission the crew was hired by Sanga Velazquez. He had received note that someone had seen “ghostly appearences”. Of course, he hoped to use this opportunity to connect to some protomolecule agent. To join him there were Felix, Alex, Jerry and Kale. Arriving directly from the Queen of Sheba who just returned from the very fast trip to Alec-11 a late participant was Lim.

The target was an abandoned hotel in section Blue C4. The place indeed seemed completely abandoned on arrival. There were no lights, so the first task was to take control over the environment. The right place for that seemed to be the hotel lobby. Indeed already during this quick search Kale noticed a quick blue flashing light. But he managed the scary moment easily.

Takeover of the environment controls went just fine. Lim and Felix had a quick freeze moment when another ghost-like feature appeared. Quickly after, however, lights ceased to worked - this effect again accompanied by some quick flashed.

In the now dark reception room two more ghosts appeared: one looking like the notorious OPA rebel Marcos Inaros, the other one in a Martian navy uniform. The latter was later labeled as “John” by Jerry. Lim tried to catch the Inaros figure, while Felix fired on the Martian. Both figures disappeared only to reappear a little later at the center of the room. After a cordial greeting the martian suddenly encountered a strange phenomenon. Parts of his body simply vanished: his jaw, the area around his kidneys, a piece of his left leg. And then they vanished as well. On the movie taken by Velazquez the exact features of the figures were not visible, basically there were just black clouds.

Irritated the crew went on using information they obtained from the hotel computer. Last guests were all living on the upper floor and seemed to have a kind of a party life there.

On the way there strange blue light attacked Felix who simply returned “fire”: he threw an EMP grenade. With torches in their hands the crew went on and investigated a room they had seen in the video. There was quite some advanced technology and french literature. But while searching someone was calling. Apparently there were real humans living in this place and they had returned to stop the investigation.

Lim took over diplomacy with the spokesperson of the inhabitants: Sophie Lefevre. Soon talks were moved to the central lobby and a lot more “hotel guests” were present - around 20. They call themselves “Les Tigres Bleues”. Their leader is some Mr. Blue. The agreed on refactoring the blue appearances that they tried to use to scare away random visitors. Their business seems to be kind of illegal because they never really named it. Lim was ready to offer services. That was also how the crew eventually went home.

Velazquez was a bit unhappy because his hopes were not fulfilled. But - a great but - the detailed “ghosts” (Inaros and the Martian) were not from Les Tigres Bleues. And on the crews retreat (after Lim’s jump into the pool) they appeared one last time to laugh at the visitors.

Session 6 - Transport Final Frontier Space to Fort Ponderosa on Alec-II to play one or two gigs for the Martians there

— Nissa Airi — Roldy Greenett — Urs Neptun — Lim O’Lahar — Fnaa Saare — on CCS Queen of Sheba

The mission was simple. Bring the band to the venue and back. They were supposed to play three concerts. Right after launch they surprised the crew with a “first gig is in 2 days”. Usually, that’s too short for travelling to a distant planet. But this mission was not perfectly usual.

The Queen exited the gate within the orbit of the… Well, it landed inside of a Dyson sphere at roughly 0.1 AU distance from the sun, a rather old red dwarf. That brings certain implications like: At the equator gravity is larger (2.4 g) and it decreses when approaching the polar regions.

The capital is Fort Ponderosa which was also the place for the first concert. Urs managed to rent a bus for transport to the other to places. The person renting the bus was willing to give away the vehicle for free when in turn, the crew tranported some goods. She also let Lim know that more “goods” were always welcome and a certain Prof. Ling would accept them.

The concerts were “nice”. But the crew could learn that someone used tools, not freely available on Alec-11, to destroy some of the Dyson sphere constructs. No idea how this “someone” obtained the tools. But in the bus and on the ship nothing of substance was found.

One thing to note: missions to Alec-11 are very fast, ships and personnel is not blocked for a long time.

Crew additions

Session 5 - Obtain package on Abzu and deliver to Diana Smith

— Marte Goch — Felix Sanchez — Alex Pope — Jerry Gryante — Rosmerta McDonald — on CCS Lakshmi

The current client promised to give a quick briefing at Stardust. She was a certain Diana Smith and claimed to work for Pope industries. In the actual description of the task she stayed vague. Quickly in, quickly out, no risk; obtain a package from a contact called Keira Common.. That package might be some data or some object, potentially living. After settling all questions the crew manned up by choosing Rosmerta as the pilot.

Some preparations were made:

The journey was normal, most of the time. Only the gate transit was strange. A weird impression lasting several seconds filled with hate and anger. All perception of the normal space was cut off. This experience was new to all members of the crew.

Abzu II, the target planet, is a pure oceanic world. There are two research stations CAW and CAB. On a moon there is a small basis housing contractors that run regular shuttle services and provide resources. The current contractors were the crew of the Tardis, a small battleship. The pilot eventually brought the crew down the gravity well.

But before Jerry and Alex tried to contact Keira Common. In the course they reached a strange guy called Cesar Korovin and the very aggressive spokesperson Giada Lloyd. After talking to the latter on it came apparent that Cat and Canary’s presence here was not desired.

Willing to still fulfill the contract the crew landed on CAB and, luckily, quickly found Keira. She was a young, intimidated girl. Diana seemed to have some leverage to blackmail Keira who seemed desperate to leave the agreement. At the same time Giada Lloyd, the spokesperson and principal of the research station, tried to contact Keira. For her the situation became a conundrum and together the crew they decided to bring Keira off-world with the “information” and fake her death so she could be freed from Diana’s scheming.

From here on everything had to go fast. Felix and Keira collected two crates, suspended underwater. Jerry picked up Keira’s dufflebag from her room and collected important items (among them a hidden datastick shaped like Spongebob Squarepants). The two belters Marte and Alex were fighting the rather strong gravity and the ascend to the shuttle.

Felix and Keira were the first to see Giada Lloyd arrive in a ship. Shortly before the all reached the shuttle Lloyd appeared opened fire. Keira had become a liability and a bullet actually hit her. With combined forces Jerry and Felix drew the bleeding young woman and all her belongings on deck. The shuttle’s pilot Amelia had decided to help the crew and, hence, they all escaped. Thanks to Marte’s abilities as a doctor, Keira’s wound posed no great danger.

Questions:

Session 4 - Accompany scientists for exploring builders ruins on Zoisite II

— Urs B. Neptun — Roldy Greenett — Lim O’Lahar — Igor Yadav — Fnan Saare — Korbinian Gikus — on CCS Apollo

Strange guests Cat and Canary let embark the CCS Apollo. Four scientists chartered a crew for a mission to Zoisite II – a planet supposed to be full of ancient builder artifacts. Four scientist who were quite proud of ther brains not damaged by gravity: Elias Nikolina, Ayu Endo, Jaqanti Wood and Emilio Atepehi.

When approaching the planet it, however, seemed quite desert. No good landing point could be spotted until Lim O’Lahar repaired the antenna (with a little help of his wellwalla companion Urs B. Neptun). The scientist could not decide on a good target and asked the crew for help. After they decided for the interior of a huge canyon Igor landed on a plain covered by black structures.

Indeed this seemed to be the more interesting place. Subsequent studies yielded that these were compound of carbon nanotube – a material normally not found naturally in that regularity.

Next days brought more insights and eventually a trip to a cave. Crew joined the scientist as assistants.

All findings indicate that Zoisite II housed a major settlement of the builders. Under the surface the expedition found a vast system of caverns with a ocean-like subterran lake. All along the coast of that lake there were buildings or at least similar structures.

Problems arose when something came to life on that planet. A robot, damaged during the descent into the cave, was found repaired at the second tour to that special place. Later, dog-like creatures attacked the researchers and even killed Elias Nikolina. Since more creatures were attacking the humans on the surface escape was the apparent option. Elias Nikolina’s corpse could be saved and a subsequent return is probable – most likely accompanied by Cat and Canary.

Session 3 - Collect bugs on New Egypt and deliver them to Danilolah Mehra

— Kale Eleutherios — Indira Gomez — Igor Yadav — Dr. Goldberg — Awet Saare — on CCS Queen of Sheba

After an initial meeting with the employer the crew prepared. With the plan to buy large firearms and grenade launchers they visited Dupont’s fine weapons and left with two pistols and three stun batons. On the journey to New Egypt Kale prepared boxes to hold the bugs (Mehra wanted them alive for studies).

Other than annouced the system was not uninhabited but the CCS Queen of Sheba clearly received transponder signals from 7 other ships - all located within the asteroid belt. The target planet was bit further outside. The crew assumed no thread in the presence of other ships and quickly landed at the indicated coordinates - which was indeed quite close to the planet’s colony. Notes about the planet: a completely dry desert; little to no flora or fauna visible.

The inhabitants - personified by a certain Jagdish Kapoor from Mars - greeted them not too warmly. Apparently they had their secrets, like one of their soldiers having strange black skin resembling the one of the bugs. Also their armor seemed to be made from some animal hide but larger than any of the ones mentioned. Additionally the inhabitants (BTW: well armed) declared a forbidden zone with 2km diameter around their base.

Analyzing the soil left only one spot to explore - the settlers discouraged the crew from walking on pure sand. Fortunately they indeed found a place with many bugs and even a strange plant. But the also perceived a strange humming. They started catching bugs as they discovered the presence of other animals: large worms of about 10m length “swimming” in the sand. Now, they had to get back to the spaceship quickly. Awet helped them with barrage using the ships Point defense cannons. Just so they arrived at the ship and almost instantly launched for their return to Medina station.

Curious as they are, they had a closer look at the bugs which seemed quite passive. Somehow one of them tried to pinch Indira. To what extent is not clear.

Danilola Mehra ordered at least two bugs and promised a bonus for delivering more than 4. Unfortunately the crew only gathered three. And it is probably even more unfortunate that one managed to escape during the journey back. CCS Queen of Sheba now has an additional pet.

Session 2 - Rescue Narish Toor

— Hiroshi Karnataka — Jerry Gryante — Nissa Airi — Kale Eleutherios — Alex Pope — Rosmerta McDonald — on CCS Lakshmi

The crew gathered to fly to Lemuria, but flight control didn’t give clearance for launch within the next 6 hours (Narish’s oxygen was only enough for 8 hours). Alex could reduce this to two hours with some clever arguments. Further attempts to achieve a faster launch were fruitless. In Lemuria system Kale could quickly find the Toors’ ship in the outer asteroid belt and Narish was rescued with only minor complications. Carly Toor’s assistant Mathew was found dead.

However, in the meantime an unkown ship (claiming to be “Martian”) appeared requesting the hand-over of Carly Toor and her daughter. The crew then set up a trap: They faked a video showing how they forced the Toors into the pod. With that footage they convinced the Martians of being willing to leave the pod with the captives. Of course, the pod’s self destruct mechanism solved the problem eventually.

Session 1 - transport Sanga Velazquez

— Hiroshi Karnataka — Jerry Gryante — Roldy Greenett — Felix Sanchez — Fnan Saare — Awet Saare — on CCS Apollo

Brought Sanga Velazquez to rendevouz with Dr. Carly Toor who appeared to have been kidnapped right before arrival. Kidnappers were members of the Crawlers who took residency in the Rad Zone. When arriving there they already were involved in a shooting with military grade mercenaries. A deceit helped to distract them and save Dr. Toor. The crawlers threatened to vent her if she did not expose details about a mission. Problem: She just received a message from her daughter who just crossed the gate to Lemuria. Toor’s daughter was at that moment in a vac suite and had only oxygen for 8 hours left. Carly Toor begged for help.