Session 2 Summary
The Dire Straits approached Cuthbert Station on a charter to deliver a single passenger, Dohpak Vito there and back, no questions asked. They soon discovered several things that were unexpected.
The usually busy station had no ships in space near it at all, only a single scoopship disappearing out of site around the gas giant, and a tanker 5 light minutes away accelerating to another point on the rim of the system.
Also unexpected was that there was only a single ship docked at the station, a shuttle of unknown manufacturer.
Lastly, Jithal’s unique modifications to Dire Straits’ sensors detected a suspicious signal. He was not sure what the signals meant, but he was intent on finding out.
After discussing it with the rest of the crew, they decided to not dock the Dire Straits to the station, leaving it free to move if necessary, and use their shuttle to deliver their passenger.
Dohpak Vito chimed in around this time, asking the crew to dock the ship to docking bay 4. After some debate he agreed to let Steve Irwin and Jim Dade to transport him the rest of the way to the station on the shuttle while Chris and Jithal stayed on the Dire Straits.
As they step off the shuttle on the station, Jim, Steve, and Dohpaz are met by a Bearble named Ozar Crivvain. Dohpaz suggests that Jim and Steve wait at the bar nearby and follows Ozar down the “Administration” corridor. Jim and Steve went to the bar.
In the bar, the only customers are two sapients of an unknown species, short, armadillo-like black armor, thick fur, broad pointed tufted ears, wearing ornate glossy black collars, with a small silver bell hanging from the front. The bartender, a Bontian named Taedala Suda, who Steve Irwin had met and befriended on an earlier visit to Cuthbert Station, was cleaning several glasses and eyeing the two sapients at their table fearfully. She turns to Jim and Steve as they come in with hope in her eyes.
Back on the Dire Straits, Jithal decides to use an active sweep of the Grulvaxian sensors he had installed to try to refine the sensor readings. The echos from the active sweep reveal a ship of unrecognized provenance, slightly larger than the Dire Straits.
The strange ship’s energy usage spikes, indicating that it is preparing its weapons.
At the same moment in the bar, the two sapients stand and and face Jim and Steve, motionless but poised to move, their eyes focused tightly on the Dire Straits crewmens’ faces.
As the Dire Straits maneuvers for position to defend against the strange stealthed ship, the 2 sapients engage Jim and Steve in the bar. Weapons are drawn and fired, there is diving behind upended tables. Jim plays cat and mouse with his opponent, maneuvering for position, while Steve engages his strange assailant more directly. Chris leaves the maneuvering of the Dire Straits to Jithal’s attention and boards Crysalis to take the fight directly to the aggressive unknown ship, after some initial dodging and shifting for position while the Dire Straits takes some glancing shots, Chris and Crysalis manages to disable the other ship, by physically tearing up the bridge with Crysalis’ “landing gear”, and ravaging all of the crew on the bridge.
The two unknown sapients, battered and bested, flee the bar heading down the docksides towards the bay where the unknown shuttle was docked. Jim and Taedala make sure they are both all right while Jim follows the two sapients quietly.
Dohpaz Vito and Ozar Crivvain arrive, along with a third person, another very short unknown sapient. The third person is a bipedal amphibious looking individual with mottled purple and blue skin, wearing only a collar decorated with several small badges and a belt with several compartmented pouches around their waist. Dohpaz, carrying a large metal case in one hand, steps up to Steve and starts berating him for almost spoiling his business. Asking What did the crew of the Dire Straits do to make his business associate so angry? while gesturing to the small froglike sapient.
Dohpaz Vito’s business associate glared at Jim and Taedala and stalks off towards the other shuttle.
Unseen, Jim has followed the two sapients to the bay where the unknown shuttle was docked and watched as they entered the shuttle, and then watched Dohpaz Vito’s business associate follow them in. The shuttle was clearly preparing to undock from the station, so Jim returned to Steve, Taedala, Dohpaz, and Ozar.
Jim, Steve, and Dohpaz leave Cuthbert Station on the shuttle returning to the Dire Straits in icy silence.