Galdate 10-11-5625
The crew of Orion's Money Belt felt it best to reach out to the Dunandory system governor. They had no idea who the intruder was, and the thought of it being a Federation agent ran through their minds. But given they had a corpse on the ship, it felt the most prudent action to avoid issues with law enforcement. Starport security initiated an investigation and asked the crew to not leave the planet until notified.
The following day Governor Trakis reached out to the group. Initial identification efforts were unable to ascertain who the infiltrator was. The individual was accessing the flight logs of the Orion’s Money Belt, likely trying to get information on which systems and planets the ship had travelled to, including landing coordinates. Given the high-level equipment and the unusual use of a self-poison device, it was suspected the individual was an espionage agent. He could not confirm if it was from a megacorporation but he assured the crew it was not Federation Intelligence. The other alternative was more distressing, that the crew had gained the attention of the Imperium intelligence service. He assured the group that a report was drafted and sent via Xboat courier to the Federation, but the governor believed in redundancy. He asked if the Orion’s Money Belt would travel to the Tomeillis system. This held the Federation sector council seat and he thought this would be the most expedient way to transmit information of the Rezolian attack on the marine outpost. The crew agreed and made plans to travel to Tomeillis Prime.
Arriving a week later, they jumped into the Tomeillis system and landed on the capital planet without incident. Ethan arranged a meeting with a Federation sector cabinet member along with Governor Virdia Tower, the head of the Tomeillis system. Ethan provided a report prepared by the governor of Dunandory and provided a brief summary of the events at the research base on 224-694 Prime. The Federation officials appreciated this information, thanked Ethan, and assured him this would be circulated to the upper echelons of leadership.
Meanwhile the Orion’s Money Belt got some good news. There was still an official inquiry of the fate of the mining station, UMC-249AZ-1X, in the Villissard System. However initial findings indicated the crew had no intentional sabotage and were paid for completing the initial delivery and transportation contract. Delivery of intelligence to the Federation Sector Council offered a pittance, and while fuel and starport berthing costs were covered, the crew were itching to get some real income. Browsing the USIN employment boards, a contract sounded interesting and fit the abilities of the group.
Brandon Innis, a corporate official for Pangolin megacorporation, was seeking to retrieve material from an underworld gang leader, Mira Rho. Mira was able to get blackmail material (proof of infidelity involving prostitutes) on a Pangolin CEO. If this information was brought to light, it would severely interfere the negotiations with the system government for a long term mining contract. While meeting Brandon, he explained the crew would be tasked with retrieving the blackmail material from Mira. He had information that a likely location would be a physical safe within her office, which was in an old building with light security. Mira was also a huge underground fight fan, and it was expected she would attend a local fight in the next few days with the bulk of her entourage. Brandon suggested the group do an office break in while she was attending the fight, obtain the information, and reach out to him for the final exchange.
The group did some legwork and found that indeed, the nearly deserted building had limited security, which would be even more sparse with Mira Rho away. Working with some underground contacts, the crew hatched a plan to have Sawyer added to the fight ticket, along with leaked information he was open to throwing the fight. They leaked this information to Mira as a way to entice her interest and ensure her participation at the event, allowing other members of the team to infiltrate the office. Sawyer went through a few elimination rounds and with his compatriots placing alternate bets, double crossed Mira winning the final fight. Pocketing a fair amount of winnings, they extracted themselves quickly from the fight (unknown how much Mira might hold a grudge). Meanwhile the other team members were able to efficiently break into her office and obtain the blackmail material.
Contacting Brandon, he suddenly proposed an alternate location for the drop off. Instead of a public cafe, he suggested an old warehouse office. Sylvia and Nex warily entered the deserted building and made their way to the second story office. Entering the room, oddly it was partitioned with a large piece of frosted glass. A voice told Sylvia to leave the material on the table in front of her. She did so, as if compelled to do so. Nex found this behavior odd and approached the other side of the frosted glass barrier. Sylvia became suddenly aware, as if broken by a trance, and the glass shattered with energy blasts. An alien fired wildly at Nex, activated a device on its belt, and disappeared in a flash of light.
The two were shocked, grabbing the blackmail material, they left as quickly as possible and told their companions of the events. The group scoured the local newsfeeds to see a report of a Pangolin corporate officer that leaped to their death from the megacorp's headquarters earlier that evening. Sure enough, it was their patron, Brandon Innis. The group were reeling from this revelation. The alien species they encountered was something completely unknown to them. It possessed some manner of suggestion or mind control, and wielded teleportation technology much like the Rezolians. Such technology beyond the capabilities of both the Imperium and Federation.
