Superhero Adventures, UK Style

Adapted from the Adventure included in ‘The Guide to Starhaven’

“They’re definitely not from around these parts,” thought Paragon as he rushed across the grass towards one of the figures  covered from head to foot in emerald green armour and tried to land his trademark punch on his opponent’s chin. To his surprise, his opponent was able to dodge the blow – computer-augmented senses possibly?

It had only been a few minutes since Frankie had informed them that she’d intercepted a call about a disturbance occurring in Port Meadow park. The Police were on their way but it appeared to be a kidnapping attempt and witnesses claimed that the person being kidnapped was blue skinned while two of those attacking were bald and apparently on neon lit leashes… “Punk rockers or an indication of a consensual BDSM relationship?” suggested Akira as they urgently made their way to the nearby park.

The comment about blue skin had sparked their interest. It either indicated that they were a descendant of the Fugate family of Kentucky or an extra-terrestrial. The Zultasians of the Khanate were known to be blue-skinned, seemingly due to an abnormal amount of methaemoglobin — a form of haemoglobin – in their blood resulting in purple lips, blue skin and  “chocolate coloured” blood.

They were also taller, stronger and tougher than normal humans and aggressive as hell. Interestingly he remembered hearing about another race of blue extra-terrestrial humans who were totally passive.

Regardless, they were now here and the reports weren’t exaggerated. Both Akira and Banshee seemed to recognise their armour design as being common to the troopers of the Stellar Imperium as well as their opponents, the Khanate. Thankfully, the other people that had been in the park had already fled the scene.

The victim, who was being manhandled by one of the armoured figures, seemed to be too passive to be a Zultasian as he was being herded towards a nearby shuttlecraft. In his arms, he was protectively cradling a small, grey-skinned, gargoyle-like creature, its nose and mouth covered in a white, mucus discharge, forcing it to breathe noisily through its mouth.

Akira immediately felt very protective towards the little ‘snot dragon’. He didn’t however feel the same empathy towards his two fellow ‘baldies’ who were on some sort of energy leashes held by one of the armoured figures, who was holding an energy lance compared to the rifles being welded  by the other two armoured figures. Five against one, until now. The presence of the three of them helped even the odds.

The shuttle seemed primed for take-off but thankfully was currently empty. Banshee started to scream out a shattering shriek, hoping to affect the troopers armour and weaponry. The sonic waves shattered their visors and weakened the joints in their armour but failed to do any serious damage though one of the troopers was moving jerkily as a result. She’d also hoped to disrupt the energy leashes but they appeared unaffected.

One of the troopers immediately fired off a series of energy blasts at a floating Banshee but missed.

Akira smiled and unleashed a series of mystical blasts targeting the lance user and the helmeted troopers. He muttered something about ‘leaving his kindred baldies to last’ as he targeted the trooper in the malfunctioning armour first.

His first blast hit the already staggering trooper and short-circuited his suit further, leaving him staggering about, unable to return fire properly.

His next shot was against the other fully armoured trooper and he collapsed, his malfunctioning suit rendering him incapacitated. His additional training was working he thought, as he murmured aloud about becoming “more offensive now!”

His last shot, against the lance holder he decided to call ‘Lance’, a Justicar or so he assumed, missed its target completely as he, she, it used ‘blue’ as a human shield and Akira was forced to pull his shot at the last second.

Paragon, having forced his trooper to dodge earlier, was now being fired on by the remaining trooper. He avoided the shot with ease as he rushed passed and grabbed hold of the rear of their shuttle. ‘Push with your legs, not your back’ went through his mind as he proceeded to lift up the rear and then tossed the mega-heavy shuttle up and over onto its roof so the ship now lay upside down. They’d have a few issues with flying away now, he thought.

Suddenly Akira felt a sudden migraine-like pain. He immediately erected his own mental defences. Someone, presumably one of the ‘hounds’, had unleashed a mental attack on him, which had almost succeeded. Bloody mentalists, he thought! He immediately shouted to his companions, “Watch out for the bald men, they’re mentalists!”  He tried to raise his mental shields in readiness for another attack.

Even as he shouted out his warning, Paragon found himself being moved back by an invisible force. He pushed his feet deep into the ground and prevented the invisible force from affecting him further. It had to be a telekinetic attack, presumably unleashed by one of Akira’s ‘twin’s’.

‘Lance’ responded by blasting out a powerful energy ray from the tip of his spear straight at Akira which thankfully missed before he spun around and aimed it towards Paragon, even as he tried to shake off the TK push. Lance’s second blast hit him square on the chest and felt the burn but the blast didn’t manage to penetrate his skin or cook him from the inside.

Banshee hastily turned insubstantial as a precaution as she flew down and interposed herself between the blue man and his kidnappers even as she unleashed the wail of the Banshee at them.

The second trooper collapsed to the ground holding his helmet, seemingly in agony, even as the Justicar was forced back by the sonic attack, hard against the shuttles’ hull. If nothing else, that had to have bruised him.

One of the hounds immediately collapsed, dazed, while the other staggered back as the scream washed over them.

Akira focused his attention on the hounds’ leash holder, ‘Lance’ and unleashed a mystical blast before he could recover. The blast hit and again the Justicar was bounced back into the ship’s hull again, bruising him once more.

Paragon used the opportunity to fly towards him and unleashed a powerful punch straight to the faceplate – to his surprise he dropped down at the last second and twisted out of the way even as the punch connected with the hull and holed it. The Justicar rolled out of the way and touched Paragon on the chest with the tip of his lance even as a blue energy started to emanate out from it around Paragon.

Banshee felt her head being scrambled as one of the hounds tried to target her mind with its mental attack. She managed to drop behind a tree before it could do any real damage to her concentration.

The other hound changed its target from trying to slow down Paragon towards hitting Akira with his TK. Against anyone else it might have sent them flying as the push was so strong, but Akira battered it away with ease.

In the air, Paragon felt the blue energy seep into his muscles and mind, slowing him down.

Th…is – w—as – clea…rly – so…me – fo…rm – of… – stat…is – fie…l d – eff…ect…ing – hi…m-  an…d – slo…wing – hi…m – do…wn.

His body spasmed, very, very slowly inside the field.

Banshee rushed towards ‘Lance’, turned substantial as she got close enough to touch him and unleashed a corrupting touch on him. The lance and leashes fell out of his hands as the Justicar dropped to the ground, twitching. The stasis field around Paragon vanished as the lance lost contact.

Akira turned to see how the hounds were reacting to their master no longer controlling them and saw one of them gesture and several black holes began to appear around them – teleportation portals seemingly.

Those that could still move of their own volition made their way through them and vanished, leaving the blue-skinned man and his gargoyle behind. Those now unconscious such as the Justicar, were swept up and vanished as the portals seemed to absorb them and teleport them away. They left behind an upturned and holed shuttle and the blue-skinned male with his sneezing ‘snot-dragon’ behind, though whether the gargoyle was an E.T.’s child, a pet or possibly even food; the intergalactic equivalent of chicken possibly, they were unable to ascertain. The man approached them saying something in a language that their commdots (previously programmed with both the Zultasian and Vilani languages) was unable to translate.

Behind them, the Police had arrived accompanied by several near identical men and women dressed in dark suits.

Akira tried to initiate a conversation with the ex-victim. “Hey blue, how you doing, blue? What’s your little friend called?“ When English didn’t work he switched to Zultasian then Vilani but with a similar lack of success.

This attempt at conversation was interrupted when the men in suits arrived and began to round ‘Blue’ and his gargoyle up and usher him over to an unmarked van that had just turned up. One of them was using a hand translator to communicate with him though he seemed reluctant to go with them, not that they gave him a choice.

The team were informed that the new arrivals were from G.R.E.E.T., the UN’s Galactic Reception Embassy for Extra-Terrestrials and they were present to take the illegal migrant, Blue, into custody to process him.

They explained that he would be treated initially at least as though he was a refugee but they should be aware that he shouldn’t be roaming the streets of Wessex.

Akira tried to read his mind using the Medallion of Modrossus which he still retained even if he was now no longer in the running to become the Master Mage. The rest of the Regency still had the ability to refuse him the ability to use the medallion but, thankfully, no one did.

He touched the medallion and allowed his mind to momentarily touch Blue’s – he instantly got the impression of the man fleeing a planetary invasion by Khanate ships and ground troops, his reluctance to fight, an almost paralysing pacifism, he left everything behind except the gargoyle to flee to safety though he wasn’t sure that he was safe anymore. He’d made his own way here working his way across the stars until he reached Earth, the supposed sanctuary system.

Since arriving though he’d tried to avoid being captured, by both the system authorities and then by the Khanate forces who’d tried to intern him to find out the refugees route through the interstellar blockade that now separated the Stellar Imperium of the Ziru Sirka and the currently unaffiliated worlds of what he thought of as the ‘sphere’.

His blue skin and lack of a common language hadn’t helped him integrate but he’d hoped he might be able to seek some form of sanctuary from some of the Terran Metas who might overlook his appearance and give him shelter.  Several Terrans had advised him to seek out, the term they used was ‘go to’, a place called ‘Hel’ but before he’d found this sanctuary he’s been discovered, first by the Khanates and now these men were going to take him somewhere…

The team approached the G.R.E.E.T. agent that appeared to be in charge and tried to argue for Blue’s release claiming that he had an appointment to see them. The woman explained that blue’s presence as an unregistered extra-terrestrial here meant he had to go into quarantine and be processed first before being allowed to go anywhere. That was G.R.E.E.T.’s function and as he wasn’t here as part of either the Ziru Sirkan or Khanate Embassies, that wasn’t negotiable.

Akira tried to argue that they hadn’t known the process and was told that ignorance of the law was no excuse. “But we were about to leave the planet with him” replied Akira. “How?” asked a now curious agent.

Akira straightaway tried to argue for possession of the shuttle, now lying upside down and holed but the agent claimed that was now the property of G.R.E.E.T. and the legal precedent of ‘finders keepers, losers weepers’ didn’t apply to spacecraft. Nor was the fist-print hole on its hull proof of ownership.

Paragon kindly offered to right the ship so they could fly it away but was blocked from approaching it again by several dark-suited agents. They clearly thought of the alien ship as ‘their’ property now and weren’t willing to allow them to approach it just in case they could figure out how to fly it away.

Akira tried to persuade Paragon to try to charm the head agent, forgetting that Paragon, despite his extremely good looks, was unaccustomed to chatting anyone up and got tongue-tied whenever he tried.

One of the other agents did point out that most, if not all, interstellar refugees were still present on Earth and haven’t been sent away though most remained in internment camps for their own safety.

Unfortunately, their arguments fell on deaf ears as Blue and his ‘snot-dragon’ were driven away.

The agent did state though that she would arrange for her boss to meet with them at New Scotland Yard to discuss the situation further. It was even possible that the refugee they referred to as Blue might be able to meet them there.

She explained that one of their senior agents, a Mr Smith, was extremely keen to meet them again.

Paragon tried to ask for a date from her in a very amateurish way. The agent smiled a blank smile and notified him that he wasn’t her type, that she wasn’t sure her wife would approve and that it was down to them to arrange to meet with Mr Smith as no other options would be considered.

She then winked at Banshee and walked away, leaving them to consider their next move.

Next morning they walked into New Scotland Yard and were met by Superintendent Cunningham. Akira whispered to Paragon to not try his charm on her as that really wouldn’t go well.

She signed them in and took them to a third floor conference room where they met the representative from the Galactic Reception Embassy for Extra-Terrestrials.

He was a short, bald headed man in glasses and an anonymous dark suit who smiled a very insincere smile at Banshee and Akira who he’d met before. He then walked over and introduced himself to Paragon, emphasising the “Smith”.

They sat down and he immediately began, “Before you begin to make any requests, I may have a job for you that I’d like you to consider. Your previous handling of the Vilani Prince request makes me think you might be the very solution I’m looking for.”

“What kind of job, Mr Smith?” asked a curious Akira.

“A couple of years ago the Stellar Khanate (primarily formed of Zultasian humans led by their ruler Kinan Khan) rebelled against the Ziru Sirka Imperium and had started to annex hundreds of planetary systems between the region of space known for thousands of cycles as the Sphere and the central systems of the Ziru Sirka. This includes the independent federation of human inhabited planets previously governed by the now destroyed planet of Lor. The ‘Gentleman’ you met last night is Lorian by the way.

As a result, small groups of interstellar refugees fled towards the centre of the Sphere region of space seeking safety. After all, it was well known that the Sol system, had been at the epicentre of the Sphere and therefore was the most likely location for the weapon that had isolated that region of space for so long. The Sphere had been an energy shield of unknown origin that caused any ship entering its space to misjump and malfunction, often resulting in fatal Jump Sickness by all onboard.

The Sphere mysteriously stopped working some hundred years before, but the technology had to still exist. Both the Khan and the Imperium wondered if we knew of its location. If so, could it be reactivated? It had been powerful enough to deter the star devourer Collapsar, and its possible presence acted as a deterrent to the superstitious Zultasian soldiers of the Star Khan.

Added to this was the fact that the only inhabited planet in the Sol system, Earth, had the highest number of Meta-powered individuals of any planet in the known galaxy, many with Omega level powers. Of course the Khanate fleet had information that this supposedly primitive civilisation had developed (or had acquired?) jump technology far in advance of the Imperium’s, as well as stealth technology so advanced that an entire fleet of Terran battle cruisers had reputedly been able to sneak up on a Deku-class Destroyer undetected before they uncloaked. This made us a potential ally for both sides of the interstellar conflict and, by default, a potential target for both.

The Jump drive advancements are true, thanks to the Challenger-Wildeman family and Daedalus, but they refuse to let Earth governments have access to them. The stealth capability, if true, must also be one of their advancements – we’ve been unable to confirm either way and we definitely don’t have a fleet of battle cruisers, not yet anyway.

Anyway, our location in space as well as our supposed capabilities were enough to convince the fleeing survivors that this might just be the safest location to flee to, following the decimation and/or enslavement of their homeworlds by the Khanate.

Over the last few years, thousands of Non-Terran humans, like your friend next door, and non-human aliens have made their way to the Sol System, trying to avoid Khanate patrols and hostile aliens, only to find that the natives were often xenophobic or afraid that they were spies for the Stellar Khanate or the Imperium.

The initial refugees had been the wealthy, the interstellar equivalent of Oligarchs and their families (and mistresses) – often they lacked any valuable skills that we might use though they did have possessions and valuables to buy a good lifestyle for themselves here. They were followed by the criminals seeking to make money out of those who had it. Finally, as planetary systems fell to the might of the Khanate the middle class, the injured and their families, packed into ships that were often unfit for the journey and headed through the dark to the relative safety of Earth. Many didn’t survive the journey.

These latter refugees were met by officers of G.R.E.E.T. on their arrival and taken to an archipelago of isolated islands off the coast of Africa for processing, quarantine and interrogation. Once on the islands they were not free to leave. Those with useful skills were put to work but their families were forced to remain in the camp.

There were protests initially worldwide at this decision, you may have heard of them, but the Imperial Embassy sanctioned the relationship and interfered rarely, especially in light of the occasional visit by a Zultasian battleship to ensure Terra remained neutral in the current ‘military campaign’. After a few years, most people stopped campaigning and complaining about the internment though the occasional sentient smuggling ship continued to arrive, fleeing the war – this time with the injured, the poor and the oppressed crammed onboard fleeing to what they hoped would be safety. We think that’s how your friend got here by the way.

Lately however starships have been spotted arriving in-system and heading to orbit around Jupiter before vanishing, only to reappear jumping out of system a short time later without approaching the Earth and G.R.E.E.T. wants to know what they are up to.

To add to G.R.E.E.T’s issues and paranoia, hundreds of aliens have been disappearing from the island but not turning up elsewhere on the planet and we are worried that they may be somehow infiltrating human society, but if so, for what purpose? Most of those who were disappearing had been non-humanoid aliens, which doesn’t make sense. Humans might be able to hide but where have all the non-human aliens gone, as they can’t hide in plain sight.

It doesn’t help that a fleet of Khanate battle cruisers have been reported to be heading towards Earth at jump-2, though whether it’s to try to find and steal the Sphere device, whatever and wherever it might be, or if they were again looking to see if they could persuade Sol governments to provide them with their advanced starship technology such as jump drives and stealth generators. Neither of which were currently in any Earth Government’s hands.

Would you be willing to infiltrate the Star Island archipelago and Camp E.T. and see if you can find out whether alien smugglers are involved and if so, where were they smuggling them to?

You may see this as a political issue but at the end of the day, this is about protecting our planet. If we are seen to be taking sides in this conflict, we could find ourselves in a war that we can’t win.”

“So what exactly is it you want us to do?” asked Akira.

Mr Smith paused for several seconds then replied, “You have abilities that would allow you to disguise yourself as non-terrestrial humans. The plan would be for you to be taken to the starport at Libreville in Gabon, where you will join an influx of recently arrived interstellar refugees and flown across to Star Island where you will be processed.  Hopefully, you would then have the opportunity to find out how they are vanishing and where they are going to.

We have tried sending our own agents in undercover but they always get discovered within hours of arrival and immediately ostracised, attacked or forced to leave. We need someone not directly connected to us as I believe that some of our own staff might be identifying our spies for some reason. Will you help?”

They discussed the offer between them and agreed to try – even if that meant not meeting with Blue again as he would be on the same transport to Star Island as them – after all, he might already have links to the traffickers that G.R.E.E.T. believed might have brought him to Earth.

Looked as though they were heading back to Africa. Their disguises would primarily consist of them changing to worn clothing in the Vilani style as Banshee would be using her Young Mary glamour to change her appearance, Paragon would remove his anonymity collar to change his look into Peter and Akira would dye his skin blue and travel as an exiled Lorian Mentat. If needed, he could subtly alter his appearance further using the illusions of Idolon.

Smith mentioned in passing that the aliens’ greatest advocate, Daedalus, has also gone missing from Star Island at the same time as two dozen of his top agents and he wondered if that was somehow connected? Staff going AWOL was not unusual as Camp E.T. was not a popular posting and he had regular resignations but for so many to leave without notice and without trace at once without any indication of how or where they are now was extremely unusual.

Smith looked at the door to the room. “Do you still want to speak with the Lor casteless? We could hold him back until after you complete your mission if you think it might be a problem. He’s  encountered you previously after all, but it might be helpful if he were to be sent to Camp E.T. at the same time as you as we think he’s already had contact with traffickers before and might be able to find them again. Might make it easier for you to make contact with them if you’re able to follow him around and see who he contacts?”

They agreed to undertake the mission with Akira summing it up as a “trip to Africa, all expenses paid. Bed and board included.” They joked about whether Paragon could pass for human and whether the other two would need to be blue-skinned, like Akira’s plan for himself.

Before he left, Smith agreed to provide them with 10,000 Imperial Credits to use as bribes or payments, a selection of small power crystals in case they had to barter and to update their commdots with the Lor language to add to their Vilani and Zultasian translation matrixes.

He just needed them to find out where the aliens were going after they left the camp, especially the hon-humanoids, were smugglers involved and were his missing staff involved? He especially wanted to know where Daedalus was and if his disappearance was connected, though he warned them that it might be dangerous.

Good! After all, if it wasn’t dangerous they wouldn’t be interested, would they?

They went and got ready. Several hours later, they arrived in disguise at the Terran Starport under guard where they joined the Lorian and his pet. Peter was still getting over his shock at discovering that Mary could de-age herself using a Fae glamour, so instead of being a spritely 170 year-old, she currently looked like an attractive twenty year-old though still with snow white hair.

They were joined in the back of the armoured skimmer by a two-metre tall, white skinned alien male Dantaran with skin like a shark and teeth to match and a tall, skinny, near-humanoid female  who answered to Rana Vayle. That seemed to be the limit to her willingness to communicate with them or anyone else for that matter. They sat and waited. A few hours later several more aliens joined them and the vehicle was locked ready for flight and headed west across the ocean to the volcanic archipelago that had been renamed Star Island. It was a tense trip.

As they arrived at Camp E.T. and the doors of their armoured vehicle opened, they saw their new home. Tents and poorly adapted cargo containers were everywhere. It made Container Town look posh, especially as they were clearly poorly maintained! Aliens of every known species were present in the camp, with access to the beaches and the sea blocked by four-metre tall razor wire fences and guard towers all designed to keep the residents of this ‘resettlement camp’ from attempting to escape.

The human guards around the landing field, all armed and in uniform, quickly and efficiently started to process the new arrivals, checking for known diseases, taking blood samples and checking them against various databases. As soon as they reached Paragon, he explained that his skin would be too tough for any of their needles and offered them a mouth swab instead. They ignored his advice until they had witnessed even their largest needle snap before reluctantly agreeing to his initial suggestion and took a mouth swab instead. He smiled as he left and was replaced by the male with the skin like a sharks. They’d have difficulty getting a blood sample from him as well, he thought as he headed over to next queue with the others to receive their food chits.

Akira was using his updated Commdot translator to listen to the mutterings in Lor of their rescuee who was standing in the queue in front of him, still nursing his ‘snot dragon’.

A Lor-built translator drone was explaining to all of the new arrivals in a variety of non-Terran languages that any attempt to escape the island would not be tolerated and deadly force might be used if necessary. So welcoming and reassuring thought Akira, I wonder why any of them would want to escape such a paradise?

The person issuing out the food chits for that day was explain to all of the new arrivals that they would initially be housed in a dormitory block and fed three times a day, but if they had funds it would be worth purchasing a tent or even their own container. They could also purchase better food – and that there would be paid work available in the camp for those with useful skills.

As soon as he’d been allocated a bed and given his chits, their Lorian wandered off into the centre of the camp as though looking for someone or something. Akira followed and tried to strike up a conversation with him about his little companion, saying how cute it looked and what its name was.

He replied that its name was ‘Nipretaemon-risosdiohm’ – which failed to translate, his eyes constantly searching the crowds looking for something or someone.

He did seem to be very familiar with the layout of the camp, more so than any new arrival should. He pointed out one of the residents who would be able to sell Akira extra food chits if he wanted and that the food dispensers near the centre of the camp would take them as well as Credits and issue a better selection of food than the canteens could provide though at a price.

For the first time he seemed to meet Akira’s gaze as he explained that, as Akira was likely to be there for some time he had better have a useful skill or ability to earn him the funds he would need to buy extra food and a few necessities before the rainy season arrived. He had noticed that he seemed to know the other two and wondered if they had arrived on Earth together as a group?

Damn, he’d hoped he wouldn’t have noticed their brief exchanges. “No we only met up when we arrived here, mutual survival and all that.”

Then the Lorian’s gaze shifted back to scanning the crowd, looking for something or someone.

Akira asked, “So tonight, do we all need to queue to get food or can one of us get for others as well?” He smiled, “At the canteens you need to queue for yourself unless you’re getting for someone who is ill or they are very young – at the food dispensers no one cares as long as you have enough chits or Credits.” Akira continued even as he tried to covertly see what the Lorian might be looking for.

“So if we want to buy more food chits, who should we see?”

He pointed over at one of the nearby stalls staffed by a large slug-like creature lying on a levitating platform. “They appear to have the monopoly on the island when it comes to food. The Vegans can get almost everything else.” “Vegans? Never heard of them.” He smiled, “They are near neighbours, inhabiting the Muan Gwi systems also located within the Sphere , but further out, towards the Imperial border. They had, have a number of systems under their control.”

Akira had to wonder if the Vegans were actually vegan…then he noticed a tall alien biped approaching, its head seeming consisting of a single lens in an organic hoodie, its two manipulative appendages a cluster of ever flicking tentacles. It wandered around the stalls, talking with several others in the camp, especially the non-humans.

The Lorian, he introduced himself as Sorel, was clearly not happy about staying in the camp and didn’t plan to be there for long. He explained that the Terrans weren’t known for their hospitality and Akira found himself agreeing having seen the living conditions in the camp. “Wouldn’t trust them further than I could throw them” he replied, which made Sorel question such a weird statement. Damn, he’d slipped up when he’d said that. He confirmed it just meant he wouldn’t trust them either. It did make Sorel suspicious as he asked what system he came from. Caught off guard Akira muttered he was from an insignificant little known place known as the ‘Loire valley’.

Thankfully, before Sorel could question him further he saw the other alien was moving away and immediately made an excuse and wandered over to try to talk to it. Akira watched as it was handed various sums of credits by various stallholders and residents, which it passed to its openly armed protector, a cat-like biped known as a Cainan apparently. He had to assume the other creature was one of the Vegans that the Loran had mentioned. Then it was Sorel’s turn and he whispered something to it. He went pale at its reply then whispered something again before covertly handing over something that looked to be a bundle of Imperial Credits, before wandering away into the crowd.

He noticed that none of the camp guards could apparently tell one Vegan from any of the others making them appear interchangeable. In fact, he wasn’t sure once they had been registered if anyone in authority kept any form of a check on the camp inhabitants. No wonder so many of the aliens were able to slip away.

Should Akira follow Sorel or stay and try to talk with the Vegan? He tried to get a reading on the creature and failed. It was focusing primarily on talking with the non-humanoid aliens. Bias or..?

He approached the creature and asked for an audience with it. After some confusion as to whether or not Sorel was his friend as claimed by Akira or a new acquaintance, (Akira claimed they had travelled in-system together and hoped the Vegan wouldn’t check) . Hesitantly Akira raised the possibility that his friend had seemingly purchased something from it and it confirmed that he had requested a ‘particular service from it and his nest’. He realised he was putting Sorel at risk as he mentioned that he had also mentioned he wouldn’t be staying for long in the camp. “He talks too much. What is your wish human?”

“My friends and I need to get off the planet. I’m not happy to be here, in the camp, Can you help?”

“3,000 Credits” was its reply. “What does that buy us?” Akira asked. “Buys you” was the reply, “a trip to paradise, to haven,” “Heaven? Where’s that?”

“Not here,” was the reply. “Or as close as you will get in the current situation, Interested or?”

“This heaven, is it a drug or a trip off-planet?”  It pushed forward, “If you have the Credits we can talk more, otherwise…”

“I have the Credits. I just want to confirm what…” The creature interrupted him, “We have space for five more, 3,000 Credits each.”

Akira tried to haggle for a lower cost for the three of them but the Vegan was firm about the cost and warned him not to play games with them about the cost.

Before he could continue, he found himself being pulled away by the Dantaran that had travelled to Camp E.T. with them. “I will take. Take two …” to the Vegan. Akira hurriedly tried to push back in and confirm he wanted three ‘seats’ only for the Dantaran to push him back again. “Wait your turn huu-man,” it muttered as it handed over a pile of credits and the Vegan whispered something in its earhole.

Just in case things got violent, Akira used his commdot to ask Paragon to come over and join them as back up. In the end, Akira allowed the Dantaran to conclude his business then stepped back in quickly before anyone else could step in. There were only three spaces left after all. But spaces to what?  The Vegan was not willing to haggle and insisted that Vegans were known for their honesty so he should accept that payment was upfront.

 Akira paid over the 9,000 Credits and was told that he had to meet at one hour to midnight at the corner of a certain hut in the middle of the camp. They were to wear dark clothes if they had them, to only bring a single bag of possessions with them and no living creatures that would use up life support.

Life support? So a spaceship or submersible was involved. Nice to have it confirmed.

That night they saw a dozen passengers gathered where the Vegan had indicated, including the female and Dantaran that had travelled to the island with them as well as Sorel, sadly minus his snot dragon. Seemingly that had been why he had been so upset when he purchased his own ticket, he clearly couldn’t afford to pay for it as well.

Two of those gathered, a mother and father were trying to keep their toddler and baby quiet while everyone waited.

Akira elected to use their remaining 1,000 Credits to purchase space for Sorel’s companion. That meant they would have to rely on bartering the power crystals to pay for things when they arrived at their destination but the Vegan refused to compromise.  Sorel rushed back to gather up his creature as the Vegan led the rest of them down into the storm drains.

The Vegan told them to follow the tunnels down to the beach. Several minutes later Sorel, now accompanied by his gargoyle, caught up with them as they reached the outflow pipe and the moonlight beach. They had clearly bypassed the fencing, guards and the island’s sensor-net. The grill that usually covered the tunnel lay open and the Vegan’s Cainan guard stood waiting for them with a selection of transparent, thin skinsuits and rescue bubbles as the waves lapped against the shore.

They waited until the G.R.E.E.T. patrols had  passed inside the fence before the fragile emergency spacesuits were handed around to the adults with the children and dragon were placed inside the inflated rescue bubbles and then told to enter the sea. The suits and bubbles had only about 15 minutes of life support in their life support tanks, just enough for the escapees to make their way to the starship that lay on the ocean bottom about a hundred metres out. They had to make their way there and enter the starship’s airlock. They entered the water and dived down. Below them, they could see the starship as promised.

It was clear that the family were struggling to force the air-filled rescue bubble containing their two children down under the water and were being left behind as a result. Paragon went back for the bubble and told the father to leave it to him as Akira also covertly applied his TK to help drag and keep the ball under the surface. Between them, they quickly dragged it down then forced it through the airlock into the cargo area of the rusty merchant ship.

A Vegan approached them as the cycled through into the hold and told them to make themselves comfortable but to remain in their suits as the ship about to depart.  The poor state of repair in the hold didn’t encourage them as to the spaceworthy state of the ship as it cruised underwater for several miles away from the island before suddenly heading up into orbit.

Mary wasn’t sure that leaving the solar system was the best way to fulfil their mission, especially if they couldn’t get home after but it was too late now. Another (or the same?) Vegan came down as soon as the ship made orbit to inform them that the ship would be travelling out to a safe distance from the Earth’s Gravity before entering jumpspace and heading to their destination. Safe distance was apparently 800,000 miles out which would take several hours to reach at their current speed.

Paragon had studied a bit about space travel and knew that while technically ship’s could enter jumpspace and travel faster than light as soon as they were no longer in a planet’s gravity well, the closer they were to a planet or star’s gravity, the higher the chance that the ship would misjump, ending up in an unknown destination and  risking the sanity and lives of all onboard.

That meant the ship had to be at least ten and preferably a hundred diameters out from a planet before jumping if they wanted to travel safely. Then, when in jumpspace time acted differently; while several hours passed while they were in jump before re-emerging into normal space, a full week would have passed in our own dimension.

A couple of hours later, while they were doing their best to make themselves comfortable, the Cainan came round to inform them that a newly arrived Khanate destroyer was on an intercept path and planned to board them. They were told that they were to hide in the ship’s air circulation passages and keep absolutely silent during the inspection as the Khanate’s were not known for their kindness towards refugees.

The Cainan showed them how to clamber inside the air circulation tubes with him, only for the baby to start screaming. The Cainan warned them that they had to be completely quiet during any inspection and if the parents couldn’t keep the baby quiet then he would. The threat was clear and the child’s parents tried their hardest to quieten down but were clearly too stressed themselves and the baby was picking on their increasing discomfort as well as its own.

This was Earth’s space and the Khanates had no rights to board any ships here but the crew knew that the Khanate had little if any respect for anyone and especially for potential blockade runners, smugglers or traffickers, They were being requested to heave to or risk their ship being destroyed.

They considered using Mary’s powers to calm the baby but that meant her either singing or playing her harp. She did manage to calm it down a bit but it was still being noisy. In the end, Akira unleashed the Somnambulant Spell of Sirrion even as he created a force cage to contain the mist and ensure the spell didn’t affect the crew. It was a calculated risk. While it would affect all of those in hiding, except for Peter who didn’t need to breathe, Akira hoped that the spell would dissipate with the cage as soon as Akira went unconscious too. He created his cage around the passengers, including the children and their guard then called forth the pink mist while holding his breath for as long as he could before he too joined the others in unconsciousness.

Only Peter was awake when the Khanate troopers wearing near identical armour to their attackers back on Earth came onboard demanding to know where they were heading (only to be informed that the ship was returning to the Muan Gwi homeworld and therefore was unconnected to the Imperium).

After a noisy if relatively ineffective search of the ship in which the blue-skinned troopers helped themselves to anything they fancied and threatened the crew, they eventually departed and the ship proceeded to travel away towards a safe jump distance only for Mary and Akira to waken up to violent vibrations as missiles were exploding close to the ship’s hull. Their craft had just become target practice. The pilot, knowing they couldn’t risk a direct hit, elected to risk an early entry into jumpspace. The team crawled out of the tubes and headed over to a nearby port just in time to witness the ships jump grid begin to activate across the hull as the ship tumbled into the relative monotonous grey safety of jumpspace.

A safety that vanished as soon as the toddler began to vomit uncontrollably. Was this due to jump sickness and an indicator that the ship was at risk of ending up anywhere and any when, that passengers and crew might die on re-entry?

It was a long several hours before the ship fell back into normal space with a massive familiar gas giant in the distance – they were exiting some distance from Jupiter as the famous red spot confirmed and not in another system. They appeared to be heading towards an orbiting speck of light.

One of the Vegans informed them that the ship would be heading to the gas giant’s moon of Europa where a Terran, Daedalus, several years before had found and reactivated an ancient preserver base he had found there. This was their intended destination – the ancient city of Starhaven, their sanctuary.

Akira started to ask his teammates if there was likely to be a franchise of Starbuck’s there as he was starving.

The crew hoped enough time has elapsed in normal space that hopefully the destroyer was no longer searching for them and would assume instead that they were now two parsecs closer to the Vegan home world or had misjumped to their deaths.

They still have a number of hours of flight before they reached Europa. Those hours dragged until one of the Vegans announced that theyhad entered geosynchronous orbit around the moon and the passengers could make out the five domes of their new home on the surface. The ship approached the starport next to a beautiful large, blue lake and began its descent.

As soon as it touched down, the first thing they noticed was that the surface gravity was earth normal and not the 0.1 Gee something that they should be experiencing on such a small moon.

In the sky, a malformed small moon was passing by between them and the awesome view of Jupiter. It had to be Europa’s tiny, captured moon Zeta.

 Paragon knew that language might be an issue and they now had no funds except for the power crystals and he pointed out that without access to Earth’s satellite system their commdots were limited here to Bluetooth range, approximately 10 metres.

They also needed to either figure out some way to get back to Earth or at least contact them, though the presence of Jupiter might affect any radio transmissions.

Paragon was being as friendly as he could as they and the other passengers disembarked, only to face human guards dressed in G.R.E.E.T. guard uniforms waiting for them. This was where Mr Smith’s vanished staff had headed as well, it seemed.

In the distance, in a forested area under one of the nearby domes Paragon was sure he spotted a living Smilodon hunting, but they had been extinct for thousands of years on Earth, what was this place?

The city was clearly alien and very ancient despite its obvious functionality, its towers reaching high into the sky and there were a number of gravitic craft flying back and forth.  The air was clear and refreshing after the recycled oxygen of the ship and somehow, despite being in a dome, a refreshing wind blew.

 Around the starport, the lake looked clear and pristine though ripples on the surface showed it was not empty of life.

They stepped into the reception area and despite the impossible height of the ceilings and the odd, inverted coffin-like shape of all of the doors, each of varying sizes (where had they seen something like that before?  Then Mary remembered the base in the Arctic…) they were immediately reminded of an airport lounge except customs were staffed by 2 metre-tall newts as well as humans and several large bugs resembling woodlice but with a half dozen manipulator tendrils secreted under their mid-shell were converging on their ship. Seemingly they were engineers or repair crew looking to give the ship a once over after its unplanned jump. Yuck, thought Akira at the thought of giant bugs underfoot.

The port was bustling with every known variety of alien; human and non-human. They were directed to a reception area where one of the newts – apparently a race known as Bwaps – ensured that they had undergone all of the necessary medical checks back on Earth before informing them to head to Central Booking to be allocated somewhere to stay.

Despite the bureaucracy, there was a friendlier, more welcoming atmosphere here, especially compared to what they had initially experienced back on Star Island.

As everyone headed towards the centre of the settlement and Central Booking located in Preserver Hall, they couldn’t help notice that two of their fellow passengers – the Dantaran and the tall, skinny humanoid female called Rana Vayle seemed to be deep in conversation with each other. Had the male bought her a ticket when he’d purchased two and if so, why had they pretended not to know each other back on Earth?

They were both met by another land-shark this one was over 3 metres tall, apparently a female Dantaran with what looked like cysts all over those areas of her body that wasn’t covered. She was  accompanied by a couple of dwarf mini-me’s armed with blaster rifles. She addressed the male as Xern and the female as Veil and handed them a pair of blaster pistols, making no attempt to conceal the transfer before the female land-shark moved away. To Paragon’s surprise the open carrying of weapons didn’t raise any eyebrows or fins from the staff.

One of the newts they had been dealing with a few minutes before approached them and explained that Europa had an electromagnetic interference field  that blocked all transmissions and they were advised to buy access to VIRA (a preserver AI apparently, so called because it acted as a Virtual Assistant) if they wanted to communicate with anyone on Europa.

It then confirmed that, as a result, all Comms only worked  locally, and  that they are cut off whilst in Starhaven or surrounding areas from contacting space (or Earth).

Mary couldn’t help noticing that this apparently came as a surprise to both Veil and the male Dantaran, Xern when they got told just before a young human with multiple scars on his arms and side of his neck approached them both, apparently attempting to hustle them for money. Xern grabbed the youth, pulled him into an alley and going by the sounds a fight erupted. The staff at the port just ignored it as though this was an everyday occurrence here.

The three of them watched the ‘exchange’ go down. It was clear that Veil was faster, more agile and more vicious that Xern (“disco as a martial art” commented Akira) but Xern was the one that ended the fight with a single headbutt.  They obviously “walked the walk” replied a smiling Paragon.

There were signs during the fight she had used holographs and telekinesis during the fight so perhaps she wasn’t what she seemed. As soon as the human collapsed unconscious they set off, in the same direction as the Dantaran female they noticed.

As they stood there Mary checked out the G,R,E.E.T. operatives – she wanted to know if they were happy to be there. She got the impression that they were more content there than their counterparts back on Star Island had been. They clearly believed in sanctuary for all, aliens and humans alike. There was no indications that they didn’t want to be here. Perhaps Starhaven would live up to its name after all.

She overheard one of them mention that Daedalus himself was there and should be at Central Processing. Another little mystery solved, no kidnapping involved she was happy to note. Conspiracy yes but for the right reasons she thought.

As they headed towards the central dome in search of accommodation and food, they overheard one of the workers comment on the Dantaran male getting into a fight, especially so soon after meeting with Mama Kaiger and her spawn.

So the nine-foot tall female land-shark had been this Mama Kaiger? Not sure what might or might not be important, the three of them filed the information away in case it might be needed.

Half an hour later they arrived at a tall spire-like building in the central dome that thankfully identified this as Preserver Hall and that it housed the settlement’s Central Processing in multiple languages and alphabets – including English thankfully and they stepped inside. Again, they found the rooms all had the very tall ceilings and the inverted coffin-shaped doors they’d seen previously were everywhere though in this case of a uniform size suitable for most humans.  The walls were of an incandescent hue like pearl and this also provided integrated subdued lighting to each of the rooms they passed through.

They were assigned temporary accommodation in an only partially occupied building in the Central Dome but would need to find their own place after a few months in one of the other domes which weren’t yet fully occupied. Meanwhile they were issued a chit (identical to those they had received on Star Island) to enable them to purchase food but were warned that they would need to find work soon as they only provided free food to those who were ill or young – everyone else had to earn their meals here in Starhaven.

Akira asked after Daedalus and was told that he wasn’t there just now and was likely over working on reactivating another assembly plant at the Robot Forge.

They noticed several posters asking for information about a number of high tech thefts over the last few weeks from across the settlement. Seemed that Starhaven wasn’t quite the paradise its name suggested after all. They headed towards the flat allocated to them intending to rest as tomorrow they needed to figure out what they did next.

To be continued…