Deepnight Revelation #8

Captain's Log - T122

It's been two weeks since Syndic Feisler has agreed to allow our crew to go on shore leave on the planet below Tradeport, and today I learned that his decision may have been motivated by something other than generosity of spirit. He has asked for our help to find the source of an alien craft that he had obtained from salvagers some six years ago.

The salvagers have refused to reveal where they had found the craft. Syndic Feisler offered to buy any further craft they could find, but the crew never returned. While Syndic Feisler was able to make an educated guess of the likely system where the salvagers have found the craft, mainly by a process of elimination, its location was beyond the range of the Haix ship, but not ours.

I have asked Mr Johnson to lead a team on the Amelia Earhart to the system to see if he can learn more about the origin of the craft, and perhaps make contact with the species that built it.

Captain's Log - T138

Mr Johnson and his team have returned to Tradeport this morning.

Arriving at the Candlass system, they detected a metal signature on the forested moon of the second planet, which led them to a clearing in the forest. In the middle of the clearing were two craft, of a similar design to that in Syndic Feisler's possession, and next to the clearing, partly covered by trees, was a Haix ship.

A team was despatched to the surface on a boat to investigate, but as the boat approached the clearing to land it was struck by an electromagnetic pulse which caused the ship's systems to shut down. Sergeant Ahab, who was piloting the boat, was able to bring it to a controlled crash into the forest.

While the crew worked to reboot the systems on the boat, they came under attack by the inhabitants of the moon: short, green-skinned humanoids. The initial attacks came in the form of arrows, which our boat was proof against, but soon the aliens began burning through the hull of the boat using some form of primitive blowtorch. The crew disembarked and attempted to fight them off, but were at a disadvantage as their weapons were likewise disabled by the EMP, and they were heavily outnumbered. Fortunately Mr Goldfone managed to get the communications system online and called for help. Mr Johnson brought the Amelia Earhart into the atmosphere and conducted a strafing run, which caused the aliens to flee.

After Dr Belilaika tended to the wounded, the crew made their way back to the clearing, and explored the Haix ship and the two alien craft on the clearing. Nearby, they found a mass grave which contained the remains of what were later ascertained to be Haix.

It appeared that the aliens had occupied the Haix ship and turned it into their homes. Inside one of the alien craft the crew found an induction coil and a primitive cannon - it appeared that the aliens had used the cannon to propel a ball of iron through the induction coil to generate the EMP that disabled our boat. Within the cargo bays of the other craft the crew found paintings on the bulkheads, describing how an insectoid alien species had arrived on the moon in the craft, exchanging technology for food with the locals. There was however no trace of the insectoid aliens other than their abandoned craft.

Professor Tsoukalos is of the opinion that the locals had developed a form of "cargo cult" after their contact with the insectoid aliens, and had converted the craft left behind on their world into some sort of temple for their gods.

The crew recovered the computers from aboard these craft, and the Haix are working on deciphering their language, and they have agreed to share their findings with us. As soon as that is done I will recommend to the Mission Command team to continue our journey.

Prepping and Running the Game

This was the first session we have played in over two months due to the lockdown.

It was quite an effort to get back into the saddle, and I deliberately kept the scenario short so as not to tax myself. Still, it was quite an enjoyable session as the players were all cool with their modern weapons being rendered useless by "primitives". Two characters actually went down during the fight, and we were looking at a TPK; fortunately Ippy Goldone had the presence of mind to restore their communications first, which allowed them to call for help, giving me an 'out'.

It was good to finally be able to gather around a table again - hopefully we will be able to advance the campaign by a bit before the next round of lockdown.