1x06 - Another Day on Shepard Terminal

General Summary

In the faint, artificial light of Shepard Terminal evening, the Promenade was almost empty. There is no a real emptiness though, as the ring that host all the commercial activities never knows rest: small groups of young men and women wandered from an entertainment to another, replacing the shopkeepers and merchants that crowd the area during the daylight hours.
A bit battered and bled from the previous fight, the crew of the Drunken Bitch stepped on the Promenade floor during their hastily retreat from the crime scene. They were easily circumvented by the worried people they encountered, but it seems they were not only suspicious group around. A trio of mercenaries, draped in heavy cloths to hide their armor, was moving around to conduct their business, intimidating and extorting an owner of a small transport company. The situation was quickly solved in the usual group fashion - well placed words and an increasing terror while trying to stop Khaalida killing urges. The mercenaries were not prepared to risk their life and start a shootout, so they gave up and retreated.
The group waited a bit before returning back to Rafati. The money-collecting job was a little too bloody for their tastes, and the crew of the Drunken Bitch decided it was better to wait a little and get some sleep. The next day Shepard Terminal bulletins were flooded by news regarding an assult happened in a small shop, on the residential levels of the station. An armed robbery, it was reported, as a conspicuous amount of birrs disappeared from the owner's account. Luckily they were able to cover their tracks quite well. And it seems the guards are too corrupted by the syndicate (or too incompetent) too delve further in the matter. At the end, the client was quite satisfied, and hinted a new job opportunity: "It seems you're not the illiterate monkeys I was expecting. I have something that can put your skills in a good use, but I have to contact few friends, first. I'll contact you in a couple days from now, don't move too far from the station"

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"Shaeen, is that you?" the stunned voice of a young woman erupted from the crowd. "I'm Ava! Do you remember me? I was working with you in the Solara, with the other...err... mutinied." Several eyebrows raised at that news. "Shaeen.. did you forgot to tell us something...?" started Javed, but Ava was faster, and interrupted the captain of the Drunken Bitch mid-sentence "For all the Icons, what are you doing here? I didn't expected to find you here, but.. but.. well, maybe it's better this way. We are in a grave danger. They.. they killed them all! All of them!"

Few drinks and some time was needed to get a clear picture of the young woman fears: after a failed assassination attempt, Ava fled from her planet looking for the other surviving members of the Solara, only to find they were all killed in several incidents around the Third Horizon. Only she, an untraceable Shaeen, and the former security chief of the old vessel were still alive. It seems the latter one could be found in Melik, under the service of a mercenary company. So she gathered her belongings and travelled to this system, in the hope of warning him of the danger. The group unsuccessfully tried to convince her to give up her mission and hide in a far corner of the Horizon, but Ava's stubborness won this round.

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At last, at the end of a far too busy day, the crew met the contact the Honest Abdul gave them. He introduced himself as an humble "Witness of Justice" and promised them a really lucrative assignment: few crates with "special supplies" are hidden in the maintenance levels of Shepard Station. The crates need to be brought on Khufu surface, without arising suspects and without Dabarani interference. So, the group started gathering intelligence on the travelling process between the Station and the planet below it, and a first trip was made in order to assess their chances. Destination: Last Wish

Information Found

On the Solara - Ava

• The Solara was a vessel that used to travel the Horizon several years ago
• Shaheen and Ava Mobasseri served as crewmembers during that period, until a mutiny happened aboard the ship. The details are fuzzy (no one really wants to dig up the story), but at the end both the captain and his second in command were killed.
• The vessel was returned to the family of the captain, and the crew soon disbanded.
• Recently Ava was victim of an assassination attempt. She escaped by sheer luck, and after some time connected the event with the mutiny. The woman soon discovered all the former crew members of the Solara were killed in a similar fashion, and tried to catch up the unaware survivors.
• She reached Melik in order to find the former security officer, Parviz Alinejad: her last information about him pointed to a mercenary group stationed in the system.

On the mercenary group and the intimidation at the Promenade

• The trio of mercenaries are part of a small detachment of the Blacklance Company, under Legion management
• They refused to disclose the contractor identity, but they assured it was a sanctioned contract.
• The victim of the intimidation is a small owner of a transport company, Gholam Therabi
• It seems several transport companies were being assaulted in the last months, and one after one they closed and left Shepard Station. All the clues point at Massoud Rafati and his successful enterprise.

Report Date

18 Feb 2020

Primary Location

Shepard Terminal

Secondary Location

Last Wish