The Klarg Star rescued a Thoron pilot, Kyrthrarx (...), near the Kaa
starbase. He agreed to join the crew.The starbase is in an area of fractured time; the reality discovered
on the last visit was "fictitious."The starbase was damaged by a thin blue beam, fired from the nebula,
while a prototype jump drive was being tested nearby.The crew took several heavy weapons (HPPs), a silver sphere of
Precursor origins, and large black box from the starbase, as well as other
junk which they handed over to FedInt.Meliar knows of a Rebellion within the Kaa Empire. Several Kaa
captured by the Klarg Star were rebels, and were released near the
Sthorganian border.The D'nyarri are using heavily armed military transports for runs near
the Kaa border.The Klarg Star was attacked by a cloaking D'nyarri frigate, which was
stolen by rogue FedInt agents. The frigate was heavily damaged by a mine.Kress brought some of the K'tharr superconductor back to the
Federation, for which he was highly paid. The Feds need it to complete
their newest Battlecarrier.Kress has a hole in his mind.
Synopsis:
Following some fast talking by Merlmer, the Klarg Star re-enters the
temporal rift under the cover of the Teske fleet. They return to the
abandoned base, only to discover totally different sensor readings, and a
Thoron scoutship engaging a Kaa scoutship. The Kaa is destroyed, but the
Thoron's engines are hit, stranding its pilot, K'yrthrax (...). He comes
aboard the Klarg Star, and agrees to join the crew in exchange for repairs
and transportation.
The Klarg Star redocks with the starbase, this time carefully avoiding any
and all temporal distortions. The boarding party discovers little of what
happened to the starbase; a log entry shows a pale blue beam from the
radiation zone striking the base at the same time a prototype Jump-Drive
was being tested nearby. In a cargo hold, they also discover a large black
cube with a conical device attached to it, and several prototype Fusion
Blasters (nicknamed 'Heavy Purple Projectors' by the Teske). Meliar
disturbs a large sphere, revealing a small silver sphere, with some sort of
control panel set on one side. Other than determining it to be of Precursor
origins, the crew can tell nothing else of it. Several crates of
experimental junk are also salvaged. More probes fired into the nebula
finally reach the black hole in the centre, and are scanned by several large
spherical objects floating in a 'graveyard' around the black hole. The probe
apparently passes through the black hole, scanning a single star.
Before leaving, the Klarg Star also rescues the Kaa escape pod from the
earlier scoutship. It contains several Kaa, who are revealed, by Meliar, to
be from the Kaa Resistance. They claim have to been trying to learn what
happened at the base, and request to be dropped off either with Colonel
Harst (a Kaa mercenary), or a planet near the Sthorganian border. The crew
prefers to skirt the Sthorganian border, and sets a course. Before arriving,
however, they intercept a pirate attack on a D'nyarri freighter. The Klarg
Star disables one pirate in a barrage of nuclear explosives, only to see the
D'nyarri open up a torpedo tube and obliterate the other. The D'nyarri
captain thanks and rewards the crew, then cloaks, heading in the general
direction of the Kaa Empire.
After releasing the Kaa rebels, the Klarg Star undergoes repairs and
upgrades, receiving a coat of Reflec armour, and a launch bay for the
Thoron fighter. K'yrth somehow receives the money for repairs to his
ship, presumably from the Thoron government. Kress decides to stop by
K'tharren on the way back to the Federation; he intends to bring a small
supply of Endelite back with him.
En route to K'tharren, the Klarg Star One is intercepted by several aging
fighters. Suspecting a trap, the crew engages the fighters, only to have a
D'nyarri Frigate decloak behind them. The frigate suffers a near direct hit
from several megatons of cleverly deployed space mine, forcing it to cloak
and disengage. The Klarg Star, moderately damaged by the frigates' brief
attack, recovers the Thoron fighter and rapidly leaves the area.
On the K'tharr homeworld, Kress acquires the superconductor. The Klarg Star delivers it to Stardock Alpha without incident, netting a very large profit, and some information from agent MacArthy. The crew explains most of what happened on their second trip to the starbase (handing over the junk, and one HPP). They also give FedInt an edited copy of their sensor data (without the probes being scanned, the time travel, or any reference to the Thoron). Agent MacArthy then gives Kress a pass to the Thoron Embassy (for trading purposes of course), and offers to let them test a Federation prototype JumpDrive sometime in the future. When asked, he also reveals that the D'nyarri Frigate was stolen by several FedInt agents, who had been sent to fetch a cloaking device the D'nyarri had sold the Federation; rather than return the ship with the device, they simply went rogue. Kress later explains all this to his crew. Merlmer detects that Kress' memories have been altered somehow, but cannot determine what exactly was changed.
Continue to Episode 3, back to Episode 1, or return to the Main List.