Starforged: Valentin Sikorski (Session 6)

Session 6 of my Ironsworn: Starforged actual play journal. Valentin meets a new enemy and embarks on a journey.

Details about truths, character and the starting sector.

Character sheet

At the beginning of the session.

Consequences

Kiana O’Niel was laying on her bed, tattooed arms behind her head, whistling a melody.

A man in grey overalls entered the room. “We have contact. You were right when you guessed they’ll meet with the smuggler here. Orca just arrived in orbit.”

“Sounds like you didn’t trust my judgement. I’ll remember that. Let’s land, we have some questions to ask. I am really curious what he did with the stolen data.”

The promised payment

Necropolis. Always hidden under dark grey clouds. A dead world, most likely destroyed by its former inhabitants. The atmosphere is so corrosive, that it would eat a person’s skin if unprotected. Its surface is covered by endless dunes of ash mixed with fetid mudflats.

In the middle of this, one quite large settlement: Enigma. The only reason people settled here is the ruins of a long-dead civilisation. The city wouldn’t exist without explorers, relics hunters, grunts and researchers. All trying to desperately get rich or make a scientific breakthrough while risking their lives on this uninhabitable planet.

As we descended below the clouds we could see several big transparent domes protecting the city from the corrosive environment.

Things have changed since I was here for the last time. The biggest dome has clearly suffered significant structural damage. There is a huge crack in the middle of the dome. From the ground all the way to the top. The crack is being patched and fixed. We can see many construction vehicles working on repairs. It seems to be mostly patched already but the damage must have happened quite recently.

We landed close to “Dead Reckoning”, Bruno’s ship.

Part of me was wondering if he is actually going to wait for me to pay as he promised. When I entered his ship I was welcomed by both him and Derya Bond.

“Glad you made it, Valentin! Part of me was wondering if I am gonna wait or run away without actually paying you.” he laughed.

“Nice to see you again, Mr Valentin,” said Derya Bond. “I came to thank you again. And also to make sure you get all the supplies you need. If Mr Bond would feel that you are asking for more than he would consider as fair payment, I am more than happy to help to cover the difference.”

Bruno helped me to move all the supplies to Orca. I returned back to his ship to say my goodbyes. As I was getting back to Orca, three figures blocked my path. Two people in grey overalls would be hard to remember. But the tall, slim, dark-skinned woman in a black tank top would be certainly easy to remember. The tank top was revealing her arms completely covered with tattoos.

“Mr Sikorski, I suppose? Or should I call you Whisper?”

“Depends who is asking.” I stopped and glanced at Jones. He was rubbing on my calves.

“Call me Paladin. I am sorry to disturb you, but I have a couple of very important questions to ask you.”

They were in my way and something told me they are not going to let me pass.

“Ask them quickly,” I knelt and started petting Jones.

“We know you bought a certain data cube from Kiri Braddock. The transaction was done at Karma Station. We know you travelled to Prism and Karn over the next couple of weeks. What did you do with the data.”

They know about the transaction, but they don’t know who was the recipient. So either they didn’t get any information from Kiri Braddock or she didn’t tell everything.

“You are well informed. So you are also aware of my profession. I transferred the data to a recipient. I don’t know their identity. They paid for the service upfront. We exchanged the cube on Prism, and they left with their ship immediately. Something tells me they expected that you are going to ask questions.”

“Since when do couriers travel with money to acquire the data?”

“It’s an extra service for extra pay. Feel free to check the official price list of the Syndicate of Iron Heralds. We have to try harder and harder when the bulk data delivery guilds are getting cheaper and cheaper. Anyway, you know that even if I knew the customer I couldn’t tell you.”

“It would be in your best interest. At the moment, I’ll have to report you as a suspicious person to my employer. That means more investigation into your person. Eventually, we are going to find out everything about your contacts and we’ll follow all the leads. We are going to figure out if you told us the truth or not. And the consequences will follow. The Syndicate of Stellar Vanguards don’t like their secrets stolen.”

She was looking confidently into my eyes. I didn’t need Jones to recognise this as a threat.

“Say hello to all my friends. But you are going to be wasting your time. Would you be so kind as to let me continue to my ship? I am one of the unfortunate who must earn their pay by doing something useful.”

She kept the piercing stare and the smirk on her face. Nevertheless, she stepped aside . —-

Kayla saw everything on screen. “Who was that? I almost came out with a gun pointed at them.”

“Some investigators form Stellar Vanguards. They know we bought the data. I believe I was their last lead, but sooner or later they’ll find Julio. Hopefully, we’ll be back so we can warn him. It would be too dangerous to go there now. And also, the sooner we do the job, the better. I am officially getting on their list of suspicious people. Let’s hope the information is going to travel slow. I am quite sure I’ll need a false identity when we get there.”

The journey to Selena Station begins

Let’s remind us of the plan:

• (done) Hire Kayla Nadir as a backup, she is supposed to owe him.
• (done) Steal identification codes and location of the Selena station from one of their supply ships.
• Find the way to Selena. It’s still going to be up to me to find the right drifts.
• Use the identification codes to land there. Gather more information about the facility. Establish a fake identity if needed.
• Infiltrate the facility and get deep enough to access their internal high-security network.
• Download the data.
• Get back safely.

Now is the time to discover the path to Selena Station.

We arrived at a waypoint and the e-drive immediately started recharging. We were in the middle of deep space, with no spatial bodies nearby. Among the blackness, I saw a very unusual object. It looked almost like a glass sculpture of some space animal, roughly in the shape of a squid. For a moment I even thought it was moving or pulsating. But no, it was perfectly static. A long-forgotten structure or a machine. It looked like parts of it were phasing in and out. I kept staring at the object trying to figure out if I see what I see or if it is just some kind of illusion.

At that moment an alarm went off.

“Proximity warning, starboard. Proximity warning, starboard.”

What? The radar screen was showing only the object in front of us. I turned on the docking cameras and… yes, it was there. A small ship, painted deep black slowly got closer to us. Almost ready to attach its magnetic boarding lock.

“Fuck, somebody is trying to board us. They have some kind of stealth technology. Hold on!”

I kicked the thrust and tried to evade their attempt to attach the ship to Orca.

I could hear the scratching of metal as Orca suddenly started moving and the hull came into contact with the other ship. Thankfully, they were not able to engage the mag-lock and we left them behind.

“Kayla, get to the gun turret and make sure they are not going to try this again. Use your eyes, they are not visible on sensors.”

I kept manoeuvring around, weapons ready. They disappeared into the darkness. I was on the edge the whole time the engines were charging. Thankfully, they didn’t come back nor did they try to attack. I suppose they know just this one trick. Wait for a ship to arrive and when the victim is distracted by the weird ancient thing they sneak in, board the ship and do what they want.

Ass soon as the engine got its charge, we jumped.

Calm stop. Just a lonely big star with its soothing orange glow.

Jump!

I sit for some time quietly staring at the huge orbital station in the distance. Its complex, sprawling structure is very impressive. So are the unfinished bodies of ships scattered around, covered with scaffolding or docked in sophisticated space hangars.

I know this place. This is Port Aurora. The biggest shipyard in the sector. Quite an interesting place to visit.

The problem is, that we are getting further away from Selena. We shouldn’t be anywhere near this place. Damn drifts.

Let’s jump again.

We exited the drift and appeared just in the middle of a chaotic meteoroid storm. I wasn’t really prepared for such havoc so Orca got hit by a big flying rock and I was catapulted from my seat hitting the control console. Auch.

Eventually, we got out of the storm to a calmer area.

Jump!

I really hoped finding the path to Selena would be a bit easier. So far it seems we are shooting in the dark and missing. I am certainly not the best navigator. Maybe I should hire someone competent.

It was quiet in the cockpit. I think Kayla was bored by our travels as well. We were in orbit of a tainted planet. Colourful ball covered by giant, sky-breaching fungi.

According to my database, there was supposed to be a settlement. But nobody was answering my calls. Complete radio silence. It was supposed to be a rather small research station. Nevertheless, we could use a little bit of distraction from the boredom of space travel.

As we were descending to the station we could already see it’s not in the best shape. The place was clearly damaged and breached. We landed on one of the landing pads near the station. Sensors have shown that the planet has a highly toxic atmosphere. I suppose it’s all the spores in the air.

The station was built from prefabricated modules which were placed on some kind of base and connected together. Pretty usual for small temporary settlements like this. The weird detail was that some of those modules were placed vertically forming small towers and supported by crude structures from iron I-beams.

We suited up, took our pulse rifles and went out to look around. The main doors were covered by a big piece of sheet metal. We moved it away and uncovered the door… covered in blood.