Inbound to Stockland Station aboard the fast scout ship Bower to support Union space forces with rescue and recovery efforts – and to rendezvous with TG Brigand as they hand off their inspectors to main Union forces.

The first thing that comes in as we approach is all the comms traffic around the response ops. It’s well-structured, multiple bands in use to coordinate between Union assets, local authorities, and belter spontaneous volunteers. Union is focused on rescue efforts, no real security other than TG Brigand. No one else is watching comings and goings.

I start digging through ship movement logs, looking for anyone who’s hanging out in a parking orbit of staging area or otherwise not participating. Looking for Ashfall’s staybehind observers or preparations for a secondary attack. TG Brigand has done a great collection job and Janus and I have a good set of filters (29 on the roll). Two ships stand out:

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When last we saw our protagonists, we were heroically running away from the Fires of the Emperor with three rescuees.

We make rendezvous with the high-delta-v craft that brought us. The crew is affected – they only perceived the ship but they did have some memetic effects (sensor weirdness, grav distortions).

We’re fairly sure the rescued belters are from our timeline. The drugs are getting flushed out of their systems.

We can still feel Atlas’ presence and pressure. The ship is still trying to force itself into our reality – and bring all systems (back) online after Rael’s departure/deletion.

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Ashfall clock at 2 of 4.

Deep within Fires of the Emperor, another gateway has opened. Transmissions and contacts are flowing. The loss of Rael has been noted. Atlas is forking to assume direct control. Response is inbound. Systems here cannot fully handle the load of Atlas’ manifestation but it is taking command. Weapon systems are reactivating. General quarters is sounded. New clock at 0 of 6.

Breach clock at 1 of 4. Atlas was working on its own goals of establishing a permanent breach within our reality.

Tu’rosan support of Union and Umbra’s recovery are stationary.

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Having boarded the dreadnought, Fires of the Emperor, we have a side scene as we feel a sense of disquiet and change. It’s like we’re recompiling and assembling an out-of-sequence memory set. We’re in a fight, in our frames. There’s a sense of dread. We’re tearing through hostile contacts. An externally-imposed sense of calm comes over us.

We resolve onto the battlefield. We’ve been here before – it’s the wasteland. Again, we’re badly damaged. Many of our upgrade systems have been destroyed. The battlefield is littered with wreckage. All we can sense from our enemies is their hostility toward us (and vice versa).

It’s day. I don’t want it to be day. I want it to be night so we can see stars and Janus can calculate stellar drift to tell us when we are.

I roll a 2. Consequence: I blink out and am separated from Janus. From Echo’s perspective, it looks like I’ve rippled out through a gateway like the enemy frames we’ve observed. But where I am, it’s night.

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I deploy my Lotus Projector to scout for a docking bay other than the one the onboard presence wanted us to use. Another one of the space superiority frames is present in the intended bay – it’s configured for ground mount, not launch mode. Several other VTOL-fighter frames are present, as well as a collection of non-combat utility/worker frames. It looks like they’re loading the space superiority frame’s missile bays with something similar to the nanotech weapons we encountered in the wasteland.

But wait there’s more! Behind the combat frame – two open caskets of a familiar design, empty except for a collection of independently motile wires and biomechanical filaments. A dozen human(oid) individuals are standing around. Probably human, but wearing long concealing cloaks, solid black masks or visors, gloves, long sleeves – no exposed skin, as far as we can tell. Heat is above room temp but below human norm. Their movement is very fast, jerky, precise, and efficient.

Let’s not use that door.

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License Level 3 ticks over. I swap my Metalmark licensing into the Amber Phantom variant and pick up the first level of Swallowtail.

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Downtimes:

Task Group Brigand benefits from ongoing training with me. 18 on the downtime roll, gaining +2 Efficiency. They’re now at Efficiency +4, Influence +1.

For downtime, I invest further into TG Brigand and recruit a flight crew, going to Efficiency +4, Influence +3, and access to the transport craft as an additional reserve.

Ilias has been awarded the liturgical paracode to interface with the Sisyphus NHP. It and Janus are getting along disturbingly well.

Ilias continues working on disentangling Umbra. He’s instantiated Umbra Prime as distinct from Umbra Source.

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Still in combat, and my notes always break down when we’re fighting.

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Picking up mid-fight – we’ve found a net trace on Boomer, who’s in the same state as Umbra, on the far side of Tu’rosa at the site of a pre-Union battle. Hard contact as we enter the active ruins.

Enemy flier frame is down. Still dealing with a close-range melee fighter, invisible, that’s monowhipping Echo, and a long-range heavy artillery frame.

Task Group Brigand reports a whale’s-brain-sized organic mass in the downed flier. They are inclined to purify it with fire. I am inclined to agree.

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We level up to LL2. I grab a second level of Metalmark; NLP acquires his second level of Pegasus.

Another tactical session with minimal investigation (once we wrapped up our downtimes) or RP.

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Rewards and downtime:

Each of us gains a connection to Gold’s scavenger crew:

• can keep as a contact
• can burn it for a favor

The mechs we grounded in this reality after taking them down are now a reserve – potential research, etc.

I blow my roll for organization stability. We choose aggressive action. Envoy is interested in Task Group Brigand, but that would give him an in with us. We’re required to deploy them on the next op.

Ilias continues his work on the Umbra shard/casket we’ve acquired. I support (just talk to her… she’s a person, let’s treat her like one).

Echo makes the decoupling roll. The needles that were stuck into Umbra’s mind are drawn out so that just the tips are touching. It’s apparent that whatever or whoever forced this integration did not care about the trauma inflicted on the NHP or the uploaded remnants of Umbra. We get 1 tick on a 4-segment clock for the full decoupling.

I get us printer time for stealth hardsuits for TF Brigand.

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Combat session, minimal notes. License Level 1.

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On Kharvek, imminent contact as we break off conversation with the NHP node we discovered…

A gateway that looks identical to the one at the printer has materialized in the mine pit. Four mechs (so far) have deployed. One of the shooter-variants, one of the hammer-variants scaled up to Size 2, advanced version of the Axman, and the one from the spaceport that tried to hack Echo. These look more pristine and freshly-printed than what we’ve seen before.

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