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:

• Cargo vessel was here before incident, not docked but in a nearby parking orbit; it’s been in a standby status throughout the rescue op and has not participated, or done much of anything else. They’re maintaining hot engines and idle-ready weapons – looks like a Q-ship set up to look like a cargo vessel. Have filed a flight plan for a return to Tu’rosa.
• A belter mining cooperative vessel with associated drones and shuttlecraft; was also present at the time of the attack. They are helping with rescue/recovery ops but they seem to be focusing on one particular area of the wreckage and doing something else in addition to that mission. They’re working to get something out of the wreckage and seem to be within a few hours of completion.

No evidence of comms or movement between the two suspect vessels.

Ilias asks if we’ve looked at this place with Second Sight yet. I have not – I’ve been too focused on the immediate realspace problems. Ilias preps Janus for support and shifts his frame of reference.

Janus advises yellow-level cognitohazards are present.

There is resistance, but Ilias is able to translate over. The station is still present, but it’s older and ill-maintained. Stockland in our reality is a hub of belter society and culture; on the other side, it’s a forgotten near-derelict with bad history – history that’s still ongoing. At the station’s heart is a rift, similar to the gateways we’ve seen before but without the ring device to control and contain it. It’s more like an uncontained natural phenomenon. And the belter miner recovery crew is here, trying to get something from that rift. A casket – and they’re trying to bring it into our reality.

Something is enabling them to exist on both sides simultaneously, apparently an effect from the drones. About a dozen, bus-sized – small for space vehicles. Appear to be asteroid sampling/survey/light mining. Here, they’re ostensibly in use for forced breach on station fragments to facilitate rescue.

Janus, who exists on both sides, relays that to me. Janus also advises that the rift is the danger – total collapse of that reality is possible if the rift destabilizes. Its breaking may well be related to the effect that destroyed Stockton on our side.

The casket does not, unsurprisingly, does not look friend-shaped.

I start assembling a warning order for TG Brigand, prepping them to effect a hostile vessel boarding and seizure on the Q-ship. I want it taken out of play simultaneously with any action we have to take against the mining collective.

The miners aren’t too concerned with the rift – they’re only focused on the casket. If the rift destabilizes further, what effects are we looking at in our reality?

Our best idea is to declare an immediate hazard in the area the miners are working. Clear all other vessels out of there, order the miners to stand off. When they don’t, we remove them forcibly.

I open comms to Stockton Command. We have actionable intel that material or equipment associated with the initial incident is present in the sector; all vessels to withdraw to minimum safe distance.

On the other side, Ilias sees the salvagers not-quite-panic. He’s eavesdropping their comms – their OPSEC isn’t great. They’re hustling to remove “the target” while their ship buys time. They’re claiming they have wounded located and one of their crew is entrapped. We call their bluff.

Ilias starts breaking their shit remotely with EW attacks. Roll for nonconsensual sysadmin privileges. Eject Power Cores takes effect for the drones. The mothership begins to bug out.

Q-ship is still not reacting. TG Brigand is prepped for boarding and seizure if they fire up engines, unmask weapons, or go active on targeting.

We mount up and move to the hull. If we need to decouple, we’ll turn loose the Bower to chase it down while we go after the drones. The mining vessel keeps running and does not acknowledge orders to move into a holding orbit for decontamination, so we implement that plan as soon as we’ve formed it. Bower is to intercept, ascertain their status and intentions, and disable drives with precision fire if they don’t heave to. Hold them for boarding until TG Brigand is available.

Janus sifts some sensor data. The “drones” are actually Size 1 crewed craft, and they’re carrying extra external equipment that doesn’t fit the published commercial design specs. It’s probably internally-powered shift systems to allow them to colocate, but when the power runs down, they’ll get shunted into one reality or the other – with no guarantees as to which side they’ll wind up on. And the process is probably unhealthy for biological organisms. The only apparently way to extract them if they wind up on the wrong side is someone like us who can pull them back through.

Echo tightbeams to the drone operators. He already knows their callsigns from SIGINT – and he’s transmitting on the other side. “I’ve been monitoring. I know you’re in a tight situation. I want you to rebroadcast this to the others in your element.”

They claim they’re just working on the rescue effort and will be fine.

“Just listen. This is a one-way conversation. You’re attempting to recover that casket. You’re not there for humanitarian reasons. Your ship has abandoned you. If you want to make it back to the right side of reality, you’ll do what I say.”

They admit they’re recovering “a device,” though they don’t know what a casket is – possibly a translation issue. They’re still trying to play dumb. Echo lets them know he’s been listening for a while. There’s more freakout.

“This is simple. You will die if you don’t get help. In the vehicles you’re in, it will kill you. You will die. You won’t salvage anything.”

Now they’re open to negotiation, though they think Echo is threatening them. Echo and Janus flip them a data packet on the physics danger they’re in. They begin to realize their equipment is not accurately reporting their environmental hazards. Several begin boosting away from the rift.

Rock has been gearing up. He’s armed with his holdout weapon, a fire axe, some improvised weaponry. (Note to self: print Rock some Union-spec gear.) He doesn’t recognize names or accents, which makes him think they’re Tu’rosan – though they’re running under belter cover. He and I head over to the mining vessel to start the investigation while Echo secures the drones and their operators.

Our boarding on the mining vessel is unopposed. It’s eerily quiet. The reactor is live but they’ve cut propulsion. Low lighting levels, a lot of systems on standby. We’re moving quietly when we enter the mess/rec space near the bridge and encounter the first two bodies. One was shot cleanly; the other was involved in a struggle and shot multiple times with an energy weapon. Rock verifies that Ashfall doesn’t usually have protocols to silence their people to prevent capture.

At the entryway to the bridge, we hear sobbing. I take point in stealth mode. On the bridge, a young Tu’rosan man (longer hair, diamond stud earring, nose piercing – not belter fashion; enviro suit but helmet not within reach; large plasma handgun) is alternating between watching the ladder and tapping the gun against his head. I disarm him. He’s in shock; recommends that I kill him.

Rock comes in, assesses the scene, spits in the teenager’s face. Takes the controls. Runs diagnostics – nothing appears damaged or inoperable. Gets the mining ship headed back to rendezvous with Echo, paced by the Bower.

I start interrogating. His name is Fahad. Was supposed to be easy money. Union wasn’t supposed to care. They were told to come out here, wait for something big to happen so they could move on the station. He was supposed to choose people who were disposable for the salvage op. They had a data packet that told them what they were retrieving. Fahad had to make modifications to the drones – add some stuff, turn off some stuff. He was going to get a lot – but the one catch was that if things went sideways, no one was supposed to talk to us. He hired the salvagers for the job, hadn’t worked with them before – but he had worked with the ship’s crew.

I tell him Union isn’t going to do a thing to him. He’s turned on his shipmates, turned on the guys he hired. He’s getting turned over to belter justice. Rock, what’s the belter process for turning on your shipmates? Only one thing – the Long Walk.

I lock Fahad in a storage compartment and toss the interrogation log to Echo to provide to the guys who are about to learn they were expendable.

Rock confirms the ship’s logs are wiped. I’m pretty sure Echo and three NHPs won’t care.

This is the first time we’ve really encountered agents or assets who aren’t heavily entangled with paracausal bullshit. This also doesn’t look like an Atlas op. This is a human conspiracy.