The Imperial HeartlandArrive in the vicinty of the Hamaala system. The increased population destiny and increased traffic, as well as the heightened survellience and security around Hamaala due to the imminent death of the Empress, means it's risky to take the Embassy into the Hamaala system itself, as there's too great a chance of it being accidentally stumbled upon. We decide to detour via Elva, the "discreet fun capital" of the Empire. Mainly a mining planet, but the capital is a den of sin and inquity and full of otherwise useful people. Utan owes someone unforgiving in the neighbourhood money, so avoids contacting people he knows here. Shar and Bnarch know some people in the area by reputation. Bnarch knows a Tribe businessman, Ristle, who specialises in provided discreet cybernetics to the wealthy segments of the Empire, while Shar knows Zelar, a former classmate and currently socially active playboy and scandal source. Shar cyber-stalks Zelar. Currently living it up. Plural marriage, access to lots of money and throws famous, over the top parties. Has access to a number of fast ships. Bnarch contacts Ristle, requesting info, and they arrange to meet. Bnarch goes to meet Ristle, taking Utan, Tsaijix and Nikchub as support. Maze of bibery to reach the planet surface negotiated without issue. Head to the given meeting point, a resturant "The Salt Pan" in the Tribe district. After some colourful interplay with the owner, Ristle arrives with a bodyguard. Based on reactions of other patrons, Ristle is definitely considered someone to reckon with. Bnarch & Ristle discuss options for getting to Hamaala. Easiest is to buy space on the ore freighters and spend some money to avoid undue attention. Ristle may be able to arrange an actual ship, but requires more effort. Some discussion about the local nacrotics market. Dominated by "hard stuff", with "soft stufF" more popular around Hamaala. Ristle is also lookig at getting into powered armour, and Bnarch is able to convince him to part with a prototype suit that more-or-less fits (made for Ristle, so a bit tight for Bnarch) and schematics for the suit. Shar manages to talk her way into an invite to Zelar's next/ongoing/current party, implying that they had a something of a thing going back in the day. Latte arranges suitable DMH style arrival at party. Hires a transparent jacuzi and take along a Mugorakan string quartet. Party (Latte, Kuna, Shar, Ziva & Tsaijix) leave, dressed in "furry bikinis and speedos". DMH doesn't navigate the bribes required that cheaply, as it's in character not to haggle. Deposit jacuzi at the party, fill in with mushroom drink. Tsaijix decides to relax in the jacuzi and is soon very happy and at peace with the world. Shar finds host, totally plastered and not quite holding coherent thought together. Latte and Kuna join the conversation. Latte tries to lead the conversation, and Zelar is drunk enough for this to work. Latte reinforces the "thing back in the day" idea and points Zelar toward the jacuzzi. The Mugorakans are a hit, although somewhat uncomfortable with the attention (epescially after Latte suggests to some of the audience that Mugorakans are shy, but good in bed). Zelar suggests looking at his snow tigers. Party goes over to his husband and 2 wives (who are part of a much more sedate part of the party). Husband is well dressed (suit, etc) (Ferith). One wife is in a very slinky dress (Ular), the other (Shiralee) is in pjamas, carrying a baby. Man agrees to let Zelar show off the tigers provided someone sober accompanies him. Shiralee volunteers. The group is led around the balcony to the zoo, and see the tigers (large, cream-coloured, cat-like creatures). Zelar's family keen to reduce the number of tigers they have, so offer us 2 tigers. Shar and Ziva select them - one older grumpy tiger and 1 tiger it gets along with. Groups rejoins the party. Tsaijix makes out with some of the groupies. Latte joins the more sober group. Ferith and Ular are the responsible part of the marriage. Sense of being promiment business people (and thus probably heavly involved in illegal activities). Mid-level mob boss feel - wealthy, secure people. They gradually warm to Latte, as a fello business person. Latte hints at Gephka, and gets the impression that Felith has some indirect contacts there. Serious discussion about the consequences of the succession. Ferith is concerned about possible re-arrangement of territories, as will complicate exisiting arrangements. Ferith looking for further opportunities. Wants to break into prosethics, but lizards have that market largely sown up. Latte and Ferith exchange business cards. Latte and Kuna take a room as party starts to wind down. In the morning, Tsaijix incredibly hungover. Latte makres breakfast. A number of servants around, cleaning up. Shar finds person in charge and gets datapd of ship info using the line that "Zelar said we could borrow a ship and I was looking for a cataogue". Looks at options, and selects the largest of the jump-capable ships (custom yacht with extra trimmings). Zelar doesn't use good passwords, so Shar is able to get the ship ready. Shar also hires animal wranglers to collect the tigers. Bnarch heads down with the Hausdorff to collect the tigers, while the Ambassador prepares a tiger enclosure. Bnarch wears a dMH uniform, and asks for reciepts for the various bribes. Nikchub takes the 3rd pill. Wakes up synced to a Hive Spider, with more weird spikes on the brain scan. Shar and Latte return on borrowed ship, while Ziva and Tsaijix return on DMH-1. The party starts a number of new rumours about Tsaijix, and a few new statues are created, although perhaps not as antognisitc as before. Arrange to send the statues via the conventional freight option with Bnarch riding guard and playing with his new powered armour suit. Utan contacts an old colleague, Preen, and arranges for a personal meeting. Latte contacts Zeneferi, and she's keen to meet as well. Promise to provide details once we're in the capital. Quinzel is given access to the Albatross to learn Imperial tech, but engines are physically disconnected. Tsaijix has sudden urge to grow tentacles, and has long talks to the Ambassador about this. Ambassador will conduct experiments (says it thinsk the chances of success are "high 50's"). We arrange to hide some guns and the stealth suit in the hull of the borrowed yacht. The ambassador provides some pills that contain an anti-gene sniffer treatment. Has potential side-effect, and is fairly short-lived, but should protect us from gene sniffers. Party on yacht is Ziva, Shar, Utan, Nikchub & Latte. Takes about half a day to travel to Hamaala. Ship is small, and rather cramped. Ship is open-plan , so no real privacy. Nikchub takes the next dose. Starts noticing Everything - small noises, etc. All senses get stimulated. Latte notices this and attracts Ziva's attention. Ziva gives Latte a syringe of sedative, which he successfully ninja assasins to apply to Nikchub. Rest of the trip is uneventful. Arrive at the outskirts of Hamaala system. We reach the security net, and are instructed to head to a suitable space for inspection. Tsaijix panics, and takes the anti-gene sniffer drugs. We contact the senator, and arrange for him to smooth out the problem, which works. We collect statues (and Bnarch) and head over to deliver. Statues are delivered without incident. Senator is well-dressed. Senator is impressed by the appearance of the statues, and delighted when Latte hands him a large hammer and he is unable to mark the statues. Latte talks to the senator a bit. He recommends we not stay on Hamaala too long, and recommends a couple of places to stay (neighbourhoods that are becomin gentrified). Go to meet Preen. We get a hotel recommendation from Preen, which matches one of the senators recommendation. Utan and Nikchub go to meet Preen, while the rest go to the hotel. Tsaijix is feeling odd, field of vision narrowing and beocming increasingly nauseous. They manage to get him to the bathroom in time. Preen has set up his offices in the "Preen Rehab clinc". We are taken to meet "Dr. Preen". All very impressive, and Preen is clearly doing well for himself. Arrangements are made and mushroom drink is marketted to Preen. Zeneferi is mentioned as likely to be moving up, and we borrow a secure meeting place from Preen. Return to hotel, contact Zeneferi and arrange to meet in an hour. A quick search finds a building nearby with a floor to let. Shar, in stealth suit, will take up position there in case of trouble. Nikchub will provide a electronic sweep of the secure room first. We arrange to move Ziva and Tsaijix up a floor, and the rest head off, taking along some weaponry. Arrive to find Neferi and Barath Fel (from Akaijat) inspecting the place as well. Nikchub meets an imperial tech (Refi) in the room and they both scan for bugs. Nikchub finds 3 devices. 2 are probably Preen's (older tech). 1 is very new and sleek, probably newly planted by Refi. Also find a very old (50+ years) bug which is no longer working. Refi and Nikchub head out and flip for who takes which floor for continued monitoring. Refi wins and so takes second floor up, while Nikchub takes third. Zenfiri arrives with a bodyguard. Some verbal fencning occurs. Latte (in Sencha role) claims to speak for "our allies", who will provide support in exchange for favours. 1st favour is easy - access to Imperial records of the Hive. 2nd part is access to the 4th founders planet. Zenfiri asks flunkies to leave at this point. Latte presents this as a way to get weapon against the Hive. Zenfiri is willing to provide help, but needs us to eliminate an Imperial dreadnaugh first. Dreadnaught is carrying Shirov and some sort of anti-Tribe weapon. We agree that this is doable. In exchange, Zenfiri will get us past the security layers. Security is extensive, but much of it is outdated, due to paranoia about information leakage. We give Zenfiri comms details to contact us later, and Zenfiri gives us a datapad with details on Shirov's movements. Utan starts looking into this. Discussion about the lanned transition. Zenfiri hopes to do this as quickly and quietly as possible, with some purging of low-level people (planetary governors and so forth) as required. Zenfiri willing to be fairly open in an alliance, but is concerned about Imperial taboos. Return to the yacht, and recieve a message form Zenfiri, telling us a device will be needed to reach the fourth founders planet, and that we can collect it at Elva. Return to the Embassy without incident. We notice that Nikchub gets a lot happier as we approach the Embassy. At Elva, we arrange to collect the device from Zenfiri's agents. Appears to be a very old fashioned hardward crypto key. Appears to have to "liberated" from a muesum. From the datapad, we have the dreadnaught's movements. It will be stopping at a nearby essentially uninhabited system to refuel in a few days, so that seems the place to try hit it. Check on the Albatross. The engines are still offline, and most of the ship is OK, but the plmbing has been destroyed and replaced with something stranger. Utan tracks down the Mugorakkans Quinzel used to help do this and gets more details about the system. System works, and converts some waste to energy, but is really bizarre. Utan decides not to meddle, as it'll be a lot of work to change back, and has the Mugorakkans help clean up the ship. We feed dreadnaught specs to Quinzel, and promise it the dreadnaught if it can take it over. Quinzel comes up with several possible ways of taking control of the dreadnaught, but all of them require having Quinzel on the dreadnaught, and probably on the bridge. Von Cathal reckons we have enough Hive Spiders to take out the dreadnaught easily. We alos consider taking over the refueling station, but decide that should be plan B or C. We arrange to reach the system a day or so before the dreadnaught is due. Nikchub is set to work on the local comms network, and arranges a fake relay so we can intercept and control the dreadnaught's comms. We inspect the fueling station (via sending a walnut shuttle for a closer look). 4 ships docked - 1 large ore freighter & 3 smaller industrial transports. Network traffic shows the station is built around a secure military core, but with several more easily comprised civilian layers on top. Our guess is 10-20 crew, of whom 4 or 5 will be military. After discussion, plan A is to send a small group onto the dreadnaught via stealthy militray gliders (as used by Tier and other special forces people), with a box containing Quinzel and fake "tech support" to get it on the bridge. Our intelligence from Zenfiri indicates that Shirov is using an Inquisition dreadnaught and there's likely to be some inter-service rivalry going on people Shirov's people and the inquistion that will make things a bit more confused and the plan a bit more workable. Plan B is to have a lot of K-C units deployed in walnut shuttles to attack on short notice. We also prepare plan C, which involves the Hausdorff, a Kuna clclone as a comms person and a lot of Hive Spiders to take over the refuelling station. The ninja team (Shar, Utan & Latte) prepars and deploys shortly before the dreadnaight is due to arrive in the system. The dreadnaught is a few minutes late (which causes some concern) but eventually arrives more or less where expected. Shar (carrying Qunizel) leads the party in. Shar and Latte notice people flitting around the outside of the dreadnaught. Appears to be patrols launched in similar gliders. Shar chooses a path that fakes the path of yet another patrol. Seems to work. We duck off into a nearby maintance hatch and enter. Ask Quinzel to hack the security system and we hide gliders and space suits in storage room next to the entrance. We grab a maintance trolley from there, load it with Quinzel and a collection of other items and head towards the bridge. Shar grabs a clipboard, we take our anti-gene sniffer pills (tweaked by the Ambassador to have fewer side effects), check the status of plans B & C, and head for the bridge. The two groups in the crew are very visible - definitely a black-ops / inquistion split going. No one appears to notice us, and the anti gene-sniffer tech appears to work. We use Quinzel to open a couple of doors, but no unexpected surprises until we reach the bridge. 4 guards, 2 from each faction, on duty. Guards appear bored. We claim to have been sent to repair the bridge. Neither group has been informed of this, and this causing some buck passing between the guards, but this also does result in us being allowed onto the bridge. We bluff past the commander on deck (who appears to be of Shirov's faction) and get to work. Shirov arrives, we hasitly salute and return to installing Quinzel. Shirov, however, notices Shar and appears to be highly suspicious, keeping an eye on us. As we finish up, Shirov pulls a gun and points it at Latte. There's a brief inconclusive fire fight, with no-one actually being severaly hurt, but several consoles are hit to create sparks. The fire-fight is relayed to the Embassy, and the rescue crew decide to launch plan B. While the K-C units board, we reach a Mexican standoff on the bridge and a discussion esues. The Commander is introduced as "Commander Uma", and long time colleague of Shirov's. We corrobrate Zenfiri's intelligence about Shirov's mission - to present an anti-Tribe weapon to help Javosequor secure the regency (and secure a hold on Javosequor). After K-C units board and attack, we arrange for Shirov to surrender. Shirov offers to move the discussion to a more comfortable area of the ship. Quinzel gives us a status report. About 20% or so of the crew killed by the K-C units. Exact casualities are uncertain, as things are a bit messy in places. Most of the surviving crew have been rounded up and confined to quarters. Two securely locked sections of the ship that have not been attacked. One section of the living quarters, and a central portion of the ship. We get Shirov to broadcast a message asking for surrender via Quinzel (no noticable impact). Shirov suggests we retire to the boardroom, Latte objects, and, after discussion with Quinzel, we settle on a kitchenette near the bridge. Arrange for an escort of K-C units to accompany us. We have a K-C search Shirov. Finds various knives, a small suicide pill, a gun or two and a small grenade. We question Shirov about the locked sections - he is rather invasive. We ask Shirov to get us into the locked central section - he takes us to the door, but claims the codes have been changed by those inside. Quinzel starts crakcing the door. Via Quinzel, we have access to the life support system, so we also dump in a bunch of tear gas. After some time, we open the door and send in the K-C units, with instuctions "don't kill anyone who doesn't shoot". There is much screaming and K-C assures us that there were shots, and that all the humans are dead. The locked section is setup as a research lab. Pride of place is a massive device with various sensors, looking mainly to be of imperial manufacture. A bunch of repeated components, so some sort of parallel processing or sensing involved. The lab computers and intrustmens have been systematically destroyed. Quinzel, after some discussion of options, identifies it as a hyperspace sensor. Machine has a very prototype feel to it. Shirov, when pressed, amdits that the machine was built to search for evidence of something he suspected was present. Shirov also explains that the living quarters hold his "not completely willing" guests from the Tribe. We proceed to the locked living quarters. Quinzel has video footage of the interior - shows 20 Tribe members in fancy military gear busy making crude weapons from the furniture. Bnarch identifies tribe markings as from a small, generally well to do, trading faction, who are not noted for their military activites. Shirov, on the way, is curious as to why Zenfiri hasn't taken over the Empire yet. Sensors detected presence of a very large Hive fleet in hyperspace near the capital. Latte goes off to have a private conversation with Von Cathal, who claims it's an advance part of the Divergence forces, although the conversation is a bit strange and Von Cathal rings a lot of alarm bells. Utan opens the door to the living quarters, and, with the aid of a couple of Hive Spiders as backup, asks the Tribe people to lay down their weapons. Bnarch barks some military orders over the speakers, and they obey, but the whole thing is very off - acted rather than actual military. Latte tries a martial arts gesture, and the tribe group spokesmen responds in kind. The over-the-top response causes the penny to drop, and Bnarch recognises him as a Tribe actor, Zasras, who has starred in a number of B-grade kung-fu style films. Bnarch drops a reference to his worst performance (Scaled Fists of Fire) to annoy him and reveal that the secret is out. Shirov's plan comes out as using actors to fake mind control. Decent plan, actually. Plan is to store Shirov on the Embassy for later questioning. Rest of the crew will be kept imprisoned on the dreadnaught until things calm down and they can be released wuith fewer consequences. Shar knocks out Shirov with her rifle. The party returns to the Embassy, taking a unconcious Shirov back. Ziva checks Shirov isn't badly injured, and Bnarch takes a chance to get in a few lumps on Shirov as partial payback for earlier events. Shirov is handed over to the Ambassador, and cloning is mentioned, which was probably unwise. Discuss Shirov's observations with Von Cathal. Von Cathal claims that the fleet spotted is just a vanguard of a 1000 ships or so - full Divergence fleet is on the order of 10 000'ish, so not yet enough to take on the Empire. Nikchub takes the telepathy Hypnotape. He learns the useful skill of turning off telepathy, so he's less prone to unexpected interruptions. We contact Zenfiri, and so footage of the dreadnaught and Shirov (tweaked to look dead). We claim not to have found the weapon, and point to the destoryed research lab area as to why. Zenfiri is statisfied that we accomplished the stated goal, and sends the rest of the needed info. Quinzel will accompany us, but will remain in hyperspace, since we can contact him via the funky sensor thing Shirov built, and only jump in if needed. Latte mentions that he thinks the device in Von Cathal's box is related to transportaion. There's some discussion about this and teleportation is mentioned. Bnarch's theory is it's part of a wormhole generator, although energy considerations do make this much less plausible. Tsaijix, with the clues given, reckons a wormhole is a feasible possibility, but the energy requirements are a real problem, and it's also hard to make work on a planet, so there are still missing pieces of the puzzle. We reach the system, and scans show everything as expected. We head towards the planet, avoiding automatic patrols and announce ourselves to the defense grid using the hardware from Zenfiri. Nothing fires at us, so it seems to be working as expected. Split the party. Nikchub, Shar & Tsaijix will stay on the Embassy as the backup plan. Veelix, Von Cathal and the rest will go to the surface with the box, in a walnut shuttle to avoid problems. Von Cathal want to take 4 K-C units, but we insist on a representative from the Ambassador. Von Cathal isn't that keen on this, but caves and we take 3 K-C units and 1 Ambassador Hive Spider. We take various weapons and such. The atomsphere has no oxygen (not actively toxic, though), so we all dress in suitable Imperial space suits, except the Hive Spiders (who are unlikely to be bothered by this) and Bnarch, who wears his powere armor. Latte takes along a smart bomb. Latte informs us that the box contains a cutter. Curious. We reach the surface without incident. Surface is cover in fine grey dust, and there's an ongoing dust storm, which reduces visibility and makes the whole place unpleasant and dim. Von Cathal points in a direction, and we head off. Some signs of ruins of civilization (bits of worked stone, rusted metal), but nothing substanail. Rubble, but no structures. Marching order has Veelix and Von Cathal sticking close to the Hive Spiders with the box, with the Ambassador and Latte up ahead, and Utan near the back. Latte reaches a sheltered section, and can see a tall spire structure - pale, and gleams a bit oddly in the light. Continue on to the structure. Has a somewhat organic / Convergence look. Gleam is a mother of pearl effect. Has been significantly eroded by the winds. Suggestion that it was a spiral shell type affair originally. Von Cathal finds an entrace, and we go in. The interior consists of small corriders. Very Convergence ship feel. We enter the control room. Massive arch with various components fitted to it. One module clearly burnt out. Control room is empty expect for 1 mummified corpse, which appears to be human. Von Cathal wants to replace the burnt out module with the new cutter. Latte asks about the planet issue. Von Cathal assures us that this will be solved in due course. Meanwhile, on the ship, Nikchub arranges a private conversation (bracelets off) with Tsaijix and Shar. Nikchub, via new telepathy skills, suspects that the K-C units with Von Cathal aren't K-C, but Hive Spiders tied to Von Cathal. K-C comes in to report on finding the secure shielded boxes Von Cathal wanted, and is surprised to learn that Von Cathal has already headed to the surface (confirming that the units with the ground party are not K-C). Discussion turns to implementing a rescue plan, since it's probable that bad stuff will happen to the away team shortly. On the surface, Von Cathal explains that the planet will be used to power the wormhole generator, neatly eliminating the planet problem. Von Cathal wants to neaten things up, and is generally keen on everyone dying in the process. We're less enthusastic about this turn of events. Veelix brings things to a head by pointing a gun at Von Cathal and shouting "we must stop her. This is not Von Cathal.". Bnarch shoots Von Cathal, but a Hive Spider jumps in the way and is injured. Von Cathal shoots and injures Veelix. Latte and Bnarch move between Veelix and Von Cathal and call for calm. Utan jumps for cover and shoots the cutter, inflicting cosmetic damage. Standoff is established with guns pointed in many directions at many people and things. On the Embassy, rescue mission is launched. Shar and Nikchub will head to the surface in the very fast picket. Latte contacts the Ambassador on the ship and asks about K-C and Von Cathal. Von Cathal claims that the Hive Spiders were part of here luggage, which no-one believes. We establish that K-C has recently lost 4 units, which confirms that Von Cathal is lying. Shar runs towards the hanger, pointing gun at Hive Spiders she passes, since unclear which have been subverted. The 1st 3 retreat, but the 4th attacks. Quick reflexes and good shooting allow Shar to come out on top, though and she continues to the hanger deck, meeting up with Nikchub. Discussion with Von Cathal continues. Veelix claims that Von Cathal has been suborned by the Convergence, and that her sync has been inteffered with by Von Cathal (memories forcibly repressed by herself). Utan moves to hold a gun against the cutter to discourage any unexpected attempts. Von Cathal decides that attack is her best option, and a Hive Spider jumps for the archway. Veelix shoots it, as does Ziva, and Utan shoots the cutter. Bnarch shoots Von Cathal. The Ambassador jumps on the previously injured Hive Spider, while the last Hive Spider attacks Latte. Latte's suit get damaged, but Latte isn't actually badly injured. Things get rather confused in the fire-fight. The Hive spider closest to the gate is well shot by several people, while the cutter is badly damaged. The Ambassador leaves the injured hive spider to other people's attentions, and it is also shot at a lot. The Ambassador and Bnaarch go to help Latte, and, with the aid of some close range shots from Latte, it is eliminated as well. Utan salvages some materiel from Von Cathal's suit and Veelix and Latte's suits are patched as required. The rescue party reaches the planet around this time, having avoided triggering the Imperial defense grid with some fast sensor detection and some fancy flying, and lands near the walnut shuttle. Everyone meets up at the walnut shuttle and discusses developments. Veelix isn't clear on what Von Cathal's true plan was, but the idea of the Convergence attacking the Divergence fleet through the wormhole is mentioned. Query is sent to Quinzel about developments, and, somewhat surprisingly, we discover Quinzel has setup a reverse channel and can respond easily. We establish that there are a very large number of Convergence vessels in the system (order of 100 000) currently in hyperspace. Plan does appear to have been to attach the Divergence. We decide we should leave as soon as feasible, but we need to do something about the problem. Utan asks Tsaijix if it would be possible to turn the wormhole into a local hyperspace bomb. Tsaijix thinks this is doable. This becomes Part A of the plan. Part B is to inform the Imperial navy of the threat, since they will have to deal with it. Ater some discussion, we decide that Shirov and is faction is better placed to react here, so we ask the Embassy to wake Shirov. Part A progresses apace. We have Tsaijix bring down the cutter from the spare engine room (in a walnut shuttle), and install it on the arch. The unzipper is destroyed and some other parameters are tweaked to ensure we'll get the correct effect (Tsaijix and Bnarch spend a fair amount of time on this problem before establishing a solution). A K-C unit volunteers to stay and denonate the bomb, and Nikchub also rigs up a timed activation. Once everything is in place, we leave, most via walnut shuttle, with Shar and Nikchub taking the fast picket back to the Embassy, avoiding survelliance on the way up, with Nikchub starting the timer (on a ong fuse, since we want to be at the edge of the system before this activates, and we want to resolve Part B as well) before departure. Part B gets under way as soon as everyone's back on the Embassy. We tell Shirov a mixture of half-truths about the state of play, but manage to convince him to contact the fleet about this. We arrange, via Quinzel, for a message to reach dreadnaughts in hyperspace nearby to drop out for safety and wait a few minutes for that to take effect (which it does, with Shirov uisng some very high level keys to confirm the order). With Part B done, w e ask the K-C unit to press the button. Things aren't very impressive at first - for the first few minutes, there's only a small crater visible of the surface of the planet that's growing a bit. Then the hole reaches the mantle and things get a lot more impressive. The planet is gradually eaten, and then the hole starts sucking in neighbouring bits of rock, and even pulls in some matter from the sun. We continue beating a retreat from the system in normal space and are able to avoid things. System is left with much less matter and a large rip into hyperspace. The results in hyperspace, on later investigation, are pretty much as desired. A large number of Convergence ships were destoryed, and a lot of others damaged, and the Imperial fleet is able to account for most of the rest, although not without some significant losses. Shirov and Javosequor are able to ride this heroic success to power. As the Empire has taken some knocks in the process, it shrinks a bit and rebuilds, freeing it's hold on a number of outlying planets. We head off to the fringes of the empire and largely disappear, having reached an understanding with Shirov. The Divergence is unabe to take adavantage of the chaos, as their fleet is out of position, but they are happy to have dodged the Convergence bullet. Some parts of the Divergence return to plotting their next attempt to overthrow the Empire, while others start examining the Convergence threat more closely. The Convergence had committed a significant amount of it's resources to this attack though, so it's laying low for a while as well. The End. |