Team Fugazi’s promised two-week leave was cancelled at the last minute with an urgent mission briefing.

The briefing officer advised that Defiance patrols around the system of Velke are coming under attack by small forces of Imperial raiders. Dha Intel has determined that there is a security leak on Velke, and are sending Team Fugazi to shut it down.

The twist in the plot: a secret weapons research facility owned by Dha, researching a new type of ship’s torpedo. The team was to ensure that security there had not been breached as well.

The team was provided with a cover. They would be investigating a mystical faith healer by the name of Shantanu Chakraborty who appeared to be able to cure the incurable.

They left immediately, in the Paradroid, which had been newly refitted. A new computer system had been installed; an intelligent system named Epimenides. There was also a plush gold and velvet interior on the Staterooms deck and a few other minor modifications, including a cloaking device on the Iron Fist.

The trip to Velke took 52 hours. Upon arrival the Paradroid docked at the civilian spaceport while the team took the shuttle down to the planet. Ezreal stayed on board the ship so as not to alarm the residents.

They arrived at the spaceport in the middle of a crowd. Velke’s zero-g hockey team, the Mighty Frogs, had just returned from winning the Local Division grand final and there were a lot of people there to see them. Out of the crowd, a lone voice called Drake’s name.

Enter Trilby McGaw, a reporter for Sandburg’s Interstellar News network, who until now has been covering the hockey. She requested an interview with Drake, who readily accepted. They retired to a quiet cafe where Trilby asked the rest of the team to wait off-camera.

Her first question was innocent enough, asking why Drake was on Velke. He answered that he was there on merchant business. Her second question was “How long have you been an arms dealer?”

This flummoxed Drake for a moment while he remembered the circumstance under which he had been posing as an arms dealer, then he denied being an arms dealer at all. Trilby continued pressing on this line of questioning, and Drake claimed that although he did occasionally ship arms, it was not his primary business. Trilby was aware that Drake had been on Aerris just prior to the Imperial invasion, and asked him about his feelings on that as well.

Finally she asked whether he had had any contact with the ‘sweetheart’ he had left behind on Aerris. After a long pause, he replied in the negative.

Trilby concluded the interview by asking whether she could follow him about and get some footage for her report.

(Click here to view her report - MS Word format)

Treesh determined through reading surface thoughts that Trilby had spoken to Allison Taylor since the Aerris incident. Drake decided to track Allison down, as she was probably still on Velke. He asked Ezreal on the Paradroid for a background check on Trilby, and to find out whether anyone had escaped the invasion at Aerris.

Subsequently Drake received a message from the Cabinet advising that the team had an appointment. The team travelled to the Capitol by a circuitous route, ensuring that no one was following them. Drake also used a hologuise unit to hide his appearance. They were not followed to the Capitol building.

There were armed guards everywhere. The team was shown to a security area where they were asked to disarm themselves. Tok was asked to wait in the security area, as they could not disarm him.

Drake, Treesh and Sharris entered the Inner Chamber and met with all the members of the Cabinet. All of them appeared to be trustworthy, but Treesh was unable to mindread any of them due to the presence of a psychic block.

Somehow the coded transmissions that the Defence Minister received from the House of Defiance were being intercepted. The Minister received the data on his terminal, decoded the data and transferred it to a wafer, which he immediately placed in his safe. No one else saw it, and only his cleared staff had access to the office. No one except the Minister had access to the safe.

Retrieving Tok (who had enjoyed some coffee in the meantime), they proceeded to the Defence Minister’s office to inspect the facilities. They were accompanied both by armed guards and by two agents of the Secret Service. They inspected the office and the safe that the coded transmissions were kept in, and found it to be very secure. Sharris, with permission, tried a false intrusion into the Minister’s computer, which was unsuccessful. There seemed to be no security holes.

It was getting late in the afternoon, and the team had no leads. As they left they were advised that a hotel suite had been booked for them, and the Cabinet had made an appointment for them to inspect Chakraborty’s clinic.

When they arrived at their hotel room, Sharris immediately established that it had been bugged to buggery. He satisfied his need for privacy by wiring the bugs into the local porno channel. Drake ordered pizza and beer for the black van across the street, but it was returned to the room with the advice that there was no van.

Treesh got dressed up in her best shadow and announced that she was going out for a night on the town. Meanwhile, the others discussed the situation, consulting Epimenides the computer. The computer’s analysis indicated a 2.6% possibility of physical intrusion. This would require someone having access to the office, the safe, the decoding mechanism and the security logs.

The results of the inquiries from Dhanet also came back. Firstly, Trilby’s background was impeccable, with no Imperial connections whatsoever. She was a young upcoming reporter who was still waiting for the big scoop. Secondly, one ship did indeed escape Aerris and travel to Velke via Skrann. A check with the spaceport’s registry revealed that there was a ship berthed, which was owned by Joe Colbert, the scientist in charge of the facility on Aerris (and delivered to Gefe by Team Fugazi).

Sharris and Epimenides hacked into the databases of Velke’s recruitment agencies in order to find Allison. Having found a comm number, Drake called her, but she did not answer and he had to leave a voice mail message. He tried calling Trilby, but when he mentioned Allison’s name she hung up.

Before dawn Treesh returned and explained that she had met with someone who had disclosed that the Imperial agent Dalla DeFoure had visited Velke some 52 hours previously. She had evaded detection and landed on the second continent. A car left the Capitol building around the same time, and whoever was in the car left in a shuttle towards the second continent. Three of the seven Ministers were accounted for at the time.

Treesh also revealed that her contact believes that DeFoure has the Sorce. In the morning, the team visited Chakraborty’s clinic. Chakraborty explained that he got his healing powers from the goddess Shilata, and showed them a wall hanging with a picture of her. She was depicted as a nude fish-headed woman, sitting cross-legged on a black diamond plinth, surrounded by black-robed figures with glowing red points for eyes.

Drake left the room and asked that Ezreal transport down to see this, using a hologuise unit to appear as an Anthropos. Ezreal advised that since the Shanask have been around for many centuries, it is quite possible that their image had made it to the folklore of a primitive planet.

The team observed a healing session, and Ezreal confirmed that the healer was using the Sorce. Sharris’ medical scans confirmed that despite the mystical trappings, the healing undeniably worked.

As they left the clinic Drake was shot in the shoulder by an unknown sniper with a fang rifle. Although he was not wounded seriously (Sharris used a slap-pack), they were unable to find the assailant. Whoever it was appeared to have used a personal transporter to leave the area.

Drake arranged a dinner meeting with Trilby. During this meeting, Drake revealed that he had found out that Trilby had travelled to Aerris, which she denied. Treesh was able to determine that she was not lying about this, and she appeared to have a psychic block over that part of her memory. Trilby was not aware of this, and agreed to have her mind probed at a later time.

Upon returning to their hotel, Drake received a message from Allison asking him to meet her in the Drukaraban Park. This park was secluded, and appeared to be a common place for people to meet without being noticed. Drake turned up to the rendezvous, but Allison did not show.

Drake received a communication from Sam Kanaris, the Minister for Public Works. He needed to speak urgently to Drake, and suggested Drukaraban Park in half an hour. After failing to dissuade him from that location, Drake and Sharris traced Allison's location to one of the State Department's safe houses underneath an ordinary apartment block. The safe house was shielded against scan and transport, but Ezreal was able to Ghost Walk inside and confirm that Allison was unharmed and comfortable, under guard by Secret Service agents.

Sam Kanaris met Drake in the park. Ezreal, Sharris and Treesh were all present, and Tok was waiting to transport down at a moment's notice. Drake was in his armour, but disguised by a hologuise unit of a Uruk (this was the only disguise large enough to cover the suit). Sam told a story of money laundering and corruption, perpetrated by the four most powerful politicians on Velke.

The Chief Minister, the Minister of State, the Finance Minister and the Defence Minister were all involved. As evidence Kanaris gave Drake a data wafer to pass on to Trilby.

Kanaris told them that he was due to speak at the opening of the Grace theatre in two days time and he would like them to be there. He didn't expect any trouble but he would feel safer. The team agreed to be there.

When they returned to their hotel, Treesh received an anonymous gift - a pair of ear-rings of Zin-shee manufacture. They appeared to be harmless, and she wore them for the rest of the adventure. The package was left anonymously, by a woman with Asian eyes.

Ezreal visited Shantanu Chakraborty, claiming to be a messenger from the goddess Shilata, and advised the cowering healer that Shilata would have a task for him soon.

Drake contacted Trilby and advised her of the new developments. He passed on to her the data wafer that Kanaris had given him without looking at it.

The following day, the team was shuttled to the Dha research facility on the third continent. Deep in the jungle was a concrete bunker. The elevator inside descended for several minutes before stopping. They met Paul Peatt, a nervous-looking man with a tremble and a stutter. He showed them the facilities and advised that the plasma torpedoes were not stable enough to install on a ship as yet. Any ship would be at considerable danger from these devices, as they were liable to explode without warning. Reading surface thoughts showed that Peatt was thinking a combination of 'why now?' and 'where is she?'

After a while, Peatt received a comm message and he asked them to wait in his office. Sharris planted a bug on his back as he went. When he returned, they confronted him with evidence that he had met someone and stopped off on the way back to inhale a drug. The drug was Tuphoo, a rare Zin-shee drug that would normally be prohibitively expensive on this planet.

Peatt confessed that he had been exchanging data files about the plasma torpedoes for the drug. His contact was named Grace Chang. The team attempted to have the regular military intercept her shuttle, but they claimed that they were unable to act without authorisation. During the delay, Chang escaped. Drake contacted House Dha and advised them that security had been breached at the research facility. He ordered an interdiction of the planet, but the House of Defiance were unable to put this in place for about 48 hours. A patrol was in the area and were scrambled to the planet.

They took Peatt into custody aboard the Paradroid. Ezreal delivered him to Chakraborty, claiming that the first task that Shilata demanded of him was to cure this poor fallen one of his addiction. Chakraborty agreed, adding that it would take several days to completely cure the man.

That evening, they attempted to perform the deep probe to break the mindblock placed on Trilby, but they were unable to do so. Treesh was able to determine that it was definitely psychic and not Sorce or mechanical. They decided that there were more important demands on their time.

In the morning they arrived at the Grace Theatre before it was filled, to prepare for Kanaris' speech. Trilby was covering the event for Sandburg's. Just before Kanaris spoke, Dalla De Foure appeared on the theatre's monitors and made a speech claiming that the House of Dha was a terrorist organisation which had attacked civilian targets in Imperial space. In support of this claim she showed a video clip in which a ship very much like the Paradroid destroyed an Imperial city on Etabak with plasma torpedoes. Then she called upon Drake to defend himself and the House of Dha. Trilby's camera focused on him and he found his face on all the monitors of the Theatre and broadcast across the Guild by Sandburg's.

Drake responded hotly, with a speech of his own. He denied being a member of House Dha or any terrorist organisation, and claimed that De Foure's video was faked. De Foure told him in return that the Empire has had a spy on Dha Prime for a long time.

At that point, the Mace entered the theatre, confirming that the House of Dha did exist, but denying that they were a terrorist organisation. He had been in contact with the heads of Dha and Defiance, and also the President of the Great House, who had authorised him to make this public.

Before anyone could react, Karla Krace appeared on screen and attacked De Foure with her Sorce Saber. Just before the screen flicked off, the players were able to see that De Foure had a Saber of her own, the same colour as Karla's.

In the aftermath, while the Theatre was being cleared, the Mace told the team that the House of defiance had located the wormhole that De Foure was using to being Imperial ships into the area. Team Fugazi would be required to go through the wormhole to disable the Imperial Hatchetship that was maintaining it. Trilby McGaw would also be going with the team to provide footage that would be used as positive propaganda by House Dha to counter the terrible claims that De Foure had made. All the positive publicity they could get was going to be valuable.