Dead Suns Episode 25

27th Lamashan, 317 AG (continued)
The Sunrise Maiden leave driftspace and enter the Diaspora. The HotDR are searching for the Gate of Twelve Suns and the Stellar Degenerator before the Devourer Cult cult. The signal sent by Tahomen goes to a section of the Dispora known as "Field of the Lost". Not long after entering the Field of the Lost, the Sunrise Maiden is ambushed by space pirates. Daevae orders everyone to battle stations.

The pirate ship tryes to manuvre out of the firing line of the Sunrise Maiden's front weapons, but the laser turret is the stronger weapon, so this doesn't actually help the pirates. Carmen pilots evasively. Riggs fires the Laser cannon while the Pirates fire their chain cannon. Dr Gentoo diverts energy to shields, repairing the damage the Pirates just caused. Io fails to help with targeting. Carmen keeps piloting circles around the Pirate Ship.

Daevae hails the other ship and warns them to back down, identifying themselves as Starfinder, but ends up only taunting the Pirates into fighting more. After both ships exchange more fire, Dr Gentoo diverts power again. And the Sunrise Maiden out manouvres the pirates entirely.

Daevae hails the other ship and requests parley with them and the pirates agree. The Pirate identify themselves as the "Rusty Bucket". The two ships dock together. The party go over to the pirate ship except Carmen who stays behind to watch the Sunrise Maiden.

The party are greeted by Pirate Captain Alera Okwana and her crew. Daevae asks for an apology from Captain Okwana. Captain Okwana apologises for attacking the Sunrise Maiden, but refuses to apologise for being a pirate. The party accept the apology. Meanwhile, Io sneaks around the Rusty Bucket. Dr Gentoo hacks into a nearby computer and finds the pirates didn't attacky a group of Corpse Fleet ships that entered the area.

The party and the pirates meet around a meeting table. Dr Gentoo asks about the Corpse Fleet, and Captain Okwana explains that they were too powerful to try to fight. The Corpse Fleet came into the area, landed on a few of the asteroids, then left. They also talk about the Cult of the Devourer, who are based out of a place called "Star-Eater’s Spine". Captain Okwana suspects the Cult holes up on Asteroid K9204, but she has never been there to confirm. The Corpse Fleet also visited Asteroid K9204.

Captain Okwana decides to pay off the party 1000 credits each to leave them be. The party agree, and Daevae exchanges contact details with her. The crew then return to their own ship.

The party hail Chiskisk, their boss at Starfinder on Absalom Station, and report in their findings & ask for backup. Chiskisk is concerned about the Corpse Fleet being involved. Riggs asks about the ownership of K9204 and Chiskisk says it was owned by Widget Inc, a older mining company run by sarcesians that isn't held in high esteem these days.

After the party ask for money to pay for Pirate reinforcements, Chiskisk pretends there is bad reception then hangs up on the party. The party get revenge by having the Sunrise Maiden call Chiskisk over and over, leaving long voice messages containing the HotDR video for 3 hours.

The Sunrise Maiden does a scan of K9204. The scans show that K9204 is less than a mile in diameter and made up of rock and ore-infused terrain with only one flat spot that is possible to land on. They detect a thin atmosphere, low gravity, and a few lifeforms on the surface. No buildings on the surface are detected.

Carmen then drifts the Sunrise Maiden towards K9204 with low power to avoid detection. Riggs looks out the window and sees a landing spot on the asteroid. The crew are reluctant to land on the asteroid, but Riggs convinces them to do so. Carmen lands the Sunrise Maiden in the clearing.

The party leave the Sunrise Maiden and start to look around the surface. Daevae spots a sniper on a rocky ledge aim a shot at Carmen, and jumps in the way of the shot.