Nothing from Miss White, or Freeport for that matter….
I did however converse with Daros… it was not a good talk, by any means. He wanted answers i didnt have, and to make matters worse… The Order activity made him even more agitated. After the events of yesterday, i invested most of my savings into getting a cloak outfitted on my vessel. It set me back more than id like… but it may become useful in future. Next on the list is my sensors.
We brainstormed a bit, once over the initial pain of Miss White being hospitalised… we thought to split up for the time being. Comms line would be cut, he would remain in Delta watching over her, i would go explore kusari, see if they knew anything about The Order. The comms cut was imperative to our secrecy, and we were to maintain radio silence until there was a major development in my search. With that… we went our separate ways.
Kusari space… never seems to change no matter how long i keep between visits. Planets Honshu, Kyushu and New Tokyo were my primary goals. No disruptions along the way, not even a pirate. The bar on Honshu had the familiar smell of liquor to it. And a news article on a battleship. And two places id not got logged in my star charts. Curiosity rose, but nobody had any info there. Kyushu was pretty much the same, except there was someone who reacted positively to my credits. Another system, unrecognised in my star charts. The list grew of new places to check. New Tokyo… went the same as Kyushu, same three names mentioned.no new insights.
Before leaving New Tokyo… i checked my nav map data with a few people around, and learnt Hokkaido, the first system, was connected. There was a station the other side. Good place to start as anywhere. Bartender on the station didn’t have anything, but he told me he knew a guy who did have some info, pointing discreetly to the guy in the corner, dressed in what looked to be a Samuran outfit. A few thousand credits later, and he sung me a song of at least two jumpholes around. I thanked him, heading down the trade lane.
Steange. A trade lane to a locked gate, and a damaged trade lane. Wonder which hides a secret. My smuggler itch seemed to know… of course. At the end of the broken trade lane, there was an abandoned station. It had some small data info beacon there. And once scanned, another mention of the other systems i still hadn’t been to. I felt closer. But still didn’t know where. A wing of blood dragons popped on sensors, i cloaked and followed them. Two anomalies, two different directions. Jackpot. Both the unknown systems had entry points here, but one seemed more guarded than the other. The one reading “Tohoku” was my next stop.
There were many expected things i thought id see…. But not Heaven’s Gate. The formerly named “Tekagi’s Arch”. Astonishing. No jumpholes to be seen though… but two asteroid belts were visible. One contained an anomaly unusable. And at first… nothing from the other. I nearly turned back to look through the other jump hole, when the spike showed. Anomalous. Unstable. At last. A backdoor.
Once data was logged, my trip back was swift. Quick hops to New Tokyo, then our agreed method of breaking the silence: small burst of forced static. No words. He was waiting for me before i got there, and seemed eager to hear. New plans formed, and we gathered supplies ready for the next stage…
