Upon entering you see many of the villagers just sitting outside their houses doing nothing, though a couple of them are lazily plucking some sort of stringed instruments. They barely pay any attention to you at all.

You know you’re not supposed to talk to strangers, but in this situation you don’t really feel like you have a choice, so you ask one of them for help.

“Hey, I need some help, these shadow things attacked me…”
“Wazzat? Shadows? Shadows don’t come ‘round here boy, we’s got ourselves a wizard to protect us! If you got shadow problems, maybe you should talk to him. He’s a pretty smart guy. He’s in that nice lookin’ house over there, the one with the roof! Careful though, he’s usually in a bad mood. Argues with his wife constantly too.” The fat villager says going back to drinking whatever it is he’s drinking.

Not knowing what else to do you head over to the wizard’s house. As you approach you can hear arguing from the inside.

You knock on the door which is opened by a young woman dressed in a waitress like outfit. She’s pretty, but looks very tired, behind her appears an older man who doesn’t look much like a wizard at all.

“Whadda you want kid? We ain’t buyin’ anything!” he scowls.
“Are you really a wizard? You don’t look like one.” You remark.
“That’s because he isn’t a real wizard. He’s a lazy charlatan!” the woman answers.
“Shut up Talia, I was good enough to get YOU.”
“Yeah, that’s because I was too young and naïve to know any better! I knew I should’ve married a knight!”
“Hah! And what knight would marry a serving wench like you?”
“Melcar, I don’t have time for your nonsense today, I have to go to work. Can you at least TRY to do something productive while I’m gone, like casting some cantrips to cut down the overgrowth in the backyard? Sheesh, I think I saw a nest of Furms making their homes in there and you know much I hate those little purple things! They infest everything and then you can’t get rid of them! So can you DO that one thing, if nothing else?”
“Yeah, yeah.”

The woman throws her hands up in dismay and leaves the house, leaving Melcar and you alone.

“So, what’s your deal kid? I know you ain’t from this backwoods village because I know everyone here and you actually look like you bathe every once in awhile. You lost or something?”

You explain your situation to Melcar, somehow he doesn’t look surprised, but he does look a little more interested in you.

“Hmm, sounds like the Nightmare Tyrant. He has a habit of snatching people from other dimensions and draining them to harness his power. Those shadows you encountered are what’s left of his victims. I’m not entirely sure of his methods for choosing, but I do know he only takes those with strong imaginations though. It’s probably why he prefers children since they tend to be more inclined to think up fantastic things.” You were lucky to escape from him.”
“Well how do I get back home?”

Melcar looks at you a moment before replying.

“You interested in doing a little yard work?”
“Uh…”
“I’m really busy with an experiment, and I just don’t have time to mess around with clearing the overgrowth in my backyard. If you do it, I think that’ll give me time to complete my experiment, as well as giving me time to look up the spell that can take you back home.”
“Well okay…”
“Good, there’s a scythe in the back. You shouldn’t have too much trouble.”

Melcar closes his door and you walk around the back, which literally looks like a jungle. The grass is almost as high as you are and the scythe is a little too unwieldy and large for you to use properly. Soon tiny purple people appear and angrily throw small stones at you and squeak some sort of jibberish. They apparently don’t like you trying to tear up their home.

You don’t see how you’re ever going to finish this task.
> You run back to tell Melcar
You aren’t going to mess about with a bunch of angry little purple people; you don’t know how dangerous they might be. You head back to the front of the house and knock on the door to get Melcar’s help.

You don’t get an answer, but a short man with a long pink beard comes walking up the steps, he’s your height, but is obviously old. He reminds you of a dwarf. Maybe he is, you are in a different world after all, but the pink beard is really bizarre. There’s another taller man walking behind, but is very disheveled looking. His odor isn’t the best either as he gives off a bad smell and he isn’t even next to you.

“Outta the way boy! I got important business with this charlatan who claims he’s a wizard!” the dwarf exclaims nearly knocking you down.
“Chargrum, are you sure this is a good idea? I mean it was only five gold…”
“ONLY FIVE GOLD? Stinky, you’ve been working for me for how long now and you’re still too dumb to figure out that nobody steals from me? You’ve truly hit an all time low in stupidity!”
“Yeah, but this guy’s a wizard…”
“He’s a charlatan! And even if he was a real wizard, it doesn’t matter because the money for once is the least of my complaints, he’s gotta pay for what he did! That blasted potion turned my beard PINK, or were you too stupid to even notice that Stinky?”
“Okay, I’m just saying…”

Before you can react to all of this, Melcar finally answers the door and addresses you first.

“What’s all this blasted noise? Didn’t I tell you to go clean up my backyard?”
“But there are all these mean little purple people throwing rocks at me!” you say.
“So? They’re just Furms, just stop them, shouldn’t be that hard for you.”
“Nevermind all that, I want my five gold back, look what your potion did to my beard, you charlatan!” the dwarf yells.
“Oh fer…look Chargrum, I said no refunds when I sold you the potion, besides you got what you wanted. Your beard grew a lot longer didn’t it? Don’t like it? Shave it off!”
“WHAT!? Shave off my beard? That’s madness! But no dwarf wants a pink beard! What Dwarven woman would want me like this?”
“(Sigh) Stop pretending that you’re a dwarf! You’re a Halfling that’s just trying to fool Dwarven women! And you’re calling ME a charlatan?”

Chargrum suddenly looks around nervously and then hits Stinky for snickering.

“Shhhh! Alright, alright, keep your voice down! Look, do you have anything to change my beard back to a proper color?”
“Maybe, but…hmm, that doesn’t look good…”

Melcar’s statement and his eyes gazing past his porch cause the rest of you to turn around look where upon you see the sky turning jet black and dark winged creatures begin to descend from it.

“SHADOWS!” Malcar yells at which point you, Chargrum, and Stinky all rush inside before he shuts the door.

“What are shadows doing here? This village isn’t even of any strategic importance to the Nightmare Tyrant!” Chargrum shouts.
“He’s the Nightmare Tyrant, does he need a reason? But I’ll wager they’re looking for him.” Melcar says pointing at you. “They’ll probably try to swarm the house soon, I better prepare this place….I have to go get my spell book!”

After Melcar runs off to go get his book, Chargrum demands and answer from you.

“What did he mean, they’re probably looking for you?”

You hesitantly explain yourself at which point Chargrum gets a look in his eye that makes you uncomfortable.

“So if that’s the case, then the Shadows will probably leave after they get you, well I know how to solve this problem!”

Chargrum advances on you.
> You run away
You run up the stairs of the house, with Chargrum in pursuit.

“Don’t just stand there picking your nose Stinky, help me catch the little runt!” Chargrum shouts.

You reach the second floor and run into one of the rooms locking it behind you. You turn around to see that you’re in a bedroom. Probably Melcar’s no doubt. A single window leads outside. You could escape from it, but you then remember all the Shadows are outside waiting for you in the first place, in fact you can hear their screeching surrounding the house.

A Shadow breaks in the window just as Chargrum bashes the door open and you begin to wish you were anywhere, but here!

No sooner have you thought that, you find yourself in front of Melcar, surprising the pair of you! From the looks of things, you’re in a basement, or lab. You know you’re underground, because you can see there is a stairway leading up and hear Chargrum’s voice coming from above. He’s screaming actually.

“Wha…where did you come from?” Melcar asks.
“I…I dunno! I was running from Chargrum and hiding and then I wished I was someplace else and then I found myself here!”
“Wait. Why was he chasing you?”
“He was trying to throw me to the Shadows!”

No sooner have you said that, when Stinky comes running down the stairs.

“The Shadows are in the house and they took away Chargrum through one of the windows!”
“What?! I just erected a barrier! They shouldn’t be able to get in!”
“Well a few of them have, and Argh! Here they come!” Stinky says as some Shadows come down the stairs hissing and screeching. He quickly runs towards the both of you and behind Melcar.

“Get behind me too, kid.”

A few chants and Melcar unleashes a couple of electrical blasts from his fingers zapping all of the attacking Shadows. They give one last screech before disappearing.

Melcar immediately rushes upstairs to see if there are anymore Shadows, you and Stinky follow closely behind him. After some checking, it would appear that the rest of the Shadows have been kept out and only a few managed to get in before the barrier appeared. You can still hear them still trying to get in though.

“Whew. Okay. That should hold for awhile.” Melcar says collapsing in his chair.
“But what about Chargrum…the Shadows…they…”
“I can’t do anything. They got him and that’s it. But judging by what the kid told me he was trying to do it sounds like he got what he deserved anyway. Besides, I would’ve thought you of all people would’ve been glad to be rid of him, with the way he treated you.”
“I…guess so, but what’re we going to do now?” he asks.
“Dunno yet, but I’m hoping the kid can help out. If he can like I think he can; then we should be fine.”

Now both of you are looking at Melcar wondering what he’s talking about. He sees that he’ll need to explain in more detail.

“Kid, as I said you were brought here by the Nightmare Tyrant due to your strong sense of imagination. However, judging from your recent transportation trick it would appear that your imagination is strong enough to cause things to happen with the mere power of your mind. Yet, it would also appear that your power is limited. You wished you were away from danger, yet only re-appeared in another place in the house. Though my magic barrier was up at that point, so perhaps that has something to do with it. I don’t know…let’s test something.”

Melcar points to another chair.

“Concentrate, and think about that chair being solid gold.”

You aren’t sure about all of this, but you’re interested in this “new power” you’ve acquired so you comply. Perhaps you could try to even wish yourself back home!

You close your eyes, concentrate and wish for the chair to be solid gold, but it’s more difficult than you thought. Your mind is periodically bombarded with images of darkness and grinning Shadows. Eventually you fall to the floor. Melcar helps you up. The chair is still the same, except it has a single gold piece on the seat. Melcar checks to see if it’s real, and then he pockets it.

“Well, just as I thought, it’s unpredictable and weak right now.”
“I…saw Shadows and darkness…” you say still holding your head.
“It looks like the Nightmare Tyrant really wants you; he’s probably linked to you psychically or something. I wouldn’t try to use your power to try to get back home. You’re likely to appear right in his clutches, but if we harness your power a little better, we can at least get rid of this immediate threat of Shadows. Focus on immediate help right now rather than a long term…”

Suddenly Melcar is struck in the back of the head, by a Shadow! It must’ve still been hiding during the search! Melcar collapses and falls. Stinky runs off, leaving the Shadow to turn its attention towards you, hissing aggressively.
> You use your power to try to escape
You attempt to wish yourself elsewhere again, but you failed to heed the warning given by Melcar who stated how such an action might be dangerous, and in this case it was…

Your mind is once again flooded by darkness and Shadows filling you with terror, and causing you to feel pulled towards it. A sinister laugh echoes throughout your head causing you to immediately break your concentration, but the damage is done as you are captured by the Shadow that’s currently in the room with you. At this point your mind is too paralyzed with fear to be of any use, but it knocks you out just to be sure you don’t try to escape again.

Then it, along with its fellows takes you to meet the Nightmare Tyrant, whose laughter you hear once more before he carries out his evil plans for you.


You run up the stairs of the house, with Chargrum in pursuit.

“Don’t just stand there picking your nose Stinky, help me catch the little runt!” Chargrum shouts.

You reach the second floor and run into one of the rooms locking it behind you. You turn around to see that you’re in a bedroom. Probably Melcar’s no doubt. A single window leads outside. You could escape from it, but you then remember all the Shadows are outside waiting for you in the first place, in fact you can hear their screeching surrounding the house.

A Shadow breaks in the window just as Chargrum bashes the door open and you begin to wish you were anywhere, but here!

No sooner have you thought that, you find yourself in front of Melcar, surprising the pair of you! From the looks of things, you’re in a basement, or lab. You know you’re underground, because you can see there is a stairway leading up and hear Chargrum’s voice coming from above. He’s screaming actually.

“Wha…where did you come from?” Melcar asks.
“I…I dunno! I was running from Chargrum and hiding and then I wished I was someplace else and then I found myself here!”
“Wait. Why was he chasing you?”
“He was trying to throw me to the Shadows!”

No sooner have you said that, when Stinky comes running down the stairs.

“The Shadows are in the house and they took away Chargrum through one of the windows!”
“What?! I just erected a barrier! They shouldn’t be able to get in!”
“Well a few of them have, and Argh! Here they come!” Stinky says as some Shadows come down the stairs hissing and screeching. He quickly runs towards the both of you and behind Melcar.

“Get behind me too, kid.”

A few chants and Melcar unleashes a couple of electrical blasts from his fingers zapping all of the attacking Shadows. They give one last screech before disappearing.

Melcar immediately rushes upstairs to see if there are anymore Shadows, you and Stinky follow closely behind him. After some checking, it would appear that the rest of the Shadows have been kept out and only a few managed to get in before the barrier appeared. You can still hear them still trying to get in though.

“Whew. Okay. That should hold for awhile.” Melcar says collapsing in his chair.
“But what about Chargrum…the Shadows…they…”
“I can’t do anything. They got him and that’s it. But judging by what the kid told me he was trying to do it sounds like he got what he deserved anyway. Besides, I would’ve thought you of all people would’ve been glad to be rid of him, with the way he treated you.”
“I…guess so, but what’re we going to do now?” he asks.
“Dunno yet, but I’m hoping the kid can help out. If he can like I think he can; then we should be fine.”

Now both of you are looking at Melcar wondering what he’s talking about. He sees that he’ll need to explain in more detail.

“Kid, as I said you were brought here by the Nightmare Tyrant due to your strong sense of imagination. However, judging from your recent transportation trick it would appear that your imagination is strong enough to cause things to happen with the mere power of your mind. Yet, it would also appear that your power is limited. You wished you were away from danger, yet only re-appeared in another place in the house. Though my magic barrier was up at that point, so perhaps that has something to do with it. I don’t know…let’s test something.”

Melcar points to another chair.

“Concentrate, and think about that chair being solid gold.”

You aren’t sure about all of this, but you’re interested in this “new power” you’ve acquired so you comply. Perhaps you could try to even wish yourself back home!

You close your eyes, concentrate and wish for the chair to be solid gold, but it’s more difficult than you thought. Your mind is periodically bombarded with images of darkness and grinning Shadows. Eventually you fall to the floor. Melcar helps you up. The chair is still the same, except it has a single gold piece on the seat. Melcar checks to see if it’s real, and then he pockets it.

“Well, just as I thought, it’s unpredictable and weak right now.”
“I…saw Shadows and darkness…” you say still holding your head.
“It looks like the Nightmare Tyrant really wants you; he’s probably linked to you psychically or something. I wouldn’t try to use your power to try to get back home. You’re likely to appear right in his clutches, but if we harness your power a little better, we can at least get rid of this immediate threat of Shadows. Focus on immediate help right now rather than a long term…”

Suddenly Melcar is struck in the back of the head, by a Shadow! It must’ve still been hiding during the search! Melcar collapses and falls. Stinky runs off, leaving the Shadow to turn its attention towards you, hissing aggressively.
> You use your power to fight back
You have to fight back, as escape is not an option. You don’t even concentrate; you just wish you had something to defeat this creature!

Suddenly a glowing sword appears in your hand. You also feel somewhat different, as if you have been trained to use one before. The Shadow steps back a bit, but then attack anyway. You take one swing at it and strike a powerful blow causing it to completely disappear.

You hear more coming in from the second floor again. The barrier must be weak in that area. Seeing as Melcar’s out of it, you’re going to have to reinforce it yourself.

“Stinky! Stop hiding and try to bring Melcar back around so he can help! I’m going to get rid of these Shadows!” you order as you run upstairs.

More Shadows are eager to carry out the will of their master, but you’re better prepared for them now physically as well as mentally. You strike down the first one coming down the hallway, and then the second one, and then the next, until you get back to the bedroom that you teleported from. You can see that the same window that the Shadows broke through before is where the barrier is also “broken”. The blue glow of the magic barrier is non-existent there.

Before more Shadows can get in, you begin to wish for the barrier to be repaired. While you attempt this task, you begin to hear the taunts of the Shadows trying to fill you with doubt. You also hear a more sinister voice, one that carries fear directly to your mind.

“Little fool! Do you actually think this is going to stop me? Your attempts only delay the inevitable. Eventually you WILL be mine!”

This evil presence in your mind causes you to break your concentration. You’re a little shaken by hearing the voice of the Nightmare Tyrant and you’ve failed to repair the barrier and now more Shadows are climbing in. Fortunately, Melcar has regained consciousness and has appeared to help.

Melcar zaps the Shadows and with a few mumbling chants the barrier is repaired. Before you thank him, you notice that he’s soaking wet.

“Uh…”
“Yeah I know, I’m all wet. Stinky nearly drowned me in his attempt to wake me up. Pity he doesn’t immerse himself in as much water! Still, I guess it worked.” Melcar replies.

“I heard the Nightmare Tyrant’s voice in my head.”
“Not surprised. He’s probably trying to prevent you from using your power. He’s able to focus in on you better because you’ve been in the same location for a long time. I’d suggest moving, but given that we’re surrounded by Shadows, that’s not really an option anymore.”
“Look, can’t YOU just send me back home? I mean that’s what you said you’d do if I had cleared your backyard.”
“Uh, yeah…about that. I was just kind of being lazy. I just didn’t want to be bothered to do it. In fact I had a list of other chores I was going to have you do if you finished that one.”
“What!? You lied? You mean your wife was right about you being a charlatan?”
“AM I NOT! I AM a wizard! I erected this barrier didn’t I? Though maybe my wife is right about one thing, I am lazy. (Sigh) I guess I’m paying for my sloth now. If I’d just cleared out the backyard myself, instead of having you do it, the Shadows wouldn’t have arrived. Bah, no time to worry about the past now, we need to solve this problem. Okay, I’ll try to get you back home, without you around, the Shadows won’t be around either. I know I have some sort of portal spell in one of my books somewhere. I’ve never had any reason to use it before though and those types of spells are very taxing. I would definitely have to take down the barrier first and of course you know what that means and I still don’t know if the spell will be successful, like I said I’ve never cast one before.”
‘Is there anything we can do to slow down the Shadows?” you ask.

“Well, we can barricade the house properly before I take the magic barrier down which will take us some time, but it’s safer. We’ll have to hope the Shadows don’t break in quickly though. The second way is if we actually try to destroy all the Shadows currently out there, before I start the portal spell. In this case we’ll have to hope that the Nightmare Tyrant can’t summon reinforcements quick enough.”
> You barricade the house
You might have new abilities, but they’re still limited. Fighting a bunch of Shadows is just going to tire you and Melcar out and Melcar needs all of his energy to cast the portal spell.

“Let’s barricade the house.” You say.
“Alright, but I have to look for that spell first, so you’ll be doing most of the barricading. Hopefully it doesn’t take me too long.”
“Oh, well maybe I can get Stinky to help me.”
“Good idea, I would imagine he’ll be able to at least be useful in that aspect. Make sure you stay focused and block out any of those Shadow tricks or anything the Nightmare Tyrant might try to do to your mind.”

You take Melcar’s advice and go talk to Stinky. He’s still in a state of panic, and gibbering about the Shadows trying to get in.

“Hey, help me barricade the house.”
“But what good will that do? Trapping ourselves in won’t help! They’ll get in eventually!”
“Look, we’ve got a plan so that the Shadows won’t bother you ever again, but I need you to pull it off and that involves you helping me barricade the house! You’re braver than you think Stinky, look at me, I didn’t think I could fight the Shadows either and I did.”
“Yeah, but I don’t have any powers like you do and Chargrum always said that I was too…”
“Chargrum isn’t around anymore to abuse you, so his opinion doesn’t matter, in fact it never did. You’re better off not thinking about anything he might’ve said about you. You can do this. Now’s the time to prove yourself.”

Your inspiring words make Stinky feel more confident in himself, probably for the first time in his life. He immediately thanks you, and begins to help you barricade the house. You spend a whole day doing this mainly because Melcar has a really hard time finding anything in his disorganized lab. You mainly focus on the task at hand as does Stinky, but your thoughts briefly wander about your home. If…no WHEN you get back home, you don’t know how you’re going to explain your disappearance to your Mom. You can’t dwell on such things too much though, you need to keep yourself alert.

Eventually Melcar comes back up from his lab.

“Found it. Now I’m going to go back down into the basement and begin the spell because it’ll be the safest place I’ll be able to cast it. I hope your barricades are strong enough to hold because I won’t be able to fight Shadows AND cast this spell. If the Shadows do manage to break in, well its going to be up to you to fight them off.”
“And me…” Stinky pipes up.
“…well, this is a surprise. Okay, the both of you then, here Stinky you’ll need something magical to fight them.” Melcar hands Stinky a wand of some sort. “Make the shots count, because I forget how many charges it has left in it. Okay I would suggest you two guard the basement doorway and when I tell you the portal is open that will be your cue to make haste into it, because again, I don’t know how long I can keep it open. You guys ready?”

You and Stinky nod.

“Okay, I’m going to dispel the barrier.”

Melcar makes a few chanting noises and the barrier goes down where upon you hear the Shadows howling in excitement and start trying to bash their way in. You all retreat back to the basement, where you and Stinky prepare yourselves for an attack and Melcar begins to cast the Portal Spell.

All seems to be going smoothly, but then you hear the inevitable break in, and the first Shadows attempt to recapture you. Fortunately you’re in a good position to fight them. They can’t overwhelm or sneak up on you. After striking a few down, a smaller Shadow appears and sounds painfully familiar…

“YOU did this to me! Now I’ll do what I wanted to do in the first place! Throw you to the Nightmare Tyrant!” Chargrum hisses in his new Shadow form.

You take a swing at Chargrum, but you miss and end up falling off balance causing you to fall down the steps! You’re hurt, and very dizzy, but you can see Stinky trying to fight off Chargrum. He discharges a bolt from the wand, but once again Chargrum proves to be very nimble in his new form and knocks it out of his hand and him to the floor.

“Outta the way Stinky! When ya get turned into one of us, I’ll make sure to really punish you, for you traitor!”

Chargrum races down the stairs towards you, just as you see Stinky getting swarmed by other Shadows at the top of the stairs. You roll out the way of Chargrum’s clutches and pick your sword back up.

“Better put down those Shadows quickly! I’m not near done yet!” Melcar shouts from his own position after seeing you engaged in combat with Chargrum.

You strike down a couple more Shadows, but Chargrum continues to prove to be faster. He manages to knock you down again and jumps on top of you as your sword is separated from you.

“The Nightmare Tyrant wants to relay a message to you!” he hisses and you feel the sinister voice of Tyrant entering your mind again.

“You’ve lost! You cannot defeat me, I am everywhere. You WILL submit and become my servant!”

The Nightmare Tyrant is attempting to break your will and fill you with terror again, but it’s not going to work this time, you can feel that victory is almost near and the Tyrant probably feels it too. He knows that if you get away back to your own world that he’ll never be able to try to get you ever again. You won’t be beaten after coming this far, all you need is a distraction to help you get your sword back and Chargrum off of you…

And with that thought in mind, Stinky comes from out of nowhere and zaps Chargrum point blank in the back with his wand. He screeches horribly as he disappears before your eyes.

“Should’ve watched your back around a traitor like me, Chargrum.” Stinky smirks as you scramble to retrieve your sword.

You strike down a few more Shadows, and try to hold them back at the bottom of the stairway. Stinky’s wand has run out of charges, but the better news is that Melcar has completed the portal spell! A large blue portal opens up. Now you can hear the Nightmare Tyrant very clearly.

“NO! GET THE BOY! NOW!” he roars.

“It’s open! Get in quick! I don’t know how long it will hold!” Melcar shouts.

“Go! We’ll be alright! We can hold them off!” Stinky adds.
“I can’t leave you without a weapon!” you shout and hand Stinky the sword, at which point he hands you the used up wand.
“It’s not much, but think of it as a souvenir! Thanks for your help!” he shouts as fights off more Shadows coming down the stairs.

You run towards the portal and give Melcar a look before jumping in.

“Stinky’s right, we’ll be fine, though I’m sure my wife will yell at me for destroying half the house! Get in!”

You’re sort of worried about Stinky and Melcar, but you realize you have to go now. The Nightmare Tyrant bellows again to his minions about not letting you escape as you run for the portal and entering it.

You are enveloped by blackness followed by swirling colored lights. It’s all so strange and overwhelming to you that you pass out.

“Hey! I told you breakfast is ready, are you going to sleep all day?” you hear your Mom call from downstairs as you awaken in surprise.

You quickly look around your room and nothing looks out of place. Your Mom hasn’t seemed to notice that you were gone; in fact it doesn’t look like you even left.

Was it all a dream?

You shake your head trying to decide if it was, then you notice a small rod on the floor next to the toys you set up yesterday. It’s the used up wand and oddly it’s right next to a couple of figures, one holding a sword and another with his hands positioned to cast a spell. They strangely have a tired, but yet relieved look on their faces.

It wasn’t a dream. It was real. Created by the power of your own imagination. You decide you’ll keep this information to yourself though, since nobody would ever believe it!

You had an interesting adventure, but you’re glad to be home you think as you go downstairs to eat.


You have to fight back, as escape is not an option. You don’t even concentrate; you just wish you had something to defeat this creature!

Suddenly a glowing sword appears in your hand. You also feel somewhat different, as if you have been trained to use one before. The Shadow steps back a bit, but then attack anyway. You take one swing at it and strike a powerful blow causing it to completely disappear.

You hear more coming in from the second floor again. The barrier must be weak in that area. Seeing as Melcar’s out of it, you’re going to have to reinforce it yourself.

“Stinky! Stop hiding and try to bring Melcar back around so he can help! I’m going to get rid of these Shadows!” you order as you run upstairs.

More Shadows are eager to carry out the will of their master, but you’re better prepared for them now physically as well as mentally. You strike down the first one coming down the hallway, and then the second one, and then the next, until you get back to the bedroom that you teleported from. You can see that the same window that the Shadows broke through before is where the barrier is also “broken”. The blue glow of the magic barrier is non-existent there.

Before more Shadows can get in, you begin to wish for the barrier to be repaired. While you attempt this task, you begin to hear the taunts of the Shadows trying to fill you with doubt. You also hear a more sinister voice, one that carries fear directly to your mind.

“Little fool! Do you actually think this is going to stop me? Your attempts only delay the inevitable. Eventually you WILL be mine!”

This evil presence in your mind causes you to break your concentration. You’re a little shaken by hearing the voice of the Nightmare Tyrant and you’ve failed to repair the barrier and now more Shadows are climbing in. Fortunately, Melcar has regained consciousness and has appeared to help.

Melcar zaps the Shadows and with a few mumbling chants the barrier is repaired. Before you thank him, you notice that he’s soaking wet.

“Uh…”
“Yeah I know, I’m all wet. Stinky nearly drowned me in his attempt to wake me up. Pity he doesn’t immerse himself in as much water! Still, I guess it worked.” Melcar replies.

“I heard the Nightmare Tyrant’s voice in my head.”
“Not surprised. He’s probably trying to prevent you from using your power. He’s able to focus in on you better because you’ve been in the same location for a long time. I’d suggest moving, but given that we’re surrounded by Shadows, that’s not really an option anymore.”
“Look, can’t YOU just send me back home? I mean that’s what you said you’d do if I had cleared your backyard.”
“Uh, yeah…about that. I was just kind of being lazy. I just didn’t want to be bothered to do it. In fact I had a list of other chores I was going to have you do if you finished that one.”
“What!? You lied? You mean your wife was right about you being a charlatan?”
“AM I NOT! I AM a wizard! I erected this barrier didn’t I? Though maybe my wife is right about one thing, I am lazy. (Sigh) I guess I’m paying for my sloth now. If I’d just cleared out the backyard myself, instead of having you do it, the Shadows wouldn’t have arrived. Bah, no time to worry about the past now, we need to solve this problem. Okay, I’ll try to get you back home, without you around, the Shadows won’t be around either. I know I have some sort of portal spell in one of my books somewhere. I’ve never had any reason to use it before though and those types of spells are very taxing. I would definitely have to take down the barrier first and of course you know what that means and I still don’t know if the spell will be successful, like I said I’ve never cast one before.”
‘Is there anything we can do to slow down the Shadows?” you ask.

“Well, we can barricade the house properly before I take the magic barrier down which will take us some time, but it’s safer. We’ll have to hope the Shadows don’t break in quickly though. The second way is if we actually try to destroy all the Shadows currently out there, before I start the portal spell. In this case we’ll have to hope that the Nightmare Tyrant can’t summon reinforcements quick enough.”
> You destroy the Shadows
You want to get home and away from this place as soon as possible. You feel with your sword and new abilities along with Melcar’s help you should be able to take care of them.

“Let’s destroy the Shadows!” you say.
“Alright, but let me look for that spell first, because after we’ve destroyed the Shadows, we’re going to want to cast the portal as soon as possible. Shouldn’t take me too long.”
“Okay, what about Stinky?”
“Stinky? He won’t be of any help! He’ll probably be hiding in the house the whole time! I’ll go look for that spell, you just get yourself prepared, because this won’t be easy.”

You take Melcar’s advice and begin to get yourself in a proper frame of mind; in fact you spend a day doing this since Melcar has a really hard time finding anything in his disorganized lab. Stinky is constantly in a state of panic, and gibbering about the Shadows trying to get in, making it harder for you to keep yourself calm.

Eventually Melcar comes back up from his lab.

“Found it; alright let’s get rid of these Shadows quickly. I’m going to dispel the barrier.”

Melcar makes a few chanting noises and the barrier goes down where upon you hear the Shadows howling in excitement and start bashing their way in, and in the case of some already get in through the upstairs window.

You and Melcar begin to fight the Shadows, while Stinky goes off to hide, though it doesn’t do him much go since the Shadows at this point are intent on not just getting you, but now everyone in the house, eventually all of his running and hiding attempts fail as you see him being dragged off by a few Shadows, you attempt to stop them, but nearly get yourself captured in the process.

This ordeal is very tiring as the Shadows seem to be more numerous than you thought. Melcar eventually exhausts his spell power and is reduced to beating the Shadows with a magic wand. You briefly worry about him being able to cast the portal spell, but as it turns out, that will be the least of your worries.

A shorter Shadow suddenly jumps on your back; it begins to taunt you as it attempts to wrestle you down. The voice is very familiar…

“YOU did this to me! Now I’ll do what I wanted to do in the first place! Throw you to the Nightmare Tyrant!” Chargrum hisses in his new Shadow form.

While you manage to get him off and strike him down, Chargrum was able to distract you long enough for other Shadows to overwhelm you, and your sword is separated from you. The blackness has now enveloped you and your worry has now become terror and you can’t think straight. You call out for Melcar to help, but he too has been overwhelmed.

The sinister laugh now fills your mind, paralyzing it, and soon all is forever shadows when you are taken directly to the Nightmare Tyrant.


You aren’t going to mess about with a bunch of angry little purple people; you don’t know how dangerous they might be. You head back to the front of the house and knock on the door to get Melcar’s help.

You don’t get an answer, but a short man with a long pink beard comes walking up the steps, he’s your height, but is obviously old. He reminds you of a dwarf. Maybe he is, you are in a different world after all, but the pink beard is really bizarre. There’s another taller man walking behind, but is very disheveled looking. His odor isn’t the best either as he gives off a bad smell and he isn’t even next to you.

“Outta the way boy! I got important business with this charlatan who claims he’s a wizard!” the dwarf exclaims nearly knocking you down.
“Chargrum, are you sure this is a good idea? I mean it was only five gold…”
“ONLY FIVE GOLD? Stinky, you’ve been working for me for how long now and you’re still too dumb to figure out that nobody steals from me? You’ve truly hit an all time low in stupidity!”
“Yeah, but this guy’s a wizard…”
“He’s a charlatan! And even if he was a real wizard, it doesn’t matter because the money for once is the least of my complaints, he’s gotta pay for what he did! That blasted potion turned my beard PINK, or were you too stupid to even notice that Stinky?”
“Okay, I’m just saying…”

Before you can react to all of this, Melcar finally answers the door and addresses you first.

“What’s all this blasted noise? Didn’t I tell you to go clean up my backyard?”
“But there are all these mean little purple people throwing rocks at me!” you say.
“So? They’re just Furms, just stop them, shouldn’t be that hard for you.”
“Nevermind all that, I want my five gold back, look what your potion did to my beard, you charlatan!” the dwarf yells.
“Oh fer…look Chargrum, I said no refunds when I sold you the potion, besides you got what you wanted. Your beard grew a lot longer didn’t it? Don’t like it? Shave it off!”
“WHAT!? Shave off my beard? That’s madness! But no dwarf wants a pink beard! What Dwarven woman would want me like this?”
“(Sigh) Stop pretending that you’re a dwarf! You’re a Halfling that’s just trying to fool Dwarven women! And you’re calling ME a charlatan?”

Chargrum suddenly looks around nervously and then hits Stinky for snickering.

“Shhhh! Alright, alright, keep your voice down! Look, do you have anything to change my beard back to a proper color?”
“Maybe, but…hmm, that doesn’t look good…”

Melcar’s statement and his eyes gazing past his porch cause the rest of you to turn around look where upon you see the sky turning jet black and dark winged creatures begin to descend from it.

“SHADOWS!” Malcar yells at which point you, Chargrum, and Stinky all rush inside before he shuts the door.

“What are shadows doing here? This village isn’t even of any strategic importance to the Nightmare Tyrant!” Chargrum shouts.
“He’s the Nightmare Tyrant, does he need a reason? But I’ll wager they’re looking for him.” Melcar says pointing at you. “They’ll probably try to swarm the house soon, I better prepare this place….I have to go get my spell book!”

After Melcar runs off to go get his book, Chargrum demands and answer from you.

“What did he mean, they’re probably looking for you?”

You hesitantly explain yourself at which point Chargrum gets a look in his eye that makes you uncomfortable.

“So if that’s the case, then the Shadows will probably leave after they get you, well I know how to solve this problem!”

Chargrum advances on you.
> You fight him
Chargrum is your height so you think you can fight him off, however you’re forgetting that he still has the strength of someone a lot older than you, he easily fends off your attack and grabs you by the scruff.

“Stinky open the door! We gotta get rid of this Shadow magnet! NOW!”

Stinky fumbles with the door while you protest and struggle, but its no use, Chargrum has already thrown you outside to the Shadows.

When you pick yourself up, you’re stricken with mind paralyzing fear as a large group of grinning Shadows encircle and capture you.

They take you back to the Nightmare Tyrant who has no intention of getting rid of you.

Ever.


“Look at the birds, Mommy!” a child’s voice exclaims.

You snap awake, checking for your weapons automatically before you remember you’re on a civilian transport.

“Bout time, Zee. We left underspace half an hour ago,” Hinsman says from beside you. “Smooth as butter. They have stabilizers set up here now, I didn’t know that. This system’s really had some work put into it since I was here last.”

In his fifties but not yet looking his age, he’s supposed to be dressed as an asteroid speculator out on holiday and is struggling in the narrow confines of his seat to tug his coat on. Hinsman’s on the short side, and the garment is a couple of sizes too big. All around you others, tourists, businessmen, and families, are starting to collect their things as well.

“Anyway, just waiting on our transfer now.”

You unsnap your safety belt. “Okay.”

Hinsman’s got the aisle seat, just one more factor in his unspoken role in keeping you from too much direct contact with the public. Fine by you. Your job has always been to protect these people, not make conversation. Gazing out the window, you have a good view of the green planet. Camarov IV. It’s supposed to be beautiful, but it’s not like you’re here to sightsee. This is just your fastest route back to work.

The Order cruiser you’d been using got enough of a beating on your last mission it needed to be taken to a real shipyard for repairs, and meanwhile this transport was headed directly for Camarov and had two vacancies. There’s another Order ship en route to here which you’ll transfer to to be taken back to the Outer Rim. You’ll never even set foot on this planet.

There is a gentle thud as the landing ship locks on and the crew starts shepherding passengers towards the exit. Hinsman combs his dark hair and tends to the mustache he’s been cultivating. You just sit and wait.

Both of your wrist comms beep at the same time, and you see the Order ship has left underspace. There’s a little flurry among the crew when it requests to lock on, but Hinsman flashes a badge and his signature smile and the two of you transfer over without incident.

Once aboard, the ship unlocks and moves to a safe distance for a jump. Then there’s a delay as the pilot seems to have no intention of leaving until he downloads whatever media Camarov IV has to offer. Images of green hills and misty lakes and crystal spires and dancers on a stage and some sort of historical reimagining of Old Earth tumble across the viewscreen.

The pilot, Karoff, is middle aged, tall and with thinning blond hair just starting to shade to grey. His mustache however is much more impressive than Hinsman’s. You’ve worked with him before. You don't always get his sense of humor, but he's okay.

The next stop will be The Last Outpost for refueling, then you'll be taken along a scenic tour alternating between the most boring and dangerous parts of the Outer Rim as you go down the list fulfilling your various obligations there and being available to lend assistance in emergencies.

You lean against the wall and mentally check out until it’s time to strap in for the jump to underspace. Hinsman was right, the in system stabilizers do improve the experience quite a bit.

*****

The Last Outpost is dark when you approach.

“Well that’s not a good sign,” Karoff mutters. The station floats in place like a fat black spider against the pale backdrop of the system’s single barren planetoid. Karoff makes a few adjustments to make your approach less obvious and then starts running scans from a distance. It took you nearly a week to get out this far from Camarov and you’re all aware that if there’s trouble it’ll be just as long before you can find any backup.

The Last Outpost was once a research hospital on the edge of protected space. Now it’s a ways past the official line, although after the rollback it persisted as a stopover and fueling station for both the military and any junker the colony worlds could put together to evacuate in. Officially out of service and abandoned now as far as anyone outside the Order is supposed to know, it’s still got enough automated defenses that any scavengers looking for scrap will be sent packing in a hurry. Or it used to, anyway. Hinsman is frowning over the console now too.

“That’s a lot of damage.”

“Pirates?”

Hinsman shakes his head. “I don’t think so. The way some of the plating is buckled, this looks like a string of explosions from the inside. Mostly just in that one arm, but the defenses are offline and there’s no more than basic life support anywhere on the station.”

There’s a soft beep as a scan is completed.

“One life sign,” Karoff grunts.

“Even if they pulled out everyone on mission, there should’ve be at least three here for maintenance still.” Hinsman joins you at the window as he finishes speaking and stares across the distance. “But...I’ll hail them I suppose.”

“You sure?”

“Might as well. Doesn’t look like they have much left to shoot at us anyway.”

“Let’s hope appearances aren’t deceiving.”
> You inquiry
Karoff looks tense as Hinsman tries to contact the station. There’s a long wait with no reply. He frowns and tries once again using Order passcodes.

A green light blinks on, and then a moment later a haggard-looking blonde woman with high cheekbones and thin lips appears on the viewscreen with a crackling of static. “So someone finally did show up.”

The woman’s voice is flat and blank. She’s young and might have been pretty under other circumstances, but her eyes have dark rings under them, her face is sallow and her hair hasn’t seen a brush in awhile. She dips a spoon in a tub of drippy, melting ice cream while staring at the screen indifferently.

Karoff pulls up her ID while Hinsman coughs and clears his throat. “Ah...you’re Matti Oswen, correct?”

“Yeah.”

“I’m Agent Hinsman. We were just stopping over on our way into the Rim, but it looks like you’ve had a bit of trouble here. Do you need assistance?” He keeps his tone light and injects a note of friendly concern.

She blinks at him owlishly a moment, then sets the ice cream aside and scratches lightly at the side of her neck. “I sent out a call, but the computer lost power and I’m not sure it went through. That was...almost a week ago, I think.”

“You’re a maintenance worker, correct? What happened here, Matti? And where are the others?”

“Inea and Markov? Oh, they’re dead.” Her voice is still flat and strangely disinterested.

Karoff dutifully pulls up their IDs as well. Their new status as deceased hasn’t been updated in the Order database yet, anyhow, and as the three of you have heard nothing regarding the damage to the station or a rescue attempt you can only assume her distress signal never did make it out.

Oswen continues only after Hinsman prompts her again. “Inea had an accident while doing repairs and Markov killed himself and tried to take the rest of the station with him a couple of days later. I rerouted the power to redirect the blast just in time, but most of the generators still blew. I’ve been sitting around in the dark and trying to eat everything in the freezers before it all spoils, and then figuring I’d inject myself with something before the oxygen fails.”

Hinsmans voice is soothing. “Well I’m sorry you had to go through that Matti, but you’ll be safe now. We’re going to send out a request for help and then lock on to see what we can do about repairs in the meantime. We can route enough power over to make sure life support holds up, anyway.

“Whatever.”

Once the call is cut, a distress signal is sent back to headquarters along with a short recorded message. The three of you briefly go over the situation.

Hinsman sums it all up. “It’ll be a few days before anyone can arrive to help, and we can’t leave until then. Even if no survivors were here, the station itself is vulnerable and hell, it’s probably more necessary to the Order than any of us, if we’re being honest. Although this Oswen woman...she might be in shock, or there might be something else going on there. Not sure we can trust her.”

Karoff spits out the end of his mustache. “We’re gonna get in there and find out the bitch slit their throats and made bikini tops out of their skin. Seen it happen before.”

You look at him. “Really?”

“Ahh, well not the skinning for bikinis part, but people get assigned to an out of the way place like this too long, they can just snap and start killing each other. Or there maybe was some kind of love triangle going on that turned nasty. And not the good kind of nasty,” he adds, apparently feeling the need to clarify.

“Well I guess we’re just going to have to risk our skins then,” Hinsman says with a slight roll of his eyes. “Or you and I anyway, Karoff. But Zee, you were always going to be working alone anyhow. You won’t have us standing by in orbit if you go on by yourself, but there’s nothing stopping you from suiting up and taking a spare shuttle, if the job is urgent enough.”

“Still may be awhile before we know exactly how bad the damage is to the Outpost,” Karoff points out. “She could be needed here.”

“True, but...Zee, I guess this one is going to be your call. I don’t have details on the mission you’ve been requested for, so what’s protocol here?”

This would all be simpler if you could directly contact a commander, of course, but out here that’s rarely possible and having to make decisions like this on the fly is part of the job.

ORDER when it started out stood for Outer Rim Defense, Evaluation and Research. The joke everyone likes to make is how when the Hunger virus appeared on the scene the E stood for Evacuation, and then finally Eradication.

Of course that’s the part you’re all still working on. And it’s not actually all that funny.

The Order is the peacekeeping force out past the edge of protected space, although not in any kind of official capacity anymore. A little over twenty years ago when the Hunger virus was at its peak and blazing from planet to planet, the border was rolled back and then rolled back again. Colonies and mining facilities, trading stations and outposts were cut off in the midst of the chaos and anyone who wouldn’t or couldn’t evacuate was left to fend for themselves.

Some of the Order agents were recalled back to New Terra, but for many more this was their home, this was just what they did. Momentum and habit went a long way and the organization already had enough ships, stations and equipment out here to continue operating much as they always had. If anything they were more effective now that the bureaucracy and red tape had been stripped away, although that sometimes birthed its own kind of controversy.

Independent, isolated colonies and small time miners and traders had no one to protect them from piracy, not to mention the trade consortiums that amounted to a more organized version of the same thing. They welcomed the Order’s presence on one hand while resenting anything they perceived as meddling in their own affairs on another. In areas where the line between New Terra and frontier authorities blurred, certain parties also never failed to point out that the Order had no more jurisdiction than any other private organization; outside of the ancient one of might making right and the bit about possession and how it related to law, anyhow.

And although on paper the organization kept to the same laws and standards they had from the beginning, they were just as on their own out here as anyone and had to see to their own people’s interests and protection as well. New blood could be hard enough to find as it was without asking it to spill itself simply because it was the right thing to do. About the only thing anyone could agree on was that the Order were the only ones equipped to really do anything about the Hunger virus and so they should be left to it, no questions asked.

So thankfully, politics and the rest of that nonsense aren’t anything you ever have to concern yourself with. All you do is your job, and all you worry about is doing it well. Right now that means making a judgment call on where you’ll be the most effective. And right now, that does seem to be here. Nothing you were given indicated anyone was in direct danger, and the Last Outpost is as valuable to the Order as any of the other facilities you were asked to check on, and far more strategically important. The refueling station is what makes these little forays out in this area of Rim possible in the first place.
> You secure the station.
You indicate to the others that you’ll stay for now and Karoff directs the ship on a route toward the station. It makes sense to at least do a cursory inspection of the damage and make sure that at least life support will hold up. And of course there’s the other issue of the alleged sabotage and personnel having been lost under circumstances still waiting to be confirmed. Leaving just two operatives to handle it all isn’t ideal.

Of the station’s eight arms, the docking bay is luckily on the side that’s suffered the least damage. Karoff locks on without incident and the panels of the reinforced portal retract with a gentle whirring. Beyond, the station is dark and cold. You all file out and make your way out of the landing bay and down a hallway with the aid of flashlights. With what little power remains rerouted to life support, the portal to the central complex refuse to open. Attempts to contact Oswen on a short range channel fail, and so Hinsman finally gets the door moving with the aid of his gun; wiring the energy cell to the panel next to it, that is. At the jolt of power it snaps open with sudden speed, then begins to close again in slow motion and grinds to a halt about a third of the way. The three of you squeeze past and before long find yourselves in an open area, a kind of joint dining hall and exercise room with dead video screens lining the walls.

The kitchen area behind the dining hall is a disaster zone of empty plastic trays, overflowing trash bins and spoiled food. There’s no sign of Matti although you do find her abandoned ice cream bucket. The three of you begin to search area by area. Although reluctant to split up, you do move a bit faster than the others and take to checking into rooms and around corners ahead of them.

A pool of vivid crimson against the polished grey tile is your first confirmation that something has gone wrong. You race forward to Matti Oswen’s crumpled form and check her pulse, clamping another hand down on the stub of her severed arm. Lifting the woman from the ground and calling out to the others, you splash your way through the blood, tracking it behind you while more soaks into your uniform.

A medical station was one of the places the three of you had already searched, so you hasten to it and deposit her on a steel table, keeping your grip just above the wound while Hinsman activates the computer.

“This nursing AI was obsolete fifteen years ago,” he grumbles, taking a protective suit from a persistently dinging open door and yanking it on over his clothes.

“Isn’t that a bit of overkill?” Karoff asks, watching him.

Hinsman’s response is muffled through the breathing filter. “It won’t let me even proceed without it. This place was last used to quarantine evacuees exposed to Hunger, there’s no such thing as overkill as far as the computer is concerned. Just be glad the whole station isn’t set to self destruct the moment someone gets a paper cut.” He pauses a moment to apply a tourniquet. “Now...Zee, you step back, it hates you too.”

Karoff looks at you and snorts. “I imagine so. You look like you just left the scene of an axe murder.”

You’d already moved away at Hinsman’s order, and now you ruefully wipe you face, hoping to achieve a clean spot. Karoff’s ensuing guffaw informs you you probably just made the situation worse.

“I’ll go clean up the mess in the hall...and myself,” you say, turning to go.

“Zee, wait, wait, Miss Oswen is going to need an arm transplant, don’t you think?”

You blink at Karoff. “Are you serious?”

This just provokes more laughter.

Hinsman, who has been preoccupied with the soothing voice of the medical AI and the use of instruments taken out of little drawers that have been popping open in sequence, now shakes his head at the two of you as he changes to clean gloves. “I’m not that good a doctor, I’m afraid. Zee, you go on.”

He snaps his fingers at Karoff and in the other hand produces an oversized needle, like a magician’s trick. “But I will need a blood donor, and guess who’s compatible?”

Already on your way out, you turn and get a glimpse of the pilot’s grimace as the door slides shut between you.

Cleaning up is a tedious but straightforward affair. You scrub yourself down and change into a plain grey jumpsuit you find before returning to the scene of the accident and getting to work.
> You dispose of the severed arm
It seems Oswen had been trying to unjam a door that leads to one of the station’s storage arms, in much the same way Hinsman had gotten you all into the central complex earlier. It was her misfortune that upon receiving a jolt from a maintenance tool the door had snapped shut, meaning it had been open to begin with.

There’s enough juice left to get it back to where it was and you carefully retrieve the severed limb on the other side, slipping it into a biohazard bag. Taking a moment to confirm with Hinsman there’s nothing he can do as far as reattaching it, you consider your options for disposal. An incinerator would the most straightforward, but those require an amount of energy that seems wasteful if not impossible to produce given the station’s current reliance on emergency backup power for life support.

You remember then the walk in freezer in the kitchen behind the dining hall. At least that would keep it from rotting if it takes longer that expected to get the power on full. The room isn’t able to maintain freezing temps anymore but it’s still noticeably colder than the rest of the station, and the rest of the station is cold enough. Placing the bagged arm on a shelf, you halt a moment as your gaze fixes on the two bundled forms in the back. So you weren’t the first one to have the idea to use the place as an impromptu morgue. These must be the bodies of the other two maintenance workers, Inea and Markov.
> You inspect the bodies
Opening the largest body bag first, you briefly examine Markov. Evidence of cuts, burns, and some bits of broken glass still embedded in the skin seem consistent with him having been in the vicinity of an explosion, although there were a lot of unanswered questions in Matti’s brief explanation. Further details will have to wait till she’s conscious again, you suppose.

You zip the bag back up and turn your attention to Inea. The dark haired woman’s cause of death is immediately obvious, her skull on the left side having been caved in just above and behind the ear. ‘An accident while doing repairs’ was how Matti had described her death. While you can’t yet find anything to contradict that, as you probe along the edges of the splintered bits of skull and cold globs of brain matter it seems to you it would’ve taken an awful lot of force concentrated in that one spot all at once to do that kind of damage.

Then again, Matti had nearly managed to kill herself as well. You wonder what sort of accident it was supposed to have been. It’s almost incredible to you that three people so incompetent had been left in charge of such an important Outpost. It’s true that space is a big place and Order agents and personnel are stretched thin, but in your experience it’s rare for things to go this spectacularly wrong without someone being at fault.

Finding nothing more of note, you close up that body bag too and then exit the freezer. Grabbing a mop from the corner of the kitchen and filling up a bucket, you make your way back to where you’d found Matti and go to work on the rapidly drying blood. The blood has begun to dry and it’s obvious this will take awhile so you clear out your mind and focus on the task.
> Back to the nursing station
Matti is asleep. Hinsman is seated at a table near the bed, freshly showered and changed into a grey jumpsuit identical to yours and looking exhausted. Karoff is nowhere to be seen.

“He’s back on the ship seeing how much power we can spare,” Hinsman tells you, before you can ask. “This medical station’s about the only thing working as intended in this place right now. We need to at least get the computers up before we can figure out what all needs to be repaired and how. It’d be really great if we had a maintenance worker familiar with the place to talk to, but...” He inclines his head toward the young woman’s supine form and shrugs. The end of what’s left of her arm is neatly wrapped in bandages, but her face looks pale and strained even in her sleep and her eyes twitch restlessly behind her lids.

Briefly you relate what you’d discovered.

“The plot thickens,” he mutters, then gestures toward the computer. “Why don’t you see what you can find there as far as internal records on these three?”

You nod and take a seat, flashing your wrist at the sensor. The computer blips once and you’re in. You have a pretty high clearance. Higher even than Hinsman’s you suspect, although that’s not really a thing you’re supposed to ask anyone about. Retrieving sensitive data from wrecked Order ships or evacuated command stations is one of the things you need to be able to do with no fuss when required, and your superiors know this.
> You look up Inea
Name: Inea Banca
Eyes: brown
Hair: black
Height: 5’9”
Weight: 145
Age: 46
Other: tattoo on right forearm
Origin: Camarov IV
Skills: fringe space station maintenance
Years service: 9


Matti is asleep. Hinsman is seated at a table near the bed, freshly showered and changed into a grey jumpsuit identical to yours and looking exhausted. Karoff is nowhere to be seen.

“He’s back on the ship seeing how much power we can spare,” Hinsman tells you, before you can ask. “This medical station’s about the only thing working as intended in this place right now. We need to at least get the computers up before we can figure out what all needs to be repaired and how. It’d be really great if we had a maintenance worker familiar with the place to talk to, but...” He inclines his head toward the young woman’s supine form and shrugs. The end of what’s left of her arm is neatly wrapped in bandages, but her face looks pale and strained even in her sleep and her eyes twitch restlessly behind her lids.

Briefly you relate what you’d discovered.

“The plot thickens,” he mutters, then gestures toward the computer. “Why don’t you see what you can find there as far as internal records on these three?”

You nod and take a seat, flashing your wrist at the sensor. The computer blips once and you’re in. You have a pretty high clearance. Higher even than Hinsman’s you suspect, although that’s not really a thing you’re supposed to ask anyone about. Retrieving sensitive data from wrecked Order ships or evacuated command stations is one of the things you need to be able to do with no fuss when required, and your superiors know this.
> You look up Markov
Name: Markov Carst
Eyes: blue
Hair: brown
Height: 6’3”
Weight: 201
Age: 41
Other: left handed
Origin: Galton Station
Skills: fringe space station maintenance
Years service: 5


It seems Oswen had been trying to unjam a door that leads to one of the station’s storage arms, in much the same way Hinsman had gotten you all into the central complex earlier. It was her misfortune that upon receiving a jolt from a maintenance tool the door had snapped shut, meaning it had been open to begin with.

There’s enough juice left to get it back to where it was and you carefully retrieve the severed limb on the other side, slipping it into a biohazard bag. Taking a moment to confirm with Hinsman there’s nothing he can do as far as reattaching it, you consider your options for disposal. An incinerator would the most straightforward, but those require an amount of energy that seems wasteful if not impossible to produce given the station’s current reliance on emergency backup power for life support.

You remember then the walk in freezer in the kitchen behind the dining hall. At least that would keep it from rotting if it takes longer that expected to get the power on full. The room isn’t able to maintain freezing temps anymore but it’s still noticeably colder than the rest of the station, and the rest of the station is cold enough. Placing the bagged arm on a shelf, you halt a moment as your gaze fixes on the two bundled forms in the back. So you weren’t the first one to have the idea to use the place as an impromptu morgue. These must be the bodies of the other two maintenance workers, Inea and Markov.
> You go finish cleaning
You come across no shortage of corpses in your line of work and so you have little curiosity about these two, morbid or otherwise. When Matti awakens, Hinsman will question her about the deaths, but aside from some practical knowledge in the area no one here is exactly a forensics expert. That’ll be the job of the team the Order will dispatch to deal with the situation out here.

You exit the freezer, pausing to grab a mop from a corner of the kitchen and fill up a bucket. Returning to where you’d found Matti, you go to work. The blood has begun to dry and it’s obvious this will take awhile so you clear out your mind and focus on the task.
> Back to the nursing station
Matti is asleep. Hinsman is seated at a table near the bed, freshly showered and changed into a grey jumpsuit identical to yours and looking exhausted. Karoff is nowhere to be seen.

“He’s back on the ship seeing how much power we can spare,” Hinsman tells you, before you can ask. “This medical station’s about the only thing working as intended in this place right now. We need to at least get the computers up before we can figure out what all needs to be repaired and how. It’d be really great if we had a maintenance worker familiar with the place to talk to, but...” He inclines his head toward the young woman’s supine form and shrugs. The end of what’s left of her arm is neatly wrapped in bandages, but her face looks pale and strained even in her sleep and her eyes twitch restlessly behind her lids.

There doesn’t seem to be anything you’re able to help with here, so you start to head back to the ship to find Karoff and wind up meeting up with him in the arm of the docking bay. He’s got a hovering platform loaded with equipment next to him and is attaching a power node to a panel.

“Oh, there you are Zee, perfect. I need you to distribute the rest of these EPNs around the central complex.” He gestures at the platform. “I’ll come along behind you in a bit and rig them up.”

The EPNs--external power nodes--can be linked in to bypass dead or damaged areas in the regular power system. It’s likely some trial and error will be needed but you doubt it will take more than a couple of hours if all he cares about is the main section and the docking bay. The other seven arms of the station can just stay sealed off until a proper repair team comes in.

You return to the central area of the station and begin setting down the EPNs near accessible panels and in a short while you’ve covered the perimeter and begin making your way back. All is quiet until just as you pass a narrow hallway you hear a voice. “Zani, get inside!”

You whirl, activating the short range laser weapon you always have with you. The voice had been a woman’s, sounding frantic and seeming to come from close by. But you see nothing. You shine your light down the hallway you’d just passed, revealing a row of half a dozen closed doors on each side.
> You search the hallway
You want to verify there’s a threat before you call anyone else in. Even though you’re not suited up at the moment you feel pretty confident in your ability to handle a few trespassers anyhow so there’s no point in risking the others if they prove hostile.

You ghost down the dark hall opening doors one by one and shining your flashlight around. The rooms all appear to be crew quarters and although you search any place anyone could hide, they’re all empty and only three show any recent signs of usage.

Retreating back to the entrance the hall, you widen the scope of your search, but after another half hour are forced to admit to yourself there’s no one here after all. This wouldn’t be the first time you’ve had...hallucinations in the past. Or whatever the technical term would be for you. They have to get pretty bad before they impair your ability to work, but the woman’s voice had seemed so close and chillingly real. You’ll have to keep aware of the possibility of it happening again now. If it gets worse, you know you’ll have to report it, but for now you’re just glad you didn’t drag anyone else down here for no reason.

You return to the crew quarters to look once again at the rooms the current maintenance crew were occupying, although more out of curiosity about them than any expectation you’ll locate your phantom voices. The walls of Matti’s room are covered in projected images of performers and celebrities...you recognize many of them from the media Karoff downloaded from Camarov.

Inea’s room contains images of a family, presumably hers, and several empty bottles that indicate she had a minor pill habit. Nothing illegal enough for you to care about--even less so now that she’s dead--and most of them are expired anyhow and you suspect taken from the station’s abandoned medical arm.

Markov’s room is somewhat grubby with dirty clothes tossed carelessly around. Your eyes are drawn to his desk immediately as the only uncluttered spot in the room. After a moment you realize that’s because his personal computer is gone. Every other room, even the empty ones, had one of the devices built into the desk surface.
> You search for the missing computer
The crew quarters aren’t large. If the computer is in here there’s only so many places it can be, and a methodical sweep of the room, closet and bathroom finally turns it up--slid into a pair of brackets fitted to the underside of the nightstand drawer. Just as you slide it out, the lights flicker on. Karoff’s triumphant voice sounds over the intercom, followed a moment later by Hinsman congratulating him.

You however have your attention glued to the activated screen. It’s still an Order-issued computer so your wrist chip was able to get you in, and what you’re looking at is intriguing. Four days before Markov triggered the explosion that took his life--and nearly took out an infinitely more valuable outpost--he started sending and receiving a series of encrypted messages on a private frequency.

What it all means or if it’s even related to his actions at all you can’t say just yet, but it’s obviously something to look into. You take the computer with you return to where you left the hover platform. The main computer room Karoff’s working in now is quite close so you take a detour to speak to him.
> You frequencies
“Interesting. What was he up too, I wonder?” Karoff peers at the coded messages thoughtfully. “The main computer should be able to unencrypt these though. We’ll just leave it hooked up here and let it do its thing. The damage report for the station is almost done compiling anyhow.”

“How bad is it?”

He spins in his chair to face a new screen, chewing on a dirty thumbnail. “Hmm, let’s see. This would indicate The Last Outpost is...yup, it’s damaged all right. And needs repairs. From people who are not us.”

“So nothing immediate needs attending to? There’s nothing wrong that would put you or Hinsman in danger if you waited here a few days?”

“Well, unsealing some of the station’s arms would be pretty fatal. They took the brunt of Matti’s hack rerouting job and a couple lost atmosphere. The old medical wing itself is in real bad shape obviously, that’s where Markov set off the first explosion. But all we really need is life support and power here and in the docking bay. We don’t really have enough power for the rest of the station anyway as long as we’re siphoning from the ship. I’ll go and seal anything unnecessary off in a bit and then we don’t even need to worry about leaving them with life support.”

Good. That means you can leave here and continue carrying out your orders just as soon as this mess with the dead workers is sorted out.

“By the way, Hinsman is going to try waking Oswen up for a little while and then wanted us there afterwards to sort of put our heads together on how to handle all this,” Karoff adds, nearly reading your mind.

You step toward the door. “I’ll go now.”

“Eh, what’s the rush? But I’ll be there after I finish a couple things. We’re all just gonna sit around till the relief team arrives either way.”

“I could go and take care of my mission while the two of you wait. Hinsman suggested that earlier, remember?”

Karoff snorts and shakes his head slowly as he turns his attention back to his screen. “Don’t you ever get tired of working so hard?”

You’re a little take aback by the question. “No?”
> You matti's Story
Matti Oswen is awake and speaking with Hinsman already when you enter. They pause and look up at the soft whoosh of the door, but you take up position in an unobtrusive spot next to it and stay quiet till they resume the conversation. Oswen’s words are hardly above a whisper. Her face is drawn and she’s clearly in pain. Hinsman in his usual way is breezily taking her mind off things while leading her along to a series of key questions and not making it obvious that’s what he’s doing.

“...I don’t know what happened to Inea exactly. She was just replacing some conduits in the old medical wing...standard stuff, it’s got to be done every four years even in the areas no one uses anymore. Something fell and hit her on the head, he told me. But Markov was in shock, or something like it so he never really went into detail. He hardly left his room for two days, and after that he...” she swallows hard and then continues at his gentle prompting. “I mean, it never seemed that they were like, close close, but they’d worked together a long time, and I can’t think of any other reason he’d do what he did.”

“Was a report sent in about Inea’s death?”

She nods. “We sent one, yes. Markov filled in the details of course, since I wasn’t there.”

Hinsman looks at her intently a moment, then begins asking her some simple questions about their routines around the station, listening patiently to her answers before coming back around to Markov. “So when did you first realize what he was doing?”

“Like I said, I’d barely seen him in two days. That wasn’t unusual even when there were three of us if we happened to be working on different areas of the station, but I was worried enough about how he was taking things I even went and knocked on his door once. He wouldn’t answer. Although that day that...everything happened he turned the intercom on a couple of times.”

“What did he say?”

“Well...nothing. I could hear him breathing and got the idea he was about to say something, but then it would cut out. I was definitely on edge by that time and not sleeping well, but I kept telling myself a team would be here soon, they’d pick up Inea’s body and station someone else here and surely they’d notice what a wreck Mark was and do something to h-help.” She has to stop a moment, and draws a shuddering breath.

“And then what happened?”

I was taking a break in the main computer room...I’d decided to sit in a VR film actually, to take my mind off things. Then all of a sudden a bunch of alerts started sounding.”

Something crawls along your arm and you brush it away. An ant or something is your immediate assumption. A strong fragrance of freshly cut grass lingers in your nostrils.

“Look at the birds, Mommy!”

“Zani, get inside!”

With the interference of the audio hallucinations you come back to yourself. An insect of any kind would be highly unlikely to have hitchhiked this far, and the scent of grass is not something you're certain you've even encountered enough to readily identify. Not to mention your sense of smell is rudimentary at best.

Oswen has been describing how she counteracted Markov's attempt to destroy the station. “It's almost funny, covering that exact scenario was one of the last things we did in training before they sent me out here. And it just hadn't really sunk in even then that he would really do something like that intentionally. But it worked just like they said it would.”

Touching your arm, you vividly remember the tickling, crawling sensation and look carefully at your clothes and the floor. There is no ant.

You shake your head to banish these distractions and refocus. You don’t want to miss anything important.

“There was a critical overload there in the medical arm where Mark had started the chain reaction, but I was able to redirect the worst of the rest into the arms next to it, so the blown generators were the only damage to the central complex.”

“And when did you recover Markov's body?”

“Well he wasn't dead yet, is the thing. The emergency shields were still holding in that section and the computer showed a life sign so I put on a breathing mask and went to try and drag him out.”

“That was risky.”

She gives another shaky laugh as she recalls the events. “The anti-grav was already down, and I had to cross this section where the wall and floor was just...gone, so I was terrified the shields would collapse and blow me right out into space. And then when I got to him he was covered in blood, almost unrecognizable. He was trying to unlock a cabinet but his hands were all torn up. There was broken glass and like, shrapnel, all in his skin. Some of it looked deep. And...the most difficult thing was he just wasn't himself.” Her expression darkens. “He'd completely lost it, really. He screamed at me to get away and struggled and fought me. I ended up slashing open my arm on a big piece of bloody glass--”

She falls silent a moment as her gaze drops to the bandaged stub. “Well. I guess that doesn't matter now, huh?”

Hinsman murmurs something sympathetic and she continues. “And then he just straight up tried to kill me. Grabbed for my throat, and I kicked him and...I don't know exactly, we got separated and I was trying to orient myself because I was panicking and, you know, the gravity. And then he was just dead. I wasn't really thinking at that point, I hauled him back to the central complex, I was thinking something could be done, like the nursing AI would help or he could be put in cryo or something, you know, like in the VRs...but then of course once we reached Central the gravity kicked back in and I couldn't move him anymore, plus I was bleeding all over everything. I made sure nothing else was going to explode and then went to treat my arm, and brought a platform to lift him later. I moved Inea's body then too...to, to the dining hall freezer.” She sounds momentarily embarrassed and lowers her voice for that, as if she thinks the New Terra health department might overhear and swoop in and shut the place down. “Since the power was out completely in that section and we still had it on low in parts of Central.”

Matti stops herself and winces. “I mean...not we. It was just me at that point. The most useless person around so of course I survived.”

“You handled all of that as well as anyone could have and I think better than most,” Hinsman reassures her. “The rescue attempt is probably more than I would've tried, and you had no way of realizing then how far gone he was.”

“I just can't figure it out, why he would...” Matti trails off and shifts on the bed, closing her eyes and wincing. “I'm just so tired.”

“Get some rest. You've been a great help and I think you've explained most of what I could think to ask.”

“Why were you sealing off the door to the storage wing?” This time the question comes from you. Hinsman gives you an irritated look at the interruption. Perhaps your tone was too blunt for his liking, but it really is something that had seemed odd to when you were cleaning up.

“Oh. Well I knew all of you would be boarding soon, so I thought I should try to pull myself together and...you know, do my job for once. The power would be easier to get back on in the central complex if all the arms could be sealed off, and the storage wing door was jammed open.”

You nod but say nothing.

Matti rests her head weakly against the pillows. “I should've just stayed there with my ice cream. I could really go for some now anyway, damn...”

“I'll heat up some dinner for you soon, from our ship,” Hinsman promises. “I don't know about ice cream, we don't travel quite that luxurious, but we may have something that can pass as dessert around.”

“Thanks,” she gives him a wan smile and leans her head back against her pillow, her blonde hair spread out on the pillow to frame her strained face like a halo.

“Zee, let's go outside. I've been needing to talk to you and Karoff...where is he, anyway?”

You'd already turned to exit with Hinsman stepping out into the hall behind you when you both spot the pilot coming down the hall.

“Perfect,” Hinsman says.

“I know I am.” Karoff replies with a wink. “But did I miss anything important?”
> You inference
“Miss Oswen gave me enough details on the cause of the damage to start writing a report, at least, but some things still don’t sit right with me. Even if Inea’s death made him suicidal I still don’t understand Markov’s motivation for trying to take out the entire station, for one...”

“He had the space crazies!”

“...I can’t put that in a report. But unfortunately Oswen had very little contact with him following Inea’s death. And we don’t even really know what happened to Inea herself other than Zee’s examination indicating blunt force trauma to the head.”

“Ah, about that.” Karoff fishes something out of his pocket and taps a button. “Relevant?”

A 3D image of an energy canister is projected into the air in front of you all. You recognize the type; the larger energy cells can be volatile, so the canisters are made with half an inch of steel and an interior enamel coating for protection. This one is about the size of a fire extinguisher, which is typical.

What’s not typical about this one however is the is the dried blood and long strands of dark hair caught up on the outside of the sealing mechanism.

“Where the hell did you find that?” Hinsman wants to know.

“In the storage arm where Miss Oswen lost hers. There are a lot of spent canisters piled up in there, and I was looking for more power cables just now and stumbled across this one.”

Hinsman’s brow is deeply furrowed as he studies the projection. “That is just suspicious as hell. Has anyone had a look at the body yet?”

You and Karoff both shake your heads, and as Matti had just mentioned where they were stored, the three of you make your way to the dining hall.

The two bodies are on gurneys, zipped up in body bags in the back of the freezer. You open the bag holding the smaller form, ignoring Karoff’s inquiries as to whether letting restaurant kitchens rent freezer space to morgues could be a viable alternate source of income.

Upon examination the dark haired woman’s cause of death is immediately obvious, her skull on the left side having been caved in just above and behind the ear.

“Not a glancing blow, either. There’s no way that happens from a spent fuel canister falling on someone’s head. Not even a full one.”

After a long moment he sighs and steps back. “All right, let’s go over what facts we have. About a week ago, Inea Banca was doing routine maintenance in the medical wing and had her skull caved in with an energy canister. Markov Karst then goes into seclusion for two days, at the end of which he goes to the medical wing and attempts to cause a power overload that will destroy the station; a major act of treason against the Order that will render a number of Outer Rim colony worlds and ships unable to receive emergency aid and also kill the young woman who remains here. A bit dramatic even for a suicide attempt, but I suppose not outside the realm of possibility. When it fails he become violent when Oswen attempts a rescue and dies moments after. Miss Oswen sends out a distress call that doesn’t seem to have gone through due to the failing power and waits here alone until we happen by. Does that all sound about right?”

You mull that over while he and Karoff discuss the details a bit longer.

“I’m sure there’s more investigating we can do,” Hinsman is saying. “The medical arm, for instance. That’s where everything happened.”

Karoff shakes his head. “Atmosphere and shielding has failed and there are holes blown straight through the plating. It’d be too much a risk just to satisfy our curiosity, even for Zee.”

“Fair. It doesn’t feel right to just sit around and wait on another team, though. We need to get together as much info as possible. It might be useful to read over the personnel reports again, and...oh! There’s the report they sent in on Inea’s death.” Hinsman glances over at you. “And what about you, Zee? Let’s see that sharp analytical brain in action.”

“My brain’s not any sharper than yours I’m afraid. And too bad, some kind of AI to analyze things might be more what you need right now.” But you’ve been following a particular train of thought, and at his prompting you decide to give it voice. “But they didn’t fill out a death report on Inea Banca. I don’t know why Oswen claimed that. Banca was still listed as alive in their database when Karoff pulled up her file, right before we boarded. So in fact, I believe that...”
> You say "Matti killed Inea and then Markov to cover her tracks."
“What?” Hinsman seems taken aback. “Where are you getting that from?”

Karoff scratches his head. “Uh, Zee, I know that was my original theory, but I’m not so sure now. Markov did try to blow up the station.”

“Do we have any proof of that? Or of anything Oswen has claimed?” You wait. When neither is able to give a satisfactory answer, you continue. “It’s a possibility we have to consider, at least. All we really know is that Banca and Carst are dead and that someone damaged the station in a way that made most of the evidence inaccessible. And that Oswen tried to seal off the entire the entire wing containing the murder weapon right after we arrived.”

A couple of times while you were speaking Hinsman looked ready to interrupt, and now he cuts in as you pause, raking his fingers through his dark hair. “Zee, you can't seriously...urgh, I guess you're always serious. But Matti isn't a killer.”

“How can you be sure of that?”

“Because dammit. I can tell when people are lying. Matti's not like that.”

The force of his protest surprises you. “Can people tell when you lie to them?”

That at least gets a short laugh. “No,” he admits. “But I've had a couple more decades practice don't forget. You can trust me on this one though, Zee. That little girl's not some cold blooded killer.”

You frown. “I'm not denying you're better at reading people than I am. But at least one murder occurred and serious damage was done to a vital Order refueling station. You know I'm not saying anything anyone at HQ won't bring up. We need to look at real evidence, and for now all we have is one person's word for it.”

“We're not qualified for this legal crap,” Karoff complains.

“It's the Outer Rim, buddy, we make our own law,” Hinsman replies. “Hell, nobody should've ever gone out this far at all.”

“Well now you just sound like a dirty anti-frontierist. But my point is that according to their files, Inea and Matti are both from Camerov IV. Pop them both in cryo and aim them at the planet. They can sort out the murder and if Matti turns out to have done any of the damage to the station she'll be right there and handy to retrieve.”

Hinsman laughs at that. “You make it sound like we're such good friends with the Camerovs. They'd just love us dumping her off and then swooping in to grab her again I bet.”

“Yeah well I've got a dozen fusion torpedoes that say they won't complain too hard.”

“Jesus Christ, I'm definitely not getting a bonus this year if I let you start a war. Anyway, everything else aside, Matti's lost a ton of blood and is pretty weak still. A cryo pod would be too much of a risk.”

“If there's anything to Zee's theory, she could be a risk to us, keep in mind.”

“Yeah, I realize that.” Hinsman looks unhappy enough that you almost hope that you're wrong. You've been slowly losing your mind lately anyway, what's one bad theory?

“Well...we can check for the report,” Karoff offers. “The one on Banca. Maybe it wasn't ever finalized and sent but we'll see if we can verify at least that much of her story. And if it exists it may have more details.”

Hinsman nods. “All right, let's do that.”
> You interference
“I can absolutely, definitely, factually say with complete certainty , all serious, and not the slightest hesitation...” Karoff twists in his seat to regard Hinsman as he speaks. “...that the report on Inea Banca's death does not exist.”

“Are you serious? Are you sure?”

“Hinsman, I don't feel like you heard me. Absolutely, definitely--”

“All right enough. Dammit. Did you check to make sure it didn't get caught in the buffer? Maybe it's still trying to send. The power hasn't been back on for long.”

“There weren't any problems with the power at the time the report would've been made. That was before Markov pulled his stunt,” you point out.

“Just check,” he tells Karoff.

“Checking, and...nothing. Wait.” He pauses and frowns. “Well none of these are the report, but it looks like a batch of personal letters Inea tried to send a day before her death never went through either.”

“What do they say?”

“Hinsman!” Karoff gives a mock gasp and assumes a scandalized tone. “They're personal letters!” He's already pulling the first one up, and you catch a brief glimpse of Banca's smiling face at the beginning of a video before he switches to the readout and scrolls rapidly past pages of text asking how various people, children and pets are, some jokes about a co-worker having a crush on her and discussion of a new VR film.

“All pretty standard inane family garbage,” Karoff says in helpful summary.

Hinsman frowns. “Well, make sure they don't get lost. I'm sure the family will think more of them than you do, considering. But why didn't it send? Were they isolated from the network before the power went out? How would that happen?”

“I'll tell you in exchange for a colorful parrot and a bottle of rum.”

“You think so?”

“Oh, I know so, now. You see...” Karoff twists the screen so Hinsman can see it. You shuffle around behind him to get a look too.

“That's the same encryption the messages on Markov's computer used,” you say.

“Right. Because it would appear that someone...can't imagine who...installed a little something to communicate with a probe somewhere. The probe in turn has been intercepting any outgoing messages, as of at least one day before Banca's murder. They’re getting a little fancier with their methods but cutting communication before an attack is the classic technique.”

“So, we have pirates coming this way? Well damn. If they started out right after everything went down they’d be about right on top of us too if they went into underspace from any of the neighboring stars.” He considers that a moment and then shrugs. “But there’s three of us and what, maybe a couple dozen of them? We’ve all fought with worse odds. We can hold them off till help arrives.”

“Oh, but precious, naive little Hinsman, it’s worse than you think. The probe has been intercepting all outgoing signals. There won’t be any help arriving for Miss Oswen or for the station or ourselves, because no one knows we need it. Also, don’t forget shielding and all defenses are down.”

“Shit.”

There is an encouraging beep just then and all eyes turn to Markov's computer.

“Well it’s not the blueprints for an anti-pirate device so don’t get excited or anything,” Karoff says, picking up the device and activating the screen. “And it’s not even finished yet, that was just the first run. Still, might be enough to give us a better idea of what the situation is."
> You markov's Secret
Most of the text Karoff scrolls past is gibberish, but a few of the messages are partially deciphered. Even these prove frustrating however as even the ones where you can make out sentences are delicately phrased with deliberate obliqueness. But as the messages near the end, they suddenly start dropping the pretense.

“Ah, here we go. Well that’s right to the point, isn’t it?”

You peer over Karoff’s shoulder at the screen.

^ou’ve al%ead^ killed ove% this. It’s too late to back out now. ^ou can take ^ou% mone^ o% a hole th%ough the skull--we’%e coming fo% the package eithe% way, so ^ou’d do well to think twice befo%e ^ou do anything ^ou’ll %eg%et.

As to ^ou% question, it ain’t nothing but sweet %evenge, Ma%kie bab^. The^ tu%ned us back du%ing the evacuations. We couldn’t ‘p%ove’ we we%en’t infected and what we%e we to them but a bunch of shitkicking fa%mers and %anchers? Well we didn’t have Hunge% but we got hung%^ ENOUGH limping a%ound the %im to find a new home and plent^ of us died of infection all %ight--just plain o%dina%y bo%ing Old Ea%th influenza that could’ve been cu%ed if we’d had even the most p%imitive aid. My wife and daughte% among them.

The o%ganization ^ou wo%k fo% has blood on its hands, and don’t even think it stops the%e. A lot of ou% people ma^ have gotten complacent once the^ %esettled, all this talk of ‘moving on’, but that’s just not fo% me and m^ f%iends. We won’t fo%get and we won’t allow them too eithe%. And I’ve made man^ mo%e f%iends %ecentl^. We’%e getting ou% %evenge, and I think ^ou know exactly how.

See ^a soon, Ma%k.

--W. Ho%seman

“So we’ve definitely got pirates coming this way.” Hinsman says with a rueful shake of his head. “Or terrorists, anyway. Even better, right? And so much for your theory on Matti, Zee.”

“Any theories on what the package is?” you ask after a moment’s silence.

“Carst is from Galton Station, isn’t he?” Karoff asks. “I think I saw it in his file. I’ve been there once or twice, and don’t ask for what. But they all but advertise they’re a black market.”

Hinsman nods, looking grim. “Most likely blueprints for illegal weapons tech, or an ethics-stripped AI. Something small Carst could easily smuggle back over here the last time he was on leave. And something valuable and risky enough he’d kill anybody who got in his way.”

Karoff taps around on the screen some more. “Too bad he didn’t survive,” he finally says with a sigh. “Because I’d sure like to kill him myself right now. Scans found the probe by the way. Way out there on the edge of the system.”

“Oh really? That’s something at least. Although it’ll take time to get to and disable, and I’m not sure we can spare that right now. We need to start thinking of how to defend ourselves.”

“The sooner we get a distress call out the sooner we can put an end to all this,” Karoff says. “We’re nothing but a target right now, with the defenses down and if there’s enough of them they can wear us down eventually without much risk to themselves.”

“Can the defenses be repaired?”

Karoff winces. “I was afraid you were gonna ask that. And technically yes, but it’s a big job. The turrets are in every arm of the station and we’ll need to get power to all of them, which means cutting back here in the central area.”

They both sink into a grim silence for a bit, before Hinsman finally looks over. “All right Zee, I guess you get the tiebreaker. What are you most in the mood for right now?”
> You take out the probe
With no time to delay or hesitate, you’re moving toward the docking bay within moments of making your decision while Karoff hurries along behind you and hits you with a barrage of rapid-fire instructions and advice for piloting one of the ship’s shuttles.

“Whatever you do, don’t get it blown up!”

“I’ll try my best.”

The voices of your companions soon fade as you ease the shuttle out into the silence of space, aiming for the emptiest and coldest edge of the system and the coordinates Karoff pinpointed. You blink in and out of underspace a couple of times the way he showed you, or else the trip would take days. Risky in a populated or debris-filled system for someone without much training, but there’s nothing much to worry about colliding with out here.

The probe is right where it’s supposed to be. It’d be possible to target with a missile now, but your initial scan indicates it might be rather unusual in design. Retrieving it intact might lead to clues about its maker, certainly the sort of person the Order would want to shut down...or recruit.
> You retrieve it.
You ease the shuttle closer, and closer still. The viewscreen isn’t needed to get a visual on the probe now; you can just look out the window. It’s small, but the slender segmented form puts you in mind of a wasp, with a pair of satellites making up the ‘wings’. The design is sleek and something about it worries you. The longer you look at it the more you get the sense it’s dangerous somehow. But that’s just all the more reason to take it out of commission.
> You bring it on board.
The shuttle has a pair of grappling claws for specimen retrieval which you now deploy. Moving with utmost care so as not to nudge your target and send it spinning off into space, you grip the probe and draw it into the cargo hold.

The hold door slides shut, and the grappling claws fold themselves back into place. Glancing at the probe on the viewscreen, you see a red light blink on. Before you can even wonder what that means an explosion rips through the vessel, splitting the belly of it wide open and spilling you along with the rest of its contents out into the space. You tumble among the shattered remains of what used to be the shuttle, and the last thing you think before you’re vaporized by the detonating power core of the underspace drive is that Karoff will not be happy.