Traveller Onyx Venture Chronicles

by Otegoboy

Set in the Traveller RPG Universe in the years before the 5th Frontier War. Follow the adventures of Ecam Hil and his friends as they inherit a strange prototype spaceship and take it on adventures in the Frontier between Imperium and Zhodani space.

Traveller

Onyx Venture

Volume 1:

Prologues

A Fictional Fan Novel

Set in the Traveller RPG Universe

by

Michael T. Dunbar

…in the years before the 5th Frontier War...

Prologue 1:

Two Weeks Earlier

Outer Belt

Orange suns are particularly amazing in the outer Frontier systems beyond the Imperium. This particular one was quite old, several billion years in fact. It had a soft warm glow compared with others of the same type, whether observed from up close or from any of the few distant worlds orbiting it.

This sun could only faintly be seen between the various sizes and shapes of the jagged asteroids that floated slowly and silently in the far back reaches of its orbiting bodies when set against the pitch black velvet foreground. Hints of light shimmered on the rock surfaces as the shadows of adjacent asteroids passing over them gave way to the minute amounts of light that could penetrate out here.

Just outside the inner edge of these Outer Belt asteroids, a matte-white sleek spaceship with foiled wings floated motionless over another much slightly larger bulkier ship. Lights could be seen in both ships as static thrusters could be seen engaging on each to help maintain position. Then, without warning, the larger ship began to swiftly move away, peeling a sharp left inwards, towards the asteroids. A small, cylindrical spacecraft was also observed spinning wildly out of control away from both ships and out into open space.

"She's running, Sir!" exclaimed the helmsman of the smaller patrol ship, observing the larger mining ship's movements on the tracking scanner in front of him and outside the bridge windows.

"….status of the boat?" Captain Telman yelled.

"…she's in a roll…tumbling away from us, Sir….she must have been blasted away when she tried to dock…it's moving away at a pretty high velocity too…."

"...Port Gunner….lock and fire on the mining ship's engines" The Captain exclaimed.

The Port Gunner already had her turret turned and targeted toward the bulky mining ship during the attempted boarding procedure to provide any needed cover.

The Gunner squeezed both triggers.

Two orange-green particle beams emitted from the end of the turret barrels and drew a converging line toward the ship. One beam struck the exterior side of its starboard maneuvering engine, causing it to shatter and buckle. The other beam struck a small asteroid just beyond the lumbering ship causing it to explode into an array of millions of tiny fragments, showing both ships, but causing no appreciable damage to either.

Its speed diminished, the mining ship continued deeper into the asteroid belt from its lip.

"Gunner HOLD…..Let's get after our boat, Helmsman….full thrust….we'll come back for the mining ship once we get our people…then hopefully we'll find out what this is all about" the Captain said in a softer but still firm voice.

The helmsman griped the controls to his right and to his left and brought the ship's M-drive back on line. He gained a track on the still tumbling boat and started a full main engine burn.

As the ship began to accelerate, the Captain then turned and faced his Executive Officer, "Go to General Quarters, XO…"

In response, the Executive Officer leaned over, flipped up a translucent cover, and firmly pressed his thumb down on a large bright red button on his console. The low reverberating horn sounded for 5 seconds along with an automated female voice letting everyone know that the Patrol ship was now on high alert.

The cockpit crew looked out of the forward and starboard windows of the 300 ton Imperium spacecraft at their small boat with Imperium Navy markings still spinning along her axis and moving away quickly from the place where it had been trying to dock with the 400 Ton mining ship. The mining ship was now mostly out of sight amidst smoldering pieces of metal and rock.

The Patrol ship Ameolus had approached the antiquated mining ship Yi'tar and had followed her to the outskirts of the outer asteroid belt after the Tech Officer noticed some rather strange sensor readings when it was scanned. The Yi'tar was also making it very apparent that it was trying to avoid any kind of encounter.

One of the first rules of travelling to these outer systems is not increasing your speed or changing course when a military ship from either the Imperium or Zhodani Consulate is in the area. The Patrol ship had appeared from Jump Space at the 1 AU distance very close to mining ship's route. They noticed each other almost immediately. After several minutes, the mining ship veered around and back toward the outer asteroid belt's inner lip and had begun to increase its speed.

The mining ship seemed like it was in an awful hurry to go someplace different now that the patrol ship was there.

As is the usual Imperium procedure, the patrol ship immediately followed and scanned the mining ship. There was nothing unusual about the craft itself or its cargo. However, according to the patrol ship's densitometer, the Yi'tar's hold was full—but not with mined ore.

So why was it now rushing back into the Outer Belt?

After ignoring several hails, it finally answered back. A scratchy female voice from the mining ship had communicated that everything was fine and had just forgotten some critical mining equipment left back at their ore extraction site. They were returning to quickly retrieve it and proceed back on their original course to local Starport in the system.

The Captain and XO did not believe her.

"Tell her to hold position and prepare to be boarded", Captain Telman told his Communications officer. "…let's go ahead and check it out, Mr. Straz," the Captain looked at his Executive Officer. The XO hurriedly left the bridge to go brief the small team of Marines that had been stationed on the ship.

Having been briefed on this System, the Captain remembered that the Starport on the principle planet here had been out of commission. According to latest Imperium Intelligence on this system, the Starport could no longer support mining operations in this or any other asteroid belt locally. The port was mostly importing, and under the rule of local non-space-faring thugs. The Captain recognized that the intelligence was about a year and half old and could be outdated. Even so, how could the Starport be supporting activities in a little over a year anywhere else in the system when it had plenty of its own troubles to be concerned about? Even if the locals had come to some kind of enlightened peace, they would not have been able to broker trade agreements this quickly…unless they were done under more precarious circumstances, such as pirates, or worse…the Zhodani.

Curious, he ordered a small team to take the patrol ships landing boat and perform a quick inspection and see if it could provide any answers. They had signaled the mining ship to stop, which it did.

The 30 ton boat had left the patrol ships slip and proceeded toward the mining ship. The landing boat had just finished soft-sealing with the mining ship's cargo hatch located amidships when apparently the mining ship vented the lock or detonating a small chemical explosive, thrusting the landing boat back and spinning it away from its intended mooring.

The landing crew, 8 marines and one navy pilot, were not answering hails from the Patrol ship as she began to close the distance separating the two ships.

They were apparently either dead or unconscious.

The now limping mining ship was still moving through the cluster of asteroids with notable precision.

The shadow of three slightly larger ships was cast upon the Yi'tar going in the opposite direction. The three dark hulled ships weaved through the floating asteroids with great precision and at high speed—at least thrust 2. The three ships emerged from the asteroid belt's lip and began a full burn toward the patrol ship. They powered up their weapon turrets and bays as they closed the distance…

Inner Belt

The bright, ferocious light from the same orange sun's surface could be seen past the faint silhouette's that were cast from the smooth boulders moving in front of one another in the system's Inner Asteroid Belt. There were hardly any shadows at all in the sweltering heat. It was also apparent from the rise of gasses on the sun-beat side of the asteroids that were closer to the Belt's inner lip. Inside the Inner Belt and toward the outer edge, a small triangular ship was parked in a stationary position just inside the faint shadow of one of the larger asteroids. Just beyond it hovering just above the surface of the asteroid, was another much smaller vehicle…

"Once more there boy…." shouted a male voice over the intercom.

A young man sat eagerly listening at the controls of an ATV, which was precariously hovering 50 meters above the smooth face of the asteroid. One does not often see a wheeled vehicle floating above an asteroid, even here in the Frontier. The ATV had thruster packs strapped to its front and back, with larger booster packs on the side fastened under the chassis. The young man, Zed, in his late 20's, was trying to maneuver the ATV and use it like a space dock's work drone.

"It's hard to get any leverage from the thrusters on this old thing Cap…stand by…" he said, as he reached behind him to start the primer for the vehicle's laser drill once more. There was not enough gravity to keep the ATV in place on the surface. Tethering the ATV to the surface only made it feel like it was going to fly apart due to the huge amount of torque given off by the drill's generator. Therefore, the ATV was trying to maintain a position just outside and above a subterranean opening in the asteroid's surface.

The three men from the old Scout ship, that Antripades, were fearful that that vibration on the surface from the ATV drills operation could collapse the entrance to the cave as well. If that happened, having to clear the debris from the passageways would take another 5 months of laborious drilling. Besides, they did not want to make it too apparent that there had been any signs of intense mining on this particular asteroid. They had been very careful to maintain the secrecy of this asteroid's location in the system's Inner Belt. Most of what mining was being done in the Outer Belt millions of miles away….and that was decades ago.

Zed shouted over the intercom..."Ok…go again, Cap!" The fusion generator buzzed to life as the gauges showed the huge power output. The cable that was connected to the APV's external turret mounting began to shake violently, but only at a high enough rate that the cable did not move more than a foot or so off its center as it hung free in space. The rattling cable snaked from the APV into the cavern opening and down into the belly of the asteroid. The upper layer of the asteroid was solid igneous rock, laced with pebble sized sparkling purple and blue gem-like stones that shimmered in the magna-torch's artificial light that lined the hallway. Them, about 150 meters down, the rock abruptly gave way to what looked like orthogonal beige sandstone blocks layered to make a hallway, showing excessive age. This was apparently the opening of some sort of ancient structure buried within the asteroid's rock. The hallway became A-framed with barely high enough for a Vilanni or Solomani human to stand in and walk through. The drill's cable twisted through the stone hallway for about another 100 meters to a large chamber approximately 30 meters high.

The chamber was made out of what would surely be recognized as an advanced material not found in nature. It matt-black, and gave off no reflection of light, even though several magna-torches were lit near the entrance inside the chamber. Close to the center of the chamber stood a man in a blue and grey Evac Suit with a thruster pack on his back. The man stood behind what looked like a large conical shaped fixture mounted on a Quinpod that pointed at something protruding from the room's center. The drill fired to life and lit up the front nose of the device. It emitted a beam of blue-green light that lit up the chamber and showered sparks from whatever it was hitting.

"That's it! Keep 'er comin'!", the man said as he adjusted the tracking on the drill's confinement beam into a tighter circle, careful not to vary it by too much.

After about an hour of drilling, another male voice crackled over the communications link in the Evac Suit, addressing the man inside.

"Hey Cap!" said the voice.

"What?" He replied, seemingly annoyed by the interruption.

"I'm picking up a garbled message on the long range communication array" said the voice. "You might want to take a listen…"

Cap sighed. "Alright…patch it through" Cap stated. He stopped the drilling unit so he could better hear the message without the excessive noise. His com unit popped, then a scratchy somewhat fretful woman's voice beckoned….

"This is the Patrol ship Ameolus of the Imperium requesting immediate assistance! We have engaged hostiles and have sustained heavy damage. We are vectoring from the Outer Belt to make for the Starport before being overrun. Please assist…." The message kept repeating, seemingly getting stronger, then stopped abruptly.

"Hostiles?" thought Cap. What kind of hostiles? Pirates? Zhodani? His Ex-wife?... "Grrrrrr", the Captain mumbled out loud.

He quickly turned several control knobs on the drill and folded up the mounting legs.

"Pack 'er up guys…quick!" "Get the ship ready to go Dar…..go ahead and pull the drill back, Zed."

"What?" Dar exclaimed. "We've almost got it!"

"The Ameolus is one the regular patrol ships that's been running through here for the past year" said Cap.

Captain Naphtias Piac was retired IISS and trained to always come to the aid of a ship in distress, especially if it was an Imperium ship this far into the frontier. It was also the honorable thing to do, and everyone knew where he stood on such matters.

"You clear, Sir?" said Zed, as he shut down the generator and started the cable winch mounted on the outside of the ATV.

"Clear!" Cap shouted as he began to float over to each chamber torch to shut them down.

"I think this is a bad idea Cap." Dar repeated over the intercom.

Cap did not answer him, focusing on moving out chamber doorway. The drill began to recede into the hallway being pulled along by the attached cable from the ATV, bumping the side every now and again. The Captain followed quickly behind the retracting drill shutting off each torch as he egressed back up the lighted sandstone hallway that turned to cut rock toward the asteroid's entranceway.

As he reached the entrance, he immediately pushed off from the asteroid toward the APV. He easily reached out and grabbed one of the handles on the outside of the APV without using his thruster pack. He tapped on the outside of the windshield to let Zed know he was there. Zed gave a quick salute to acknowledge Cap's presence, then used the mounted thrusters on the APV to turn and aim the front of the vehicle toward the white wedged shaped scout ship floating in space about 500 meters from their position.

Dar was reluctantly in the process of making a short maneuver to point the nose of the ship away from the asteroid so to better expose it's aft towards the approaching APV. As the APV approached, the large aft outer bay door between the two maneuvering engines began to open. The APV slowly approached then entered the bay. There was a middle-aged man's face in window of the interior door to the bay, oppose the large space doors.

The doors closed once the APV was fully inside. As the exterior bay doors sealed shut, with a bellow, air began to rush into the bay to and relieve the vacuum. The artificial gravity generators were powered on and brought the APV quickly to the floor of the bay with jolt. Cap untethered himself from the APV and slammed his hand against the APV, motioning to Zed to come out of the vehicle. By this time, Dar had opened the interior bay door and was standing at its threshold with a scowl on his face.

"We can't do this Naph!" said Dar. "We will expose everything that we have been working for if we go assist them…"

Cap flipped up his Evac Suit helmet. Cap's face was red and swollen from prolonged periods operating the drill. Grey hair soaked with sweat could be seen from under the suits helmet liner. Cap, an older man in his late 50's, angrily walked toward the door to address Dar.

"It's our duty to assist them if we can, Dar!" he said sternly.

"What duty?" Dar said, rather combatively. "You aren't in the service anymore and we have too much invested in this venture to stop now, especially if it might expose this location!"

"YOU might not have been in the service Dar, but I was, and to some degree still am." He sneared. "If the Imperium finds out that I was in this system and didn't try to help a ship in distress, especially an Imperium one, they will be extremely CROSS" Cap continued, "….and I still have a pension to worry about…"

Cap unhooked his helmet and removed it from his head, along with the liner, holding it now under his right arm.

"They won't find out if we don't tell them." Dar was insistent, "…wipe the communication records and sensor logs." Dar, furious, folded his arms. Zed was now out of the APV and removing the Evac Suit he was wearing. He placed it inside his locker and shut the door, trying to ignore the two men arguing. He began securing the APV, but was interrupted when Cap threw his helmet behind him back into the bay without looking, still arguing with Dar. Zed slowly went to pick up the helmet and placed it into one of the lockers. He approached the two men, who were still standing in the bay doorway arguing.

Cap finally stepped inside the hallway, as did Zed, who closed the bay door behind the three of them. Dar followed behind Cap as he began to make his way through the dorsal hallway towards the cockpit of the Scout ship, still trying to plead his case. The two men stopped in the kitchen, but continued to argue.

"Excuse me." Zed said politely as he worked his way in front of Dar. Cap gave the order for Zed to heat up the M-drive and plot a course out of the asteroid belt. Dar, who by this time was in a complete outrage, started spouting obscenities to Cap in the Zhodani tongue. Surprised, Cap then turned and barked, "That's enough! We're going out to go help them, Dar, and that's all there is too it! Assume your station." Dar flopped down into seat and pouted as the ship started maneuvering among the asteroids and towards the inner lip of the Inner Belt.

Zed and Cap slowly turned and looked at Dar as they heard the hammer of a gun cock…

Prologue 2:

One Week Earlier

JumpSpace to Jewell

A heavy haze hung in the air of the dimly lit corridor of the ship. A gentle hum with an occasional wooing sound echoed—typical for a spaceship travelling in Jumpspace. The NavComputer showed that the ship was 3 days into a Jump—destination: Jewell, in the Jewell Sector. The air was putrid and very humid. Part of the interior floor and starboard wall were moist with what appeared to be an unevenly proportioned mixture resembling dirty mop water and yellow chalk dust. The decrease in the ship's temperature was now producing some condensate on most of the colder utility structures that protruded into the dorsal hallway's ceiling.

Suddenly, there was the clatter of a metal door opening, then coming to an abrupt stop. A solitary shadowy figure returned to the desk where he had been previously sitting.

"God!...it's hard to breath in this bucket!...darned moisture!" he said, as he slowly lowered himself into the plush seat immediately in front of one of the desk panels. Holding his abdomen, he let out a painful grunt as he again seated himself. T

Taking a deep breath, he let out a shout…"CORI….where are you?!"

The man flipped several switches on a console, then reached into a drawer underneath the desk. Opening a hexagonal metal box, he pulled out an orange and blue data crystal from what looked like an assorted pack of a half missing lot. He then held up the crystal, inspected it, and awkwardly inserted it into an interface port in front of him. The holo-screen flickered, then lighted up entirely in midair with the bluish and orange writing indicating that it was ready to receive information.

"Set for voice entry only," He said. "IISS encrypt enable…..". He continued to touch the orange buttons in the Holo-interface in front of him, then after 3 seconds, an orange texted message appeared indicating it was ready.

He paused for a moment as he heard a faint buzzing come closer to the door from down the hallway. The buzzing suddenly gave way to a low purring as a small grey metallic sphere about 5 inches in diameter appeared in the doorway—floating in mid-air. A single red light glowed in the front aperture of the small drone, peeking as it were at the holoscreen in front of the man. The drone then turned and faced him. "…you done yet?" The man said to the sphere in a low voice, gasping a little. "…all done…" said the small sphere in a low pitched mechanical tone. "Good...standby then". The man hit an orange button on the Holo-screen.

Dressed in greyish overalls, he shook some of the yellow dust from himself when he turned and looked at the preview viewer once again. He could see his reflective image in the standby/preview recording mode of the holoscreen. He ran his fingers through his oily grey hair, then shifted his head around a bit. He shoved the chair he was sitting in slightly to the right seemingly trying to observe something behind him in the holographic mirror image. He turned around to look at the bookcase located immediately behind him, gave a "hmmpt…", then turned back to the viewer again. "I suppose that is good enough..." He said. "…Hope there is enough light to notice…." He then reached up and hit another orange button on the holo interface. A blue message flashed on the bottom corner of the viewer indicating that it was now recording…

"This is Naphtias Piac…I am the Captain of the IISS reserve Scout ship Antripades" he said with a firm but struggling voice…"I am recording this message as an addendum to my Last Will and Testament, latest version received at Jewell IISS base about 15 months ago." The man paused to cough, but tried to give no indication that anything might be wrong with him, which obviously there was. "If I am dead or missing when my ship arrives, then please inform the IISS of my desire and intentions contained in this message."

Looking up, the man reached above his head and hit another orange button. A blue message flashed that encryption had been started. His eyes drifted off to the right, then he began to speak again…"Since I have no family that I wish to be included within the scope of this addendum, I hereby leave all my possessions to any and all of my former shipmates from the Rox that are still alive….I served with them 6 years ago. No one else is included..." He said sternly. He looked directly at the previewer again…."This includes all property and possessions contained in my ship, Registration # SP-TY89-098998, or registered to be here according to the ships manifest currently to date….." He paused and took a deep breath. "this also includes all on-board and off-world assets and accounts that are in my name."

He continued. "…this ship has been my home since that time and served me well, just as my colleagues have done when we served on the Rox together. This ship is special too, more special than you know…so take good care of her." The previewer showed that his eyes were beginning to well up with tears.

CORI watched Captain Piac as he recorded about another few minutes of dialogue, then he reached up to hit another orange button, halting the recording. He pulled the data crystal out of the slot and put it in his pocket.

"Okay buddy, it's your turn now…." He said as he turned to the hovering personal drone next to him. "Start recording….", he said to CORI. A blue light appeared on the surface of the hovering drone next to the red one already lit. Captain Piac began to speak again, but this time somewhat more relaxed. He started with a cough…"Well…hopefully by now you guys have figured out that there is a whole lot more going on here than there seems….."

Frontier Spaceport

Nork stood nervously outside the twisted broken copper cargo portals of one of the towns few landing pads. He looked from side to side without turning his head. His hand was on his side arm underneath a long green military tunic.

"Sir…have you got it yet?" Nork said to himself in a low but audible voice.

"Ten more minutes" a voice said over the ComDot, which was firmly placed in Nork's ear and only audible to him. Nork shifted and turned around to look across at the 400-ton spaceship through the fence.

"…but the ship is about to….."

"I know….just relax!" Nab said back through the ComDot.

Nab sat in the corner of the smoky dimly lit saloon containing bronze and wood rustic fixtures with his arms folded and a cigar in his mouth. He chewed the cigar every so often like someone savoring a succulent steak, gnawing it over and over again slowly. Nab knew the ship would not leave…not without its head Steward, who, not coincidentally, was in the same room he was, playing cards with the team's best Zhodani Blackjack player.

Nab occasionally looked around and did not appear worried, even though deep down he was. He let his eyes again fix their gaze on the action in the center of the room ten feet in front of him.

"Fifteen…Ace…Twenty three" he whispered to himself in a low audible voice and looking to his left.

Another voice came over the ComDot " Eight….Thirty two…..Seven…..I'd hit that hand".

Nab smiled as he looked back to his right at another man with a similar green tunic across the room directly opposite him, sipping a drink from a small copper hovering table. The man swished it around his mouth then swallowed hard. The gulping could be heard over the team's ComDots. Nab chuckled.

In the center of the room sat six men sat around the outside of a wood and brass table in the shape of a crescent moon. Opposite them in the center of the table was a woman dealing the cards. Each of them had a small varying number of trapezoidal playing cards face down in front of them and holding another set of three. The tall, scantily adorned dark skinned woman had just dealt another round of cards. She obviously represented the House.

Five of the men seemed plain enough, at least for this planet. Each wore a tattered tunic over rather plain thick plaid or solid colored shirts with varying colored paper-weaved high density plastic corduroy or denim pants. One wore green fatigues with his green tunic, and seemed nod or shakes his head a lot. This was the man who seemed to be winning the current hand. The black or brown boots under the table were soiled with the heavy blood red sand from the dusty caldera that the decrepit spaceport town was constructed in.

The sixth man seated at the table wore clothes of a type suitable for some other civilization. He was prim and proper, as if his mother had dressed him that morning. He was wore a turban, indicating that he was possibly Zhodani. The only exception to his neat attire was a rather raveled shirt at the neck and frayed bowtie to go with his red-sand stained greyish-green jacket that had a company name on front breast pocket. The service marks he wore on his collar made it quite obvious that he was the member of a starship crew. His demeanor and nervous manner clued everyone in to the fact that he seemed to be in somewhat of a hurry.

Over the past hour, his countenance had gone from an annoying smile to that of smug distain…and once again he had lost.

Under his breath he was heard cursing in the Zhed to tongue as the woman cleared the table and set the winnings in front of the one with the green tunic.

"Ok…hand it over" The man with the green tunic reached his hand out to the ship Steward who had lost as if expecting something. The Steward reached into his coat pocket and pulled out his ships BerthPass and slammed it into his hand. The tall Steward stood up quickly, pushing his plush copper grav seat backward. He got up from the table spouting a number of Zhodani profanities, turned, then walked out the door. He passed by Nab on the way out, who had repositioned himself near the door just to get a look at the man's face.

The door cantered back and forth as the Steward exited. Nab couldn't help but to grin. But then he quickly turned back to the man who had received the Pass, and who was now making eye contact with Nab from his seat. Nab looked and him and nodded hastily.

The man in the green tunic got up and hurriedly left.

Nab walked out the door and whispered to himself, addressing Nork…"it's on its way" he said with a smile as he quickly walked along the dusty plasticrete sidewalk. Nab weaved through the crowd and headed toward the old landing pads located about a kilometer to the west of the town.

He made his way quickly through the strange bazaar where vendors peddled everything from food to gun parts to human organs and slaves. He then stood at the end of old gnarled chain-linked brass fence looking at the lone ship about to lift off.

"I've got the Pass and on the ship, Sir….see you guys again in a few weeks…I hope." came Nork's voice over Nab's ComDot.

"Remember what I said and you should be fine."

Nab watched through the fencing lattice around the edge of the landing pads as the ship engaged its contragrav generators. The ship gently floated up about a meter, then the landing gear slowly folded into their wells underneath the outer structure and sealed over. The spaceship then turned around and faced in a Southerly direction at a slight tilt. It then quickly pulled away into the clear reddish-green sky at a steep angle. It cleared the mountains at the eastern edge of the Caldera. The methane fog that lay just beyond the caldera lip enveloped the ship as it continued its climb toward orbit.

Nab turned slowly, deep in thought, then quickly covered his face and made his way back through the bazaar and towards his team's rendezvous at the outer gates of the city.

On the other side of the fence, however, another lone figure turned back to also watch as the ship departed…