Looking for Cargo:

At Intercourse it isn’t easy to find a cargo. But the Reverend Mother has saved something for the Notorious. She offers them a cargo of 10 tons of cured meats and sausages. These charcuteries are seen as a delicacy at Lancaster. A profit can probably be made. The cargo costs 2000 Cr/ton.

Back at Lancaster:

At Lancaster, they notice that the starship Nomen Luni is in the starport. Captain Harry Moonblaster contacts the Notorious and tells the crew that he has a major cargo for York that they could share. (Full cargo hold at normal shipping rates.)

Harry wants to meet the crew and discuss this over some beers. Maybe the crew of the Notorious will tell Harry about the stolen book and the big bounty on the ships that stole it.

Meles-2 will pay 18,000 Cr/ton for the cured meats and sausages.

At York:

An insurance company (McNaughton et Cie) has contacted the local LFTS office and the office contacts the Notorious and Nomen Luni. The insurance company wants help to find a leak at the starport that informs pirates about valuable cargoes. One of the pirates that has attacked ships from York is Orange Submarine. Harry is still very upset about the food poisoning (in S1E5) and wants revenge on the crew and Captain of Orange Submarine.

McNaughton et Cie want Notorious and Nomen Luni to go to Shrewsbury. They will arrange false ship specs  that say that Notorious and Nomen Luni are unarmed. They will also post a fake cargo manifest saying that the ships carry an expensive cargo of watches and medicine. Just like the Notorious, the Nomen Luni is also a well-armed ship.

Nomen Luni Q-Ship QQ-75336G1-400000-80000-0 MCr619.0378 700ton
 batteries                          1      TL=13 Crew=9
 Fuel=252, EP=42, Agility=2, Emergency=3, Cargo=122

Starship Notorious QT-52334E2-200000-50003-0 MCr326.2755 500ton
 batteries                           2   1  TL=13 Crew=10
 Fuel=170, EP=20, Agility=1, Emergency=3, Cargo=92

This is a perfect plan, since these are the pirates that the Notorious are looking for. Now is a chance to find them and retrieve the stolen book and get a bounty for the ship and crew.

The Leak:

One day before departure, while they are loading containers (that say Yoxxel Watches on its sides) with scrap metal three ships leave the starport. But none of them has listed Shrewsbury as its destination. The ships are Space Canard, Lola-2 and Virtual Dreamer.

At Shrewsbury:

When Notorious and Nomen Luni arrive in the system they are hailed by the pirates. They are ordered to jettison their cargo. If not, they will be attacked.

How events unfold depend on the decisions of the crew of the Notorious and Nomen Luni. One plan could be to first follow the commands from the pirates but the open fire when the pirates get closer. The pirates will not anticipate that since they think that both the Notorious and the Nomen Luni are unarmed.

When the pirates get closer they can be visually identified as Orange Submarine and Virtual Dreamer.

Virtual Dreamer AP-42222B1-000000-40003-0 MCr180.2632 400ton
 batteries                        1   1  TL=13 Crew=7
 Fuel=88, EP=8, Agility=1, Emergency=2, Cargo=195

Orange Submarine QT-32334C2-000000-40000-0 MCr209.8171 300ton
 batteries                         3      TL=13 Crew=8
 Fuel=114, EP=12, Agility=1, Emergency=3, Cargo=30

Assuming that the pirate ships are badly damaged and the pirates cannot escape, the crew of the Notorious  board the Orange Submarine looking for the stolen Holy Book.

There will be a short firefight with the surviving pirates aboard the Orange Submarine before the pirates give up.

Counters for the crew and henchmen of the Orange Submarine can be found at its ship page.

The Holy Book is in the ship’s locker and found after Laura Carboncore, the Captain of the Orange Submarine, has been forced to open it. In the locker there are also some documents that connect Amanda Jameson that they know from some previous encounters (S1E4 and S1E8) with a Company called Admana Nebula Investment LIC. She is listed as one of the owners. Amanda is now known as Madame Josanna.

The crew of the Notorious and the Nomen Luni can sell the salvage rights for the two pirate ships here at Shrewsbury. The can drop of any prisoners here or take them back to York.

The Notorious and the Nomen Luni returns to York for repairs and collecting the bounty on the Orange Submarine.

There are a few notes in the book in the margin that is missing in the copies. One of these notes says that the second ship was hit, but tries to hide in a canyon in a larger asteroid.

Back on York:

At York, the Notorious gets a cargo of sugar to Hershay. The Nomen Luni need a few more days for repairs and cannot join them. Captain Harry Moonblaster asks the crew of the Notorious to contact the king of Skor and ask if he is ready to buy-back the big blue diamond.

In Space in the Hershay system:

The jump to Hershay is shaky. The Notorious exit jump-space eight hours late and quite close to an outer system gas giant.

Even closer to the gas giant two objects are noticed. Both objects have a high-speed vector heading directly towards the north pole of the gas giant. With the help of optical instruments, the object furthest away from the gas giant can be recognized as the black Ship of the Death Quartet. The other larger object is boxy and looks broken and is careening and has a wobbly rotation.

The black ship reaches the other object. After 10 minutes, the black ship accelerates away. The other object continues at the same speed towards the gas giant. It will be destroyed before the Notorious has any chance to investigate. However, if the Notorious moves closer to the gas giant, they will see that the other object is a piece of wreckage that was once part of a larger ship.

Once the black ship is identified, the ship’s computer will tell the crew that its bounty is MCr 27.

Someone in the crew with pilot skill may notice that for the maneuver that the black ship performed, a 5G maneuver drive is needed.

The Notorious then continues to Hershay. It will take several days.

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