Chapter 1 - The Crash

Red lights are flashing periodically, turning the room into a bizarre abstract slide show.
The emergency klaxon is blaring...
Something is not right. You find yourself on a station on a ship, your head pounding.
What happened? How did you get here? And what's wrong with the ship?

You look around, a few unfamiliar faces with equally confused and tormented looks start moving in their seats. It seems you are all part of a crew, but you have no idea what brings you here, which ship this is or where you are headed and why.

Slowly you can make out other sounds in this cacophony of failure. "Atmosphere at 85% and dropping" an emotionless mechanical voice states matter of factly over the speakers.

Taelor jolts awake. "I'm going to be late!" The headache kicks in. The blaring alarm and flashing lights aren't helping. She clutches her head. "AAAHHH!! Shit... Will someone shut that fucking thing off?"

She looks around, confusion spreading across her features as she takes in her surroundings. She's sitting at a console on a bridge she doesn't recognize, surrounded by strangers. How much did I drink last night? she thinks to herself.

Her militia training kicks in and she quickly checks herself for injury. It doesn't seem like she has any broken bones. That's good, at least.

"Atmosphere at 85% and dropping" an emotionless mechanical voice states matter of factly over the speakers.

Fuck.

She checks her console, trying to figure out the controls. Pilot's station. Good, but not useful right now. "Can anyone see where we're venting from?"

"Jesus, what the hell?" Jasper sits up in his seat, shocked. Not that he's never woken up in a strange situation, but this takes the cake.

moarhair wrote:

"Can anyone see where we're venting from?"

I guess she's the pilot then? Jasper thinks as he starts typing on his console. He's never been part of a bridge crew but growing up on an asteroid mine gave him a lot of practice fixing leaks. He attempts to diagnose the problem from his terminal.

Muffled noises pierce into Senns head, slowly turning more clear as his dizzyness gradually evolves into pulsating pain inside his skull. The meaning of the voices manifests in his ears. "First: surviving! .. I can take the time to suffer afterwards!" . The console in front of him turns out to be part of the problem - even with his still blurry vision he makes out that it will not be of any use for anyone. While waiting for his sense of balance to reach a level he is willing to trust, Senn watches a blond guy to his right making use of his still functioning terminal. He attempts to get out of his seat to get a view of the station.

Jasper pulls close the terminal attached to his chair.
A dashboard comes to life, dials and gauges display the status of the ship. The word "Tsunami" titles the screen. This must be the name of the ship.
The numbers seem oddly familiar. His fingers tap over the terminal, as if they have a mind of their own. System diagnostics. Tap. Lines start rolling down the screen.

System diagnostics wrote:

Environmental systems... 97%
Reactor... 0%
Emergency generator... 93%
Drive... offline
Maneuvering thrusters... 90%
Reaction mass... 57%
Sensor array... 93%
Atmosphere... 84%
Fuel... 25%
Coffee maker... functional

Next to himself he can see a man struggle free from his safety restraints, his long dark hair floating around his head in an almost liquid looking cloud. As he frees himself from the belt he gently floats out of the chair towards the ceiling.

Looks like the reactor is in the fritz. Explains why the drive is offline and we're not under thrust. No acceleration, no gravity.

But where is that leak? It cannot be big, as in the last minutes only 1% atmosphere was lost.

Tap. Tap. A schematic overview of the ship pops into view. The bridge is  green, quarters and the galley as well.
Engineering seems to have an orange shine...


As Senner pushes the damaged terminal away from himself and struggles free from his restraints he suddenly realizes what was bothering him trying to get free of the belt. His hair is floating around his head like a cloud of irritating mosquitoes. In the same moment he manages to free himself and gently starts floating up, out of his chair.
Looking around he sees what seems to be a fairly small bridge with three stations. From what he can tell everything seems to be mostly intact, but the flashing red light makes it hard to make out details.


Taelor frantically tries to find the atmosphere leak, but her piloting station does not help her much. She knows she can pull up any other view, but the terminal stays stoically on the navigation view.

Quote :

Xenthra system
Inhabited bodies: Astyoc/planet
No other traffic nearby

Taelor undoes her safety restraints with practiced efficiency. She steps out of her seat and pushes herself gently towards the two strangers, quickly glancing at her right thigh to make sure her pistol is still there. It is. She feels reassured. After all I was sitting with my back to them before whatever happened, clearly we're working together. Why can't I remember?

She catches herself on the blond man's console, stopping her momentum. She smiles at the two men.

"This is going to sound weird, but I think I must have hit my head pretty hard, cause it hurts like hell and I can't remember shit. We can deal with it later, but if I seem like I'm acting strange," she chuckles nervously, "it's because I don't remember you guys at all." She shrugs, embarrassed, then takes a look at the readout. "Seems like engineering's the problem. I'll head there and check it out."

Jasper looks around as his companions. "Yeah, I don't know either. I guess we're in the same boat. Figuratively, I mean, also literally obviously. He stands up, putting his armored vac suit helmet on. "Reactor's offline too, I'm going to see if I can get it back on."

Taelor frowns. "Wait. You don't remember us either?"

She turns to the man with the long black hair. "What about you? Do you remember us?" As she talks, she starts fishing in her pockets and pulls out a hair tie. She holds the elastic band out to him.

As the woman hands Senner an elastic, he realizes that his blurry vision would improve much faster than expected.   "Thanks!" , he said as he reached for the band,   "Seems like whatever happened, it happened to all of us. I'm Senn by the way." With his hair out of the way he pushes himself from the backrest of his seat towards the door, hoping to remember anything about the ship and its architecture.   Maybe I will recognize something.. and where is the engineering?

"So none of us remember each other? That's weird. That's weird, right?"

A flashing light on the blond man's console catches Taelor's eye. The atmosphere is still dropping.

"Right, keep breathing first, figure this out later. You can call me Gopher." She raises her hands defensively. "Don't ask, it's a story for another time."

She looks at the console again, taking in the ship's schematic. "Looks like engineering is down, then towards the front of the ship, past the galley. Let's go take a look!"

Taelor pushes herself towards the door, following Senn off the bridge.

Jasper gives a final 'Tap' to the terminal dismissing the warnings and instantly the klaxon stops blaring. An eerie silence falls on the ship. The flashing red lighting flips to constant red, emergency lighting, since you are on emergency power supply.

Senn gently pushes himself towards the back of the bridge. Stairs lead down into the unknown. A bit clumsily due to the unusual gravity situation Senn dives down into the cargo hold, closely followed by Taelor and Jasper.
The cargo hold is half full with crates, shelves and boxes.
To the left is a terminal and a door, to the right another door. From the schematic that you saw on the terminal on the bridge, you know to follow the right door. It is still dead silent. Nothing is moving. All cargo is firmly locked in place with magnetic clamps and belts.
The door slides opens with a gentle hiss and gives room to a longer narrow hallway. The plain metal walls are a gentle blue that now appears purple in the red lighting.
You smell the clean metallic scent the air scrubbers leave behind, after doing their work.
No decorations are on the wall, just a shiny steel hand rail, obviously for zero-g situations such as this. All doors are properly closed, the ship seems tidy and perfectly in order, were it not for the annoying light.
As you float forward towards the door at the end of the hallway, you closely listen to any kind of noise. But except for your own breathing no noise can be heard.
Everything seems familiar, you know you have spent a fair amount of time on this ship. Somehow you feel what will be behind the next door. Something comfortable, a place where you like to be. A refuge. But the memory of the room is just out of reach. The constant effort of reaching for that memory is straining your energy, the headache is excruciating.

The galley seems in good shape. White aluminium plating cover the cupboards and storages. A white round table towards the far left corner, with a comfortable leather-equivalent covered bench.
On the right the food processor and beverage dispenser give the faint glow of the standby function.
A gentle hum comes from where the refrigeration unit seems to be. Ahead is a door with a plain label "Engine Room" and the universal sign for radiation.
When you open the door to engineering and audible swushing sound and a small draft into the room confirm your suspicion.

In the center of the room is the typical cylinder of the reactor, towards the back you make out the interior parts of the drive. On the left is a small shelf with magnetically attached tools.

The draft feels like a light breeze and reminds Senner of the peaceful days as a kid in the park. But the glaring red light and the hard reality behind the sensation of air moving immediately bring him back.
"The leak can't be too large.. Gopher, can you check the tools over there for anything we can use to fix a leak?" Senner pushes himself inside the room, floating towards the back ".. and we still need to find it!" . He hastily looks around. He does not discover an obvious hole in the shell. A small leak might be hard to see. Feeling the draft of air moving through a few loose hair and leaving a tingling sensation on his cheeks show him he is heading towards the right direction.

"Aye, aye!" says Taelor as she pushes off towards the tool shelf. "If you've got something light, like a ration wrapper or something, just put it in the air and let the leak pull it," she says over her shoulder. "Old spacer trick."

She goes down the length of the shelf until she finds the welding torch and pulls it off the rack.

Following the draft that's pulling his hair gently towards the wall, Senn floats towards the hull of the ship and after what seems like eternity given the dire reasons for this search you find a pinhead small hole on the starboard side of ship.
Using the torch and some plating you can find the hole is quickly patched. After a few minutes of tense staring at the terminal screen you can confirm that no more atmosphere is leaking.

Taelor leans back and looks at her handiwork.

"Well, looks like we won't suffocate." She smiles at her crewmates.
"Let's see if we can get the reactor going."

She pulls herself to the tool shelf and places the welding torch back, then pushes off towards the reactor. She stops in front of the control panel and starts looking for the cause of the reactor's malfunction.

They diagnostics routine cycles quickly through the electronics of the reactor. Taelor knows it will only give preliminary results, since the reactor is offline and runtime diagnostics have to wait.
At the end the read-out shows a list of green items, just one red line jumps out. The plasma regulator is not responding. Taelor pulls the herself around the reactor bottle to check the state of it. It seems whatever shot through the hull shredded the regulator. There is no way this thing works ever again. The only way is to bypass it completely. But that means the reactor must not be run at more then 25% otherwise the plasma might get out of control and melt in best case only the magnetic coils.
But 25% is already something. It will get the engine running for system travel. Nothing fast, but better then the maneuvering thrusters.
Let's just hope someone in the system has spare parts to fix the reactor...

Taelor wipes her hands on a rag as she floats out of the engine room.

"I got the reactor running for now, but we're going to need some parts to fix it for good. I think I remember seeing there's an inhabited planet in this system on navigation. I'll set a course. Then maybe we can try to figure out what the fuck is going on?"

She makes her way to the bridge and sits at the helm. There it is. Astyoc. She tries on the word. "Aztyoc? Ast-yoc? Ass-Tea-Ock?"

She opens the ship-wide comm. "Hold on to something, I'm turning on the thrust." She grins. "Don't worry, I'll be gentle."

She sets a course for Astyoc and turns on the engine, slowly accelerating until she reaches a decent speed. She looks at the projections of their flight path for their travel time.

As the reactor starts up, the red emergency light flips back to normal lighting. It takes a few moments until your eyes adjust to the real colours again.
The computer spits out a flight plan almost instantly - the beauty of space travel nothing is ever in the way. You are lucky, the planet is currently making its way towards you, on its eternal travel around the star that defines the Xenthra system.

Quote :

Astyoc...  
Travel duration: 76h
Flip point: 36.5h
Average acceleration: 1/3g

Local space port: Mani Losa Plains
Local time (current): 16:33
Estimated Time of Arrival: 20:23
Local average daily temperature: 288K

Have a nice flight.

As Taelor confirms the flight path the engine comes to life and gently starts accelerating the ship towards its new destination. After a few tense moments it is clear, everything seems to be running as it should be. You can feel the acceleration providing you with a new sense of up and down, relieving your brain from at least that confusion.

With the course locked in, Taelor pulls herself out of her seat. She tumbles, catching herself on her console, still adjusting to the restored gravity. Slowly and carefully, she makes her way back down to the galley.

She pours herself a glass of water from the beverage dispenser and takes a seat on the faux-leather bench, crossing her legs as if she had sat on the ground.

"So, we have about 76 hours before we get to the nearest spaceport. Do you guys want to compare notes and see if we can figure out how we got here?"

"Wow you're pretty good." Says Jasper, taking a seat on the in the galley. "To be honest, I don't have the foggiest idea why we're here. Is anyone else on the ship besides us three?"

Jasper beings poking around the main deck, checking the crew quarters and cargo bay. "I'm guessing you're in charge of keeping the ship running? I'm not bad at maintenance but my credentials are really more in the customer service field." He checks inside the crates in the cargo hold. "This ship's too small to be a merchant operation. Why do you think we're heading to Astyoc?"

Kobras_Aquairre wrote:

"Wow you're pretty good." Says Jasper, taking a seat on the in the galley. "To be honest, I don't have the foggiest idea why we're here. Is anyone else on the ship besides us three?"

"Thanks!" Taelor says, smiling at the compliment. "I figure they would have come out by now if there was anyone else." She shrugs.

Kobras_Aquairre wrote:

Jasper beings poking around the main deck, checking the crew quarters and cargo bay. "I'm guessing you're in charge of keeping the ship running? I'm not bad at maintenance but my credentials are really more in the customer service field."

Taelor gets up and follows, sipping her drink. "I guess, since we're a small crew. I'm more of a pilot than an engineer, but I learned how to handle a wrench back home. My Commander always said 'a good pilot needs to know how to fix their fighter'," she says, mimicking the stern man who had led her squadron. She spills a bit of her drink as she gestures like he would. "Shit." She kicks off a boot and mops up the water with her sock. "So, you're a salesman?"

Kobras_Aquairre wrote:

He checks inside the crates in the cargo hold. "This ship's too small to be a merchant operation. Why do you think we're heading to Astyoc?"

Taelor puts her boot back on. "It was the only planet with a spaceport in the system. I don't know if it was meant as our destination, but I bet we can find parts for more complete repairs there. So, what's the last thing you remember?"

Leaving there galley you start opening doors in the long hallway. The first leads to a crew cabin that has recently been used. Everything is neatly packed away or strapped down, as you are used to on a space ship. The risk of flying items during zero g, sudden maneuvers or the flip at the halfway point is simply to great. But when you open some of the cabinets, Taelor recognises some personal items. This seems to be her cabin.
The cabin across the hallway looks almost identical. The same arrangement of the furniture, the same neat tidy cleanliness. The cabinets reveal personal items of Jasper's.
The third door opens to the third crew cabin. This must be Senn's cabin. Another clone of the other two.
After this you find the the infirmery. It is actually a bit of a a euphemism for a glorified cabinet with an autodoc and some first aid band aids.
The passenger cabins don't look like they have been used in the last days. Small bunks and a shared common area don't make for a luxurious cruise, but it is better than many other shuttles.
The latrine has no surprises for the three crew members, as well as the arsenal. The latter is a lockable cabinet, that can hold a few rifles, hand guns and their ammunition. But right now it only holds what you recognise as your weapons and is not locked.
The crates in the cargo bay hold supply for the food fabricator, oxygen and water tanks, spare parts, etc. It does not look like there is any cargo besides what's required to make for a comfortable passage between systems.

".. the last thing I remember.." Senner slowly says in a low voice while pushing buttons on the coffee maker. A gentle buzzing announced the distinct smell of cheap coffee in the galley. "I hoped something on this ship would boost our memories but our small tour did nothing, for me at least. I remember that I quit my job as a physician on a ship." He takes the plastic cup and takes a sip. ... finally we have gravity back. I can't stand drinking this stuff out of plastic bags... I worked for a company that is shipping and trading minerals. On every stop there were mining workers with smashed extremities that needed fixing. Rough business. But to be honest, my job mostly consisted of fixing what the workers were doing to themselves by drinking the wrong booze or worse." He looks at the black watery content of his cup, ever so slightly shaking his head. As if he was making a compromise with himself he takes another sip. "Well, I left that job in good terms.. can't dislike the guy giving out the happy pills.. so no lead there. Is any of you in that general business? Maybe we can find out how we met? Doesn't seem to me as if we are here against our will."

Taelor walks back to the galley and pours herself a cup of coffee. "Mining, eh? I grew up in a mining colony. Haven't been there for a few years, though." She turns around, leaning against the counter. "I joined the system militia and never looked back. Well, other than for the odd letter to the family. And the video calls. May have visited once or twice... Anyway, turns out the militia was pretty boring too, so I left after my first tour. Last I remember, I was looking for work."

She sits down, pulling out her dataslab. She lays it out on the table, unfolds it and connects to the ship's computer. "Maybe there are some logs or records of our mission. I'll poke around."

The research first yields some information about the ship in general. Obviously it is not very big, it's more of a fast shuttle.

OOC:

Taelor stars scrolling through the ships logs. The earlier entries seem irrelevant, too far back. Hmm, the ship really got around. Mentta, Valiu, Alba, never staying long, with longer stops only in the Valiu system. Then the logs seem to have a pause. The ship apparently stayed in the Valiu system for a longer period. The next entry catches Taelors attention.
Departure: 3224-05-23 / Sepcinc / Valiu
Today is the 3224-06-07...
Sepcinc... Somehow this sounds familiar. Taelor grabs onto that name and starts pulling in the nebula that is her memory. Suddenly she sees a fancy office. She is lounging on a dark leather couch, feet on the edge of the small side table. Jasper is leaning against a doorframe, facing her and the others. There is Senn too. He is sitting on a leathers chair, listening intently to the last person in the room. A ruggedly handsome man in a very fancy suit saying the last words of a sentence: "... drop her off safely. But more importantly, do not forget to bring me the small trunk." She still remembers taking in the beautiful view of the sea outside of the window and the smoking mountains in the back. Then it is over.
The next entry reads
Arrival: 3224-05-27 / Aldega / Alba

But no memory sparks on that entry.

"Guys, listen, I think I have something", she shouts through the galley. "Apparently we boarded this ship on Sepcinc in the Valiu system. And I remember us getting briefed by a fancy suit, about dropping off someone else and picking up some trunk or somethin'. I can't however remember who this passenger was and what's the deal with that trunk. Did anyone see a trunk on the ship? The destination, apparently was Aldega in the Alba system."

"Wait, Aldega?... I remember we were in some of kind of research complex there. I remember everything being full of buildings and everything was pretty run down. Except for this complex. Walled in, decent security and no grafiti. It felt weirdly out of place. And there was a large tower in the area. Looked like a phallic needle. I remember making some kind of joke about the architect compensating or something. " Senn tries to pull more out of the fog. But to no avail.

"Wait, yea, Aldega also rings a bell here. I remember, when we left, it was quite a ride. Someone didn't want us to leave and almost shot us down, when you pulled us into metaspace, Taelor."

Taelor scrolls further in the logs.
"The next entry is
'Departure: 3224-06-04 / Aldega / Alba'
and if read the navigation log correctly, we tried to use the rutter back to Sepcinc. But after that everything is garbage."

"Huh so maybe this is a merchant operation we're running. I guess you could say I'm a salesman, but I've had a lot of jobs. I grew up on an asteroid mine too, go figure. I can see why you'd want to leave. I got my start in security for a far trader outfit. Eventually I got promoted and got involved more in the business end of things. Last job I was on though things went sour and I moved on for greener pastures." Jasper looks around. "I was planning to end up somewhere a bit nicer than this, no offense to present company."

"I didn't see a trunk though. Hey, what date is it? If we left Aldega on 06-04 we can figure out how much time we're missing." Jasper heads to the nearest terminal to check the date.

Taelor looks at the date displayed on her dataslab. 3224-06-07.

"We left on the 23rd from Specinc... so 15 days at least..." She lets out a nervous chuckle. "Over 2 weeks? Shit." She sits there for a few second contemplating their situation.

She shakes her head to clear it. "Alright, we got three days before making planetfall. Let's see if we can find that trunk, yeah? Might be more clues inside."

"Yeah, I think that case was important. I feel like we might be fucked if we don't find it. Well, more fucked than we already are. At least the coffee machine still works." Jasper says, making himself a cup of coffee as he starts opening cabinets. "Anyone remember if we have any booze on this boat? Doc, you got any spare pills lying around? I get antsy being cooped up."

Taelor looks from Jasper to Senn, nervous. Her father was an alcoholic. Not a violent one, mind you, he was a happy drunk. Unfortunately, that didn't make him functional. Was Jasper an addict? If so, what kind?

She stands up. She doesn't want to be here for this.

"I'm going to search the hold again, see if I can find that trunk," she says, her cheerful demeanor gone, and walks out of the galley.

She makes her way to the cargo bay and starts rooting around the boxes and containers.

The time passes as you busy yourself with whatever comes up. Most of the time you spend in the galley, talking about the memories that slowly come back.
From the fractions you each unearth from your fogged minds you patch together a relatively consistent recollection.

About a fortnight ago you were recruited by Freyer Industries, an up and coming corporation selling the newest and most advanced military tech on the market, to transport a company official to Aldega. That was the official mission. Additionally you were tasked to apprehend a trunk with some important tech from the labs of another corporation called Innovative Networks, dealing with pharmaceuticals and med tech. You managed to get the trunk and leave Aldega, albeit with a flotilla of corporate interceptors trying to stop you. The pressured jump must have gone awry and you ended up in your current situation.
The trunk you hid in a secret compartment behind the armory.
The cubic case, roughly 70cm on each side, weighs about 15kg and is magnetically locked by a latch on the front.

After getting it out of the secret compartment, for a moment all three stare at the trunk in silence. "Well.. two days, no booze, and - I'm not used to stating that - also no pills, but instead a mystery cube." Senn looks up to Jasper and Taelor, "I assume we won't remember anything more, so what do you think?" , he says, knocking on the top of the trunk.

Taelor stares at the trunk. "Well, we're already in trouble with one corp, I'd hate to add one more. I think we should deliver it. Once we fix the ship on Astyoc, that is."

She moves closer and puts a hand on the case. "What do you think is in there?"

"Mh.. judging from he sender it could be something that gives life, judging from the recipient, it could be the opposite." Lost in thoughts, Senn lets his hand gently slide along the edge of the trunk. "But you're right, we should leave it and focus on getting the ship back in shape" , he said without moving, eyes on the trunk.

Jasper paces the common area. "Could be anything... miltech, high grade pharmaceuticals... I don't remember anyone telling us not to open it, do you? I think we should at least know what we're carrying. I wouldn't want it giving us problems while we're planetside.

Taelor bites her lip. "Either of you know how to pick a lock?"

"Same as you, not in an elegant way.. and even if I knew, I'm not really the handy type.. anymore, that is." Senn holds up his right hand with index and thumb missing, wiggling with his remaining three fingers. "..gang fight back in the days.."

As the ship is hurdling through space on its way to Astyoc the crew keeps busy with simple chores, leisure and private time.
On a second look quite a few things got into disarray and require cleaning, tidying and sorting. Nothing is more important on a ship in the vast emptiness of space than having everything at its place and securely fastened.
During leisure time on the galley the main topic remain the recent events, but no more memories resurface, no matter how hard everyone tries. The collective memory is at a stand still with the rough knowledge of what happened and the details spotty at best. Single images of the recent destinations are all that can be unearthed.

A klaxon sounds, an electronical voice calmly sounds over the ships speakers: "Arrival at target in 2.5 hours. Contact with atmosphere in 2 hours."
The automatic announcement brings everybody back to focusing on the trip. Within the hour everything is stowed away and everybody is at their station. The readout on the pilot summary is

Quote :

Atmosphere: breathable
Weather: cloudy, calm
Temperature: 296 K
Orbit: clear
Descent: no increased friction on entry expected
Landing permission: granted

This should be as easy a landing as possible, given the current state of the ship.

The orbit is clear, no other ships appear on the systems scanner. Luckily the spaceport down on Astyoc apparently already allows automatic landing permission negotiation and the decent to Astyoc is granted, without further investigation. Either they don't care, or no flags have been placed on the ships signature.

As the ship enters the atmosphere of Astyoc it starts shaking and rattling. A loud humming sound becomes audible, as the ship dashes down through the thick clouds.
After someone tense minutes the ships speed has reduced enough, the shaking, rattling and humming stops and is replaced by the familiar whooshing of the ship rushing through air.

The landing pad, one of only a few, is not much more than an enforced concrete slab, with the universal markers on it, directing the pilot to properly place the ship. Getting out of your stations is cumbersome, as usual planet side, as the planets gravity
pulls in a perpendicular direction, than the thrust gravity that you grew accustomed to these days.
Climbing down the ladder that is usually the ceiling, you make your way to the airlock.

Atmosphere: breathable the computers summary had said. Still a tense feeling creeps up your spine as you cycle the airlock, without wearing a vacc suit.
As the lock opens, you get a clear view of your surroundings. The spaceport is not much more than a collection of landing pads and a large, rundown concrete building, with old fashioned plastic signs, directing new comers to the administration building.
The clouds are thick, but enough light shines through that no reflectors are required. The air is thick and heavy, but, as hoped, breathable, without assistance or filters.
Inside the administration building you find a small booth, with a bored looking woman, as well as two security guards, with machine guns left and right of the booth.
A sign at the top of the window reads "Cust ms".
"Compads for identification, please", the woman says in an uninterested voice.

Taelor fishes her dataslab out of her backpack and hands it to the customs officer.

"Hello, ma'am. How are you doing today? We're looking for parts to fix our ship. Would you happen to know of a mechanic nearby?"

"Maybe you should ask the port authorities or in the marina", she makes a sarcastic snortle, "ask in the cantina in the port. Someone there ought'a know who to ask. Next!" Without so much as glancing at the readout of her terminal, she hands the dataslab back to Taelor as soon as the confirmation beep of the scan sounds.

Two quick bleeps and a couple of undefined, semi-articulated grunts later you're waved through and asked to move along. The small hallway opens to a large hall, which once used to be impressive and modern, but lack of maintenance caused it to look run down and in some corners downright sad. Booths, formerly housing little shops, or agencies are boarded shut, benches are half broken and the glass of the dome is dull and filthy. You pass through it without problem and exiting the main doors you step outside onto a larger street.
Old fashioned buildings are on both sides of it, the architectural style something that used to be modern decades ago. No larger buildings are visible, everything is compact and practical. Many fronts are boarded shut and dirt, dust and litter are omnipresent. Some people are walking, following their daily errands, a few cars, the old ones, with tyres, are driving up and down the street.
Across the street you see a bar-like establishment with the imaginative name 'The Cantina', which is obviously open and alive with guests.

Taelor looks curiously at the cars. She had seen some before, of course. Not back home, but after she'd left to join the militia, but none that looked so... vintage.

She hops across the street and opens the door to The Cantina. She makes her way to the counter and smiles at the waitress.

"Excuse me, could I get some drinks for my friends and I? Whatever is most popular. We just landed. First time on Astyoc," she says, hoping she's pronouncing the name right.

As the door to The Cantina opens a wave of warm air rolls over you. A complex mixture of smells washes  follows, familiar ones such as sweat, alcohol, stuffiness, but also new smells that you did not expect. Something warm and spicy, remotely reminding you of an herb.
There are about ten tables in the bar, five of them are occupied. The counter is towards your left and stretches the whole length of the room. Everything is a bit gloomy, but not shabby or dirty. The diffuse light due to the thick cloud cover outside is certainly not helping.

Behind the counter is a tough-looking short-haired woman, talking to one of the customers at the counter. As you walk in, a few heads, including hers, turn in your direction.

"Excuse me, could I get some drinks for my friends and I? Whatever is most popular. We just landed. First time on Astyoc,"

"Sure, sweety, hang on." She turns towards a beverage dispenser and drafts three mugs of an amber liquid. She places the mugs in front of you. "First time, eh? What brings you here? Astyoc is not exactly a holiday resort and we are a bit off the beaten path. Not often that we have off-worlders here."

Suddenly in the background at one of the tables a slim elegant looking man jumps up from his chair. He has a black mustache and dark brown hair that he is wearing kempt back. He is dressed in an elegant black suit and a red tie, very unlike all other customers. His partner in his previous conversation is a young lady, with short dark brown hair. She is wearing rather practical clothing, cargo pants, a tough sweater and a lether vest.
"You will regret this! Tomorrow! You'll see!", the elegant looking man shouts and storms out, not paying the other customers any attention.
The lady looks slightly startled and remains sitting at her table, her eyes following the man as he exists. She then leans forward and frowns into her half empty glass.

Taelor takes a mug from the bartender. "Thank you. We, uh..." she starts before being distracted by the commotion.

She watches the scene unfold, bemused. She looks at Jasper and Senn. "What do you think that's about?"

When the man walks out, she turns back to the woman behind the counter.

"What was I saying? Oh, yes. I'm afraid we landed here by necessity. Mechanical issues with our ship. Would you know where we can buy some parts?"

Senn just reaches for his mug and just when he has his nose over the liquid to find out about what people on that planet might use to forget their everyday life misery he gets distracted by the strangely well dressed shouting man.
"What do you think that's about?"
After a brief moment of all staring at the scene, Taelor continues talking to the woman. But Senn does not focus on the conversation anymore. There is something strange about this small dispute.. or maybe not. Different planet, different people. The waitress already started talking again, making wide gestures with a cloth in her one hand and a glass in the other, but Senn was distracted for a moment too long to follow the conversation. He takes a sip and watches the remaining guests' reactions - and how the lady sinks deeper over her glass, face buried in her hands. With his mug in left hand, Senn walks over to the nearest table approaching two men which just turned their heads towards each other again. Hi there! Any idea what's the deal with this guy? he asks, nodding towards the exit door.

Jasper takes his mug from the bartender and observes the scene unfold while sipping from his drink.

In response to Gopher, Jasper remarks "Bad date maybe? Only one way to find out." He takes his drink and nonchalantly approaches the table.

"Was that guy giving you a problem, ma'am?" he asks coolly.

The drink is likely the source of the unknown scent you noticed when you came in. It smells somewhat spicy with a herbal note. The taste is bitter, malty and a sweet minty note. Not unpleasant. It could be some kind of herbal beer.

Taelor wrote:

"What was I saying? Oh, yes. I'm afraid we landed here by necessity. Mechanical issues with our ship. Would you know where we can buy some parts?"

"Oh, that must suck. Yea, well we're not really the high-tech shipyard kinda planet. Your best bet is likely Sonia over there. Came to Astyoc a couple of years back and has been fixing our shit since." She nods over towards the short-haired lady that was just at the receiving end of the yelling.

Senn wrote:

"Hi there! Any idea what's the deal with this guy?"

The two men, look up from the conversation, confused looks on their faces wondering who interrupted their freshly started talk.
"What? Ah, that was Mr. Bermúdez. He's the leader of Mani Losa Plains. You ain't from around here, eh? Don't worry about him, he is like that. And Sonia over there is not exactly his biggest fan, everybody knows that. They always have it in for each other.
She is a bit weird, if you ask me. Not from here. And always goes against Mr. Bermúdez.
So what brings you here? Where you from?"

Jasper wrote:

"Was that guy giving you a problem, ma'am?"

Sonia startles and looks up, but immediately a friendly smile shines over her face. "Oh, no. That was just Diogenes. He is a hothead, but I haven't seen him this agitated. He got me worried, I wonder whether this time he really is planning something stupid. He said something like 'once the outsiders won't come anymore, it'll be just us and who do you think they'll believe more?' ... But who am I to burden you with that.
You are not from here, right? First time? We don't see off-worlders often. Where are you from? When did you arrive?

Thelonius wrote:

"Oh, that must suck. Yea, well we're not really the high-tech shipyard kinda planet. Your best bet is likely Sonia over there. Came to Astyoc a couple of years back and has been fixing our shit since." She nods over towards the short-haired lady that was just at the receiving end of the yelling.

Taelor takes a sip from the drink and smiles, enjoying the bitter, herbal taste. "Thank you, I'll see if she can help."

Cradling her mug in both hands, she weaves her way between the tables to join Jasper and Sonia.

Jasper sits down across from her. "Yeah, first time on Astyoc. Ship was in bad need of repair. I guess you could say we're in the far trading business." He gestures to Taelor as she approaches. "This is our pilot and mechanic, Gopher. Like I said, we're in need of repairs. Could take a while though, so I'm hoping to take in what Mani Losa Plains has to offer while I'm here."

"Mani Losa Plains, and the rest of Astyoc is on a bit of a down swing. This spore cloud, that was thoroughly covered by the intersector media, took a hart hit at everything here. People are leaving the planet, afraid of another cloud and of the Tainted. Businesses are leaving as well and trade is also not what it used to be. Luckily there is still some mining operations that keep a trickle of trade alive.
I don't know what numbers are floating around there in the sector, but there cannot be more than a few thousand people left in Mani Losa Plains and maybe a couple of ten thousand on the planet.
So in that regard Mani Losa Plains has little to offer.
We need to fight this cloud and the infection people get from it. I even think the Tainted can be healed. But I am running out of money to fund that research and the local government seems uninterested in my findings.

But look at me, I am rambling again. What is wrong with your ship? I know a thing or two about ships myself, maybe I can help? " As she talks she focuses both of you with an interested, almost curious look, as if to find the answers to her spoken and to some unspoken questions in your faces. It almost seems like she is relieved to talk about some of the topics to you, maybe because you are unbiased, maybe because you are strangers, it's impossible to say.