Thaygan looked down at the unconscious and badly bruised body at his feet. "What are we going to do with her?"
Gunther picked the petite young woman up and threw her over his shoulder, he hefted the 20guage shotgun in his left hand and tested the wieght. "No trouble" he said.

The group headed back around to where they had encountered the bilge-demon only half an hour earlier.
"I wonder what made it run away?" asked Zoe
"Perhaps the kicks I was throwing at it, or the shots I fired while I was running, just before I got caught hurt it?" said Seb, though he did not sound convinced.
"Or maybe Sofe landed on its head, Thaygan did say it started out as a human, maybe it has a head?" suggested Gunther

The group each had a grenade, Zoe had two. Zoe and Seb stayed up on deck 4, but circled around the wide space where Sofe had been led to. They each had a clear view. Sofe was left with Seb, or rather on the same side as Seb. Gunther and Thaygan went down the long staircase from deck 3 down to the grate covered bottom of the ship. This stair did not have any access to deck 2, a large tank and machine was on the starboard side of it, and as the area was open on the port side it just could not be linked.

"There" said Gunther as the pair approached the bottom of the steps
The comm was open (now managed by Zoe) so all four of them heard Gunther's warning, and because of their viewpoints they all saw him point too.
Zoe took a guess and chucked her incendiary grenade over the spot.
Gunther saw the container fly in towards them, he grabbed Thaygan and pulled him back up a couple of steps taking cover. The grenade however landed and smashed open without effect.
"darn, dud" said Zoe, "don't worry guys, that was the worst of the five which was why I chucked it first"
Seb on the Starboard side looking down spotted movement under the grate, around 6m in front of the steps and heading aft, away from Gunther and Thaygan. He kissed his and threw it as hard as he could, hoping it would land to the aft of the movement, and push it back.
He missed
Gunther and Thaygan had started the descent again, Gunther spotted the incoming object out of the corner of his eye and again pulled Thaygan, this time in behind the staircase, which was almost a ladder in angle. The stair provided descent cover as the fragmentation pipe bomb detonated, spreading its deadly cargo nearly 20m in all directions.
As the smoke cleared Gunther said jovially "Ok, noted. Respect the ordinance." he was dusting off
Thaygan found several bits of metal embedded in the frame of the ladder where they had hidden. He gulped.

Zoe's voice came over the comm, "there, look aft"
sure enough there was a blackness under the grate, and it was moving. It went out of sight through into the next compartment. Theygan and Gunther gave chase.

On their own, the party divided and only two incendiary grenades between them the pair chased the shape.
"It's different, did you see it?" said Thaygan panting as he charged around a corner, several seconds behind the shape
*smack*
a metal bar hit Thaygan in the face, he stumbled backwards
*clink*, *clink, *clink*, Thaygan dropped the grenade he was carrying

"shit" said Gunther, he ran back around the corner and took cover
Thaygan dived just in time, from a kneeling position to just around the corner. The incendiary grenade burned his left shoulder, down to his left thigh, and as it was a liquid it stuck to his robes and kept burning.
Gunther reacted in a flash, he ripped the robes off Thaygan and used his own coat to beat the fire, that was burning Thaygan, out.

The pair cautiously checked on the man. He was badly burned, clearly a human on the edge of life.
"This isn't him is it" stated Seb as he arrived, Zoe close on his heals
Zoe knelt down and put handcuffs on him, "could be a servant of the main guy, we should take him for questioning"
Thaygan turned him over, he saw the man was coming too. Then he noticed, oil was seeping out of his nose. The man opened his eyes and his eyes were pools of sludge, he opened his mouth as if to speak, or to cast some Antimonous power and his mouth was filled with the same black ichor.
Thaygan rammed the steel bar through the mans skull, then repeated the attack.
"Hey what the hell" said Zoe, "he wasn't the bilge-demon"
"He was" said Thaygan seriously, "eyes and mouth were filled with sludge, there was no way he could have been alive. Definately the demon."
"I saw it too" said Gunther

The hero's were forced to stay nearly six hours before the lifts came back online. Zoe dismantled the final two grenades, she did not want those things too close to people. They hid the iron bar and the shotguns where the guards would find them easily then took a lift. They counted their blessings as they arrived back on deck 52, the crew were up and awake, but not nearby. They made it home and back to their bunks for a well earned rest.

------------------------------------------

Two days later the group celebrated their victory at the jumpgate party, held in the observation lounge. It was a rather exclusive affair, although none of the nobles attended. Tickets were expensive, and the drinks even more so. The group enjoyed themselves nonetheless. For Zoe, Sofe and Sebastian this was their first jump.

The gate opening was impressive, the scale of the jumpgate was too large to comprehend and to see the purple swirls give way to a rushing fleeting image. A race from the edge of the solar system into the centre, circling and eventually stopping on the third planet. A grey and green world. Midian.

The sensation they felt as the ship passed through the gate was very strange, it was almost like tipping upside down in an instant. The human brain catching up to the body as if it was disjointed.

When the feeling passed, Zoe checked herself. "Sathra dampers work then" she stated matter of factly
"what are 'sathra dampers'" asked Seb cautiously
"Without them things go badly through the jump" Zoe explained, "people go missing, sometimes the whole ship doesn't even come out the other side."
"So they are pretty good things then?" said Seb
"I've heard some .. groups don't have them. And they manage ok." said Gunther
"Well I'm a fan, they may be church tech and it may be forbidden to open them up and look inside, but I'm still a fan" said Zoe

------------------------------------------

Fifteen whole days later and the group were preparing to leave the Graceful Wanderer. Thaygan had secured them passage on one of the ships two shuttles, the deck officer owed him a favour and was happy to help. The journey cost Zoe the TL5 think machine she had built, but she was happy to volunteer it. They were going to the Sunset islands, the last place where anyone had seen her father. She would have given her arm if she had to.

As they boarded and met the pilot he asked them "So why the shuttle? you know the Li Halan only charge 200 credits to travel down to the surface if you sign up to one of their work details."
"erm, well we want to go to the Sunset islands .."
"oh" interupted the co-pilot "that's on the Alecto side"
"ahh, so you guys are rebels then?" said the skipper
"well, no not really." said Zoe, "my dad was here years ago and I need to look someone up, they own a bar. Not sure it's name but I know it belongs to Vassiliy Urchenko. Any ideas where I could look?"
"Sorry lady, never been here before" said the skipper

The little shuttle departed the 2km long graceful wanderer and circled down to the planet. Zoe and Seb were standing behind the pilots watching the journey through the cockpit window. Seb noticed some blips on the scanner "Hey, what are they?" he asked
"Huh, oh that's the Li Halan fleet." answered the skipper, "turns out there was a pretty big space battle here a couple of months ago, the Li Halan went up against house Alecto and the mighty 'windsor victoreuse'. That's a super battle cruiser, nearly 8km long they tell me. One of the last second republic ships of its size, if not 'the' last."
"House windsor can built new ships though can't they, they have the old second republic space shipyards at Tethys." said Zoe
"Not sure about that, but I saw the nav officer upstairs before I did this job and he was going on about it. The thing was used as Vladamir Alecto's flagship you know. Anyway the Li Halan have been guarding the gate after fighting the Alecto's to a standstil. Now they've been reinforced with those two battle cruisers from Liberty and the Inquisition Cruiser. I think they are ready to take on the Alecto's again. It might get hairy up here, a beach and a pub. You guys have the right idea alright."

The little shuttle lined up for its approach. Zoe could see the space station was badly burned, it had clearly been hit by attacking ships.
"So I'm guessing the station is Li-Halan?" Zoe asked
"Yup" said the co-pilot, "they've been hiring civilian engineers from all over the known worlds, promising a new life on Midian for a handfull of credits and a couple of years service."
"They only fly people down to Saiwuhn though, that's like two thousand kilometres away from where you want to be. Wrong side of an ocean, wrong side of a war. You are pretty close to the Lyonesse held provinces though. they have a neutral place called Tintagel up in the ice and snow. The whole place is pretty cold actually, you Leagueheim folk are really gonna freeze."
"We brought cold weather gear" Seb said
"going to need it" said the co-pilot
"surely not in these islands?" asked Zoe
"you should be ok I think, they are pretty close to the equator actually. may even be sunny." said the skipper, his face a mask of green lights from his dashboard
"ok, guys and gals, were ready to drop, best get to your seats. make sure everyone back there buckles up. Looks like a pretty windy day down there."