“Because I’m the Likhamii Sapphire”, says Tegan Sabine.
The characters seem to have achieved their mission on Pratt, although they didn’t find exactly what they thought they were looking for.
Sabine explains that she and Malik were “partners” once, freelancing as mercenaries, smugglers, spies and nearly anything else for clients with enough credits. Malik’s ambition, however, led him into an official position with Helios Light Shipping, a frequent client. Tegan, uncomfortable with being so closely associated with a large organization, went her separate way while Malik rose quickly within Helios. She continued, however, to work with Malik and Helios until a double cross by a client in the Capital system left her owing Helios nearly 100MCr. While Tegan and Malik weren’t completely estranged, she knew that he couldn’t ignore that kind of debt and so she decided to flee to the Solomani Confederation to lay low and maybe even stay to start a new life.
Malik had seized their old ship, the “Pioneer Moon” so Tegan hijacked a ship on Shaia and began making her way toward the Solomani Rim. Calling in some favors, she was able to make it via ERB to Peart. From there her destination was Patuxant, just inside Solomani space. At Jump-2, this took her through Pratt where a major malfunction in the maneuver drive forced her to land. Scanning the planet on her way down, she found the location of an abandoned mine that would likely have parts she needed to make repairs. The broken maneuver drive, however, wasn’t going to let her choose her own landing point. She managed to bring the ship down in one piece, but in the jungle, far away from the mine.
While aware of Pratt’s industry, she was reluctant to make contact and risk revealing her whereabouts to Helios. It was unlikely that her “crash” would have gone un-noticed, but maybe she could get back and repair before anything was done about it. If not, well, she’d work that out when it happened. Concealing the ship as best she could, she then set out for the mine on a motorbike that had been stashed in the cargo hold when she stole the ship. Avoiding Grungs and the mine’s new inhabitants, she made it to the main power plant on level 3 and began stripping some of the generators. Midway through she heard laser fire in the rooms West of her and knew she was no longer alone.
When questioned, Tegan claims to know nothing about Rovane. She speculates that whoever he is, he must have found the ship and must also have some ties to Helios. For whatever reason, he was happy to let the characters think they were trying find some kind of gem, but Tegan doesn’t know why. Clearly Rovane has been lying for some purpose of his own.
Tegan agrees to follow the characters back out of the mine and deal with Rovane, figuring that’s still her best shot off the planet. She collects her tools and scavenged parts, and they head back to the wire she had placed leading up to the second level. Getting down the wire was easy enough, but climbing it requires a special harness which Tegan has. Nevada agrees to let Tegan go first, which she does. As she disappears upward into the darkness, Nevada realizes this may have been a mistake. After a few awkward moments, however, Tegan tosses the harness back down and the rest of the characters make it back to the second level.
Continuing upward, they avoid the killer robot, and giant spider on the way out, and are glad to see sunlight once they reach the surface…for a little while anyway. The characters truck is where they left it, but when Fred goes to retrieve it he is narrowly missed by a shot from the West. More shots follow and the party scrambles for cover. On the Western edge of the mining pit, Rovane and his security forces have gathered and are sniping at the characters from behind large rocks. It’s clear now that this was a set up. Rovane followed the characters here to take the “Sapphire” for himself and get all the credit from Helios. The characters return fire as best as they can, but are hopelessly outnumbered.
As they begin to consider an exit strategy, they notice some of Rovane’s men taking fire from beyond their position to the East. Looking behind them they see Derrick Burcham and a large group of Burchamites positioned on a ridge above a deep gully. The Burchamites provide covering fire as the characters begin to climb down their side of the gully and make their way toward the friendly forces. Just as they reach the bottom, the high pitched whine of jet engines are heard coming over the ridge. Pitor Racine, has also come to their rescue with his ship, the “Tonai Courier.” As the Buchamites continue firing on Rovane’s forces, Racine puts the spacecraft down at the bottom of the gully and lowers the boarding plank. Amidst a cloud of dust and screaming engines, the characters and Sabine, hurry on board. Racine then lifts back off and then, as the Courier accelerates and banks hard to the left, the characters see Rovane himself fall to one of the Burchamites shots.
Back in space, Racine tells the characters that he was tipped off to Rovane’s plan by Sibyl Kehoe and, through her, contacted the Burchamites to help with the characters extraction from the mine. The Burchamites were all too happy to oblige if it meant confronting Rovane in their territory.
With that the characters and Tegan settle in for the long trip back to Pryden.