After settling into their cabins for the weeklong jump to Pryden, the characters mill about getting to know some of the crew members; - Isaiah Landau, Captain; Bradwin Decker, 2nd Engineer; Jennifer Hoover, Boson; Quincey Hooper, Medical Officer; and Sage Jacobs, 1st Mate.
The Helios Bright Beacon is a Cassette type freighter so named because of its enormous external cargo “cassette” holding thousands of individual cargo pods. The cassette is roughly a rotating cylindrical shape located external to the main hull. It can easily be detached and swapped in its entirety, or individual pods can be unloaded onto cargo lighters in the destination system. While in transit, pods are routinely added to, removed from, or re-positioned on the cassette. These operations are performed from the cargo handling area which itself stores hundreds of pods. The cargo handling area is separated into three sections: forward, mid, and aft. When cargo operations are underway, the forward section is evacuated to allow moving pods to and from the cassette. The mid-section is separated from the forward by large environmentally sealed doors and is sometimes evacuated along with the forward section. The aft section is used for support equipment, is never evacuated, and is separated from the mid-section by a large airlock.
As the crew are making their final preparations for exiting jump – about 48 hours prior – a ship’s alarm is triggered indicating a hull breach in the forward cargo handling area. Power, gravity and atmosphere have all been lost as a result of the breach, and, because the doors to the mid-section were open, it is affected as well.
Reade, with Landau’s consent, suggests that the characters be sent to investigate. Landau tells them that one of the cargo handling crew, Tenken Poole, is in the aft section and will help them get through the airlock. Making their way up to the cargo handling area, the meet Poole who provides them with vacc suits and laser rifles; projectile weapons being tricky to use in zero-g.
On exiting the port side airlock, they find the mid-section dark except for a few dim emergency lights. Cargo pods are stacked in various locations along the sides of the cavernous chamber, but securely fastened to the deck according to protocol. Jack proceeds first into the hold pushing himself upward to the top of one of the stacks. Almost immediately he is fired on by laser rifles from the direction of the forward section. Taking a big hit, Jack finds cover behind one of he pods and the rest of the party do the same, slowly making their way forward to confront their attackers.
By pushing off and stopping themselves against the walls and stacked pods, they gradually close to within visual range and engage the intruders. Laser fire is exchanged as both sides alternately, and awkwardly take cover, reposition, and attack in the zero-g environment. Jack and Nevada take hits but bring themselves back up by strategic use of stim packs. Tenken Poole arrives to assist and eventually the characters defeat their foes leaving four dead bodies floating amongst between the cargo pods.
Searching, they find that the intruders are wearing similar vacc suits but with no distinguishing markings. Though all are men, the bodies themselves don’t appear to have much else in common. Making their way to the forward section the find the hull breach, bodies of dead crewmen, and something else…
One of the containers is open. Peering inside they find that it has been equipped for the transportation of people, not cargo. Lockers and ammo crates line the walls as well as several low-berths, used to carry humans in suspended animation over long voyages, now all empty. Counting the number of berths, they find seven, three more than have been killed so far. Clearly there’s more work to do.