The characters, German Reade and Jarred Desai (German’s assistant) arrive on Space Station Arges, orbiting above Pryden (Lishun 0316). Arges is a Coriolis class station that provides facilities and lodging for the crews of merchant ships trading on the planet, exchanging cargo, or waiting for passage through the Pryden ERB. Arges also houses thousands of full time residents providing ship and crew services as well as hosting many shipping company corporate offices, including Helios.
The characters disembark in Security Sector 2E and are given cards by German which will allow them access to the sector. German also provides them with modified “non-lethal” weapons they hide and use while onboard.
While German and Jarred go to meet with German’s boss, Nolan Malik, the characters are free to roam the sector. After stashing their weapons in their respective rooms, the characters make their way to the sector lounge for some refreshment. Pip the bartender servers up the fellow’s favorite libations while Nevada strikes up a conversation with a fetching young lady next to him at the bar. Her name is Octavia Corwin, a general space worker for another transport company awaiting her next job. Nevada tells her they’ve been doing “odd jobs” for the Helios corporation. She mentions that there was a woman in the bar earlier subtlety attempting to solicit some work from one of the shadier looking patrons. Octavia says she last saw the woman at a table in the Atrium and describes her. Commander Fred immediately heads off to find this woman with Jack following close behind. Nevada has a few more words with Octavia, pays Pip, then rushes to join his friends.
On entering the Atrium they pass a man sitting idly on a bench near the entrance who eyes them as the pass. The woman described by Octavia is easy enough to find, sitting alone at a table working on a holo-tablet device. Commander Fred wastes no time, charges up to the table and greets her with a robust “Hi!”. Instead of calling security, she chooses to engage Nevada and Fred in conversation while Jack lingers at the bottom of the staircase. She introduces herself as Henna Calder, and despite the weirdness of this encounter, admits that she is indeed looking for someone who can help her with a “recovery.”
Henna is trying to obtain several samples of a medicine being stored in a special handling section of one of the sector’s secure cargo bays. The medicine, Henna explains, was developed by an independent lab on Pryden and is a promising cure for a deadly lung disease called “Ambustio Cerritum” that is devastating the population of here mining community on Havland (Vland, O927). The lab, which Henna used to work for, was bought out in a hostile takeover by UniMed, a large pharma conglomerate. UniMed intends to bury the drug because one of its secondary effects is to inoculate against the Hydromus virus, the treatment of which is a lucrative market for UniMed in the Capital Sector.
Henna offers the characters 7,500 Cr to obtain 5 samples of the medicine. She gives them a card that will open the crate in which it is stored and describes its location in the secure cargo bay. Henna tells the characters that the bay should be un-occupied – by humans anyway – around 10pm. She can open the doors for them and disable the motion sensing alarms, but cannot disable the robot sentries or the laser turrets which operate independently. She also gives them a “burner” communications device they can use to let her know when they are ready. When they’ve gotten the samples they can meet here in the docking station.
The characters agree to Henna’s offer and proceed down the hall to work out their plan. Along the way they notice that the gentleman by the door has left his seat is is walking in their direction. Down some stairs and around a corner near the sector PX the characters sit down to let the man pass before discussing their options. Instead of passing however, the man walks up and introduces himself as Zayne Solari. Solari states simply that he will offer 30,000 Cr for “the same thing as Henna”. Solari, it happens, is an agent for a UniMed rival chem company called Proteon-Arburg. He ups his offer to 40,000 Cr, with 5,000 Cr up front, but the characters, un-interested in money, refuse. Solari says to see the concierge if they change their mind and he will have the earnest money for them.
After Solai rleaves the characters, on a long shot chance, go into the sector PX to see if they can buy any electro-magnetic weapon, that they can use, along with the devices they obtained from German, to disable the robot security. Jack attempts to describe the sort of thing they’re looking for without revealing their true intent, however the store clerk, Monte Greaves, figures out what they want to do. The PX naturally does not sell weapons, however Monte is a bit of an electronics nerd and has a couple of devices of his own making that he’s willing to sell them for 200 Cr each. These are “grenades” that can disable electronics within a 10m radius with an electro-magnetic pulse. The characters buy both grenades from Monte and head off to get into the cargo bay.
As promised by Henna the door is open for them when they arrive, and no human personnel seem to be present. The characters slowly work their way along a wall, behind some crates avoiding an eyebot. Pressing on they get the attention of a laser turret but use one of Monte’s grenades to disable it. Working their way to the far side of the cargo bay they spot what appear to be bodies on the ground just in front of the special handling area where the medicine is held. The 2nd, and last, of the two grenades is used to disable another laser turret and another sentry robot, and the characters slip forward to inspect the three bodies. Nevada recovers a handful of credits and a couple of laser pistols from one, then moves up to the terminal that controls access to the special handling area. Nevada attempts to hack the computer and gain entry but fails. Meanwhile Jack has found some more credits and laser pistols on one of the bodies, and Fred has found a notebook with some writing. The writing implies that these people were also trying to get into the special handling area and were part of a radical group called “Aareal”. With the help of some information in the notebook, Nevada is able to hack the terminal and gain entrance to the special handling area.
Inside, Nevada and Fred investigate while Jack keeps watch. Fred finds the box with the medicine, opens it using the card Henna provided, and takes seven vials. Meanwhile Nevada investigates two low-berth type stasis chambers containing an elderly man and woman, both bald with tattoos. Unable to gain any more information on the people in stasis, and with time running out, he and Fred join Jack and make their way out of the cargo bay. While they avoid any other sentry robots, a 3rd laser turret fires on Jack as he makes his way between the cover of crates but misses. Jack and Nevada head for the door, while Fred advances on the turret from beneath the catwalk and disables it using the taser given to him by Reade.
After leaving the cargo bay, the characters go to meet Henna in the sectors docking bay. She gratefully takes the seven vials from Fred, pays them the agreed upon 7,500 Cr., then hops on a departing shuttle, presumably on her way to Havland.