Continuing their quest for the Likhamii Sapphire, the characters have descended into the depths of an abandoned mine on the remote planet of Pratt. According to Vissi Rovane, plantation manager for the Carthen-Si corporation and Helios’ contact on Pratt, the Sapphire arrived on the planet after the original thief had crash landed in the jungle near one corpration’s farms. Rovane claims that after apprehending the thief, his security forces were ambushed en-route to the capital city of Tammuz and the Sapphire was once again lost. He blames this attack on the so-called “Burchamites”, renegade followers of one Derrick Burcham who have left Carthen-Si’s employ to establish their own autonomous state deep in the jungle. Rovane suspects that the Burchamites have taken the Sapphire to the abandoned mine in the Northern highlands and lends the characters a vehicle and some supplies to retrieve it. After informing their pilot, Piotr Racine, that they’ll likely be away for a week or so, the characters head out for the mine.
Following the rough and winding jungle road Northwest from the Starport, the characters stumble into the Burchamite camp. After a tense moment or two between the Jack, Ethan and the guards, the situation is de-escalated and all the characters are invited into the camp by Derrik Burcham himself. Burcham claims no knowledge of the Sapphire or responsibility for the attack on Rovane’s security forces. His assistant, Xeno, however does seem to corroborate part of Rovane’s story, having heard rumors of a crash landing Northeast of the Starport. Burcham has some knowledge of the mine, as his men used to go there to salvage scrap metal, but says now that the main entrance has collapsed, they’ve made few trips. The characters accept some anti-venom for Burcham as well as some warnings about the native Grung population – vicious, poisonous frog-like creatures.
The characters take their leave of the Burchamite camp and head on to the mine, arriving a few days later and a little worse for the wear after fending off a Grung ambush. The mine is located in the much higher, much dryer mountains above Pratt’s thick jungles. There’s no obvious way into the mine amongst the debris, but after some searching, they discover a motorcycle propped against some cinder blocks and apparently hidden underneath a sheet of rusty metal. Closer inspection reveals that the cycle is operational but missing its energy cell. Shortly after this discovery, another sheet of metal is found to be covering an un-bolted and open hatchway with a ladder going down. This is the entrance they’ve been looking for, but it would seem that someone else has gotten here ahead of them.
Climbing down the ladder they find themselves in a darkened hallway alcove. The mine’s emergency lights are on, but it is still difficult to see requiring the use of flashlights. Cautiously making their way down the dim passages they encounter several giant scorpions nesting in the debris. Fighting through these they eventually come to an open elevator shaft that leads down.
Climbing the service ladder until the reach the bottom they find themselves in another dimly lit hallway down which they can make out more ant-like insects. Jack fires at one, damaging but not killing it outright. It, with another ant, then turns to attack the party. The two are easily dispatched and the party makes its way East, then South at a junction hopefully to find some way of repairing their armor which has been battered by both Grungs and scorpions. Following the South corridor, they discover a breach in the wall through which the ants have been presumably entering the mine. Curious they decide to explore the ants’ lair.
Crawling through the tight, un-lit passage they find themselves in a cavernous area with an eroded pool of greenish water. Several ants are milling about in the dark corners and on the ledges of the cavern. Once attacked, the ants begin to swarm down from the tunnel to the North to defend their nest and possibly their queen. A desperate fight ensues as each of the characters is beset by multiple ants, gnawing at their already diminished armor with their sharp mandibles. Fred and Ethan take the worst of it, but eventually all of the 1st wave of ants are killed and the characters wisely decide to retreat back into the mine where they can recoup. The odds of the Sapphire being in the ants nest would seem to be low in any case.
Back in the mine, they continue South, eventually finding a room that served as quarters for some of the mine’s security staff. Here they find desperately needed replacements for their broken armor plus a few weapons. Exploring further they enter a room with a raised platform, on which sat a long desk with several toppled chairs, a few crates, and an unusual number of cobwebs. Pressing further to Ethan notices movement in Southeast corner of the room, which is revealed to be a giant spider. The spider, however, doesn’t seem intent on attacking, but instead watches each character as they move. Ethan and Fred explore the desk while Jack covers them. Nevada presses East in the direction of the spider, the further he moves toward it the more aggressive it becomes, but still doesn’t attack. Fred and Ethan open some of the desk drawers on the West side of the table finding little of interest, except for a key that seems to fit another desk drawer. Ethan takes this key to the East side of the table, catching the spider’s attention, and opens a drawer to find a differently shaped key. Ethan retreats while Nevada tries to press his luck with the spider by moving further east in the room. The spider advances toward him, but again doesn’t attack. Seeing that the room is a dead end, the party heads back North towards the elevator shaft where the passage runs further East, leaving the spider to guard its web.
Continuing down the passage the corridor turns South where they encounter a handful of ants, but don’t engage, allowing them to wander off into the darkness. A doorway and stairs on the Eastern wall lead to a storage room, which then leads into what looks to have been a kitchen. Here they find more ants, but these are dead already, apparently killed by some sort of energy weapon. To their South they can hear a faint, irregular clanking sound. In that direction the kitchen opens up into a mess hall where they find more ants amongst the wrecked tables and benches. The clanking sound is a bit louder.
Determined to find the source of the noise the Jack moves forward followed by Ethan and Fred. Nevada thinks he sees some movement through a doorway to his West and moves in that direction to investigate. Climbing up the platfrom on South side of the mess hall Jack and Ethan move into a small room and discover the source of the clanking sound. A security robot has somehow been activated and is dutifully clearing the mine of intruders, insect or otherwise. The bot is humanoid and looks damaged with one leg dragging a bit and some scorch marks on its chest plate, but its weapons, a powerful laser rifle on its right arm and crackling shock baton on its left, seem to be working fine.
Jack takes a powerful hit from the laser which wrecks his torso armor and shaves off a fair number of his hit points as well. Fred and Ethan take position behind cover as Jack retreats, while Nevada, still on the mess hall floor moves in the direction of the action. The next round from the bot is aimed at Ethan, who, in spite of cover suffers the same fate as Jack from the bot’s laser. Fighting in this constrained space seems futile so Jack, Ethan and Fred retreat to the mess hall. Jack drags a table across the doorway to slow the bot down as the rest of the party take position of cover. The bot, however, doesn’t seem to advance. In fact the clanking of its movement seems to be headed in the other direction.
Taking advantage of this, the characters move to explore the East side of the mess hall where they find a narrow passageway leading South. Following this they pass a T back to the West where they can hear the bots steps coming back in their direction. Hastening South, they come to a corner that turns back to the West. On inspection they notice that in an alcove, one of the ventilation grates in the floor has been removed. There is also a metal wire and hook attached to a pipe on the wall that hangs down into the ventilation shaft. Someone has been this way, and it seems reasonable to think they might also be looking for the Sapphire, so one-by-one, the characters descend the wire down to the mine’s third level