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The cargo freighter Merriam is approaching Tanis station, an outer belt trade center. As the crew gets to their stations the second in command notices Captain Dorsch is missing, not an unusual occurrence. She grabs the closest unfortunate crew member, Froon, and orders him to go wake the captain to prepare for the approach retro-burn.

Froon gets no answer from knocking, so cautiously lets himself in while announcing his presence. He finds the quarters empty, but is immediately drawn to a number of large holographic readouts left open on the captain's desk terminal. It  seems to be schematics and a receipt for a rather expensive ship, currently docked at Tanis Station. He is scanning the readout when  the door opens and Captain Dorsch nearly walks into him. Froon quickly departs while letting the captain know he is needed on the bridge, fleeing the clearly  very angry and still somewhat hungover captain behind.Returning to the bridge, Froon learns that the pilot is “sick” again, and he will be performing the retro-burn himself. He takes the helm and handles the approach beautifully, swinging the ship into a perfect docking position.

Down in engineering, Lyra scrambles about furiously checking pressure seals and tightening bolts to keep anything critical from breaking. With the somewhat gentle approach her and the chief engineer keep the ship fully operational, which earns her a compliment from her boss.As the crew heads towards some much anticipated shore leave, the captain stops Froon and Lyra on their way out of the loading bay, also roping in Eva - a deckhand, ___ the ships security coordinator, and the ship's quartermaster, Bankman. He instructs them to collect a package he needs from a local courier service and return it to the ship before enjoying any recreational activities. With some reluctance the five of them set off for the address.
En route the PC’s notice more than a few openly displayed OPA insignia. They are a bit uncomfortable with the display, but the station clearly has some strong OPA ties so they keep their heads down and trudge on. Shortly after ____ takes a short comm call before announcing she will meet the rest of them at the courier in a few minutes, and disappears off into the crowded station corridors.

Upon reaching the courier's office the group is confronted by 3 rough looking men sporting OPA armbands. Their leader, a buzzcut belter clearly concealing a weapon, accuses them of selling OPA secrets and demands they accompany him to the admin ring.

Sensing this would very likely be a one-way trip, the confused crew members hesitantly agree, with Lyra’s sincere profession of innocence getting the thugs to drop their guard. Eva takes advantage of this by slipping on her knuckle dusters and catching one of the men in the temple, sending him into the corridor wall. Froon manages to get his arms around the leader from behind, preventing him from drawing his weapon while Bankman lands a solid punch on one and Lyra cracks another with her wrench, sending him to the floor with a cracked skull. Eva catches a punch but takes it like a champ, and after a couple more hits the three men are all down, with only the leader still alive. Froon takes his sidearm, a taser pistol, and the four of them flee the scene before station security shows up.Out in the hall a brief discussion occurs, with the crew quickly realizing their captain set them up to take the fall for something. They decide Tanis station is not the place to be at the moment, and Froon helpfully informs them that he happens to know access codes to a brand new ship parked in the docking ring, the theft of which would surely upset their now ex-captain.

Not wanting to travel through the spindle tram, Lyra finds a maintenance hatch leading to an access tunnel that runs the length of the spindle. They wait for a moment when no one is looking and pile in, but catch the attention of a curious onlooker who after a few minutes makes a call to maintenance to let them know of the odd sight.

In the access shaft, the team makes good time moving down to the docking ring in microgravity. Lyra, a belter, easily leads the way while Froon and Bankman manage the tunnel with some difficulty. Eva, who in reality is an earth born UN intelligence agent, underestimates her speed and ends up hitting the bulkhead at the end of the tunnel. Luckily she ends up with nothing worse than a bruise.Exiting the tunnel and moving through the docking bay, they find the bay they want and realize it is locked. While Lyra considers breaking open the keypad, Eva makes a call to docking control posing as an irate crew member whose code doesn’t work. She convinces them to reset the code, then quickly changes it once they get into the bay. The ship the team finds is a medium-large frigate, a salvage vessel from the looks of it. Bankman points out that the beat up exterior looks very much like a camouflage job, as the ship itself seems brand new. They pile in while Lyra suits up so she can hit the manual airlock release. As she leaves the ship, she hears security at the internal airlock, attempting to force the keypad open. She bolts across the deck in record time, pulling manual release then running for the ship’s hatch.

As Froon gets them off the station, Lyra finds ___ in the engineering bay, apparently trying to force start the ship without codes. It seems she got a heads up about not being on the station and had a similar idea to the rest of the crew.

A security skiff interdicts their ship, demanding their surrender. Froon manages a solid escape maneuver but the skiffs pilot manages to barely keep on them, opening up with it’s point defence cannons. With some targeting interference thrown out by Eva, Froon avoids the incoming fire and decides it’s time to not be here any more. He gives the crew a 30 second warning and engages the Epstein drive in a high-g burn. Everyone gets to their couch in time, but Eva isn’t able to get her Juice line in before the burn. Though she adds to her collection of bruises with some broken blood vessels, and briefly passes out, she survives without any serious injuries beyond a very sore body which will need a few hours of rest.