5 Comments on “Captain Belmon Chandler

  1. The Crew of the Purgatory

    System: FS30/Libertas

    The crew of the smuggler ship Purgatory is made up of Captain Belmon Chandler, the mercanary Kent, Spike the Mechalus, and Tsaniba the Weren.

    Captain Belmon Chandler is a human scout and survivalist who long ago left the Orion League and it’s politics behind for the adventure of the Verge and beyond.  It was odd luck that he found Spike the Mechalus at time when he needed a captain for his ship.

    Spike the Mechalus has a strange past and does not speak if it much.  He is even more odd than the average spark but good at what he does when he need to.  It is hard to believe that his ship functions so well, with the patch work of technology and juryrigged parts.  Spike is a wizard at tech and some even believe that he is not sure where he gets some of his ideas.  He treats his ship strangely, as if it is a real person and is very protective of it.

    Kent is of the Thuldan genetic stock but from one of their Verge colonies known as Algemron.  He is a fierce warrior and knows his weapons well.  He has seen his share of action and does not talk of it much.  He seems to be hiding a dark secret and many believe it involves why he left his world and is outside the Verge now.

    Tsaniba is a brute and has a temper but he is a honorable and loyal friend to the crew.  He is definitely a warrior you want to have on your side.

    The personality of this group is the Purgatory itself. It’s more than a ship. It is amazing that the crew figured out how to fly it. Restored by Spike himself, using some technology that even the crew does not recognize, it is amazing out intuitive it is to fly once you sit down in it. It seems to have a personality of its own and it adjusts its controls to the user.

    The Mission

    Each individual was hired for a specific mission and have their own reasons for accepting it.  Through some underground contacts only known to Spike, VoidCorp has requested the certain contraband be smuggled out of the Algemron system. This is HIGHLY frowned upon by the Galactic Concord but the money is good. Besides who is going to find out about this this far outside the Verge? The trip was long. Deep past the Verge, in a region of space called the Frontier (which lies between the Stellar Ring and The Zebulon’s Expanse), they navigated a large load of high tech weaponry to a very remote system. Upon arrival, the crew discovers that VordCorp is working with an alien race of robotic obsessed worms called Sathars.  Additionally, VoidCorp is assisting the Sathars in an occupation of a alien system called Libertas (FS30), and subjugate the local alien population called the Mhemne.

    The Betrayal

    Of course, after coming all the way out to the Rim of the Frontier, VoidCorp had other work for the smugglers. The corporate agents wanted the Purgatory to haul another cargo to an undisclosed location. No questions asked.  Belmon did not like "no questions asked." He always had questions.  Against the clients wishes, after picking up the cargo, Belmon decided to answer his own questions.  What he found crossed the lines of even his shaky ethics.

    VoidCorp had their cargo bay packed wall to wall with locals in stasis pods, quite obviously against their will.  The shackles on their hands and legs as well as the signs of forced labor showed at the very least VoidCorp or their Sathar allies had enslaved the people of the home world. But where were these going?

    The crew of the Purgatory agreed that this was not what they signed up for and freed the slaves on the planet’s surface.  VoidCorp found out and attacked the Purgatory, damaging it enough to strand the crew onto the world.

  2. The plight of Purgatory

    System: Libertas. Planet: Ninguis

    The crew of the Purgatory have been on Ninguis (Mhemne home world) for a few months now. It is a cold world with a history of war.  Two thousand year ago, the world was the victim of a directed asteroid strike by the Mhemne Belters, as part of a intra-racial war, the scars of which still linger.  More recently, the world was invaded by the Sathars.  The planet was bombarded. The space stations were taken over. And the Belters (asteroid belt dwellers)  were blockaded in hopes they would die out of supply starvation.  Now, the Homeworlders are rising from the ashes trying to start a resistances against the occupying forces.  The space station dwelling Colonials are either being manipulated or outwardly collaborating with their Sathars. And the Belters have survived on their own and proven to be a thorn in the Sathars’ side.

    Getting off the planet has been a challenge for the crew of the Purgatory. Their ship was stolen in pieces by the robot rovers of the Sathars.  Finding a way to retrieve those parts, the crew have befriended what is left of the homeworlder Mhemne.  They are desperate.  The Sathar drones hunt them down all over their world. Slowly wiping them out. Many are killed while whole villages have disappeared.  Most believe the Sathars enslave the strongest and most healthy in the mines.  They are kept in concentration camps near the IMPP units (Independent Materials Processing Plants).

    On the surface, the IMPP seem fairly small but their appearance is deceiving. The IMPPs are huge facilities, most of which reside below the surface.  There are 5 of these facilities reach deep into the crust with their robotic mining tendrils, assisted by Mhemne slaves.  It is unclear how these are bring operated as there are only a few actual Sathars on the planets surface, and most of them are in robotic apparatuses of some kind or another.  Spike suspects that these facilities are run by some  kind of central AI.

    Much of the Mhemne resistance’s attention has been on the concentration camps, in hopes freeing their people from slavery.  What the Mhemne have said is that they have seen other ships arriving and departing from the camps, off and on.  Some reports say they there is another alien race piloting those ships but it is hard to get a description from the Mhemne but much is lost in translation. 

    The arrival of the Lancelot has brought new things to light. This system lies in a region of space between the Verge/Stellar Ring (governing body – Galactic Concord; military – Star Force) and the Zebulon’s Expanse (governing body – Council of Worlds; military – United Planetary Federation).  Right now relations between the neighboring regions is in its infancy.  However, the megacorporations of the Expanse and the Stellar Nations of the Stellar Ring are not waiting for anything formal, apparently.  VoidCorp, the massive stellar nation of the Stellar Ring has started relations with the Sathars (apparently a long time enemy of the Expanse and the UPF).  Working with the worm-like aliens, VoidCorp is helping them with a ship building facility in this system – the Libertas System (UPS designation FS30).

    Although the crew of the Lancelot are from the Verge, and claim to be former independent contractors for VoidCorp, they could be a new hope.  They now say they are currently working with United Planetary Federation to investigate Sathar activity in this region. The Sathars are long enemies of their government.  It has been 200 years since they have even seen a Sathar and now they are building warships.  This worries the UPF.

    Working with these guys, regardless of who they worked or work for is probably the best bet to getting off this rock.

  3. Family Matters Part 1

    System: Libertas. Planet: Ninguis

    The Libertas system holds another secret for Kent. It was not so much that the crew of the Purgatory sought him out as much as Kent sought them out. Kent knew smugglers were running weapons out of the Algemron system for a while. Not only was it a way for Kent to get away but also a way to investigate further into his brother’s death. Something Arian (Kent’s brother) was looking into got him killed.  The only thing that keeps popping up is a codename – The Monarch

    The last information Kent was about to fin is that there is a VoidCorp agent involved in the smuggling. He has infitrated the secret Austrin-Ontis opertaions in Algemron to redirect some AO weapons to this remote world. This guy is somewhere in this system. His name (at least an alias) is Bradford Kane.

  4. Family Matters Part 2

    Mhemne homeworld, Ninguis

    Kent has been following leads while investigating his brother’s death. These leads lead him to this region of space.  Joining the crew of the Purgatory, he found himself in the middle of what the Vergers call the Frontier.

    The specific lead that Kent followed involved a AO agent who was dealing in experimental weapons to the Austrin Ontis faction in Algemron (your homeworld being Galvin).  This was a major violation of the Monitor Mandate, which was an legal mandate sent down from the Galactic Concord saying that no Stellar Ring nation can interfere with the Algemron system.  Unfortunately, this did not seem to deter Austrin Ontis Unlimited.

    Now the weapons smuggled in by the Purgatory were helping a good cause, some justice to Kent’s brother’s death.  Whatever Kane was doing here, it involved far more than just a simple gun running operation.  In what the party has been able to find in the data from the facility, Kane can be found on the L4 space station in this system.  No mention of The Monarch can be found. This entity known as the Monarch has the essence of myth and the apparent presence of a ghost. It is apparent, however, that Kane was not working alone.

  5. Operation Ferret: The Final Stage of the Campaign

    L4 Station, Libertas System

    What has gone on before…

    For several months now, the party has been involved in the liberation of the Mhemne people from the clutches of thought to be a new Sather incursion outside of their own space. This being the first time anyone has seen Sathar activity outside their “empire” in a over 200 years, it was a surprise to see them so “advanced” despite restricted trade and embargos from all known parts of the Expanse. Apparently, the Sathars have had contact with others.

    One of those others was Void Corp, who are in all levels of Concord legal violations by interacting with a known enemy of a potential ally. But there is something more about the Sathars that has the party wondering that perhaps there is more to this plot than just a Sathar expansion attempt.

    It was already well know that the Sathar society was heavily dependent on robotics and cybernetics. However, no one imagined advancements like the Sathars display in the Libertas (Mhemne) system. The advancements range from simple cybernetic integration into their robotic chairs to full cybernetic and organic tech upgrades to their entire bodies. The workers on the surface of the Mhemne world had the very simple advancements and were aided by heavy robotic units that showed considerable improvement since the Sathars were last encountered. There was also evidence that these Cybered-Sathars (or Cythars) were experimenting with Mhemne, trying to integrate similar technology into the near-human race

    On L4 station, there was considerable more surprising developments.

    Upon arriving onto L4 through the experimental teleporter, the party encountered the first of many advanced Cythars (command level, perhaps) as well as similarly cybered Mhemne. It appeared as if Sathars were turning less and less Sathar as they party went up the chain and more something else.

    The first level of the L4 Station the party encountered was the Shuttle bay level. Fighting their way through, they found the Mhemne technology overlaid with the organic tech of the Cythars, spreading like some infection. In organically shaped alcoves, Cy-Mhemne as well as a few Cythars stood silent, connected to whatever central consciousness there was. Some awoke to confront them while others did not. It was a lein combination of simple technology of the Mhemene, overlaid the sinister alien tech of the Cythars.

    After the shuttle bay level, an elevator took the party to the Shuttle Crew Deck. This two was a fairly familiar design, where the shuttle pilots would come and go, like a starport terminal. However, it has been converted much like the previous deck they encountered. Many more Cy-Mhemne stood in alcoves, oblivious to the party’s arrival. Others did awaken and attack but once the first wave failed, no second wave followed.  After sorting out a few problems involved a errant grenade that landed too close to the station outer wall, the party discovered a yong Mhemne crawling in the air vents of the station.