Meta-game: while waiting for a delayed player, we re-ran the previous session’s fight with the picket ship as a simulation. The referee had actually brushed up again on the ship combat rules before doing so.
A curiously quiet escape to the Mantis-System 1 slipstream. There, a modified Volcanan picket ship tried but failed to intercept them. Maxus Karne and Trackus debated ditching Trackus’ sciency but slow ship.
Refueling and shenanigans at the System 1 slipstream station, where Endosian Hax oh so generously provided free refueling and service to the ships.
A Mantan aristocratic revolutionary, Seraag, blackmailed Trackus in the guts of the station: provide your ship in aid or be denounced to the authorities. Seraag claims that Sirka XIV is the site of a major technical library from a previous civilization, knowledge that will change the balance of power around the cluster if it is kept out of the hands of the Mantan, System 1, and Volcanan authorities.
Refueling done, the ships head across System 1 for the Celebian slipstream point…