The party are met on Mytene by Unending Diligence, a diplomat with the Mytenean Societal Corps. She tells them what is known so far about the suspected smuggling operation: A shuttle registered to the ship Hawk III landed, and a large mining drill which had not been authorised to leave the planet by the Mytenean Industrial Corps was loaded on board. The shuttle took off. Hawk III filed a flight plan to Kylal. The Industrial Corps have not yet been very forthcoming about where the drill came from, and are still investigating paperwork which implies that a farmer was involved in the shipment. The party are asked to identify the smugglers and secure the return of all smuggled items.
Manifold Ghosts has had a strange dream of pools of a viscous, golden liquid deep within a forest – it is not clear where this forest is or what the liquid is, but they get the impression that the pools are very valuable.
The party set off for Kylal, where they find a shuttle belonging to the Hawk III parked just at the edge of shipheart range from the main settlement, apparently hidden down the side of the plateau. They park their own shuttle nearby (but on top of the plateau) and go to investigate.
Outside the shuttle they find an empty wooden crate and another wooden crate containing some chilly, hungry raktors. Inside the shuttle (having broken the door open somewhat violently), they find some raktor food, and a bit of paperwork that implies Crib Unknown has been on board at some point. They post some food into the raktor crate before heading off across the ice of Kylal, following some drag marks away from the central plateau.
En route, they meet some of the apparent smugglers going the other way, but the party lets them go after knocking one out and giving the rest a stern warning about smuggling. Eventually the tracks lead them to a cave with a suspicious hole at the back which is filled with the noise of drilling. As best the party can make out, this hole is digging not only downwards but also back towards the direction of the main settlement. They suspect they might be out of ship heart range but have no way to confirm that.
At the bottom of the hole, they locate three more wannabe-smugglers in control of a large drill. The party sneaks up and manages to knock two of them unconscious, but before they can get to the third one the drill reaches its destination – the back of a honey beetle hive. The party (and smugglers) are promptly swarmed by honey beetles, shortly followed by being swarmed by Decay that has located a tasty giant drill. The party manage to resuscitate the smugglers but are too overwhelmed by Decay and honey beetles to stop them fleeing back up the tunnel.
The party decide that that is enough of that nonsense, and decide to drill upwards in a different direction, towards where they’re pretty sure the main settlement of Kylal ought to be. It’s a long way from the bottom of the plateau to the ice shelf on top, and they encounter, while still chased by honey beetles: cavern worms; dread moles; a corrupted crypt cleanser; and finally the bottom of a lake containing an icemaw paddler, which nearly washes them back down their new tunnel. Luckily the icemaw paddler is distracted by eating not only the honey beetle and the drill (which got covered in honey by a confused honey beetle), but also - unfortunately - the unconscious body of Manifold Ghosts, dealing a Severe Injury.
Conveniently, however - since the drill is now very broken - there are proper tunnels leading from what was the lakeshore up into Kylal’s inhabited areas, and the party encounters Ninth Truth along with some other locals. Ninth Truth listens to their story and offers the assistance of the settlement in both medical aid and combat support to capture the smugglers.
Back on the plateau, the party see that the empty crates have been moved next to their shuttle. It soon becomes clear why - the smugglers are herding large numbers of honey beetles back across the ice using trained raktors which are working to shepherd the beetles towards the crates. A pitched battle between the party, aided by the Kylalians, and the smugglers ensues.
At this point, however, Guardant Angel has a bit of a change of heart about the mission as a whole. Such progress! Trained shepherding raktors! Now if the people in charge of the System were only as innovative and willing to take direct action as this! Maybe there wouldn’t even be a food crisis if more people were willing to think outside the box? She starts trying to reach an arrangement with the smugglers to work with them, stating that she’ll have the backing of Her Glorious Command to do so. This causes a rift with Manifold Ghosts, who has some reservations about the sudden change of plan with no consultation, but Guardant Angel treats this as insubordination to the orders of Her Glorious Command and knocks them out. Ninth Truth also has significant concerns about moving any Kylalian species off Kylal without appropriate ecological and behavioural studies being carried out first, which Guardant Angel deals with by completely ignoring him and heading off with the smugglers, their raktors and the stolen honey beetles in the party’s shuttle.
Back at the smugglers’ headquarters on Ace’s World, though, Guardant Angel runs into a problem. The leader of the smugglers, Crib Unknown, is used to operating independently, and doesn’t at all like the idea of answering to Her Glorious Command or indeed anyone knowing what their operations are at all. Despite her success in arguing some of the other smugglers around to her ideas, Guardant Angel is unable to convince the obstinate Crib that this is a good idea, and another pitched battle ensues. Guardant Angel is knocked unconscious, and when she wakes it is to find that maybe half of the original smuggling operation has sided with her, but the base has to be considered compromised and she may have stretched her relationship with Her Glorious Command to the limit.
Meanwhile on Kylal, Manifold Ghosts and Ninth Truth discuss their predicament. Neither is happy about Guardant Angel’s actions, but they also recognise there is little they can do to take her or Her Glorious Command head-on. Ninth helps Manifold establish contact with their Mytenean employers to explain what has happened, and proposes that they work together: if Manifold works towards recovering the transported beetles - or at least preventing ecological damage caused by unleashing them on other ecosystems - the Botanists will help tend to the injuries they have sustained and, alongside the Myteneans, provide support towards Manifold’s plans to improve Various Forge techniques. Manifold accepts the offer - with Mytene and Kylal bringing together their respective expertises, expanded understanding of what is possible for the Various may well be within reach.