A Spaceport In A Storm

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FORWARDED COMMUNICATION, PRIORITY ONE
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Mytene Tertiary Spaceport requesting urgent medical resupply. Surface storm makes approach by air impossible. Send supplies overland.
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ORIGINAL SENDER: Steel Spark, on behalf of Overseer Industrial Diamond, Mytene Societal Corps
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Addendum by Dr Cleansing Gypsum: Requested supplies available but no transport teams. Advise recruitment of external volunteers for delivery. Land route is noted to traverse decay and territory of hostile predatory animals. Armed escort recommended.
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Roaming Vendor - Phil
Guardant Angel - Katie
Warded Path - Tamsin (Encounter 1)

Summary

Roaming Vendor, Guardant Angel, and Warded Path arrive at a medical facility on the outskirts of Mytenea. There, the doctor provides them with medical supplies to take to the spaceport. A patient approaches with a large pustule on their forearm. The doctor is alarmed, quickly diagnosing the condition as the bite of a burrowing mite but can't find the antidote. The pustule bursts and small mites swarm out. Warded Path calls to her Ship Heart which directs her to the antidote.
Roaming Vendor examines both the antidote and the mites and is able to synthesise a sort of vaccine to prevent parasitic infection by the creatures.
Warded Path drives Vendor and Angel to the edge of the decay, then turns back to return the vehicle to the medical facility. Vendor and Angel proceed toward the spaceport, encountering both decay monsters and a canyon of raktors. The rain grows ever heavier as they head into the storm.
In a town at the base of the space elevator up to the port, among vendors peddling supplies and raktor cheese, a worried parent approaches Guardant Angel, concerned for their young daughter who has gone missing in the storm.
Vendor and Angel head in the direction the girl was last known to be. They find a cave and shout out to the child but hear the calls of Mytenean devils. Inside the cave, they find the missing child hiding in a fissure too narrow for the devils to reach in, having taken shelter in the same cave as the creatures. Vendor and Angel rescue the child and return her to her parent.
Vendor and Angel ascend the elevator to the station. The elevator lurches alarmingly in the high winds and halfway up, one of the cables snaps. The elevator squeals to a halt. Vendor and Angel manage to climb up past live wires and sheared metal to the second elevator cabin in which they are able to continue upwards.
At the top of the elevator, they meet Iron Pyrite of the Industrial Corps, one of their sick workers, Overseer Industrial Diamond of the Societal Corps, and his assistant, Steel Spark. It quickly becomes clear that Industrial Diamond is entirely pompous and self-absorbed, making questionable claims about his supposed dynastic lineage. It is equally clear that the workers are suffering from a respiratory illness. Iron Pyrite identifies that the oxygen filters need to be flushed but she is unable to do so remotely. Angel volunteers herself and Vendor to go outside the spaceport and manually fix the filters.
Steel Spark takes them to the airlock where they don spacesuits. Vendor considers improvements to the mag-boots but ultimately decides not to fiddle with them. The pair begin the walk to the oxygen filter but they are not alone. Burrowing mites scuttle out of the filter system, many clinging to the back of a far larger mighty mite. They manage to clear out the infestation to inspect the damage and suddenly an earlier vision makes sense to Roaming Vendor… he has brought along some replacement oxygen filters and is able to fix the system.
Another problem soon emerges. Steel Spark is unable to open the airlock. They've identified another entrance though - via the heat vent. Vendor rigs up some improved heat protection into their suits and they manage to make their way back into the spaceport.
Steel Spark suggests they meet up with Iron Pyrite who is apparently doing a job for Industrial Diamond. On the way there, they pass by a group of loader bots and a welding bot which unexpectantly attack, knocking out Steel Spark. Thankfully they are brought around, though they don't escape being loaded into the trash chute. Vendor and Angel disable the bots with extreme force and lower a winch cable down into the trash compactor to pull out Steel Spark.
Returning Steel Spark safely to their office, Vendor and Angel go to find Industrial Diamond, just in time to see him trick Iron Pyrite into an airlock and set it to open into space. They waste no time in overriding the airlock and taking down Industrial Diamond and his security bots.

Industrial Diamond is taken into custody, awaiting trial. Steel Spark takes on the role of Acting Overseer and supplies considerable evidence against their former boss.
Guardant Angel reports back to her superior officer. With some asking around and pulling rank, Guardant Angel is able to gauge that the command of Her Glorious Command has an interest in the development of the Tertiary Spaceport, considering Mytene to be the most developed planet in the system and that it should have a spaceport fitting for Altarian dignitaries. However, with the Orion gate down, that is currently a low priority. Captain Abiding Storm appreciates the report but is currently unwilling to expend too many resources. She does assign a Logistical Advisor though, both to support Steel Spark and keep an eye on the situation.
Roaming Vendor passes on the recipe for the anti-mite inoculation. He is also able to make a number of other sales. The medical centre purchases a small number of the Dr GUTS MD medigun for distribution to medics working in dangerous areas on a trial basis, with the possibility of further sales in the case of positive reports. Steel Spark invests in some improved security systems. Iron Pyrite expresses interest in a lot of construction tools but is currently saving her budget to make sure the workers' wages get paid.
While working, Roaming Vendor hears a voice, though no one around him is speaking and they don't seem to hear anything. “Your honour, my client has devoted his career to promoting the place of Mytene and advancing its people. The prosecution will argue that Industrial Diamond deliberately and recklessly sabotaged his own project for personal gain. The defence will prove that my client is a man who had exceptional responsibility under exceptional circumstances and the strain of that responsibility led to an error of judgement. My client poses no risk to the public and as such a custodial sentence would be a waste of public resources. Instead, my client would benefit from the rest and recuperation of early retirement, perhaps on the beaches of sunny Siruta…” There is a furore of anger, disbelief, and ridicule. “Order! Order in court!” The banging of a gavel turns out to be a colleague knocking at the door.