The situation did not improve when we finally reached Arrakis. We were accompanied by the Harkonnen's Captain Taras Nikila and Korbus Zaan to Arrakis where Korbus gave us a Choam report.

Zaan was keen to emphasise how difficult our job would be with 40% of the equipment left by the Harkonnen's inoperable, and was pushing the Harkonnen expertise as the only way to solve our problems. He reported:

We were met on arrival by the Nagara Major Roj Varis and Ashem Perro, the former Spacing Guild envoy to Arrakis, who was appointed by the Emperor as Judge of the Change and Arbiter of Operations overseeing the withdrawal of House Harkonnen. His appointment was required by the Landsraad under pressure from the Spacing Guild. His role was to ensure a smooth transition from House Harkonnen to House Nagara.

Major Varis provided the introductions. It is clear he respected Perro who appeared affable. Perro gave his condolences which sounded sincere. He said he would be quartered in Arrakeen’s Residence, now the seat of House Nagara, and would be administering the Residence’s detention facility during the judicial interregnum, until House Nagara’s forces and processes are fully in place. He said he would liaise with Varis and warned several of the great houses were envious of Nagara’s new fief. He warned it was logical to assume that there may be infiltrators and saboteurs working to undermine House Nagara, and as such, we should anticipate Fremen attacks on spice mining operations to increase in the early stages of this transition. He said they will see an opportunity to weaken their new Imperial overseers and will take advantage of it.

Varis advised “Perro is one of the few people we can trust — as long as we maintain or improve spice production. The Spacing Guild’s objectives are his priority, but he is a shrewd diplomat and a sharp observer of human behaviour. He would be a valuable ally.” He advised that a coded communique from the Guild had been intercepted after we arrive, and perhaps had Perro intended us to do so. That told us he heads the Guild’s intelligence network on Arrakis and he assumes his operatives act as counter-espionage agents and anti-saboteurs, working to keep House Nagara productive and ensure spice production. His orders appear to be prevention through deniable intervention. In contrast to Varis, Zaan said we should not trust Perro.

Most of the non-operational equipment had been sabotaged in the last 30 days. The saboteurs knew how to render spice mining equipment inoperative, and had not been caught. Many sand workers had left Arrakis in the last five weeks. Several left in style, suggesting they had been paid, and paid well, to leave. Fremen attacks on House Nagara operations have been more effective than those against the Harkonnen due to an influx of new weapons.

Arakeen was an ancient thriving city with grey walled architecture, villas to hovels. As we entered we saw an area that had been burned and decimated. We learned it had been subjected to a Harkonnan purge. The accused were cast into desert without still suits to die.

As we continued, the Limo car was hit by gunfire and we took cover quickly. One of the attackers was using a lasgun. The attackers were a small number of Fremen and their fire was being focused on the Harkonnen's. They appeared better trained even than house Nagara troops, but seemed to be hanging back except for killing Harkonnen's. We quickly retreated to safety with Pero. The Fremen retreated when the Harkonnen guards were all killed but Perro's bodyguard captured one of the Fremen and the lasgun which was of an off world design.

We finally arrived at the residence where Vadim Saarela, the Harkonnan secretary and spymaster introduced us to Ustad Turan, the Choam spice auditor, Cenric, the Spacing Guild Envoy, and Rev Mother Qadira Lariel Narilan. I took the opportunity to speak with the Rev mother. She was interested in the rest of house Nagara. She said the countess was known, but the others were not known to the sisterhood. She also warned the Harkonnen were up to something and to keep an eye on them. Spice production was a priority and the Fremen would be open to negotiation. The Harkonnen were aggrieved that house Nagara was given Arakkis and they were not altruistic by nature.

Vadim then showed us to the operations centre for spice production. Korbus Zaan and Erika were there. Korbus said he had a strategy to meet spice quotas. Harvesters were used to harvest spice by sifting through spice blooms. They were carried to the blooms by carryalls, and scout ornithopter's were used for scouting spice and keeping watch for sandworms. Sandworms could be up to 400 metres long, and were capable of swallowing a harvester whole. He advised shields were hard to maintain in the desert, and a shield would send worms into a killing frenzy. I thought perhaps a shield could be used to lure worms away from harvesting operations, and we discussed the possibility of incorporating a Nightshade Lens into the operations to improve the accuracy of spice harvesting.

We participated in our first Spice harvest operation, deploying harvesters on four spice blooms. We succeeded in saving a harvester from a work attack, and another from a Fremen attack. We exceeded targets and were able to afford purchase of another two harvesters.

We then interrogated the Fremen captive, whose name was Harun. He thought he Harkonnen were dogs, and said the world would be cleansed with their blood. He spat when natalia asked where they got the lasgun. Being from the deep desert, the Fremen do not waste water, and spitting is a sign of great respect. He said to go to the red doored house on Street of Hawks at midnight to find the answer. He said the attack was to test us and we had passed. He may have wanted to be caught just to see how we reacted.

We asked Ashem Perro about the Street of Hawks. He said it was non descript and on the outskirts of the city. We went there at midnight. Fremen appeared when Jiro approached but were not aggressive and we were allowed to enter. Inside we met Musa, naib of siech Jurf'Ahmar. He said we could start or stop a war, if we intended to eliminate the sand worms and if we intended to mine the rocky areas of Arrakis. He asked for the return of Harun, and seemed willing to leave us alone if we left them alone. He gave us a long range communicator so we would be able to keep in touch.

Zafir released Harun and escorted him from the prison, though the Harkonnen's objected strongly. The following morning Dr Erika told us she had determined where the lasgun used in the attack had came from. It was Ixian manufacture, the home world of house Vernius, but were sold in trade so others were likely to have access.

We participated in a second harvest of six spice blooms. We lost a harvester to a worm, but there were no Fremen attacks. We exceeded targets again, and replaced the harvester. Our third round of harvesting another six blooms was more successful. We exceeded targets again, and suffered no losses.

We were approached by Dr Ganio who had been working on the prototype. She advised we should observe spice harvesting first hand to help the research. We organised Vadim Saarela to take us in an ornithopter and were given stillsuits to wear in the desert and travveled to the harvesting operation with a second ornithopter. We were not there long when we were called back to the ornithopter due to worm sign. The carryall came to collect the harvester but was was hit by a surface to air missile from a nearby ridge. The worm turned towards the carryall crash site, giving us time to save the 20 workers before the worm destroyed the harvester. It exploded but the worm seemed not to notice.

When we returned we managed another harvesting operation on three blooms which gave another result which exceeded expectations.