We then jumped to Drinax. It was a devastated world which whose surface had been blasted in a war about 200 years ago. Most people now live in the floating palace where we were instructed to dock. An audience with the king was arranged. He produced a Letter of mark which gives permission to prey on shipping that does not carry the proper documentation. It was suggested that shipping did not carry such documentation which whuld give us free reign. He explained that trade between the Aslan Hierate and The Third imperium went through the independent systems between. He wanted to disrupt the trade to get the independent worlds back under the fold of Drinax then force the Third Imperium to recognise the Drinax as an empire. The idea was his daughters, the Princess Rao. The king expected 10% of any loot.

The Torpol and Clarke systems were hit by raiders recently. Torpol were moderately sympathetic to Drinax but Clarke less so. We were told if we could capture the raiders in the name of Drinax it would help relations. A bounty of 0.5Mcr was being offered from Clarke and 2Mcr from Torpol for apprehending the raiders. Oleb said we could keep any bounty we earned as long as Drinax was credited with the apprehension of the raiders.

Clarke has huge cities of dead, and the inhabitants believed there would be a day of healing when everyone would be revived. They worshiped the dead. Torpol was a frozen planet, whose primary industry was fishing and hydrogen fuel. Most people lived at the poles or on large steel supported platforms. There were also many leisure attractions for passing Merchant trade.

We jumped to Torpol to begin the investigation. We were directed to the southern polar port where we were met by Provost Falx star port administrator. We learned from him that pirates had attacked an automated orbital chemical factory. Two ships approached from the refuelling dock and used lasers to cut off the cargo module. The ships were a Far trader and a Vulture class salvage hauler. They had refuelled at the orbital dock prior to the attack. The ships had claimed to be called Argo 1 and Argo 2 though the administrator admitted they did not check the validity of visiting ships identities.

Hank enhanced the video footage of the attack. The Far trader had two double turrets with twin pulse lasers, and the salvage hauler had two single and two double turrets with pulse lasers and missile launchers. It had been recently repainted, and there was evidence it had been an imperial navy ship called the Merci Fuge which had been part of a flotilla under the command of admiral Darokim who fled the imperium 30 years ago. According to pirate law he was based in the system Thieve in Sindal subsector. He had been an imperial officer involved in smuggling who had fled, but there was no official bounty.

When I examined the money trail for payment of the fuel I found an encoded radio transmission had been sent to a scout ship called Misery's company at the down port prior to the money transfer. Its captain was a Vagra called Krrrrsh who had sold computer scrap to a trader called Holmer then departed a few days ago. It had been involved in an incident with another ship, the Sarcomond, a Far trader Captained by Daniel Vlaw. We found Vlaw seated at a bar. He told us that when approaching Torpol the scout ship had demanded they hand over their cargo. The Sarcomond had popup turrets and drove it off. It had panicked when it came under fireand was heard calling for a jump to Borite.