Editing The Spinward Blues (section)

=== 208-1110: Eating Out, and the Biter Downs Riots ===

''Dunk and Egg'' made landfall at Biter. During the war, Biter's central computer banks had been destroyed, and everything since then had been run through a mess of jury-rigged systems under Naval control—part of the Navy's massive presence here as an advance area. The natives had been getting restless; there had been food riots, and a local separatist group had been running around beating people up, and so on. But during the day things seemed quiet enough. 

Jeffrey managed to get into the first liberty party, and scored ''two'' off-base passes. He offered one to Sunrise. They made arrangements for dinner later. Jeffrey's black-marketeering went off without a hitch, and he gave technical assistance to his local contacts.

Magellan was given a pass, too, so he could make ''his'' black market contacts (including stuff for Seldokova). But first he had lunch with Sunrise (who was just heading his way), and they encountered her friend Scout Bill Janesson. Bill enlisted her to transport a package for him.

Captain Kepler and Scout Delaney went to the base Commodore to report on the Perkins incident. Soon afterward, word got back to the ship that Perkins—who had been perfectly stable—had suddenly died. Ishugi got suspicious and went to the hospital to ask questions. There, he and a doctor friend discover conclusive evidence that Perkins had been murdered. There's a conspiracy afoot!

Colonel Highway had a special invitation to dine with an old friend of his, General Jago. Jago made a pitch to Highway. The story was: the Duke of Rhylanor had been appointed command of the fighting, but the Earl of Lunion had the bulk of the troops and holdings on the border, so their chain-of-command bitching had become legendary. Lunion is preparing—to call it bluntly—a coup, timed to coincide with the impending Victory Ball on Lunion, in order to force the Duke to make Lunion an autonomous region. Jago offered Highway an important slot in the new military. Highway saw all sorts of flaws in the plan, and finally said "No," but they still had a friendly dinner.

Sunrise and Jeffrey went on their date. Upon closer examination, they discovered that they ''very'' much approved of each other, and make a blushing agreement to try out shared living arrangements over the ensuing voyage. Then they went off to paint the town red.

Then everything went to hell.

While everyone was out, agents of the Lunion Conspiracy raided ''Dunk and Egg'' and arrested everyone there, then waited for the others to return. (But XO Radzhir got a warning out to Ishugi when he phoned in.) At the same time, in an unrelated event (probably?), coordinated mobs started a massive riot in the downport. Highway daringly disarmed a bomb planted in his restaurant; Sunrise and Jeffrey found themselves in the middle of a downtown brawl, but escaped when Jeffrey located some local Wharf Rats—friends of stowaways and rogue travellers everywhere! As emergency signals blared across the downport, and they discovered arrest orders on their comms, the party started to wonder ''just what the hell is going on?''

They finally arranged a rendezvous at a chemical plant outside of town, and there met Seldokova—who unmasked her cover identity, and explained her desire to bring the evidence of the conspiracy home to the High Command on Lunion. A coup and civil war now, on the already war-torn frontier, would be ''terrible'' for the people of the sector. The party declared their support. Or it might be better to say that Seldokova threw in with them—many of them were already pissed about the treason, and they had sheer drive and inventiveness. 

General Jago was also brought into their counter-conspiracy. He's pro-Lunion, yes, but the evidence of Zhodani collaboration casts everything into a new light; he provides support, in the hopes that things will still shake out without a shot fired. 

A daring escape across the riot-torn town ensued. The plan: place some careful hacks into the jury-rigged computer system, to make it seem like they'd already been arrested and/or killed, and use Bill Janesson's Scout (Sunrise made a phonecall and called in a favor) to get out of Dodge, and Jago would provide launch authorization. On the way, they encountered what seemed to be a young girl—Olivia, whom Magellan immediately recognized. Seldokova was wounded by a gunman during the chase.

They made it to the Scout (and discovered Jzeri already there—such an annoying NPC deserved to be kept around). Jeffrey and Sunrise immediately claimed a room. The others took advantage of confusion on the base to "requisition" some weaponry from the Naval Base, in a stunning display of hacking arranged for their ''luggage'' to be delivered to the Scout, and also gathered minimal intel on a few of the local conspirators. When Cap'n Bill realized that they weren't just after a jaunt to the highport, he demanded answers; Jeffrey unveiled the PowerPoint presentation he'd compiled of the data so far. Bill threw in with them. 

Presumably, Jeffrey has continued to update this presentation ever since.

After some last cryptic warnings from General Jago, who appeared to be under attack by the Conspiracy, the Scout ''Nifty Mongoose'' made it to Jump. The party knew, at this point, that they'd have to Jump fast from now on—because the bad guys knew of them, and was only a few days behind the Jump curve.

==== Notable NPCs ====
* General Jago (Hum/M), an old friend of Highway's.
* Abner Belice (Hum/M), just a walk-on bit: an old homeworlder of Jzeri. 
* Jormma Miesko (Hum/M), black marketeer, old friend of Magellan's gone sort-of native and sort-of straight. 
* Steward's Mate Beniamus (Hum/M), medic on IAV ''Dunk and Egg.''
* Fiver (Hiv), a Hiver who runs the excellent FIVER restaurant on Biter.
* Ohforf (Hum/M), Jeffrey's Biter black market contact.
* Scout Bill Janesson (Hum/M), an experienced Detached Duty Scout with a frightening mustache and a dapper dress sense. He soon becomes involved in the Plot.
* Commander Makori Wozniak (Hum/M), Naval Base doctor on Biter. 
* Mister, Missus, and Missus Mecroste, of Mecroste Trans-Stellar Import-Export. Odd folks, but friendly.
* Gail (Hum/F), a matron of the Biter Wharf Rats.
* The stoney-faced armorer of Biter Naval Base (Hum/M), who has an accent Kipling would've loved.
* Lomas (Hum/M), a thug and Lunion Conspirator, apparently a Naval trooper.
* Scouts Vargas Delaney (Hum/M) and Bram Olili (Hum/M), went from PCs to NPCs, and left the party—trying to dodge and distract the Biter conspiracy. Did they make it? We don't know.