"Minefield"

**"Minefield"** is the eighth session of the first chapter of Convergence. After reaching the eponymous Neutral Zone, the party find themselves delayed by a highly volatile minefield left over from the war. The party must try their best to navigate through the minefield without setting even a single one off.

## Synopsis

### En-route

The party have finally left Union space, and are en-route to the Neutral Zone, an area of space forbidden to both Union and Zultan ships. The journey takes almost 24 hours. During this time, the party go about their business and mentally prepare themselves for what is to come. H0W-D33, still mourning the loss of his beloved "Huckleberry", the Solar Chrysalys egg that he recovered previously, decides that he needs to hold a 'funeral' for his 'son'. Deciding that he wants to send the egg out with a 'bang', he quickly grabs a number of items from the storage cupboard, mostly breakfast cereals and condiments, and puts them in the airlock with the egg. H0W-D33, quite emotional, presses the release on the airlock and releases Huckleberry to the dark void of space, and with him two boxes of cereal which open and spread into a glorious cloud of sugary goodness. All the while, H0W-D33 begins playing a sobre song through the ship's intercom and he salutes his 'son' as he departs.

Bunka, wishing to use the galacti-net while they still have connection, begins browsing on the terminal next to the airlock, seemingly paying no attention to what H0W-D33 is doing. Bunka, who was hibernating during the events of the previous session, doesn't seem phased about where she is or what is happening. Bunka browses the dark-net to find something of particular interest to her, but does not seem to find anything as she immediately leaves. Bunka decides to take a shower and prepare herself for the battles ahead.

Calli, feeling powerful after her chemicals delivered a decisive blow upon the Solar Chrysalys previously, decides to go back to her workstation and create some more chemicals that she can use. She decides to take some inspiration from the Solar Chrysalys and create a fire chemical which will have an effect similar to a Molotov cocktail. She begins pouring and mixing highly volatile chemicals and combining them, which causes whisps of fire to be emitted from the vial, catching H0W-D33's attention. Calli creates a highly volatile fire chemical that she believes will yield the desired effects. Calli then decides to re-create her flash chemical that she has previously made. Using her notes that he has collected, she follows her previous method and creates the flash chemical exactly as she did before.

Steele and the rest of the party carry on maintaining the ship during the voyage.

They eventually arrive at the first beacon in the Neutral Zone. Dr Arbo, who is in command, asks Calli to take a scan and see what the sector has to hold. Calli performs her scan and creates a beacon map for the sector. She also scans the area around the beacon they have arrived at, they find the area seemingly empty aside from a warning beacon that is transmitting an alert on all channels in the sector.

### A new problem

The warning beacon is transmitting a repeating message warning all incoming vessels of a cloaked minefield in the area that was left over by the Galactic Union during the War. Dr Arbo enquires if anyone knows anything about the minefield. Del Rio says he doesn't know too much about them other than the fact that they were used by the Galactic Union to mine systems to halt approaching Zultan ships. Dr Arbo decides to take the ship in for a closer look, but is stopped by a flustered Lieutenant Steele who rushes to bridge and command them not to go anywhere near the minefield.

Steele tells the party that he has had experience with these types of mines during the war. He tells the party that the mines are cloaked and operate on a proximity detonator, meaning they will be hidden and explode if an object gets too close. He also tells the party that the worst part is is that the mines are self-replicating, meaning the mines will replace each other in the event of a detonation. Steele urges caution from everyone.

The party weigh up their options. They consider going off the space-lanes, however, they realise that it may be more dangerous than the minefield. They consider trying to go round but eventually conclude that this isn't feasible. They decide that they have no choice but to go through the field. Del Rio suggests using a probe to scout ahead rather than sending the ship, and advises Steele that the mines are at least a decade old and their power cells may be leaking, which would be something they could scan for.

### Minesweeper

Calli runs a scan of the area to pinpoint any nearby mines. She finds that the energy emissions are overpowering the scanners and are making a large scan difficult, however she sorts through some of the interference and pinpoints a nearby mine. Steele orders the probe be deployed to investigate. Petra controls the probe and pilots it towards the co-ordinates of the first mine. She takes the probe slowly, making a note of how close she's getting. Eventually the mine de-cloaks on begins an activation sequence, which causes a large energy build up. Petra takes note of the distance and relays it to the rest of the party, she pulls the probe back, which after a few minutes, causes the mine to decloak and power back down.

With the distance in mind, the party have something more to work off. This time, Petra takes the probe towards the mine and attempts to hack into it and shut it down. She establishes a connection from a distance and initiates a shut-down command, which causes the mine to decloak and seemingly de-activate. Steele then takes the Eastwood towards the mine, and reveals a second mine nearby. Petra hacks it and shuts it down just like the first. Realising that they are about to play an intricate game that will take some time, the party try to come up with another plan.

Moving back to the matter at hand, H0W-D33 notes that there are asteroids in this system that seemingly don't trigger the minefield, and questions whether the asteroids have something to do with the minefield. Calli runs a scan on the nearest asteroid but sensors appear to indicate that it is a regular asteroid. Frustrated, Bunka decides leads the charge and take the two-man shuttle to the nearest asteroid, becoming frustrated with the amount of time it is taking to navigate through the minefield. H0W-D33 supports Bunka and offers to pilot the shuttlecraft. Before anyone can stop them, the shuttle leaves with the two of them on-board.

### Shuttle-drifting

Bunka and H0W-D33 proceed through the minefield towards the nearest asteroid. They travel past the two deactivated mines and chart a new path. The Eastwood slowly follows them. Communications are open but the two refuse to return to the ship.

They travel through the minefield, activating a number of mines that the Eastwood makes a note of, however due to the mines close proximity, they begin to detonate. The explosions cause a chain reaction, producing a large shockwave that travels outwards in all directions, and disables FTL travel in the immediate area. The resulting shockwave hits the back of the two-man shuttle and causes system relays to begin blowing out, causing massive damage to the shuttle. The resulting momentum pushes it into a fast orbit with the asteroid, causing it to almost 'drift' around the circumference.

The Eastwood meanwhile, is further away from the shockwave, Steele orders a full hard-about turn to Calli, who executes it and pilots the Eastwood to a safe distance while the shockwave passes on. After some time, Steele orders the Eastwood to head to the asteroid to recover H0W-D33 and Bunka. Using the sensor data transmitted by H0W-D33 and Bunka, the Eastwood navigates through the minefield, but they note that the mines have now moved slightly. However, thanks to expert piloting reactions, Calli gets the Eastwood into tractor beam range of the two-man shuttle.

On the two-man shuttle, H0W-D33 and Bunka are alive but disoriented. With the life support system offline, Bunka starts to suffer from oxygen deprivation as she struggles to breathe. H0W-D33, not needing oxygen, desperately tries to repair the system but to no avail due to the heavy damage it has suffered. When the Eastwood arrives, Bunka loses consciousness from oxygen deprivation.

The shuttle is brought back aboard the Eastwood and Bunka is rushed to the medical area by Dr Arbo, who quickly gives her a mask and supplies oxygen directly. He scans her and reveals that other than suffering from oxygen deprivation, she is fine.

### Finding the solution

Back on the bridge, Steele orders Calli to perform another scan of the asteroid. The scans reveal a powerful energy signature coming from within the asteroid. H0W-D33 lands the Eastwood on the surface of the asteroid and Petra releases the probe oncemore. Petra sends the probe inside the asteroid through a number of caverns, eventually coming to a large machine. Petra hacks into the machine using the probe, and the hacking reveals that the machine is communicating with multiple nearby mines. He initiates a mass-shutdown command, which causes a number of mines in the area to decloak and de-activate.

The party lands the Eastwood on the asteroid and take some time to get their thoughts together before proceeding. They come up with a path to get to the planet in the system. H0W-D33 says that he will take the Eastwood on his own path that he finds more efficient. As he prepares to take the ship up, Steele locks his controls.

H0W-D33 still feels betrayed by Steele's role in the murder of "Huckleberry". Steele and the others reiterate that the mission they're on is very important and H0W-D33 is free to hold Steele responsible oncce their mission is complete. H0W-D33 declares that he doesn't much care for the Galactic Union anyway. He then asks Del Rio what he thinks about the Union. Del Rio tells H0W-D33 that he has first hand experience of the darker sides of the Galactic Union, and notes that neither side is perfect, but that the Union has done a lot of good. H0W-D33 reluctantly agrees to follow orders and finish the mission, but declares that once the mission is complete, he is leaving.

Petra, deciding that now the time is right, comes forward about her past. She tells the party of his role in Malware's service, and how she had committed crimes under Malware's control. She tells them that he feels guilty about it and apologises for not bringing it up sooner. The party told her that it isn't her fault and not to hold herself responsbile for actions out of her control.

### Getting through

After spending some time recuperating, the party now had a plan to get through the next few mines to the planet. H0W-D33 tried to launch the Eastwood, but in doing so, accidentally tripped the fuse and disabled main power and caused damage to most of the systems on the ship. This caused lifesupport and notably artifcial gravity to go offline, causing several party members to fly out of their seats. Most notably Bunka, who was in the medical bay with an oxygen mask at the time, and due to her being unconscious, slowly drifted upwards while the tube wrapped around her neck.

The party, led by Steele, went through the ship and gradually brought systems back online. Bunka safely dropped back down and Dr Arbo ensured that she was okay. H0W-D33 launched the Eastwood into orbit. He piloted the ship through the minefield using the route Steele and Calli had come up with. After a couple of close calls of old mines prematurely detonating, they made it through and set a course to the inhabited planet.

### Damoclese

The party arrived in orbit of the heavily irradiated planet in the system. They attempted communications but found they were getting no response. Dr Arbo performed a medical scan of the planet, he found that the planet was heavily irradiated, but there were small pockets of people still alive. He noted a few isolated pockets of life on the southern continent and less so in the northern most continent.

The party asked Del Rio if he knew anything about the planet. He revealed that the planet was known as 'Damoclese' and that it was a former Union world. He told the group that the planet was reletively 'unimportant' to the Union, and was heavily bombed by the Union and glassed by the Zultans in an effort to drive the other off the planet. The party couldn't believe that the Union would allow the planet to be left in this state. Del Rio noted that both sides had their dark sides during the war, but the Union was definitely the lesser of the two evils.

The party decided to visit one of the pockets in the southern continent. They landed the Eastwood infront of an abandoned city and prepared to explore.

Dr Arbo mentioned that due to the high amounts of radiation, most of the party would have to wear EV Suits while on the planet. Although this doesn't apply to Unified, like Petra or H0W-D33 (although H0W-D33, not being aware of his true nature, puts on an EV suit anyway). They set off to explore the ruined city ahead.

The group split up to explore the settlement and find survivors. H0W-D33 left the party and went straight down the street to find the nearest liquour store, hoping there is alcohol left over. Bunka decided to sit on the sidewalk and just take everything in. The remainder of the party went to a nearby abandoned tavern and found left over alchohol. Deciding to take this opportunity to relieve some stress and get to know each other more, they took a seat.

Petra took on the role of bartender and handed out drinks to the others. Dr Arbo returned to the ship to get some more rest. As they progressively drank, Steele and Calli began to discuss their motivations and their history. Steele revealed that he was born on Earth and raised on Buran, and he was there during the fall. Calli reveals that she was part of a big family, and because of this, she had a hard time sticking out amongst her many siblings. She decided to pursue astrology, and is looking for a certain person who understands her particular field of work. Calli asks Steele whether he is thinking about ever having a family, he replies that he doesn't want to concern himself with that. Calli notes that she wants a child one day, to be raised and loved solely, rather than being part of a large family like.

Meanwhile, H0W-D33 finds himself some alcohol in an abandoned convenience store. He sets himself up at the end of the store and proceeds to drink. He is later joined by Bunka, and the two share a drink, and bond after their near death ordeal earlier on.

The session ends with the party drinking away the time.