The Scybrian Heist

 Re-cap of sessions 78, 79, and 80 played on 17 and 24 October and 7 November 2025, respectively.

Location: Scybria (Halcyon 2012)

Dates: 067-5601 to 074-5601

When you arrive on Scybria, the authorities on this high law-level world are obliged to investigate the case of your missing passenger. Obviously you're blameless, but the process has to run its course. A security official with the High Senate, Yarimar Tshomo, meets with you and asks for your assistance with a delicate matter; if you agree to help, he'll expedite the resolution of your case. He needs you to locate and return some classified material that a government official recently "lost" and that has wound up in the hands of a journalist, who took it to her editor. If published, it could severely embarrass the High Senate and encourage a separatist political movement on Scybria. Basically, he needs you to pull a heist:  break into the offices of major newspaper publisher and steal all the digital and physical files related to this matter. 

Normally, you're not inclined to meddle with the freedoms of the fifth estate, but the material advantages of cooperating with the High Senate are just too appealing in this case. Jacobe and Kodiak head downtown to the office tower where the offices of the Ebos Star Courier are located — it's a TL-8 world with high law level, so think Singapore in the 1990s — and case the joint while disguised as maintenance workers. On a second visit, they manage to distract the security guards long enough for Torka to hack into the computers and gain control of the cameras, elevators, and security systems. Separately, you make contact with a black-market arms dealer  named "Mr Bang" (a pseudonym, obviously) in order to acquire some prohibited gear: stunners and stun grenades, just in case something goes wrong.

After a day of surveillance centred on Mihenga Watson, the journalist who's covering the story, you ascertain that she's been set up in the editor's private office to ensure maximal privacy and security. The files you seek are no doubt kept on the editor's desktop computer (not connected to the 'net) and in a safe. To get them, you'll have to break into that office. 

Ebos Star Courier office, after hours.

That night, disguised as technicians working for the Fantastic Heating and Cooling Co. — you managed to rent a van sporting an airbrushed depiction of a three-headed unicorn on the side — you enter the Ebos Star Courier offices, ostensibly to inspect and repair the air conditioning. Mihenga is working late, alone; you persuade her to momentarily leave her editor's office to allow you to address a potential chemical leakage hazard. This diversion will hopefully give you enough time to hack the desktop, open the safe, and retrieve the hard copies and data discs belonging to the High Senate government. But there's a complication: Mr Bang calls to say that he's been approached by members of the Scybrian People's Alliance, a radical separatist organization, about buying lethal weaponry. He turned them down, but he can't help but deduce that they're up to something big — and that maybe it's related to what you're after. Sure enough, his suspicions prove founded when Torka, running the electronics from your maintenance van parked on the street outside, sees a dozen men and women in civilian garb walk determinedly into the tower's lobby and execute the security guards with silenced guns. They're after the same documents that you are, which they plan to use to embarrass the High Senate and promote their separatist cause. And they clearly have no hesitation to spill blood to get their way.

You control the elevators, so they're going to have to climb to the 30th floor to reach the newspaper's offices. You have about 20 minutes to complete your mission and get clear. Fortunately, the safe is no match for Jacobe's skills. You gather all the material you can, but by the time you're done, the bad guys are breaching the office, SMGs and pistols in hand. Fortunately, Torka has located a window washing platform that he can remotely lower to your floor, allowing you to escape through the editor's window. As you descend to the ground, an SPA terrorist on the street below spots you and opens fire: Griff makes use of several well-placed smoke and stun grenades to neutralize the man. Suddenly Mihenga appears in the street, returning with a coffee and snack: knowing the SPA won't hesitate to kill her, you pull her into your van and speed away in a hail of bullets. Torka shields Mihenga with his body, taking a round in the shoulder. You let her out some distance away, knowing that you've saved her life while robbing her of the news story of a lifetime. But the SPA attack is itself headline material, so at least she's got that.

Tshomo proves extremely grateful for your assistance in this matter. He gives you contact information for a High Senate representative on Denirad, home to a class-A starport where you can be assured of getting privileged access to government contractors who handle ship repairs and upgrades. You fill your ship with bulk cargo, take on the usual complement of passengers, and make the jump.

Image credit: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel newsroom by Mike De Sisti.