Favorite In-Game Quote: You made fun of Clifford for being a cow, and now you ARE a cow!
In the eight years since the fall of the Heyson Confederacy, the crew of the Providence have gone their separate ways. To their surprise, the outlaw Halic Still returns from the Heyson underworld gather together the old team. He leads them to a hospital on Zenna, where their old friend Captain Meade is dying of brain cancer. His old friend Clifford, last of the Red Dogs, maintains a constant vigil over his old mentor.
Meade is confused, saying many things that make little sense. He alludes to an old trip he took to a planet called Truna, where his injured friend Tengo was healed by a strange alien, who also gave him back his youth. Halic, the oldest member of the crew, resists the temptation to follow this lead, claiming that all men have their time. Dax, however, sees merit in seeking out Meade's old companion for the purpose of learning about new alien worlds. When prompted about Tengo's location, Meade gives a cryptic answer: "Tengo on the Tigris." Using his computer skills, Dax finds an old scout ship in the Zenna Aerospace Museum known as the Tigris. The crew heads to the museum, and gain admittance with Kiki's eight-year old museum pass.
Dax asks an old curator for info on the Tigris. While she is looking it up, he hacks into the museum database and steals all files related to the Tigris. He learns that it was a four-man vessel that was donated to the museum over 30 years ago by Meade. The crew notes indicate that Meade voyaged westward (in the relative space sense) with Tengo Lon, Fred Rugle, and Reggie Stake. Along with this information is a massive cache of stellar coordinates, revealing over two dozen new worlds beyond Heyson.
The full details of this information will be posted in a later entry.
With a full name to work with, Dax pinpoints Tengo Lon's location to a mining company on the recovering planet of Micallo. After Kevo and Dr. Harrision taunt Clifford for his weight (Harrison with more encouragement), the crew sets off. In jump space, the crew finds an abandoned moleman digging vehicle. Dax brings it onto the ship.
When they arrive on Micallo, the crew sees that progress on the rebuilding city is slow. They hop in a truck and head out to Tengo's mine. When they arrive, they find a mob of miners at the mouth of the cave being consoled by a nervous foreman. He explains to the crew that feral gubrox, leftovers from the invasion, have settled in the cave and trapped some miners inside. One of those miners is Tengo Lon. Halic strikes a deal with the foreman to be paid by the number of gubrox slain. Using his psionic abilities, Thatcher the Badger locates Tengo deep within the mine. With his powers the crew could avoid all confrontation with the gubrox. However, after many years apart they are all eager for a fight, and jump on a small gubrox camp in a side passage. The battle is brief, but the noise from Dax's new grenade launcher attracts the attention of the entire mine.
The crew sets up firing positions inside the small side passage. Hordes of gubrox pour through the gap. The battle is fierce, but the superior weapons and skill of the crew saves the day. Incendiary grenades and sharpshooting create a heap of corpses. As the crew begins to lower their weapons, a massive drilling vehicle bursts out of the side wall. Kevo and Kiki are nearly shredded by the behemoth's massive drill. Thinking quickly, Dax pulls out his metal-eating "flamethrower." His weapon peels back the hull of the captured drilling machine. Careful sharpshooting kills the gubrox crew, and Dax pulls the partially-dissolved hatch open to shut off the drill.
The drill left a massive tunnel in its wake, which allows Tengo and the other miners to escape. The crew is paid for their efforts, and even manage to sell their newly found moleman drilling machine for a nice price. They share a food-truck meal with Tengo, who is reluctant to give up any information about the planetary database the crew has found. Halic offers to give Tengo a ride to see Meade before he dies, which Tengo accepts.
Back on Zenna, the crew finds that Meade has already passed away. Tengo takes this news apathetically, thanking the crew and informing them that he can find his own way back to Micallo. While this is going on Dax surfs the web for news. He finds out that a bio-terrorist and illegal gene-splicer known as Dr. Dolbert is at large with a hefty bounty on his head. Dax cross-analyses audio recordings of the outlaw with stray communication signals on Zenna. He pinpoints the man's location to the Zenna Zoo. The crew sets off for a day with the animals.
Dax, Halic, and Kevo infiltrate the zoo with their stealth technology. Kiki and Dr. Harrison visit the zoo in disguise. The stealth team sneaks into the zookeeper headquarters and travels down to the bottom floor. There, they find patients whose DNA had been supplemented with that of animals. In a back room, they find Dr. Dolbert. He is insane, thinking that Ooba-mai speaks to him when he is alone. He reveals that he intends to mix all species together into one mega-species worthy of Ooba-mai's praise. The stealth team use his insanity to lure him to their car outside the zoo.
Meanwhile, the Kiki and Dr. Harrison visit the zoo's newest exhibit: the Giant. They find a massive humanoid alien in the cage. Dr. Harrison takes pity on the beast and sneaks in to give it food. Unfortunately, the Giant is too fond of him, and captures Dr. Harrison in his strong grip. Efforts of the zookeepers to sedate the beast only enrage him, and it takes several shots to knock him out. Dr. Harrison tries to escape by walking out calmly, but is tackled by the Zoo staff.
The crew minus Dr. Harrison turn in the mad scientist for their bounty. They inform the police of the lab below the zoo, and a PMC is hired to flush them out. Dax joins in. The raid is set for that night. Unfortunately, by the time they get to the zoo, Dr. Harrison has been hideously transformed into a cow-man. The Zenna hospital is unable to help him, but Dax collected enough data from the zoo to attempt his own surgery (for a heavy fee). The procedure has mixed results: his facial features and appendages are repaired, but Dax is unable to remove the (functioning) utter. Kevo taunts Dr. Harrison, guns are pulled, and Kiki brings peace with a stun grenade.
