Leaving Chiskisk's office in the Lorespire Complex, the party agrees to return to Duravor Kreel's apartment and determine their next move. Bratrizik had turned the holovid on before leaving, and upon their return they catch Absalom Tonight Newsfeed. The top item is the conflict that surrounds the arrival of the derelict ship Acreon a few days ago with a large asteroid towed behind it. The report discusses the legal between Astral Extractions and the Hardscrabble Collective, as well as the future of the asteroid currently under Absalom custody.
Curious, Yiris checks the Absalom Station infosphere for details on both mining companies, Astral Extractions and Hardscrabble Collective. She discovers that Astral Extractions has extensive business ties throughout the Pact Worlds, and most of the company’s operations are centered in the Diaspora and the rocky moons of the outer planets, but it has also begun sending scout vessels into the Vast in search of new claims. More digging reveals that the company recently hired one of the Hardscrabble Collective’s ships, the Acreon, for one of these exploratory missions. Hardscrabble Collective, for its part, is a cooperative business comprised of a collection of dozens of ships' crews who work together for mutual benefit and protection, and members are very protective of each other. The Collective has filed several lawsuits over the years against various mining outfits, including Astral Extractions, DT43 and CIDERA.
Bratrizik returns to the Lorespire Complex and heads to the Archives. He searches the resources of the Starfinder Society for info on drifting asteroids. He also searches for any information related to the alien structure they discovered on H-7758. Though there are no direct correlation within the databases, there are several scientific papers that theorize that a methane-based life form would be possible under appropriate circumstances, and there is evidence that such micro-organisms could evolve and achieve a level of intelligence similar to humanoids. Research on previous dealings of the Starfinder Society with Astral Extractions and the Hardscrabble Collective reveals similar information to what Yiris discovered. He also finds that Astral Extractions is about a third the size of CIDERA's mining operations, and the two corporations are not direct competitors as they exploit different sectors of space. Further research on the doctor finds no more information than what Bratrizik already knew, but he does uncover 38 scholarly papers the doctor wrote, all of them dealing with various aspects of mentoring adventurers. His most successful ones were Professional Mentoring in Adventurers: Evaluation of the Starfinder Society Program and Mentoring and Guiding Adventurers’ Professional Learning : Realizing Research Impact.
Nict searches the infosphere for DT43. DT43 has an address in office downsides, but has no employees. The office building has nine suites, and a cursory search reveals that over 13,000 corporations are headquartered there. It is a shell company with no employees. Its securities filings indicate that last year it made roughly 900,000 credits. It has five shares outstanding, which are owned by a maze of other shell companies. Its business is to hire freelancers to conduct mining operations. The company incorporated in 299 After the Gap. Nict also discovers several messages on different virtual communities that DT43 has recently gone on a spending spree, putting out 17 million credits hiring several mercenary outfits, an uncharacteristic move for this small corporation. It is unclear where the finances for these are coming from. He also comes across corporate information that was leaked by an anonymous source. This information reveals that Astral Extractions hired DT43 twice over the last five years. A search of corporate officers reveal that there are three listed as contacts for DT43: Raad, Funen, and Hetu. Further research reveal that these three individuals, who work for the Eoxian Bank, cover for over 7,000 corporations. Furthermore, the Exoian Bank provides the corporate services for DT43.
While still at the Archives, Bratrizik consults the memory banks to find information on Audra Davis and her connection to the Starfinder Society. He finds two articles written by Duravor Kreel that refers to Audra Davis' work as a mentor in research lab settings: Peer Mentor Program for the Laboratory Designed To Improve Staff Retention and Enhancing Diversity in the Research Workforce: The Research and Mentorship Program for Future Scientists. Their relationship appears to be purely professional.
Hoping to find more information, Yiris attempts to penetrate Absalom Security, but quickly realize she has neither the equipment nor the expertise to successfully penetrate their computer network. Yiris turns her attention to Level 21. After some poking around Absalom's infosphere, she discovers that Level 21 is a street gang that claims Level 21 of Absalom Station’s seedy lower decks as its territory. Police reports and rumors suggest that they are involved in theft, fencing stolen goods, gambling, prostitution, racketeering, and smuggling. No other information is available on the infosphere.
@ 16:17
With their searches exhausted, the party regroups at Duravor Kreel's apartment, and share their findings. Clearly, finding more information about the gangs will require a trip to heads to Downside. Nict performs research on the neighborhood and finds that it is a party scene for the wealthy as well as the risk takers. After a light dinner, they head out.
@ 17:20
Exploring Downside, they come across a popular nightclub called the Fusion Queen. The stylized logo resembles the crown used by the Downside Kings as their symbol, only upside-down. Yiris does a quick search and discovers that the club is owned and operated by the Downside Kings as a base of operations. Located in a depressed neighborhood, the Fusion Queen is considered very trendy by the uppercrust youth and is usually filled with patrons at all hours of the day. From the various social media posts, it is clear that the vast majority of patrons are not associated with the gang.
After an interaction with the Fusion Queen's bouncers, the three of them enter the club. A cursory glance indicates that there are over 500 people dancing away on the dance floor.
Bratrizik spots at least six other security personnel distributed around the facility. At the bar, they inquire about the Downside Kings, but get nowhere. Scanning the crowd, Bratrizik spots the Vesk holo wrestler star Saarak holding court in one of the club's private booth. Bratrizik recognizes the wrestler from the holovid feed on Duravor Kreel's screen.
Noticing one of the bouncers from the front door heading to the bathroom, Bratrizik follows him inside, and hides in a stall. Nict also comes in, and steps next to the Downside King, who is washing his hands at one of the sinks. Nict gives him a credstick worth 200 credits. He questions the thug about DT43 but the gang member evidently doesn't know his gang's relationship with the corporation. When asked about contacting Level 21, he looks around, and whispers to check out Mama Fats', a small grocery store run by a hafling on the 21st level of the station. Bratrizik does mind thrust on the gang member, and he collapses, causing a commotion in the bathroom that spills out into the club. Sensing danger, the three of them depart Fusion Queen, and head out to Mama Fats'...
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