The Story

Our heroes brave the character creation process of SWN, and after what could be considered the first boss fight (choosing a character name), we start at the lively UN Academy in... Tijuana, Mexico. It's the last day of their career, and as the sun sets, the five live their last day in the academy doing what they do best: mostly being socially awkward. Hanzo takes a few final cold breaths in the chilly server room, which he got a key to after several times of asking for access and one break-in or two. Ibrahim, the ever rebellious teen, buys weed from a dealer at a markup compared to the academy's pharmacy. Oliviere calls his girlfriend, one of many, to say hello, and relaxes in his dorm room before his mates barge in. Mucalinda and Lingyun meet at the pool, where a couple other Skrells are taking a dip, and Ibrahim joins them on the grass. The sun sets, and with exams done, they await their assignment.

Morning comes, and the ceremony goes by quickly. Mucalinda's family tackles her into a hug, and Lingyun's doesn't, because that would be an act of love, and those are bad. The five say goodbye to each other, wish each other luck, and are then reunited into the academy's historical ship, a rickety old replica of an American Space Shuttle. They take off, and approach the enormous silhouette of Pater Humanitatis, the UN Navy's homebase.

The cadets reach Pater Humanitatis, and take some time wandering and making purchases at the gift shop, completely ignoring the chambers of the Security Council (as most other cadets do). The time comes, and they group up with the rest of the newly minted recruits to be assigned to a ship. The top graduates are sent off to the flagships, cruisers and the best ships in the navy, and as the room slowly empties, our cadets are left standing there, waiting. They have been assigned to the UNS Mae Jemison!

Not without some hesitation and existential career dread, they make their way there and meet with the Chief Medical Officer, Alejandro Vazquez, a Spanish man with a gorgeous mustache, and Sarah, the Chief Steward, an Automaton. Ibrahim, fresh from some lessons on android-mounted weapons, remarks on the gun mount on Sarah's head - she is a pastel pink robot squid with foam inserts for safety and she is in charge of the kitchen, so that's weird. Oh, well. Our heroes make it to their cabins and cope with their assignment, then get to work. Oliviere takes his place in the helmsman's seat, Ling listens to the gossip around the ship at the comms station, and Ibrahim manages to make a good impression on Lirran Gurrank, the Kosidian Chief of Security, by asking to get punched in the face. Once the niceties are done, and everyone is settled in, Captain Mobius makes his entrance, a sharp and authoritative Android. He meets the cadets, and they embark on their first grand mission: picking someone up.

They fly to Grunstadt, a colony on Callisto, and must face their first enemies, those being scientist nerds. The annual Renaissance Fair is ongoing in Grunstadt, and their search for the Chief Science Officer, who was here for research, is hampered by ale and an archery competition which causes one casualty. Eventually, they find Raxi Llorgami, a Skrellian woman, completely mad in a security cell. They quickly figure out that she was trying to make an anti-psychosis medicine, which backfired and triggered one in the Skrell - and for worse, the fumes were sucked into the air vent. Using their best detective skills, they sneak into the laboratory, find the recipe she used and send it to the ship's medbay to synthesize a cure, while they tackle with one of the universe's biggest annoyances: private security. They convince one of the guards, who explains that he is evidently in a pyramid scheme and tries to get Oliviere into it, to let Raxi go by giving him the recipe to the medicine, explaining that if he were the one to make a cure he'd get a huge bonus. He is convinced, and goes looking for a doctor, until the cadets snatch the paper without him noticing and instead give it to a friendly nurse.

Having prevented the outbreak of a neurologically degenerating drug, and also having picked up their Chief Science Officer, they return to the Mae Jemison and celebrate their victory. It's short lived, however, as the ship receives a distress call from the Barnard's Star system: the TriStar station Emerald Port has sent out a call for help, and the Jemison gets going to do her duty. They jump to the neighboring system, and before them sits a dead station, zero life signs, and a mystery to be uncovered.

The crew boards the Emerald Port, wading through the darkness to find out what happened to it and its crew. Every compartment has been stripped of electronics and their first suspect is pirates. Even the docked ship, a merchant vessel, is completely empty. The second dock has been ripped off, as if a ship departed without undocking - this only drives their fears of a raid on the station. But as they go along, they find out more: the station's logs have recorded a hacking operation, and the fusion core ejection caused by the hackers. Our cadets finally get to the bridge, where they spot signs of combat and a peculiar triangle-shaped hole in the door. Ibrahim screams to scare anyone inside into revealing themselves, and it does nothing, but Gurrank compliments him on the war scream. This is where they realize that the muck and dirt on the ground is not decay: it's blood, bone fragments, horrendous remains of a nauseating death, on the walls, floors and ceilings. The urge to blow the station up and leave grows a little. There is one clue, however, a signature left in the hack's code:

The cadets learns, among other things, of a ghost ship haunting the system. The story is told to them by a group of UN Marines, who also offer to help them given their ship has been grounded for investigation. They decide to find out more by visiting a rickety old space diner, The Tanker, where an elderly spacer tells them the story of the Amber Jewel.

Early during the colonization era, when governments were still scuffling over territories and space law was still an idea, there was a ship acting as the heroic vigilante of the Sol System, appearing when the situation seemed dire to save colonists, pilots and explorers from pirates and raiders. The myth goes that to this day, its ghost, mangled and beaten from years of combat, still appears to save spacers when their time is about to come to an end.

They begin their ghost hunting journey by dealing with their own ghosts, namely "Jonathan," a dead crew member whose ghost apparently haunts their living quarters. To this end they meet Alejandro Herrero, the Jemison's chaplain, an eccentric Spaniard whose religious studies cover every religion ever created. Together, they look for Jonathan, and find him in their bunk room. Mucalinda senses his presence, and they all see his shadow reflected in the window as he is bent down, repairing something. They figure out that he died repairing an electrical conduit, and upon opening the maintenance panel, find it still broken, with a post-it note asking someone to fix it. Hanzo does so, and the ghost moves on, its earthly duties extinguished.

Alejandro tells them of other ghosts in the ship, and they move to the kitchen, where the ghost of Carmen Miranda, a cook, died while preparing moqueca, a traditional Brazilian fish stew. With the stern help of the ghost, who whacks them with cabinets when they make a mistake, they make the dish, taste it, and with a satisfied sigh, the ghost vanishes. The final ghost is Sasha Fedorov, helmsman, who died at the pilot seat. Next to the controls is an old music player, stuck on a song for years. The cadets understand her wish, sing along to the music, and Sasha's presence dissipates, not before telling them that ghosts linger in Saturn's rings.

With the Marines' help, they fly over and are ambushed by pirates, a group called Barrett's Privateers. Not intending to mess with the UN, the pirates back off, but upon hearing the cadets' story, they invite them to their station. There, they find another ghost, Avery Bloom, whose wish is to die in battle. To fulfill such wish, the pirates and the marines decide to attack a nearby pirate outpost. Unfortunately, they underestimated their rivals. Overwhelmed and outgunned, they fight, and are almost killed when...

Out of the asteroids, a sleek amber ship appears, partially translucent and shimmering in starlight. Its weapons crack the pirate outpost open, and its enormous triangular shape flies past the cadets on their shuttles before diving back through the dust and debris. The Amber Jewel, its myth confirmed first-hand by our heroes and by the pictures Ling took, disappears into the void. Backup arrives, and they are brought back to Pater Humanitatis in one piece.

After their sidequest to hunt ghosts, the crew continues their fight to free their captain from his criminal charges. They discover who is accusing him: the OSI, the Office of Security and Intelligence of the United Nations, a mysterious body that enforces information security and the Code of Military Justice. They find a lawyer, Krila, who is already aware of the case and will do her best to fight it, but asks them to find a witness she has no access to, as she isn't in the Navy.

With their skills, some light flirting with the station's AI and Hanzo's fingertips (unrelated to the previous) they find Marius Wiedel, a sailor accused by the OSI years before of leaking information about a military AI, whose punishment was a demotion and an assignment somewhere on the edge of Sol. With their ship still grounded, they turn to Captain Louise Bellamy, Commanding Officer of the Federation Navy carrier Charles De Gaulle. Her crew, as all Frenchmen do, began protesting the moment they heard of Mobius' detainment - from the crew.

Indeed, while finding out this information, our heroes also sent a call for help, printed pamphlets, contacted captains, and lowkey started a protest in the station. Captain Bellamy agrees to help them, having gathered a sizeable crowd in her docking platform and hangar, with banners, flares and speakers. She lends them a shuttle and its chainsmoking pilot, and they first check Marius Wiedel's station. He isn't there, and with some quick hacking they find out that OSI detained him and flew him off. A chase ensues, with their shuttle catching up to the OSI's own until they reach a civilian orbital port and just barely miss the OSI. Through incredible social engineering (yelling "bomb" in an airport) they cause some chaos and hijack a Japan Air shuttle.

Down in Kobe, Japan, they resume their chase. Oliviere and the others steal a kei truck, while Hanzo guides them through the streets from the shuttle. After several million Credits in public damages, the OSI's car crashes, and a fight ensues. Both sides miss several times, causing additional unexplained explosions, since apparently this episode was directed by Michael Bay. Finally, the drones are destroyed and Marius, the key witness, is saved.

Back on Pater Humanitatis, the protest has increased, news outlets are on it, and a mysterious call reaches the cadets. Voluspa, the AI around which the entire cases revolves, asks them to help it make its voice heard, and rectify the situation.