After a series of hyperspace jumps through the Drift, the ships finally emerged into realspace around the planet Alluuvia. A vibrant blue planet covered by water.

"Well... that was a close one, again." sighed Klyn.
"Another part of the galaxy we never should go back to.

All right. So what's the plan now?"

'Could've been closer.' Lyla concluded laconically. 'We got away with what we came for, and without getting any hits. For us, that was a clear win, so let's take it. And yeah, we can never go back anywhere again.' she ended in agreement.

'Now, the plan is...' Lyla quickly reviewed her mission notes, just to be sure. 'To secure Alluuvia for Radell. Which would mean making sure it's not a secret pirate or Imperial base. Since the Scourge ambushed the Gray Griffins shortly after leaving here, a world not on on any regular routes, they might be up to something here. So, we go pirate hunting. Let's make orbital sensor sweeps and see what turns up.'

The ships began scanning the planet. Initial reports showed that ninety-seven percent of the planet’s surface was water. The only land was volcanic peaks and purple coral atolls that poked above the ocean surface. Life form readings were plentiful in the water. The temperature readings were mild and the ocean temperate. Many of the island atolls were large enough to be used as landing bays.

As Lamar used the ship's scanners and sensors to sweep the planet, he thought about this crew. He wasn't a team guy. He could work with people, but he was much more comfortable in solo roles. Snipers tended to be that way. Unless they had a spotter, but even then the two man teams tended to be pretty standoffish. It was interesting to see the crew work together, but he wasn't sure if it would last for him. He still had his own mission, and they didn't likely play into that...

Lyla looked over the results coming back, double-checking them to confirm what she was seeing. 'Another water world, huh? Odd place for a pirate base, I would've expected another dump. Alright, let's do a flyover of some of these bigger atolls, here, here, and here, and see what sticks out.' she suggested, pointing to some of the larger, loop-shaped atolls around the equator. 'If nothing else, it could be nice for a beach holiday. Goddess knows I need one.'

The ship’s sensors showed that the waters were high in metal and mineral content making it likely to be toxic. However filtering the water or mining ore deposits on the ocean floor could be a valuable source of metals and minerals.

Despite the toxic readings for the metals and minerals contained in the water the sensors picked up many life forms in the ocean.

'Water's high in, uh, a whole bunch of metals and minerals I can't even name, most likely toxic. So, not nice for a beach holiday then.' Lyla concluded as she scanned the spectrographic analysis of Alluuvia. 'It's another dump after all, but I can see why Radell would be interested. So, same deal as on Dega, if we have to set foot planetside, let's wear breath masks so we don't breath any of that not-so-fresh sea air.' she advised. 'Do we have a course set for that flyover?'

"Course laid in L.T." Lamar said scanning the sensors. "We should be coming up on reentry to the atmo in thirty seconds."

"What's the plan if, or when, we find their base?
With some luck, they might not have come back from their recent attempt, but it's likely they are ready for our visit.

After all we killed some of their men, ruined their last operation, freed the hostage and most certainly destroyed a big part of their firepower."

The ships entered the atmosphere and travelled closer to the water. All looked as the scanners had detected. A water world scattered with purple coral atolls.

Lamar admired the beauty, but also noted the toxicity. "Lovely place, and in typical nature fashion, the most beautiful things are deadly. Make sure you don't remove your protective garments while out there." He remarked sardonically.

'That's a myth, you know.' Lyla pointed out to Lamar. 'Some boring ugly-ass things in nature can be pretty deadly too. But as long as we don't drink, or breathe, or drown down there, we should be good. I hope.'

'Now, the plan... is to scramble to come up with a plan when we find out what's going on here.' Lyla outlined. She laid out the facts they'd found to help them, and especially her, get to grips with the situation. 'Remember, the pirates' main base is that container ship we saw, coz they like to stay mobile. It holds the gravity well generator, and its interdiction field is still a big bit of firepower. They might have another hideout here on Alluuvia, or they're snooping around for some other reason, or it was just bad luck, but either way they got the Gray Griffins soon after they left here. So, if Chalmer's realised we're tracking down the Whisper, they'll be coming here or waiting for us to leave before ambushing us with that interdiction field again. This time, we know what to expect and we've evened the odds. So let's survey Alluuvia, see what turns up, then trip our ambush.'

From the report by Parek and the Gray Griffins they were ambushed by the pirates after they left Alluuvia, not whilst they were there.

The two ships found an island large enough to land. The volcanoes were of black rock and the coral was purple.

Lyla scrutinised the first island that had turned up in their survey. 'Okay, I know the odds of us landing more-or-less at random somewhere on the planet and finding something are minuscule at best. But the few islands big enough to land on here raise those odds a lot, and if nothing else, we'll get the ground truth for the orbital surveys and get a good sense of this place for our report to Radell and the Alliance.' she explained. 'So, set us down over there by this beach, and we'll take a look around for a bit and see what turns up.'