I feel like I've made that reference before. Anyway, here's last time.
Our heroes are on the fragment of Avia, walking into a place called the Splintered Village. Their face and streetwise crew member, Anburn, explains that the Splintered Village is abandoned because it's structurally unsound (he explains this to Iris in Avian, not wanting to freak Zeenia out unnecessarily). With just a few people, it'll be fine, though. They're going there because he's set up a meeting with Rezzal Yowlin, and he might have a line on some more support for their armada. Of course, things don't go as planned.
They walk out onto a large platform suspended in the center of four Nest Trees. The platform is strewn with debris and overgrown with moss and plant life, and a couple of half-dilapidated houses. As they enter, a tall, pale, willowy person - a Crystaloosian, by the look of him - appears from under a tarp and fires a sonic blast from a weapon on his hand! (Zeenia and Iris recognize him - he attempted to capture Oola way back here.) The blast rattles them a little, but doesn't do any real damage. A band of bounty hunters - three Earthlings, two Robot Men, and a Bird-Man - appear from hiding and fire tangle guns at the heroes!
All four of them (Abbas, Zeenia, Iris, and Gruff) are tangled, but Iris and Gruff wriggle free almost immediately. Anburn tells the heroes to just surrender - it'll be so much easier - and Abbas roars in rage at being betrayed. Iris draws her laser sword and slices the tangles on Abbas and Zeenia, ignoring the flock of bat-widow spiders (flying bat-spider hybrids) that zip out of the nearest tree and try to bite her.
Zeenia tries to get the spiders off Iris, but they're too small and fast. Gruff yells "go, Princess, I'll handle these!" and jumps into the fray. Anburn yells "kill the other Lion-Man, he's not worth anything!" Abbas, enraged, leaps on him and rips one of his wings clean off. But the damage has apparently already been done - the bounty hunters unleash laser fire at Gruff, and one of the blasts goes clean through his throat. He falls dead to the platform.
Iris takes to the sky, grabs the bat-spiders, and soars across the platform to the bounty hunter's leader. She flings the bat-spiders at him ("I am Iris Blue of the Daikini Valkyrie, daughter of Orchid Blue, and you are an ass!"). Zeenia, bubbling in grief, remembers that Gruff has one more Lazarus injector in his pack. She is torn between enacting bloody vengeance and saving her friend, but ultimately chooses heroism. She takes out the injector and jabs him with it, reviving him.
Abbas turns his plasma rifle on the bounty hunter that shot Gruff, blowing him into a pile of debris. Iris lashes out with her laser sword and kills two more, and then flies over to the Bird-Man bounty hunter and fells him as well. The captain retreats (still fighting off bat-spiders) and disappears into the ramshackle house. A second later a one-man craft erupts from the back of the platform.
Abbas goes to collect Anburn, and spies a black tendril around his waist. As he watches, Anburn is yanked into a tree by a gigantic scorpion-like creature (it's called a whip-tail). Abbas steps back and watches as it devours him, reveling in vengeance.
The heroes reconvene, furious and saddened by what has happened. They gather up the body of the Bird-Man bounty hunter to take back with them (maybe he can be identified), and Zeenia suggests that Genko might be able to reactivate the head of the one of the Robot Men to interrogate. They load the corpse onto the rocket-sled and head back to the Darkwing.
They find Hwoot and Craw sparring, and inform them of what's happened. Hwoot, who was Anburn's friend, cannot believe it and is stunned by the news. The other folks are off ship at present - Genko went shopping, Rill is visiting family, and Kk-Kree-Chak, their newest member, is exploring the nearby treetops. They search Anburn's quarters, but find nothing incriminating. If he had anything that indicated why he would betray the heroes, it must have been on him.
The characters take the Bird-Man's body to Sennet Blackwing, Iris' friend and companion. He recognizes the bounty hunter as Srak, a wanted man and known criminal. He, too, is horrified to hear about Anburn, and notes that while Anburn had been involved in criminal endeavors before, it was always smuggling and never violent.
They go back to the ship and meet back up with Genko, who says that he can probably get the Robot Man talking, but he'll have better luck in his workshop on Dracos. The ship takes off, heading for that fragment:
On the way, they are hailed by a Hosbecite merchant named Jeska. He invites them aboard and they find he's got all kinds of goods that they need - first aid kids, refills for the tangle guns they looted from the dead bounty hunters, even rocket belts that will allow them to fly. Zeenia buys some sparkly rocks to bling out her tentacle blades, and even pays for a whole crate of radiophones so they'll have extras. Iris asks if there's anything he's having trouble moving, and after a little conversational dancing around the crew's attitude towards the Queen, Jeska shows them his real prize: a sonic lance.
A sonic lance is a tripod-mounted weapon that works almost like a drill. At close range it'll go right through almost any armor. It's expensive (this one "fell out of a Warship") and highly illegal, and so the characters are more than happy to take it off his hands.
This purchase completed, Jeska asks that they not reveal where they got the lance and they ask that he forget about them entirely (and overpay him to help keep him quiet). They head down to Dracos, Genko directing (he was anxious to get home and didn't even look at Jeska's wares).
On the way, Zeenia addresses the crew and tells them that if any of them, like Anburn, are working against the heroes, this is their one chance to come clean and they'll be left on Dracos. She doesn't know why Anburn betrayed them and wants to believe it wasn't his choice, and likewise, if anyone else is being forced, they should tell her and she'll help them get out from under. No one speaks up.
They land outside the major city and head to the workshop - the three heroes, Genko, and Craw (Gruff is recovering, but still weak, and he hasn't been able to speak because of the damage to his throat. Chirrp offers to create a vocalizer for him, and gets to work on it). Genko lets them in and gets to work on the Robot Man, and manages to reactivate the head. Zeenia questions him, and the Robot Man (XK27) asks if he will continue to function when the conversation is complete. Zeenia says that if he's honest, they'll help him out, and he asks to be taken to Mechanos, his home fragment, in hopes that he might get a new body.
Zeenia and Iris sidebar, and Iris points out that a bounty hunter wouldn't be a bad addition to the crew. Zeenia brings this up to him, and XK27 says that he's amenable, but confused, considering that by rights they should be enemies. Zeenia explains that the situation with Anburn was terrible and if someone could come out of it alive, that would make her feel better. XK27 muses that organic beings are strange.
XK27 tells them that his captain, Suplee (the Crystaloosian) will likely flee to his home fragment of Crystalus or to the pirate city on Vitin. Crystalus is closer, Vitin is safer. He's unlikely to come after the characters again - the bounty on them (currently 20K Slips each, though it may have gone up) isn't going to be worth the expense of rebuilding and re-equipping his crew, particularly to the extent he'd need to actually win next time. XK27 confirms that Anathraxa set the bounty, and says that Anburn contacted them shortly after the Darkwing arrived on Avia. He doesn't know why Anburn betrayed them; Anburn never spoke to anyone but Suplee.
The questioning continues, and XK27 tells them that he's aware of three bounty hunter crews gunning for the Darkwing (though there are probably others): Suplee's crew; the Dead Jellyfish, run by Officer Ioptis (whom the characters have already dealt with); and a crew called the Crocodiles. He doesn't know much about this last, other than they have some Raptor Men as part of their crew, and -
At this point the Robot Man starts sparking and flickering. Genko pulls the plug, and after fiddling with the head a minute says that while the "brain" of the Robot Man is housed in its head, the power supply is not. He might be able to rig something up, but there's compatibility to consider and it runs the risk of frying the circuits. The characters agree that it's probably not worth the risk.
Genko arranges to meet up with the characters at the ship; they give him a radiophone to contact them when he's ready to go. They take their leave and head back toward the Darkwing, leaving Genko to his work.
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