Widow's Claim
The Widow's Claim was a prospected-ore hauler, three months out from Lastcall Reach when her distress ping began walking the comm bands.
Rules Reference
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Aesthetic | ruin |
| Anchor System | LASTCALL-REACH |
| Controlling Faction | none |
| Fold Bleed | high |
| Population | none |
| Role | satellite |
| Zone | Beyond |
Notes
Dangers: The corridors feel longer than the ship's original specs., Three salvagers who went aboard for a quick look last week have not returned; their boat is still docked outside., Fold-static spikes when you go deeper; compasses go slack.
Hooks: A salvage crew pulled the ship's log-core; the last fourteen hours are encrypted in a cipher no Core decryption suite can break., The captain's body is still at the comms console, fused to the chair; the cause of death is not in any manual., The derelict's distress ping is still broadcasting on a band nobody assigned - the signal keeps walking the comm channels.
Lore: The Widow's Claim was a prospected-ore hauler, three months out from Lastcall Reach when her distress ping began walking the comm bands. A salvage crew found her drifting on a heading that should have taken her out of the system. The crew is gone. Captain Mara Voss sits fused to her comms chair; her face is the texture of a frozen Kadiss screen, and her hands rest on a console whose last fourteen hours of log are sealed in a cipher that does not match any known Core dialect. The ship's LaGrange Core is intact but cold; the ignition sequence has been re-written in something that looks like handwriting, in a script nobody on Reach has seen. Forty tonnes of heavy-metal ore sit untouched in the cargo bay - the same lode that started the rush. Salvagers who went in for a quick look last week have not come back out. Their boat drifts, dock-clamp still sealed to the Widow's airlock.
Notable: Captain Mara Voss - her face is gone, replaced by the static of a Kadiss signal., The ship's LaGrange Core is intact, cold, and will not restart; the ignition sequence has been re-written in something like handwriting., Forty tonnes of ore in the cargo bay, untouched - the same heavies the claim was for.