The Brotherhood of Ankh did not die when Captain Rhand destroyed their island fortress, but the manner of that destruction, a Lazloi singularity pulse charge, drew much unwanted attention from their allies and apologists. Amid the chorus of complaints and hand wringing about the rights of criminals, we were forced to flee in the hope that the unique and peculiarly fatal form of destruction would inevitably lay the blame with the Lazloi, a role they could take on with little fear of reprisal. The Captain elected to head out of Echolian space and into a fractured, lawless region, one where our unique craft would garner less attention from what authority existed there. Any thought that I could return home were dashed when Rhand showed me the extent of the conspiracy. My connection with the disastrous expedition of Hycaron II would surely make me a target for the Brotherhood and their mysterious sponsor. Even disparate elements of the Autocracy were contesting for what lay on that haunted world. So our flight took us to the water world of Equitaine, a member of a loose confederation of planets. These non-aligned worlds lie at the crossroads of possibilities. To spinward and rimward is the massed might of the Echolian Autocracy, whilst vast swathes of non-human worlds lie in the trailing regions. Coreward is the enigmatic gulf of space known as the The Deep or the Tiesian Gap. Captain Rhand says we must enter that void. She says that the alien blueprint that I found on Hycaron II will help us cross... --- Cyana Bristo, formerly of the Echolian Science Institute V3 figure with the SciFi suit remix, Strike ponytail and Ethereal Beauty and Shadow textures. Buildings created in Truespace, rendered and imported as 2D billboards. Post processed in Photoshop CS2