Regency received an urgent request for aid from Earth 4. A carathi fleet had been detected approaching past Pluto. It was believed the Ebony star could be used to open a singularity in the middle of the fleet. However the Ebony star had remained inert since its recovery. Balthias Dayer was its original owner but was believed to have died in Russia on Earth 11. The group was to go to Earth 11 to attempt to find his ghost to find out if he knows how to reactivate the Ebony star. On Earth 4 Jessica Haines would then fly the Ebony star into the fleet and activate it.

Brian had problems taking the Ebony star on the plane as he had not bothered inventing a believable cover story and Ellington had to intervene. On the flight Brian suffered nightmares involving the Ebony star and malvolents.

On arriving in Moscow they contacted their black market contact and arranged for weapons and other equipment. They then checked into a hotel. In the bar Jaroslaw noticed a confidence trickster called Natasha he knew from his past. She appeared to have a mark with her. Jaroslaw ignored her as their previous relationship had been acrimonious.

During the night Gideon got arrested trying to break into Brians room and had to bribe the policeman with $2000. [He claimed to have been concerned that Brian was being affected by the Ebony star] They spent the day sightseeing. Natasha appeared again and tried extorting money from Jaroslaw. He put her off until the morning. In the evening they collected the weapons. They then went to the church where a broken room to Earth !! Was located.

In the cellar was the broken room but the doorway was impenetrable darkness. When Jasroslaw put his head in he saw ghosts waiting. There was a flash and the ghosts disappeared. Then more appeared and sat waiting. It appeared the room was cycling quickly for the ghosts. Eventually the room cycled. Jaroslaw smoothed it slightly but it was a rough journey leaving Jaroslaw and Brian unconscious. They regained consciousness after some treatment.

The cellar had boxes stacked up and there was singing coming from above.

Brian found a concealed tunnel behind a wine rack which lead to the graveyard. Jack flagged a taxi to the house where Balthias was believed to have died but had no money to pay the driver when the group arrived. Jack then broke his neck and dumped the car a short distance away. The flat had a new occupant called Leonid. He said the previous occupant had fled after peacekeepers raided the flat and his possessions had been confiscated.

The group searched the church then returned to the flat after Leonid had left for the church. Brian tried to commune with the Ebony star and got a vision of Balthias crossing into China. Jaroslaw used his meridian to open some cashpoint machines and got the money to pay for train tickets to a town near the border.

The train journey took about 8 hours, arriving in the late afternoon. The team booked into a hotel for the night. Overnight Brian had more strange dreams about a town called Urumqi. In the morning the team headed into the wilderness with the intention of crossing the border. They had to avoid a patrol and minefield before finally crossing. Jaroslaw had to bypass some security before cutting the razor wire. The nearby village were not welcoming but gave directions to Urumqi which was nearby.

They were also unfriendly at first but eventually were talked into providing food and board in exchange for some labour. They knew of Balthias Dayer and referred to him as the spirit. They suggested talking to the local seer called Xi Xang. Brian went to the local graveyard while out hunting that matched the description of Balthias Dayer. Xi Xang knew about Monarch and Regency. He said we could talk with Balthias who was in the graveyard. He had been killed by Russians near the border.

Balthias said the Ebony Star was corrupted by malvolents and must be cleansed before someone attuned to it. Something that could be done by entering a broken room in the Tunguska crater on Earth 3 which would lead inside the star itself so the mavlolents inside could be fought. It sounded like that was where the Ebony star had first been found. He was very insistent that it was dangerous to use. Someone attuned to the star could command it to activate. It needed a planetary body to be converted into a singularity.

There was a broken room to Earth 1 about a days walk away so the team stayed the night and headed back to Earth 1 the following day. From there they contacted Ellington who arranged for the team to be picked up. After debriefing and re-equipping with fallsteel weaponry they were flown to a broken room near Tunguska that lad to Earth 3. They took quad bikes to ride to the crater. Jaroslaws broke down but Gideon used his meridian to fix it. At the crater there was a lift descending and some form of mine entrance on the rim near the lift.

Deciding to keep clear of the lift and reduce the chance of being seen the team descended using ropes.

The group descended into the inky darkness. To their surprise instead of finding themselves heading into the chasm they found themselves in a waiting room where a receptionist informed them that they had an appointment with a Mr. Black. Jaroslaw was nowhere to be seen. [He found he could not penetrate the darkness for some reason and after the others failed to emerge from the darkness, made his own way back to Earth 1] When the receptionist refused to answer any questions Brian and Jack started looking for an exit. They forced a door that opened on to the same inky blackness they had been climbing through. At this point a man emerged from another room and introduced himself as Mr. Black.

He revealed himself as a Malevolent and had a proposal for the group. At his announcement Jack loaded Fall Steel ammunition into his M18. Mr. Black said that Jay was fine but had not been able to make the trip. He refused to elaborate any further. Mr. Black explained that the Malevolents had been imprisoned on The Reef by the Exiles and only wanted to be free. They believed the Ebony Star could free them and wanted to study it. In return for the group handing over the Ebony Star for study the Malevolents would deal with the K’thari fleet. He claimed that if one of the group allowed him to meld with them then he could take control of the K’thari Queen and destroy the fleet. When the group did not respond positively to his proposal Mr. Black become aggressive and began making demands. Jack gunned him down. At this point the room started to collapse in on itself and the receptionist transformed into a Malevolent and attacked. She was quickly dealt with and the group threw themselves through the door they had previously forced open.

They found themselves in a volcanic landscape. Brian recognised it from one of the visions he had had whilst holding the Ebony Star. He said that they needed to climb a nearby hill in order to find a large spherical object. The heat was oppressive and there was an absence of any other features in the landscape, so the group followed Brian’s directions. They did indeed find the object he mentioned. Brian was able to open it and inside was a device that looked like a larger version of the Ebony Star. There were familiar patterns of inky tendrils over the large object. When Brian touched the Ebony Star to the larger object the tendrils pooled on the floor and coalesced into four Malevolents. They repeated the offer of Mr. Black. Brian and Jack started bickering with them and Gideon used this time to try out the meditative techniques he had learned during their recent journey to China. He was able to commune with the Ebony Star which told him that in order to free it from the corruption he should destroy the Malevolents. When he emerged from his meditations he revealed this to the rest of the group, who promptly opened fire. This alerted two more Malevolents from outside the sphere who were able to gain entrance before Brian sealed the door. The group dealt with these six assailants but were badly injured in the process.

The group’s expectation was that Brian would attune with the Ebony Star as he had been carrying in throughout the mission. But after communing with Gideon the Star requested that Gideon be the one to attune. As he did this more Malevolents had gathered outside the sphere and were trying to get in. Brian was unsure how long he could hold the door closed. Once Gideon had completed the attuning he requested that the Ebony Star return the group to Earth 1. A small black hole began to form inside the room. With no other options available the group leapt into the hole....

...and found themselves back on Earth 1 receiving the initial mission briefing from Neil Ellington. They had travelled back in time! Ellington took some convincing about what was happening but eventually decided that the group had to be telling the truth. [Regency note: after extensive review of all available information it seems that this is the only plausible explanation for what the group actually experienced.]

With the Ebony Star now attuned, the group were dispatched to Earth 4 to rendezvous with Jessica Haynes who flew them to Pluto in the K’thari scout ship the group had previously helped her acquire. Once on Pluto Gideon activated the device and the planet started to collapse in on itself and the group prepared themselves for death. Out of curiosity Jack looked at his watche and to his amazement discovered that a new Broken Room was forming nearby and it appeared as if the room was going to cycle once it had finished forming. Jack tore off in the direction of the Broken Room shouting at everyone to follow him. Jack and Brian were fastest and able to reach the room before it cycled. Gideon was slower and fell behind. Haynes tripped and took her own life rather than face the unknown fate of being pulled into a black hole.

Jack and Brian endured an extremely rough journey through the Broken Room and found themselves on Earth12. To their surprise the unconscious body of Gideon lay nearby. On rousing him he explained that he had not reached the Broken Room but at the point where the Pluto collapsed he found himself in a white room with 13 Exiles, one of whom was Sensi. They explained one of their number was dying and offered to allow Gideon to replace the dying Exile, thus guaranteeing his survival of the Convergence. Or they could return him to his colleagues on Earth12. Gideon chose the latter. [Regency note: post mission analysis suggests that Gideon was experiencing pronounced, if short term, psychological trauma as a result of attuning with the Ebony Star. He reasons for dismissing the Exiles’ offer to join them, “they were beneath me” and “they were irrelevant”, suggest some kind of god complex.]

The group were able to flag down a passing truck. It was night and being out at night on Earth12 is almost certain death because of the “monsters”. The driver, Big Mack, offered to give them a lift in return for supplies. The group were surprised to discover that he knew all about the Variants, and Regency and Monarch, and had a device in his cab that prevented Meridians being used. Big Mack asked the group to assist him with a task he had performed. When Jack tried to barter back for the supplies as payment for assisting the driver, Big Mack turned hostile and demanded that Jack get out. When Jack refused the driver went for his gun. Jack was faster and killed him. Jack was able to familiarise himself with the operation of the truck, and the group resumed their journey. Brian and Gideon noticed that the GPS appeared to have hotspots to Broken Rooms. The group were able to locate a Room to Earth1 about 70 miles away and they drove there without further incident. Once at the location a button started flashing amber on the dashboard. Jack pressed the button and amber motes started forming in the air in the cab and settling on everything. Once the motes had settled everywhere in the cab the group and the truck were jumped back to Earth1 in a trip that had no Friction at all!