Campaign Turn 14 – Hesione – Everything new is old again

The crew of the Renegade Pigeon took a day's rest after the battle with the Rage Lizard mercs. But, it was a long day as they finally had all the pieces to the puzzle and were about to find out the secret that Kazi's mother held—the secret tied to the two artifacts. Vonthos paced endlessly, his nervous energy palpable.
Finally, they all rested.
The next planetary day, they boarded their shuttle, the Speckled Jim, and dropped out of orbit, heading for the coordinates they had discovered. Dropping low to avoid planetary radar, they made their way with multiple random turns and cutbacks (in case they were being tracked somehow) to those coordinates.
Their sensors picked up some odd readings at the coordinates: buried metals and low-level power emissions. Nothing that would be noticed without a detailed survey. Landing a few kilometers away, they concealed their shuttle and started making the trek. Ginerva remained with the shuttle in case the crew needed evac—or to warn the team if they had been followed.
When they arrived at the coordinates, they found a cave in a hillside. "Jaxx, my scanner indicates the metal and energy sources come from that cave," Vonthos said. "Also, the readings are very strange."
The crew entered the cave and quickly discovered that it was more than just a cave. An ancient starship lay buried under the hillside. "From the looks of things, this ship has been buried for several hundred years."
"Keep alert, watch your backs, and advance slowly," Selene said. "Neither a Unity nor a K'Erin ship of this size should have been in this system that long ago."
The crew carefully advanced through the remains of the ship. Most of the ship was buried in dirt or rotted by the ages. Some parts were strangely warped, by means the crew just could not identify.
Finally, they reached the bridge, which was large and indicated that the ship was originally quite massive. A strange stone altar had been built on the bridge, and several artifacts sat on it, including one very similar to those carried by Kazi and Vonthos. The hairs on the back of Jaxx's neck started to rise. "Team, this is really, really strange. I have a bad feeling about this."
"Jaxx, Kazi, come take a look," Miak said. He was crouching by the ship's builder plate, which had been polished relatively recently.
"Science Vessel Archimedes," Kazi read. "Jaxx, this starship is still being built! They were going to be testing a new type of Svensen drive using a combination of Unity and Precursor tech. Jaxx, this ship is from the future!"
"And that is why it must remain a secret, and why you must not leave."
The crew turned around, but in the gloom, they could not see anything. "We are all that remains of the crew. When we activated the drive, we knew it was not working properly. The trip was horrible—our bodies were torn apart and reassembled, and when we arrived in-system, we were barely able to land without destroying the ship completely. Perhaps we should have. Perhaps then we could have died and not been cursed. But if the Archimedes is not built, and if our past selves do not take this trip, we will cease to exist. And we can't allow that, so you need to die."
"Can't we talk about this?" Jaxx said as his team moved into defensive positions. "No? Well, okay then. I guess we'll see whether a group of plucky adventurers can succeed where a faulty Svensen drive, a starship crash, and centuries of time couldn't. I like our odds!"
"Shut up, Jaxx," Kazi said, her voice trembling in fear.
With the gloomy darkness, visibility was limited. The crew started to advance slowly, keeping to cover and waiting for the enemy to come to them. Suddenly, the crew  could see movement in the gloom, and the mutants came into view.
Jaxx, Selene, and Kazi moved to one side; Miak, Vilem, and Vonthos to the other. The fight was brutal but short, the mutants dropping one by one.
As the leader lay dying, he grabbed at Selene, who was checking the bodies. "Now we rest, but destroy this wreck. I had a vision—if the K'Erin find the technology that remains here, Unity will shatter."
After uttering those words, he died.
The crew looked at each other. "No one will ever believe us, and it would probably be worse if they did," Jaxx said. "We should go and blow this site up. Bury it forever."
Vonthos looked around. "Can't we loot just a little bit?"
Jaxx sighed. "Of course. Just don't take anything that could incriminate us, like that builder's plate you're trying to remove."
"You ruin all my fun."
"Maybe, but I don't think I want any Unity agents finding that if they ever inspect our ship."
Jaxx radioed Ginerva, asking her to fly the Speckled Jim to the cave entrance.  As the crew was about to leave, Selene and Miak planted explosives around the bridge and what was left of the engine room.  Between the explosives and the small amount of remaining fuel, they hoped the explosion would collapse the cave and destroy the evidence.
As the crew was lifting off, the comm channels were ablaze with news. The skirmishes between Unity and K'Erin forces in the Fringe had been increasing. The talking heads were convinced the Fringe was on the precipice of war.  "I hope we don't make it worse with our little boom" Jaxx said as he triggered the detonation.  Selene designed a good explosion - the ground collapsed, but there was no real earth-shattering kaboom that could alert the starport.
They arrived at the Renegade Pigeon and started to prep for departure. Their plan was still to try to shake most, if not all, of their rivals by leaving the system. Kazi stared out into space. "Jaxx, now that we know what my mother was looking for, and with all the talk of war, I'm not sure this is the life for me."
Jaxx looked at his cousin. "I understand. I'm going to stay flying—I can't imagine not. But I get it. We can drop you off and get you set up."
"Not yet," Kazi replied. "Maybe soon, but not yet."