imported>Frabby: /* Foul Play */

2024-05-12T18:55:58Z

Foul Play

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{{InfoBoxIndividualSpacecraft
| image =
| vesselname =
| prevname =
| type = [[DropShip]]
| class = [[Fury (DropShip class)|Fury]] (modified)
| prevclass =
| serviceuntil = 1 June [[3135]] (see Timestamp section)
}}
==History==
The RS '''''Lusitania IV''''' was a ''[[Fury (DropShip class)|Fury]]''-class [[DropShip]] operating out of [[Kaus Media]] that had been converted into a passenger ship. It was owned and registered to the [[Republic of the Sphere]]-based [[InterStar Travels and Shipping Company]].<ref name=P105>LinkNet news report 3135-0601 "Passenger DropShip Explodes Over Moore" (Dark Age: LinkNet Articles (3136) PDF, p. 105)</ref>

On 1 June [[3135]] the ''Lusitania IV'' suddenly exploded just beyond the upper atmosphere of [[Moore]] after takeoff, and the remains of the wreckage burned up on reentry. All 24 crewmen and 106 passengers aboard were killed. At the time, the ''Lusitania IV'' was on a routine round trip to nearby systems, and scheduled to dock with the [[JumpShip]] ''[[Bristol (Individual Tramp-class JumpShip)|Bristol]]''.<ref name=P105/>

==Foul Play==
Circumstantial evidence strongly suggests that foul play was involved, and that the ''Lusitania IV'' was deliberately destroyed in an attempt to kill one specific passenger, one "A. Reka". This was apparently [[Stefka Riviera]], a granddaughter of [[Brooklyn Stevens]], whose investigation into her grandmother's quest to find the [[Hidden Five]] had led her to a graveyard on Moore with her grandparents' graves.

One "Field Operative Dionysos (Mu/Delta V)" reported to "Olympus Command" that local internet search queries had been traced to one A. Reka who had arrived on the ''Lusitania IV'',<ref>LinkNet news report 3136-0630 "Letters from Home -- Week 23" (Dark Age: LinkNet Articles (3136) PDF, p. 121</ref> and in a subsequent report<ref>LinkNet news report 3136-0717 "Letters from Home -- Week 25" (Dark Age: LinkNet Articles (3136) PDF, p. 126</ref> identified two spaceport crewmen as suspect and also matched passenger "Stefanie Riverside" to Reka, and finally reported that Riverside had canceled her reservation on the DropShip less than three hours prior to launch.

Stefka Riviera herself wrote to her brother [[Yeska Riviera]] (in a letter dated 8 June 3135, on a message timestamped 7 July 3136) how she opted not to take the DropShip just hours before its departure on a hunch; the letter goes on to describe her feelings that somebody (named possible perpetrators include [[ComStar]] and [[Interstellar Expeditions]]) is "on to her", and that she is convinced she is marked because of "the Worlds" (implicitly, The Five which Brookly Stevens had previously sought to find).<ref>LinkNet news report 3136-0707 "Letters from Home -- Week 24" (Dark Age: LinkNet Articles (3136) PDF, p. 123</ref>

==Timestamp==
The [[LinkNet (news service)|LinkNet]] articles pertaining to the ''Lusitania IV'' incident and the Stefka and Yeska Riviera subplot, as per the ''Dark Age: LinkNet Articles (3136)'' PDF document, alter between 3135 and 3136 in their timestamp:
*"Passenger DropShip Exlodes Over Moore" has a LinkNet reporting timestamp of 3135;
*Dionysos' first report is dated 28 June 3135 in the header, but has a LinkNet transmission timestamp of 30 June 3136;
*Stefka Riviera's letter is dated 8 June 3135 in its header, but has a LinkNet transmission timestamp of 7 July 3136;
*Dionysos' second report is dated 17 June 3135 in the header, but has a LinkNet transmission timestamp of 17 July 3136 (and refers to the first report as "7-06-35");
*Yeska Riviera's answer to his sister is dated 30 June 3135 in the header, but has a LinkNet timestamp of 21 July 3136.

Apparently, LinkNet published the files with a delay of just over one year.

==References==
<references />

==Bibliography==
* ''[[Dark Age: LinkNet Articles (3136)]]''

[[Category: Individual DropShips]]
[[Category: Individual Fury-class DropShips]]

Lusitania IV - Revision history

imported>Frabby: /* Foul Play */