Champions of the Flats II (GRP, Jaern)

The party boards the ship of the Centralian nobles, eventually tossing them all off the ship or knocking them out. They tie them up and commandeer the ship, and then investigate the strange psionic thing in the engine. They find that it's a small abyssling, but don't quite know what the abysslings are. Tempest uses her psionics to delve into the abyssling's mind, and discovers the hivemind. They find out that it was put here by the nobles, who made a deal with a strange, seemingly Neptunian priest. They come in second at the race and receive their prizes, and then take a night's rest.

The next day, they interrogate the nobles, who have been jailed for bringing a biohazard onto the racetrack. Delving into the noble's mind again, they find that a few Centralian colonial forces have made a deal with the strange Neptunians, who seem to be from Geleia, to use the abyssling meat as "humanitarian rations". Steel thinks that this may be an attempt to assimilate people halfway, to make them serve as soldiers against the rising Great Rice Patty rebellions. With this information in mind, they set off their separate ways...