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Arin shots a StimPack into Baaros and he slowly come out of his unconsciousness, then they stop the elevator to buy some time. Baaros uses some of his wire straps to tie up the officer. The officer spits and says: -”You sorry excuses for rotten shrimp. You are all doomed, I have the building surrounded.”, but Arin saw through the lies, and just replied: -”No, you haven’t”.
They saw that Damon was about the same size as the officer, so they stripped the officer of his uniform and dressed Damon up in, looking very dashing indeed. The started the elevator again, stopped at second floor were they left the officer and went down the stairs the last two floor. When they came down, they saw people looked in disgust at Damon in the uniform, so Damon went around a corner, put his leather jacket back on, and put the officer jacket and hat into a bag. So much for looking like an imperial officer, would probably been killed. They took a swoop taxi to the busy market square, then another swoop taxi back to the docking bay where the Swallow was. That was not in the starport, but at one of the thousands docking bays all over the city. Baaros dropped the officers com into a passing swoop flying a little lower, in case someone was tracking it.
Ok, 100 minutes to the meeting, the group took a quick run to a shady medic to look at Baaros wounds, as Coil and Doctor Tyhm as away on some business. For transport, they group rented two swoops, one for Baaros, who would be on another rooftop, where he would observe, and one for Damon and Arin. They asked for full collision damage insurance coverage, just in case. Baaros asked Arin for one of his briefcases, to have the samples of merchandise in, and rigged it with a hidden beacon, he had a plan. Arin switched from his business attire to his more tactical clothing. Damon and Arin flew to the designated meeting place and check it out. It was like a small arena, with stairs on each side, while Baaros installed himself on an adjacent rooftop. Exactly on time, several swoops arrived with bunch of Red Rebels, among them their tall leader. The others just stood there looking as intimidating as they could. Arin and Damon walked down, and so did their leader, a tall rather intimidating person. He just looked at Damon and said hand over the briefcase, and Damon willingly did. They Red Rebels took off, and Baaros followed them, and the beacon, and Damon and Arin followed Baaros.
The swoop gang flew into a hole in a narrow small top building about 10-15 stores on top of another very tall building. Baaros saw that the beacon was somewhere about four floors above the hole, so they decided to land on the roof. It’s better to run up than down, if someone decides to throw hand grenades after you Arin said.
On the roof, there were huge, silver coloured cockroaches, about a foot tall, the group decided not to step on them, but if they did, step hard and resolute. They found a broken door with a staircase leading down, and they heard party sounds, like glasses, crashing of bottles and loud voices. The the group slowly and silently moved down. They saw a handful of Red Rebels, drinking. The leader sat in the seat of an airspeeder, while the others sat it sofas, they were drinking cheap alcohol, the whole floor did smell like hospital disinfectant. The group decided to set the blasters to stun, and try to knock out the leader first, it didn’t really go that well. Damon hit the boss, but only with one of his blasters. Arin hit the boss, but also hit the airspeeder and set off the burglar alarm on it. Then Baaros fired the Blaster Carbine he had nicked from the Imperial Officer in the elevator, but successfully spread stunning bolts all over the place without hitting anyone, an impressive act in it self.
The boss rushed towards Damon and chopped him with his huge axe, and hit Damon in the arm. Damon tries to fire back but misses, then Arin hits the boss and stuns him. Barros aims better this time and stuns one of the tougher guys and hits one other, who rushes towards a door, Damon stuns him just when he opens the door. Arin rushes towards the next group and tells them to drop their weapons, they obey. Baaros hears voices from behind the open door, sounds like coming from the floor below. “They are attacking! Are they stormtroopers? Hold your positions!”.
Arin learns that the boss killed Doc Arys a week ago, they had tossed him from the roof, 303 floors of free fall. The group decided to bring the boss to Mr. No’Ko, as he had inherited the due. Baaros found the suitcase and a box of spice that was brought back too.
Mr. No’Ko was not happy when he was told that Doc Aryn was dead, and he asked about the Bacta, but there were no Bacta. He accepted the spice as a delivery, and the boss, and the group got 4k credits as he had promised. We went to the concert, and it was very loud and noisy, as space metal usually is. After the concert when Coil asked if it was any good, Baaros just said: - “What?”
After a few days, Baaros was back in full shape again, and Damon decided to purchase an upgrade to the Swallow’s deflector shield, something he had long wanted, to be able to stand strong if someone started to shot at them, like Hondo did. And now there are enough crew members to have a co-pilot, who can angle the deflector shield to keep it facing the most dangerous enemy. Barros did the installation work and it took two days of hard work. The shield was finally installed, and Baaros helped Arin to improve his vibroknife to make it even more vicious.
As the the crew of the Whispering Swallow now had spent some months together, both during peaceful jumps in hyperspace and some not so peaceful events both here and there, Damon thought it was time to look at duties and set let the best person for the job do it. He suggested that Arin should handle more of the administration part of the ship, including leading the ship meetings, as he had proven to be a born organizer. Arin got a desk in the crew quarters where he could do his research and handle some of the day to day administration.
Baaros, Damon thought, should do more pilot work as a co-pilot or pilot, as he has shown good skills in handling the Swallow. Baaros was still the primary mechanic when it came to the nuts and bolts that kept the ship flying, while Ooyo was appointed officer for the ship’s computer and computer systems, and top on the list for Damon is a system to be able to control one of the guns from the bridge, or cockpit. Dr. Tyhm got full responsibility for the medical bay, to ensure that supplies were at a good level and the technical equipment working properly. Coil, being first mate, was given responsibility over the mess, to ensure there were enough supplies on board to stay in space at least 60 days, just in case.
It sounded like everyone was happy with the arrangements, and they more responsibilities one gets, the more the Swallow becomes everyone’s best interest, which was what Damon had in mind. Coil was not particularly happy that Ooyo had several bots on board that she spent her free time fixing, but a protocol droid / manifest droid and a pilot droid could always prove to be useful, or a disaster, as Coil thought.
At the landing pad, Baaros does the daily check up routines. You never know when you need to take off in a hurry. The group is staying for the time being at Nar Shaddaa. There are always rumours about “that big job”, that will be easy and pay out well. but anyone who has been in this business long enough knows that rumours sounding too good to be true often are.
One day, when the crew of the Whispering Swallow planned to do some socializing to try to find a good job, they were informed that part of the Wormstew Town had been shut down and all citizens and visitors were quarantined. To move outside you needed to wear a full suit, and had to be disinfected in the airlock while entering.
Damon, Dr. Tyhm and CT-137, the manifest droid, took a walk to the town to stock up inventory. CT-137 now had the complete inventory list and point of by setup so he had full control over what supplies they needed to purchase. Although it looked like Arin had added a few items of his own like soft seat cushions.
As the planet was quarantined, there was no way the Whispering Swallow could leave, so the crew was stuck doing tasks. Arin Rosh spent his time documenting his research and also documenting interesting findings. He spent most of his time at his desk in the crew quarters, except from when he was training, keeping fit and strong was very important too.
Baaros spent his time going through the ships mechanical parts, replacing worn parts, testing different systems by putting them under very high stress to find weak spots, like bad hydraulic couplings or tubes. The hydraulic system on a ship was something that was constantly suffering from neglected maintenance, and this was of course the case on The Swallow as well.
Suddenly the unmistakable voice of a slightly upset Baaros echoed across the ship. "Duct tape? Who is the imbecil ten-thumbed vacuum headed idiot that tried to seal a leaking hydraulic tube with duct tape? It may hold a day, maybe a week of you are lucky. This has been here for a year."
The hours turned to days and they days turned to weeks. Sometimes the crew of The Swallow had to help people on the planet, and Dr. Tyhm was helpful, even though his methods was seen as quite different by some. He tried to explain that yes, he was a medical doctor, but no, he hadn’t been working at traditional hospitals or medical ships, his training, education and practice had been a little different. But he was good, real good, a natural talent some would say.
While travelling in hyperspace, spending time on a ship is natural, but when sitting in a dock, it just feels unnatural to the crew. Restlessness comes creeping, but with a good duty list and trainings scheduled, you can at least keep tired enough to not go mad.
Day 14 of the quarantine on Nar Shaddaa, and time is really becoming slow. Damon decided to look through a bunch of old crates in the cargo bay, that had been left there for years, things passengers had left behind.
He found this totally ridiculous carnival costume, probably left by a roving group of entertainers they transported several years ago, that were in a hurry as they had upset some high ranking official with some rather foul joke about him and his government on a backwater outer rim moon.
Damon put the costume on and danced into the crew quarters making annoying sounds. Arin sat and tried to calculate an optimal and faster jump route between two systems to save a half parsec, and was rather annoyed by Damon, and threatened to throw a large citrus in his captains face, then they both started to laugh, hysterically.
I like the picture you posted for April 1. I hope you have something special lined up for May the 4th!
I might - right now quarantine / social distancing puts a cap on our ability to gather and play, but I did play a little with my son yesterday (he is the GM), with a new character set in another part of the universe, so a side story will soon show up in another thread.
As mentioned above, social distancing is making the game with the whole group a pain, I did play with my son the same way this adventure started, so until the quarantines and social distance is lifted, this story will take a pause and The Chronicles of Cassandra 'Cass' Starwind will go on, welcome!
Life in quarantine on the Whispering Swallow is as fun as you can make it. things do happen, most of them to unimportant to even bother with, others, like the one above, really too stupid to put down in the log.
Oovo has been trying to put together and tweak some of the less fortunate bots discovered on the way. Coil is less than amused with OOvo’s fascination for bots. One bot, the CT-137, is on good condition, although still kind of depressed.
Arin decided he could spend some time from his astro computer and play some living chess with CT-137. It was a fun game, but after each move, CT-137 kept whining, like: - “What is the point of moving my workers forward, they will soon be dead anyway.”
But the played quite a few games, CT-137 choosing bot army while Arin choose to play the men and beasts army.
Many weeks of Imperial blockade of Nar Shaddaa, where no ships were allowed to land ot take off, has passed. A few ships have tried to break the blockade, but they were either forced down again, or were vaporised by the imperial star destroyers circling the moon. The crew has tried to keep a good mood, stay healthy and practice their skills. Different plans have been discussed and a few job opportunities have been turned down, as no one is willing to to be vaporised trying to break the blockade.
One thing that had been discussed among the members of the crew was different future enhancements to the ship. New shields were installed and has cost a real fortune, but with Baaros and Oovo on board, the only costs were the actual hardware needed, as they could do the installations.
Damon thought that a front mounted twin laser gun on the ship that could be aimed and fired from the pilot seat would be a great addition as he was not only a decent pilot, but also a decent gunner. Another enhancement would be better and even more difficult so spot smuggler holes in the cargo bay.
One morning when Arin and Damon were in the crew quarters discussion different options to find a job to make some money, a droid came to the ship, asking for Captain Damon Finn. Damon went to see what it was all about, assuring Coil was not nearby, and he did have a somewhat bad feeling about droids paying sudden visits. When Damon introduced himself to the droid, not handed over a holo-puck and said “Message for you sir! Have a nice day.” and walked away to the pad exit.
Damon went back into the crew quarters and Arin Rosh and they sat down and watched the message, and Damon was somewhat frightened it would be another message from an upset Hut demanding a free service for some collected debt. On the contrary, it was a message from Yui Raeth, the businessman they sold the contraband blasters to, and also the boss of Listion No’Ko, who they helped with the problem with the smuggler Doc Arys.
The message was short and to the point: “Captain Finn, this is Yui Raeth speaking. It has been a pleasure doing business with you. I have a business proposition for you, that will get you and your crew off this blockaded moon. Please meet me this evening at 9.30 p.m. at the Subsonic Bar in the Theta sector, level 05. Your crew members are also invited.”
Damon gathered the rest of the crew in the crew quarters and when they all had arrived, Barros still smelling of hydraulic fuel, he told the crew about the message, and that anyone who wanted could accompany him, as the Theta sector was quite dangerous. Damon ordered Coil to stay and watch the ship, and Coil more than happily accepted that task as he felt even more insecure now during the blockade. Way too many stormtroopers on the streets for his liking.
Today it finally will happen, a real adventure to take place
so very cool :D
+1
I'm really looking forward to reading the adventures to come. Woo hoo!
When the group arrives at the Subsonic bar, asking for Yui Reath, they are given an office address by the bartender. They hurry up to the upper levels and walk directly to the office. When they ring the doorbell, a small round eye comes out of a small opening, looks at them and then the door opens to the lobby, There they see Listion, he smiles and says that it was he that suggested the group for this job. They are then shown into Yui Reath’s office.
Yui Reath is very direct, she says: – “I have a job from a former colleague, Mr Arend Shen. The job is worth at least 100 000 credits, I take 20 percent in provision. We will steal a jewel, it is currently in Cloud City at Bespin. You will meet your contact in Port Town at Cloud City, Aris Shen, daughter of Arend Shen.”
The group asks about Arend Shen’s credibility and Yui Reach says that she has worked with Arend Shen before and he has always honoured his words. The group accepts the job, and is given a datapad with imperial clearance codes showing they have a legal reason to leave the blockade of Nar Shaadaa with important and already customs cleared cargo. The object, or the jewel, is called The Jewel of Yavin, and is a Courska gem, one of the largest ever found.
On the way back from Yui Reash’s office, Mardar, or Doctor Thym as he prefers to be addressed, approaches Damon a little off from the others and says: – “Mr Finn, what is your relationship to this Yui Reash, I mean 20 percent is a lot of money for doing absolutely nothing in my humble opinion.”
Damon replies: – “Doctor Tyhm, the relationship is purely business, and as we have been stuck here for three months, an opportunity to get off this moon without the risk of being turned into vapour is in my opinion far beyond nothing.”
Doctor Tyhm replies: – “I’m sorry if I offended you, I was merely asking you to look at different options if you understand my point of view, but if you have made up your mind I'm all good with that.”
Damon replied:– “No offense taken, but remember, a handshake is a handshake and it seals a deal and a promise. Come on, let us catch up with the others.”
The group also learned that the Shen family are Pentorians, humanoids with bluish skin colour. They decide to leave Nar Shaadaa as soon as possible, not to waste any more time on this moon. Arin Rosh has heard about Courska gems when he studied archeology at the university, they could maybe be connected with the force, but as he probably slept during those classes, he doesn’t remember anything useful, which he is quite ashamed of right now.
Two weeks later, the Whispering Swallow drops out of hyperspace close to the gas planet Bespin, where the famous Cloud City is located. Arin Rosh has been at the Cloud City before and knows that as it is at the edge of the Empire, the Empire does not really have control over it. The Cloud City has its own banking system, you can safely trade without the interference of Imperial Strormtroopers. About five million people live in the main dome, the rest of the domes are working stations collecting gas from the gas giant. Arin also mentions that there are several good casinos here, not that he has spent much time at any of them, and that Cloud City is ruled by a man named Lando Carlissian and there are many Luthrillians and Ugnoughts living here.
The Whispers Swallow is clear to land at Port Town, level 160, at Landingpad 123C. The Port Town landing bays are all in connection to Market Row, a 7 km long road stretch that goes right across the inners of the Cloud City, 160 levels down from the surface, where anyone can buy anything from anyone with the right money. They decided not to waste any time and went out looking for their contact, Aris Shen, They suspected that their contact would know what landing bay they had been assigned to land at, so they started to look around.
When the group disembarked from the Swallow, Baaros remembered that one of his old comrades in arms, a human named Hakon Cenrtico, ship gunner, is probably here somewhere in this city. Baaros decides to try to locate his old comrade in arms when they have some time left.
Oovo checks the current news, and there will be a Cloud City grand prix soon, a cloud car race. She then checks the police info but nothing special, but they work hard to keep crime down, the police are called the Bespin Wing Guard. They are most active on upper levels, the posh levels, compared to the lower and more criminal levels. Lowbot, keeps the city clean from criminal activity by keeping track of information flow.
They keep looking for Arin and suddenly they see her, she hurries right by the group and says in a low voice: – “Meet me in ten minutes at the droid hatch over to the right. See the black dressed men behind me? They cannot hear us talk or see us meet.”, then she hurries away and the group of six men that seems to shadow her and keep track of her starts to follow her.
Damon walks to a nearby kiosk and buys a large pink slimy drink called Rumble Ice Tea. Doctor Tyhm backs out of the brewing trouble, moving towards the droid hatch. One of the goons, who looks like the leader, follows Aris, while Arin walks towards Damon. Oovo follows Mandar towards the hatch.
Damon moves towards the boss from behind and then Arin bumps into the boss so Damon spills his slimy drink over the boss. Arin fails to do the move in a way that makes it believable, so the boss suspects this was intended, not accidental, and looks pretty upset.
Baaros shows up and stands in the way of some goons and asks: – “What seems to be the problem? We don’t want any brawling here!” but he is pushed away, and falls to the floor, shouting: – “I’m hurt I’m hurt!”. The goons draw weapons or put hands on their holsters. Doctor Tyhm secretly draws his gun and fires a few shots in the air and then fast hides the gun again to create panic, it works. Oovo shouts: – “Bomb! Bomb!”
Baaros checks the power feed at the closest food kiosk. Cables are going all over, a really crappy electrician's work. He plans to create a little explosive diversion. The only thing that happens is that the power to the food cookers is cut. Baaros stands there with cables in his hands when the man in the stand turns around: –”What are you doing? Are you totally insane?” Baaros replies: – “You are overloading the local power grid coupler. You can cause a short circuit.”.
Damon walks to the next stand looking for hotdogs with extra fish butter. Arin rushes after the boss telling him: –”I want to pay for dry cleaning of this, I have good contact with a dry cleaner. I want to make things right and wash it for you, here are 20 credits to pay for the dry cleaning”. The boss tries to evade Arin, who behaves like the annoying neighbour, and hands over a business card for a dry cleaner, on Coruscant, and waves with it, and Arin successfully distacts the boss.
Oovo waves and shouts: –”Over there, a gun I saw a gun!”, and people seem to believe her as she points out a shady looking figure hasting away. Doctor Tyhm just walks with the running crowd towards the droid hatch. Baaros tried to make the electric shock again, by running some 720V into the 180V line. It works, he runs away waiting for the explosion.
Damon moves to intercept the goons following Aris, hand on his gun, ready to stop the two thugs coming around the corner of another food kiosk soon. Arin tries to continue to be like the annoying neighbour but this time the boss pushes him aside and keeps walking. Damon walks around the corner and stands in the way when the two goons come walking.
Suddenly the lights on the kiosk that Baaros recently fiddled with starts to light up more and more until they all explode. Half of the thugs watched the exploding lights, after they had tried to follow the shady figure Oovo pointed out.
Mardar goes down the droid hatch, Oovo climbs up on the roof o a food kiosk to get a better view of the situation. Damon got a big stain of purple fish butter on his jacket, but stands in the way of the goons. Arin follows the goon boss as the annoying neighbour, constantly talking. The goon boss pulls his gun, Damon pulls his trigger, with the blaster set to stun and shoots the goon boss in the belly, Damon shot first!
The goon boss shot back at Damon, with his blaster not set to stun, but Damon’s armoured clothing protects him from most of the blast. Arin arrives shouting: – “What are you two doing? It’s just a stain. I said I know a good dry cleaner!”
Damon tries to talk the situation down, but the goon kicks the gun out of his hand, walks past him and picks up the gun and looks for Aris. The goon boss looks at Damon and shouts: – “Karrabast!”, then he shouts to his goons: – “Keep looking for her! We need to find her!”.
It is a temporary stand off between Damon and the two goons. Damon buys a new hotdog, but as all people are fleeing in panic, no one was in the kiosk, so he slipped a credit into the tipping box. The two goons leave him and move to catch up with their boss. Arin keeps following the goon boss and says to him: – “I heard that you were shouting after a woman. I know a very good private detective, wait, I will give you his card. What is her name by the way?”
Arin meets up with Mardar, Oovo and Baaros and hands over a data chip to Oovo. It’s an address to an apartment on level 50, the lower the posher place as the numbers start at surface level 0 and then increase the lower you go. When Arin has left, Doctor Tyhm says: – “Couldn’t she just have handed that over when we met her the first time, it would have saved us a lot of work.”
The crew meet Arend Shen in the apartment. It’s very nice and clean, not as what it looked like down on Market Row, where it’s filthy and smells pretty bad. Arend is in his 60s and Aris in her early 30s. Arend Shen says: –”The job is dangerous and illegal, but very profitable. Are you in?”
The crew members all agree, and Arend Shen continues: – “In a few days, this almost priceless stone will be auctioned here at a gala at the museum with invitation only guests. It is rumoured to be unstealable. We will trigger the auction to raise the bids as much as possible, and when the payment comes, we will reroute money to a secret account. Later in the evening, at the museum, which has a pretty lousy security system, we will steal the jewel itself. Your cut is 5/7 of the auctioned price, we get 2/7 and the jewel.”
Arend Shen takes a sip from a glass of fine Core System wine and continues: – “Cloud City Grand Prix will be held in a few days, the winning team will be invited to the auction gala at the museum. There are seven specially invited guests, who are allowed to bid on the Jewel, no one else is allowed to bid. The invited bidders are Kaltho the Hut, Vorse Tabarith, Pos Podura, Elaiza, Shreya Ordassa, Mil Mikkir & Zekra Fol. The seller is a certain Marus Grayson, imperial bureaucrat. Marus Grayson ruined our lives at Coruscant several years ago, so this is our revenge. Vorse Tabarith is Aris’ husband. The goons were his. You will get your money when you hand over the jewel. So, the more you can influence buyers to raise their bids, the more money you will get.”
Arend excuses himself as he has business to attend to, and hurries away. The crew continue to talk with Aris, and they learn that her marriage with Vorse Tabarith was arranged by her father and all she wants is to get away from her husband and live a life in peace. Her husband runs the largest criminal network on Bespin. Arin gets a datapad with the dummy accounts to where the auction money shall be rerouted.
When the group of adventurers left the Shen apartment, Doctor Tyhm once again took Damon aside and asked:
– “What is your relationship to the Shen family? I think 2/7 of the money and the stone is a lot for doing nothing, why should we give them that?”
Damon replies: – “My word of honor”.
Doctor Tyhm then asks: – “How much is your word of honor worth?”
Damon replies: – “It’s a word of honor, end of discussion.”
The group went back to their docking bay to discuss the matter at hand. To win the race, Doctor Tyhm suggested that he should try to dope the competition's drivers with laxative drinks. Oovo wanted to get access to a database to check what public data exists on the seven buyers, the seller and different racing bars.
Doctor Tyhm discussed with Damon about how the group should approach trying to get the laxative into the other drivers. They decided to try to find some place to stay between level 51 and 100, as those levels were nice enough and still not horribly pricey. Oovo also checked the old comrade in arms of Baaros, Haken Senreiko, and it looks like he is employed by the seller of the Jewel, Marus Grayson.
After some discussions the group decides to rent a hangar with a workshop and quarters to sleep in. They decide to have guards and surveillance as they don’t trust the other teams won't try something. Baaros goes off to pick up the cloud car they will be using in the race. When he came back, he could not hold himself back and needed to get working on it.
The group found out some more information about the race itself. The race is an exclusive race, only four teams.
The four participating racing teams are:
Stormhawks: the corporate team from Mandal Motor Corporation, piloted by Gerrool Hunn & Chara Tull
The Hutt Team, piloted by Relgar "The Carbine" Carrae & Garulo (Huge species with eight arms), has a violent racing history.
Tarryn Rayzer, Cloud City's Own, piloted by Tarryn Rayzer & K4-76A
And a team to be announced, this very team.
Racing rules:
You are allowed to fire at each other, but not harm or damage another competitor. There are catching ships below that will try to catch any cloud car falling from the sky, but this is a dangerous contest. You shall pass eight checkpoints, first crossing the finishing line is the winner.
Arin decided to dig into the history of the Jewel of Yavin, and try to get some information about the bidders as information so far had been close to nothing. In the meantime, Oovo hacks around to get some understanding of the job that has to be done. She finds several important things. You need a really competent slicer to distract Lowbot, as Lowbot is constantly surveilling all transactions in real time. You need to crack encryptions, and there are alarm systems installed at the museum. Oovo decided that he needed to insert a spike somewhere central, to create a system overload. She also needed to steal some encryption stuff and an access card, to be able to access the encryptions of the final transaction that needs to be rerouted. The only way to access the banking network is via a Banking Droid, they will need to kidnap and hack a Banking Droid.
Doctor Tyhm has been shopping for some different medical and chemical substances and goes into one of the side rooms to experiment. Suddenly a soft explosion-like sound is heard, and the door to the room where Doctor Tyhm went in, opens. Green smoke comes from the room and Doctor Thym comes out coughing, saying: – “I will need some more time to mix this laxative cocktail, I think I did something wrong.”
Damom tries to find out where the museum guards will hang out when they are not on duty. He finds out that they are hanging out in a really cheap bar in Port Town, but doesn’t find out exactly where it is located. Arin realises that he does know one of the bidders, Shreya Ordassa, professor at the university of Samsara, but just as Professor Ordassa. Evening turns to night and the group keeps a watch scheme to avoid any nightly events.
Early in the morning, Oovo starts to build her spike. A few hours later, after breakfast, Arin talks a tour to the Museum to do some research and recon. He learns a lot about the history of Bespin and the Cloud City. There are cameras everywhere except in the restroom area. Arin also learns more about the Jewel of Yavin, some from non official sources. The Jewel of Yavin can be used to power light sabres, and the value of it before the rise of the empire was about one million credits. Now, it has to be traded outside the reach of the Empire, so the price will be much lower.
Baaros starts to install several upgrades on the cloud car. He starts with an improved Repulser Lift. Damon helps out just to get a better understanding of how a cloud car works. Then Baaros decided to upgrade the firepower, and Damon’s help was not needed as Baaros came up with an extraordinary great solution.
When Arin comes back, Oovo asks him about guards at the museum, and Arin estimated them to be about a half dozen. Doctor Thym asks Damon about how much they have spent already preparing this job, and Damon replies somewhere between 8 and 9 thousand credits. Arin and Doctor Thym decide to go to Arend Shen to discuss the payment now when they know a little more. Doctor Thym starts off by saying: –”You get the Jewel, 2/7 of the money and you get to restore your honor. We do the planning, execute the actual plan and take all the risks. So far, the expenses we have had are almost 20 thousand credits. We want to establish a long business relationship with you and we agree that the injustice your family has suffered is very serious. It’s not always a clean job, you sometimes need to crack a few eggs to make an omelette.”
Doctor Thym succeeds with this almost impossible negotiation, and Arend Shen agrees to add another 20k credits to their share. He also asks his secretary to arrange a crypto card access card for bank transfers and give it to Arin.
Damon and Oovo decide to go to the office of the construction company that built the museum to try to find some blue prints. They finally find the level and building and when they enter there as an Ughnought foreman shouting orders to Ughnoughs, in Ugnaught, neigher Damon, nor Oovo understand anything except he is upset and wants stuff done, speaking the intergalactic language of Management by Fear. The place is messy and quite dirty. There is a protocol droid of the type D3-Lom in the building, and when Damon calls for the foreman the Droid replies that Sof doesn’t speak common language. Damon says that they represent a client that has bought a property built by this company and that they need to look at drawings as it will be rebuilt to a bar and they want to avoid doing something stupid like cutting a water pipe or electric supply line. The Protocol droid translates and the reply is that drawings are not centrally stored but are on individual disks in the central archive room.
Oovo excuses herself and says she must have eaten some bad sausage and needs to urgently visit the restrooms, if possible. Damon continues to talk to the foreman while Oovo tries to locate a safe spot to jack in, but she just can’t find any good spot. They excuse themselves and thank the foreman for his time and leave, and plan to return later, after closing. Meanwhile, Baaros is done with the upgrades and decides to go and look for his old comrade in arms. Oovo has a secret video camera rigged in the hangar space, and accidentally records Baaros dancing shirtless to space metal.
Baaros visits his old friend and comrade in arms, Haken Senreiko, and he is overwhelmed to see Baaros. -”Baaros! It was so long ago! How did you find me? I got a shit job but it pays well.” Baaros suggests they go for a drink and his friend recommends 124 ½ Cantina. It’s inside a service tunnel between two levels. They have very cheap Uoghought spit, the cheapest booze in town. They make their way to the bar, it takes time and is difficult to find, and when they finally get there, the place is crowded. It’s really hidden, and the ceiling is low, you need to watch your head while standing up.
There are Tabac tables and Hintaro, lot’s, of really sick people here, not a place that Baaros would usually frequent. They order something to drink, real beer, not Ugnaught spit, and get a seat at a table in a corner. Haken starts to talk:
– “I work for this fellow called Grayson, Marus Grayson, in security. We are 24 guys working two shifts. Two bosses for the guards, one for each shift. The first one, Burnaxes, is horrible, a real slaver. The other boss, Gantel Dro, is a nightmare, a terrible person. Gantel Dro comes here to 124 ½ sometimes to gamble and drink.”
Meanwhile, Damon and Oovo shop for equipment, clothes and masks, searching for several hard to find items that they need. Damon finds a perfect seller that includes a box with ten stun grenades in the deal. Damon also buys a new DL-44 Heavy Blaster Pistol to replace the one that he lost to the goon boss.
And in the 124 ½ Cantina, Baaros is sitting and talking with Haken Senreiko when Gantel Dro shows up and Haken says he needs to go home and sleep. Gantel Dro drinks Ugnaught spit, a slimy translucent spirit.
Doctor Tyhm takes a trip to Stormhawks head office, where he explains that he comes from an organisation for sick twi’lek kids, orphaned sick twi’lek kids, that just love the Stormhawks, and that he has come to ask if they have any overalls or other merchandise they could give to these kids, it would make them so happy. Many of them suffer from incurable medical conditions, just imagine how happy they would be to spend what might be their last days alive, in a Stormhawks overall. The marketing assistant falls head over heels for the sad story told by Doctor Tyhm and he gets several boxes with overalls, stickers, hats, all with the Stormhawks logos on.
In the evening, Oovo and Damon pay a little evening visit to the construction company office again, this time masked wearing masks. Damon sees two Oughnoughs walking into the office, hears them arguing a lot. Oovo uses the lockbreaker she bought earlier and opens the back door. They can now both hear them argue, and if anyone would understand Uoghnough, they would hear them arguing about unpaid overtime. Oovo finds a dataport and quickly slices her way into the storage computer. The drawings for the museum are on a drive located at row 35, shelf 14. Quickly Damon and Oovo find the disk and Oovo quickly makes a copy of it and puts the disk back again, then they sneak out again. Both smiling, this went good, almost too good.
Arin uses the terminal in the hangar area to look up the buyers through official and open sources.
Mil Mikkir, a Changrian from an influential and political family, works in the top management of a construction company.
Pos Podura, seems to be an odd fellow. Has been seen down at a cantina in Port Town, telling sad stories.
Zekra Fol, representing the Outer Rim Exploratory Mining Corp (OREMC). The company is backed by wealthy investors from the Core World, financing the expansion to the Outer Rim.Elaiza, an old resident of Cloud City. There are several rumours about where her money comes from, but she has a lot of them.
Kaltho the Hutt, a Hutt, no more info
Vorse Tabarith, one of the most powerful, or maybe even the most powerful criminal gang leaders in Cloud city. Often slightly sober, his foot-soldiers think he’s getting weak and they might talk for the right sum of credits. His accountant / bookkeeper is interested in jumping ship and to start to work for Kaltho The Hutt, would appreciate being introduced to Kaltho.
The group now checks out the blueprints that Oovo and Damon fixed. There seems to be a way to the museum through the garbage hole. Oovo decides to get in tonight and rig some cameras, you can never have too much intel in an operation like this,
Doctor Tyhm goes to a below average bar, where lots of low level scum and ruffians hang out. He wants to hire a group of criminals, he says: –”I want to hire you to attack Tarryn Rayzers garage and sabotage the cloud car. You will get 250 credits upfront now, and another 10k when the job is done. Please don’t fail, or the Hutt, sorry, I wasn’t supposed to say that, I mean your employer will be very disappointed.”
Oovo checks out the Shen family’s story on Bespin, and it looks correct, but nothing about the incident on Coruscant shows up.
Damon and Arin decide to look for Pos Podura, at the 124 ½ Cantina, but don’t find him there. They speak with one of the bartenders and learn that he was really drunk yesterday, and he was thrown out. He is not the person he says he is, everything about him is fake, says the bartender. Suddenly Gantel Dro shows up and goes and sits in a corner. Damon tries to ask around about Gantel Dro, but no one has anything of interest to day, so he buys a large glass of a finer whiskey to Gantel and a small glass to himself, and a glass of wine for Arin, then walks down to Gantel’s table and asks if they can sit there. Gantel looks at Damon, nods, then looks at Arin and gives the “him, not so much” shaking head face, but Damon quickly whispers to Gantel: – “Psst, a client...”. Then Gantel replies: –”You’re welcome to join, looks like we’re in the same trade, always nice to talk to people in the same trade.”
Gantel and Damon share some stories about clients working secretly under desk, special assignments, need to know basis, and they drink to this and that. Gantel explains that his employer has a hold on him. He continues: – “I wanted to place guards in the garbage room, but my employer, Marus Grayson said no. Neither did I get to place cameras in the cleaning closet nor the cantina, and the Bespin Wing Guards are totally incompetent. Best would be if Marus Grayson just died.” They talk for a while, then Arin and Damon head back to the hangar.
Oovo has been checking more of the data records and found the following information:
Vorges’ gangsters hang out at Loading Bay 124A. Stormhawks are arranging a lot of sponsored events in shopping centers and hotels at the tourist levels. Arin checks Kaltho the Hutt, and he is extremely dangerous. The group sits over the blueprints over the museum and tries to figure out the best way to enter the garbage room. Oovo can neither climb, nor rappel. More important information is revealed. The museum will close at 23.00 and the money will be transferred after 23.00.
Back to the race, the group decides that Damon will be pilot and Baaros the co-pilot. They are discussing the security once more and Oovo says she has a hidden camera, and Baaros says so does he.
Baaros and Oovo take a little trip to the garbage tunnel. Baaros has purchased a little hover platform that will be used to take the garbage tunnel up to the garbage room from a gate some floors below. On the way up, they suddenly see a murder of Rawwks, birds that hunt by screaming so loud it stuns the prey. Baaros stops the trigger happy Oovo from drawing her gun, and they carefully pass the birds. They are finally in the garbage room, and Oovo sneaks out to the corridor outside to splice the video feed from the camera in the hallways to her own little datapad that she hides in the garbage room. She also installs the jammer. A perfect mission impossible style job. They stay in the garbage room and check the video feed. After about twenty minutes a couple of guards take a round, and after another 20 minutes there is a shift change. The guards come from the cantina area.
Oovo is satisfied with the setup and they take the hover platform up a little further to the next level and they exit there. After they have returned, Oovo and Damon decide to stake out the closest bank droid. It does a run all over that part of the town, picking up money from shops, hotels and restaurants. It returns to its little loading and transfer shed and stays there between 02.00 and 04.00. They need to kidnap the droid at the exact right moment, reroute the transfers and then let it out again to avoid suspicion. Oovo really needs a good sleep-in the next morning, Damon did get some rest when Oovo and Baaros were at the museum though, but they are getting a little tired.
Another dawn comes, and Arin and Damon decide to get some more information about Eliza, Pod Poduras and Kalho the Hutt at the 124 ½ cantina. Damon learns that Eliza is mysteriously rich, and seems to show up a little here and there in Cloud City.
Kaltho the Hutt stays at the Yaris Bespin Grand Motth, he is there with his whole entourage, numerous guards, droids, hundreds of people. Damon gets in contact with one of Kaltho the Hutts favourite servants, Ortong Nadoa. Mr Nadoa has fixed so that Kaltho can always eat at one of the most luxurious restaurants in the city, Three Beldon’s Buffet, so now he eats there as often as he can. It’s located at the top of one of the tall skyscrapers at sky level. As Kaltho brings his own chefs, there have been several occasions where there has been quite heated in the kitchen between Kalthos chefs and the chefs working at the Three Beldon’s Buffet. Kaltho also has a chief of security, and Bounty Hunter named Kerek, and Kerek is here at the 124 ½ cantina right now.
Damon and Arin talk with Kerek, and Arin says: – “I’m in need of some muscle for a little job.” Kerek replies: – “What much do you pay?” Damon knows what a good bounty hunter costs and hands over 500 credits, saying: -”We will be back.” Damon and Arin decide to try to introduce Vorse Tabarith’s bookkeeper to Kerek, hoping this will open a gateway to Kaltho. They leave the 124 ½ Cantina and head down to Market Row to ask around. They soon learn that the bookkeeper, a Twi’Lek named Faa'i Leethax, hangs at the Botan Jewellers, a ship at Market Row. They find Mr Leethax and Damon says: – “A little bird whispered in my ears that you would like to work for Kaltho the Hutt. It’s your lucky day, I have arranged a meeting with his head of security, follow us, this is the chance you have been waiting for.” They head off to the 124 ½ Cantina again, and Mr Leethax says: – “What an awful place, it’s crowded and smelly, I wait outside please.” Damon walks in and fetches Kerek, and they decide to go to Three Beldon’s Buffet, where Kaltho the Hutt most probably is having lunch.
Meanwhile, Doctor Tyhm goes to Loading Bay 124A. He directly talks with the first guy he meets, one of Vorse men, and tells a story about having bad employers, weak and powerless, and that a man really needs to assure he works for the right man. He asks a little and learns that Loading Bay 124A is Vore’s own private loading bay. No customs here as you can see. He can smuggle anything here. Doctor Tyhm then says that he represents an organisation that has the need to be able to easily move goods in and out without having to be troubled by custom inspections. He is told that the landing fee is 300 Credits. Doctor Tyhm asks a little about the boss, Vorge, and the organisation and the moral, and learns that Vorge currently drinks or spends his time thinking about Aris, or both. He plans to buy the Jewel for Aris, to make her happy again. He asks a little about the buyers and how Vorse thinks he can play in the big league with big money and learns that rumors tell that the University is the real competition as they are backed by serious money, the empire. When someone else calls for the forman’s attention, Doctor Tyhm looks at a databad and learns something.
Arin and Damon join Kerek and Mr Leethax to the restaurant, it’s very posh and very expensive. The owner walks around mingling among the guests, but Kaltho the Hutt has his own private section. Kaltho lies on the floor, being fed huge amounts of luxury food by several different servants.
Kerek walks to Kaltho and says something, and then escorts Mr Leethax into another room. Kaltho the Hutt shouts something at Arin and Damon and his protocol droid translates: – “ My master says why do you bring me such nice gifts? You are welcome to discuss business when it’s not food time.” Arin asks: – “When is it more suitable?”.
The protocol droid replied: “My master thank you but this is not the time for business.”
Damon replies: “We thank you, stay safe until we meet again.”
In the evening, when everyone else is busy with different tasks, Doctor Tyhm walks to Landing pad 123C together with Baaros, where the Swallow is parked. Coil looks happy to get some company, Doctor Tyhm tells Coil they have a small task to do, and Coil flies the swallow to Loading Bay 124A. At the same time, an YT-2400 comes in for landing. Doctor Tyhm looks for someone that looks not to be particularly bright, and says: –”I’m here to pick up some cargo, direct mission from the boss, Vorse himself.” He is asked to pay 300 Credits landing fee, and tries to wiggle out if, but it ends with Doctor Tyhm saying: – “Here is the 300, I will take this with my accountant. What is your name? I will write it down here in my datapad so I remember it. So, done. I will ask for you the next time I land here, and of course tell your supervisor that you did an excellent job. So, what do you think about the weather? Is it always cloudy in Cloud City? The weather where I’m going, Corelia, is so much different.” He goes on babbling nonsense about the weather until Baaros and Coil have carried the cargo from the YT-2400 to the Swallow.
They then fly the Swallow back to Landing pad 123C, and when in the air, they carefully hide the cargo in one of the newly installed smuggler holes. A big load of spice, worth a lot to the right buyer in the right place. Well back in the hangar, they all hit the sack to sleep, tomorrow is the final day of preparations.
The morning after, Damon says: –”I think I now know how it all fit together. A good night's sleep was what I needed. Marus Grayson will sell the Jewel and then steal it back himself. To raise the bids, Arin really needs to talk to Kaltho the Hutt telling him that it was really valued to almost a million credits before. ”
The big day, raising day is here. The Race starts at 13.00 and the teams have to be in place at 12.00 at the lastest for rules briefing. A large dock area has been built and busses will take teams and spectators from the sky level out to the dock area, where the team areas and pits are, and also some large spectator areas close to the finish lines.
The gala opens at 19.00, and the winning team is invited. At the gala the auction will be held secretly between the bidders. Droids will take the bids and the bidders will never know who bid, just that someone raised it.
Doctor Tyhm acquired some potent tranquilizers for beast usage. He fills a few syringes with the tranquilizer liquid and plans to infiltrate Stormhawks and spike the drivers drinking bottles, wearing a Stormhawks overall and hat. Dr Tyhm asks Oovo to give some names of people in Stormhawks, not in the team but people at People Resources, Financial or Administrative departments, to have names to drop just in case. Oovo slices the Stormhawks computers and grabs the whole personnel file, including id tags. Doctor Tyhm asks Oovo and Arin to be his backup, also wearing Stormhawks overalls. The plan is that Oovo spikes the drinking bottles of the driver team, and if things fail or get complicated, Doctor Tyrm and Arin will make a little scene, as a distraction, to let Oovo do her job in peace. The covers they pick are, Sandar Rymd, assistant (Doctor Tyhm) and Yadda Nkotor, financial assistant at the spareparts department (Arin). Oovo just makes a fake badge as there was no suitable Twi’Lek woman found.
The plan is when the team enters the busses that go to the starting platform, Doctor Tyhm, Arin and Oovo will enter the Stormhawks busses. The busses will leave the Stormhawks building at 11.30, to be in the start position before 12.00. They take an elevator up to the surface, covering their Stormhawk overall logos with jackets. They walk to the pickup point where they see lots of people wearing Stormhawks overalls. They stay out of sight and then join the group when they are about to board the bus. Oovo is asked to show her id, but Doctor Tyhm shows up and says: – “This is my valuable colleague. Harassing her for her gender and her race is not ok according to my views of the Stormhawks inclusive policies. Do I have to take this up with the People Resources department?” The guard backs of saying: – “Sorry, I did not know. Excuse me sir.”
They ride in the bus to the start plattform. Oovo sees the stormhawks Cloud Car arriving directly from their hangar. The bus stops outside the large tent with Stormhawks flags everywhere. Where the Cloud Car is parked, there is a small fridge with drinking bottles, the same kind that is everywhere in row after row on tables, Stormhawks water bottles. Oovo picks up a few bottles and asks Doctor Tyhm to help her prep the bottles. When that is done, she sneaks off towards the Cloud Car.
Oovo pretends to clean and pick up empty bottles, and sees that there are bottle holders installed inside the Cloud Car. She says to Doctor Tyhm over the comm-link, please, I need a little distraction. Doctor Thym pushes Arin into a huge, seven feet tall, Aqualish in a Stormhawks overall, who says something incomprehensible, Arin just says: – “Excuse me!”, but the Aqualish continues: – “Why are you pushing me? You are supposed to be inclusive!”, and Arin replies: – “I was pushed, I am so sorry.”
Oovo is watching from a distance and says over the comm-link: – “Arin sucks at starting a brawl.” Doctor Tyhm now steps in between the Aqualish and Arin punches him, a perfect cinema punch that looks real but doesn’t do any damage. Doctor Tyhm is shocked and looks really pissed off and grabs Arin and pushes him into the Aqualish, but falls himself to the ground. Oovo sees her opportunity and switches the bottles in the Cloud Car with the two prepped ones, then she disappears around a corner, removes the overall and tosses it in a waste basket and goes to the Team Arend Shen’s pit.
Arin and Doctor Tyhm are now cornered by several individuals in Stormhawks overalls. A guard holds Doctor Tyhm and says: – ”This will be taken to the People Resources Department.” Doctor Tyhm starts to shout: – “This is the thank you I get? I got this job only to pay the bills for my mother who recently passed away in space cancer. Do you know how I feel? Do you care?”, and the guard just takes his badge and throws him out of the pit.
Arin successfully makes the Aqualish accept his apologies and his explanation that he was pushed by that unstable man named Sandar Rymd.
All pilots and co-pilots are gathered at 12.30 for a rules briefing. The teams politely greet each other the same way prizefighters politely greet each other before a title match. The briefing starts and the head referee explains that you are allowed to fire at your opponents but never damage an opponent dangerously. If someone is damaged and taken out of the race, a referee committee will look at all footage to see if the firing to determine if the firing was indeed to be declared dangerous or not. If declared dangerous the firing team will be disqualified.
There are 8 buoys placed that form the track. Each vehicle will have a small transmitter and the buoys will register when you have passed a buoy within 250 meters, and the transmitter will register that buoy as passed. The first to pass all eight buoys is the winner. If you miss a buoy you need to turn back and try to pass it again. Many pilots abort the race if they fail a buoy as it’s difficult to come back into the race as you lose so much time. No one has ever missed two buoys and returned back to the race. There will be random natural obstacles along the course.
After the briefing, the crews return to their vehicles and fly out to the starting line. The speaker starts to talk, and he is shown on huge screens all over, and the race is broadcasted all over Cloud City.
- “Ladies and Gentlemen! Welcome to the Cloud City Grand Prix! This year’s lineup is very exciting. In the white vehicle, Team Stormhawks, sponsored by the Mandal Motor Corporation, you have a choice when it comes to vehicles, choose MMC. The vehicle is piloted by Gerrool Hunn and Chara Tull. In the Green vehicle, Team The Carbine, piloted by Carrae & Garulo. In the red vehicle, Cloud City’s own favourite team, Tarryn Rayzer, piloted by Tarryn Rayzer & K4-76A. And, Ladies and Gentlemen, in the blue vehicle, a newcomer for this season, A team sponsored by one of our businessmen, Team Arend Shen, piloted by Damon Finn and Baaros. Prepare to start, we hope there will be no fatalities in this year’s race. Is the crowd ready to cheer for their favorite team? Get ready! Set! Three, Two, One, Go! And there they are off to a great start!”