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Damon had first thought of taking a slow start and to fire at the most dangerous competitors, Tarryn Rayzer. After the rules briefing he decided to go full throttle and just let Baaros keep adjusting the engine and repair anything that breaks down.
The red vehicle, team Terryn Rayzer takes the lead, followed by Damon and Stormhawks being head to head. The green vehicle from Team Carbine got some backfire in the repulser drive and didn’t get enough speed. Passing the first Buoy the red team is in the lead, with Damon and Baaros in second place, while Stormhawks also had some engine problems and so did the Hutts. The Hutts opened fire at the Stormhawks but they missed. Damon saw the light bolts flying by him in the sky and thought, yes, someone has a bad temper behind, the Hutts. Damon keeps pushing the speed limit of the vehicle beyond the max and Baaros keeps busy assuring the engine will not break down. Passing the third buoy, there is a huge murder of Rawwks, and Damon zig zag like a falcon through the cloud of birds without hitting any, but he scared the flock so it the red vehicle runs right through it, causing some issues, and the blue team is now in the lead for the first time. Baaros fails to fix the overheated fluxer-joint though. might pose a problem if it gets overheated later. Hutts fires again and hits Stormhawks white vehicle. The intel did not lie about the Hutt team, they are vicious.
Passing Buoy 4, suddenly huge jellyfish-like creatures appeared in the sky. Damon failed to maneuver around due to the very high speed and hit one of the blobs and was bumped off course, and the vehicle took some damage. The red vehicle is now once again in the lead. Stormhawks now got pissed off by the Hutts and fired back at them, and scored a hit. Damon successfully got controls back and found his direction and got it up to full speed gain. It looked like the red vehicle was in the lead but it lost too much speed doing evasive maneuvers and Damon was once again leading the race. The crowds were cheering, what a spectacular race this was, so much action. Baaros successfully fixed the damage done by slamming into the jelly-fish blob. Damon, having a feeling he would get fired upon very soon, did some zig-zag maneuvers to be more difficult to hit, but no shots came from behind.
Suddenly, when passing through some dense darker clouds, the vehicle lost speed. The engine was about to overheat, the cloud was some kind of gas and small gas explosions started to erupt all around the vehicle. The red vehicle once again is leading the race. Baaros decided to try to fire at the clouds in front of the red vehicle to help the clouds to ignite, but they just refused to catch fire.
Fast approaching the seventh buoy, Baaros fired the guns to try to scare off some huge dragon-like creatures, but he missed, and Damon came too close to one of them, and the beast tried to take a bite out of the cloud car. The sharp teeth caused some severe cracking in the hull.
Baaros instantly brought out his small plasma welder to fix it, and he did. Approaching the last buoy, suddenly Damon’s engine lost power again, and the red vehicle once again was number one. This was critical, they needed to win, but the Hutts saved the day as they fired at the red vehicle and hit it so badly it lost speed and was pushed off course. Coming to the finishing head to head, the blue and the green, it was so close that the referees needed to watch the video playback several times to decide the winner. There was a tense silence, before the speaker announced: – “Ladies and Gentlemen, his year’s winner of the Cloud City Grand Prix, is, the blue team, team Arend Shen piloted by Damon Finn and Baaros. Second place goes to the green team and third place goes to the red team. The white vehicle did not finnish the race and was disqualified”. Team Stormhawks, the white vehicle, was salvaged by the rescue team. Both the pilot and the co-pilot were unconscious in the vehicle.
The crowd cheered violently and people broke the finishing area barricades and guards had to keep the cheering crowds away from the vehicle area. Baaros and Damon were led to the winner podium and were given a huge magnum bottle of blue, carbonized goo to shake and spray around.
A group of reporters approaches and the first one asks Damon: – “How do you feel?” and Damon replies: – “Honestly, I really need to pee.”
A second reporter said to Damon: – “How come you had such luck to win this race?”
Damon replied: – “I don’t know about luck really. All I know is that the more I practice the more luck I seem to have.”
Damon’s and Baaros’ faces are shown on monitors all over with their name tags. They won’t be so anonymous in Cloud City anymore. The upside is that the prize money, 30 000 Credits, was now handed over, and they all agreed that it goes to the ships’ account.
After the prize ceremony, Damon decided that the group now should get proper gala attires, even Oovo, that decided she would not attend the gala as she has other things to attend to. Damon thought that every woman would love a nice dress, especially a mechanic, so even though she will not wear it now, she should have it. The seamsterbots in the stores the upper levels just needed a couple of pictures and they would figure out the size and sew something with a perfect fit, but if you visit in person, a quick scan will be even quicker. Arin already wears a perfect gala attire almost all the time, so he will be wearing that. Mr Baxater, the store’s owner, took personal interest in equipping the winners of the Cloud City Grand Prix with the finest he could offer. Damon also got a 5% winners discount on the gala attires he purchased.
Oovo has planned to prepare a little forward operating command post in the tunnel outside the garbage room, and be there well before any opposition decides to turn up. She brings tolls with her on the hover platform to prepare a nice and safe spot from where she can keep an eye on the whole operation. The gala will start at 19.00, so there is plenty of time for getting a shower and some proper clothing for the occasion. They know that Marus Grayson’s private security will have full alert with twelve guards on duty during the gala. One thing that confused Damon, was that Doctor Tyhm went away on some kind of private little mission during the afternoon, without saying anything about what he was doing. After some discussions they also shop a set of light blaster pistols, unmarked and untraceable, that Oovo would bring with her to the garbage room, as security most likely would not allow any guns at the gala.
Oovo checks via the cameras that the situation is clear, before she enters the garbage room to hide the blaster pistols. She sees a lot of guards and Bespin Wing-guards, and asto-mechs droids with trays with drinks on their heads. She sneaks like an invisible shadow into the garbage room, she also uses an old chewing gum to rig the door lock so the door looks locked but can be opened without using the keypad.
It’s 20.00 and the group is dressed up for the occasion and heading to the gala at the museum. Doctor Tyhm is in disguise just in case there will be broadcasts from the gala. People recognize Baaros and Damon from the race and even some of the bouncer guards recognize them so they don’t have to prove their identity so much. After the door guards, there is a second checkpoint where weapons are checked for. No weapons are allowed into the gala. When the group finally pass the second security checkpoint and enter the gala, a speaker voice announces: - “The winning team of the Cloud City Grand Prix, Damon Finn and Baaros, party of five.” The speaker continues to announce the arriving guests.
All of Marus Greyson’s guards and four Bespin Wing-guards are keeping watch. Two guards are stationed at the Jewel exhibit at all times. People are dancing, the music is some kind of mix between Jizz and Barrock music. When the group has been at the gala for a few minutes, the speaker announces: -”Kaltho the Hutt, party of four.”. Kaltho is very disappointed that he could not bring his whole entourage, the invitation is for one plus three only. He brought his protocol droid, DZ-CPO, his head of security, Kerek, and his Major Domo, Sal Vaneth.
Vorse Tabarith is sitting in one corner of one of the rooms together with some of his people, and Aris Shen, his wife, is there too. He’s drinking from a large glass, looking like beer. Damon picks up a strange cocktail from a serving droid, light blue and illuminating. Arin and Damon walk over to Kaltho’s corner, where DZ-3PO stops them and asks: - "Do you want to speak to my master? You are welcome to come forward.”
love thr dressup, and those renders are really neat
Thanks! Yes - the inspiration for "sci-fi" dress up clothes comes from several sources, like of course Starwars but also like Firefly. Tend to be typical renaissance style.
Meanwhile, someone knocked Baaros on the shoulder and disappeared around the corner towards one of the bars. Baaros follows and is greeted by a woman, a ghost from his past, who says: - “So, you’re laying low, with your face all over the Cloud City?” Baaros replies: - “What do you want?”, and the woman coldy replies: - “My revenge, you will not leave Cloud City alive…”
Barros nods and makes a face to the camera to trigger Oovos interest, and Oovo takes a quick snapshot and tries to look up the woman on the grid. Oovo really sweat trying to quickly slice some information, and she does, she finds some arrival documents at the immigrations and port authority, definitely an imperial agent, a spy, faked name and signature.
When this happens, Zekra Fol, one of the bidders, approaches Doctor Tyhm and hands over a datapad. -”You should give this to Kaltho, it’s very important.” Doctor Tyhm takes it, but first he sneezes very loudly, to get attention from people around, then he takes the datapad, with a little over acted gestures. She continues: -”For your sake you know you have to succeed with this, you know what happens if you fail. It’s a positive surprise to see you here.” Doctor Tyhm replies: - “It’s positive to see you here too, what about a drink later?” An astromech with a drink table on the top passes and they take a drink each, and Zekra mingles away in the crowd.
Arin and Damon talk with Kaltho, but it goes neither good, nor bad, like a limbo, but it results in Kaltho placing the first bid, 20K. Damon and Arin left the Kaltho’s corner and mingles, Arin danses a little with some of the ladies, he is a very good dancer.
Baaros keeps talking with the woman: - “How do you feel being an imperial lakey?” She replies: -”It’s great, it will be a pleasure to see you in chains, or maybe falling off this little piece of crap, it’s a long way down. Nice to see you again.” Baaros replies: - “You should get going soon…”, and she replies: -”Have a drink, enjoy life, or your last hours of it anyway.” Oovo contacts Baaros and gives him the information she found about the woman.
Damon tries to move over to where the mysterious Eliza is sitting, saying cheers to all he meets, enjoying his moment of fame as the winner of the Cloud City Grand Prix, or at least looking like he is. Suddenly Baaros voice is on the comlink: -”We will get a little problem when we leave. A person from my past just showed up, she’s an imperial agent and has a grudge with me and Haken Seinrico. Arin, can you look for Haken and ask him if he won anything on his bet on us in the race, and then tell him, from me, that Jessa is here under the name Jania Kappa, and she needs to be taken care of.”
Arin sees Haken, he is one of the two guards having the shift at the Jewel exhibit. He goes to Haken and asks him if he won on his bet, and that Baaros says Jessa is here and needs to be taken care of. Haken says he won 2k and he will see to it, that she is banned from the gala.
Damon walks over to Gantel Dro, who is in the weapons checkpoint, and tells him about Jessa and her cover name. Gantel says: -”You are the winner of the race, well done!” Gantel Dro then looks her up on the guest list, yes, she is here.
Doctor Tyhm sneaks away to the garbage room after discreetly causing a guest to spill her drink on another guest so some turmoil happened, and need for cleaning staff was required, and quickly puts the datapad inside and the garbage room. He contacts Oovo on the comlink saying: - “Oovo, check this datapad”, knowing Oovo has seen his whole little performance on her camera feed. Oovo quickly checks it for potentially hazardous things like bombs, then examines the content. It’s information about the Jewel, very neatly presented in a formal and clear language, and the information is the same information they already had figured out. Someone else had done her homework as well. Oovo contacts Doctor Tyhm and says the pad is checked and what it contains. Mardar picks it up then walks over to the Kaltho’s corner. The protocol droid DZ-3PO says: -”Stop, who are you?”
Doctor Tyhm replies: -”I am just an errand boy to another person of interest at this party. I have important information on this datapad. Information about the Jewel and about the security…”
The head of Kaltho’s security, Kerek shouts at Doctor Tyhm: -”Go away! No potential dangerous items in the vicinity of the master!”. Doctor Tyhm says: -”I was asked to give this to you by Zekra Fol!” and Doctor Tyhm hastily walks away, mumbling to himself: -”Out of the frying pan and into the fire. I burn one bridge at a time…”
The speaker announces: -”Let us welcome our guest of honour, Lando Carlissian, Baron Administrator of Cloud City.” Baaros and Damon go to chat with Lando. Lando is saying hello to everyone and mingles, he is very popular. Lando sees Damon and says: - “Congratulations to the victory. Will you come back next year?” and Damon replies: -”Yes, if I get an invitation.”. Lando replies: -”You are always welcome to Cloud City Damon Finn.” Baaros says: -”Speaking of invitations, there is an uninvited guest here, an imperial agent.” Lando replies: - “Have you reported that?” and Baaros replied: - “Yes I have, and she has left death threats to me and my friends.” Damon says: - “It was a very nice track, the best racetrack I’ve ever raced on”.
The speaker announces: -”Arend Shend, manager of the winning team of the Cloud City Grand Prix.” and Damon goes and talks a little with Arend. Arin walks around randomly talking to people saying how incredibly valuable the jewel is and that it’s an honour just to look at it. Damon makes a new attempt to speak to Eliza.
Arin goes and asks Aris for a dance. Vorse Tabarith is consuming incredible abouts of Corellian ale. He buys it as it’s very expensive and not on the free drinks list. Arin talks a lot with Aris during the dance, about where they will meet, and how she will get off Cloud City. They decide that they should rendezvous at the apartment where they first met. The bid is still only 20K. The bots serving drinks are also the ones taking bids. Damon asks Eliza why she is here, if a lady of her class and age really is into racing, and she replies that she just loves parties. Damon puts on all his charm and tells Eliza how incredibly valuable the jewel is and he talks Eliza into placing a bid of 30K for the jewel.
Meanwhile, Arin tries to talk Vorse into placing a bid, by explaining how valuable the jewel is: - “If I had the money, no doubt I would buy it myself.“ When they are talking, Mil Mikkir passes by, and Vorse says: -”He is one of the other buyers. He has done some business in the underworld. You could mention to him that selling spice is forbidden, might make him leave the bidding for good.”
Arin walks over to Mir Mikkir and mentions Vorse, just to make Mil Mikkir look that way, and says: -”You’re not from around here are you?” and Mil Mikkir replies: -”No, I’m from Coruscant, I’m here on business, there are things to purchase in places like this.”
Doctor Tyhm hands over the datapad to Damon and says: -”Please Damon, hand this over to Kaltho the Hutt, it’s very important.” Damon returns to Kaltho’s corner and says to DZ-3PO: -”I have important information for you master.”, but is rejected, so he says to Kerek, the chief of security: - “Here, this datapad for your employer, it’s important.” Kerek scans it for tracers and bombs, then moves his hand past his empty holster, down towards the boot, in a fine gesture, walks over to Kaltho and whispers to him, then comes back, saying: -”Can you get Zekra Fol from the party, one way or another? You will be handsomely rewarded if you do.” The clock hits 21.00, two hours to go, time goes too fast, the bids are not rising fast enough.
Arin walks over to Shreya, no smooth talk, but goes directly to it. Shreya replies: - “It has already gone up in price. Mil Mikkir, corporate man, big budget. The faculty doesn’t have that kind of money.” Arin uses his charm to tell Shreya that she should ignore her budget limits, this is a too important object to pass, and he might have persuaded her.
Damon walks over to Marus Greyson, who is in the jewel exhibit room, playing his role as the happy winner, asking: - “Who are you?”, and Greyson replies: - “I’m just an old bureaucrat on a journey.” Damon points at the jewel and says: - “That thing must be really valuable, maybe I should try to find who owns it and buy it for my price money.” and Greyson laughed. Then someone puts his hand on Damon’s shoulder and says: -”This is my champion! Marus, what a surprise to see you here. What has it been? Fifteen years since we worked together at Coruscant?”. Damon says: - “Arend is the best team manager I’ve ever worked with.” They all laugh, and Damon leaves the room.
Arin goes back to Vorse and tells him that Mil Mikkir has nothing but contempt for Vorse, and that he sees it as an honour to beat Vorse. That triggered Vorse and he walked together with some of his men directly towards Mil Mikkir. Arin was too far away to hear what they talked about, but he caught the word “holo photage”, and it looks like they agree to something.
Baaros is keeping a keen eye on Jessa in the bar, and pretends to get really drunk. Vorse is back at his table drinking beer.
Damon decides to go and talk to Pos Podura, the bidder they had written off the list. Pos Podura says: - “Good evening, are you the winner?”, and Damon replies: - “I’ve spoken to a lot of people at this event and it really looks like the Cloud City Grand Prix is an event that interests people from all over the galaxy. I just thought if that jewel was up for sale, I would try to buy it for my prize money. It is a magnificent jewel, don’t you agree?”. Pos Podura replies: - “Have you spoken to Sheya Ordassa? She’s an archeologist. I’m also an archeo.., I’m working at TouraTech, but I have studied archeology. I Shreya Ordassa was my tutor at the university.”. Damon figures it all out. Pos Podura is madly in love with his tutor, Shreya Ordassa, suddenly his behaviour the past days makes total sense. Damon says: -”Shouldn’t you purchase the jewel for her? I know she is interested in it too? Shall I introduce you?” Damon puts his arm friendly over the shoulder of Pos Podura and makes their way across the crowd to Shreya Ordassa.
Damon says: - “Shreya Ordassa, this is one of your old students, Pos Podura. I know you have several mutual interests here tonight. I think you should work together and try to purchase that jewel for the university. I think Mr Podura here is more than willing to help you finance the deal.” It worked, they began to talk, even though Shreya seemed to barely remember her old student. Arin showed up as well helping Damon talking the odd couple into becoming friendly.
Damon spots Eliza heading for the exit, grabs two glasses of blue champagne from the tray of an astromech droid, and goes there to talk to her: - “Leaving so soon my lady?”
Eliza replies: - “I am old and it’s getting late.” Damon replies: - “The night is young and you do not look a day over forty!”, but Eliza doesn’t change her mind and leaves, when she leaves she turns her head towards Damon and says: -”I hope we meet again.”
The time is now 21.30, and Damon asks an astromech what the current bid is, 60K is the reply. Pos Podura and Shreya seem to be getting on well. Suddenly two Wing Guards and two of the security guards come with Jessa in cuffs, and Baaros stands nearby then they all pass and says: -”Such a shame you didn’t get to bid on you know what..” and Jessa gives Baaros a look that could kill.
Shreya excuses herself and needs to powder her nose and makes way for the restrooms, which are on the other side of the cantina and bar. In the doorway she almost bumps into Mil Mikkir. Baaros is standing there drinking a glass champagne silently celebrating the capture of Jessa. Shreya and Mil Mikkir start to argue, and Baaros hears that this is the typical argument between two exes, who tried to stay away from the sight of each other all evening. Both pull up bits and pieces of history, blaming the other for not listening.
The argument turns to shouting and attracts the attention of the guards, but Damon hurries in between them to de-escalate the situation, and with his charm and being the winner of the race, he gets them to quiet down before the guards interfere. When they go separate ways, both of them say to the other: - “I will win this, you will lose!”. Damon goes into the bar and puts his arm around Baaros’ shoulder saying to the people in the room: - “This my friends is the best mechanic in the whole Galaxy. A toast to Baaros!”, the bid just ticked up to 80K.
Kerek comes to Damon and says: - “When will you do your job? Kaltho was very clear. It would be bad for you and your friends if this would end badly. Get her out of here, or we will suspect you are working for her.” Damon replies: - “I had some urgent family business to attend to, not mine, but that’s not the point. It will be dealt with.” Baaros, who stands beside Damon hears the whole conversation and heads over to Zekra Fol, who is standing close to the garbage room door. When he comes close to Zekra Fol, she says: -”Who have we here? The winning mechanic, Mr Baaros.” Baaros replies: - “I just happen to overhear a conversation, and you should probably leave this party as soon as possible, I heard someone threatening your life.“ Zekra Fol replies: - “Is it a habit of yours to listen in on conversations not meant for your ears?” Baaros says: - “I am a mechanic, I have very keen ears, I need to be able to listen to the engine to hear even a vague noise from an engine so I can fix it before it turns into something worse. And while I’m here, I heard that the bid is at 80K, but will soon tick up again.” Zekra Fol thanks him for the conversation.
Doctor Tyhm comes onto the comm-link: - “Baaros, wouldn’t it be better if she just left, permanently so to speak. We now are at risk of being even more involved in this sinister circle of death threats. To take out one of the threats would be a good idea.” Damon replies: -”Doctor Tyhm, do you have any of your horse tranquilizers with you?” Doctor Tyhm replies: - “No, but I do have a feel-really-bad cocktail.” Damon orders two really fancy cocktails at the bar, goes to a corner table and calls Doctor Tyhm there to spike one of the drinks.
Meanwhile, Arin goes and talks to Arend Shen and tries to find out if Mr Shend has any news on who is bidding and who we might approach a little more, Mr Shend has no answer to those questions. Damon tries to get Arin to give the spiked cocktail to Zekra Fol, but he refuses and a quite long argument takes place around the corner table until Damon picks up the drinks saying: - “Crap, I’ll do it myself then.” and heads off to Zekra Fol. When he offers the drink to Zekra Fol she replies: - “No thank you, I’m driving, and it’s late and I’m going home soon. You are the driver, you and your mechanic doing the dirty work for your boss, that Mandar Tyhm.” Damon replies: - “Doctor Tyhm, boss? He is just the ship’s doctor, no more no less. And as you are leaving, can a gentleman escort the lady to her car?” Zekra Fol rejects his offer and Damon puts down the drinks on a table and walks away.
The bid is now at 90K and it’s only 30 minutes left of the auction, and Zekra Fol leaves the museum. Two guards are now placed at each of the two doors leading to Kaltho the Hutts room, and Oovo sees on the camera how Doctor Tyhm turns around when he sees the guards. Arin shadows Zekra Fol out of the museum to an elevator complex. He stops and hides in a doorway, and sees Doctor Tyhm, with his coat collars up, following Zekra Fol.
Damon mingles along and speaks a little with Shreya and Pos Podura. They say: -”We did our best for the university but we cannot win this, but we did win a friendship on the way. We’re leaving this party soon, and we want to thank you for bringing us together.”
Damon walks over to Vorse Tabarith and says: - “Hi there, cheers!”. Vorse replies: - “Oh, the winner of the Grand Prix, are you here to party?” Come on, let’s have a drinking competition!” Damon looks at the dozen or so empty bottles of Corelian ale and says: - “You seem to have been partying rather good I see.” Vorse replies: - “Come on drink! Or are you a weakling?” Damon replies: -”Cheers!” as take a sip from the champagne and Vorse down his 20th Corelian ale, but Damon knows he might need to be sharp later on, so better stay away from a drinking competition. The bid is now at 95K, times up, the auction is closed and the museum closes. Everyone should be out at 23.30, when cleaning bots will start working, and final closing at midnight. Oovo makes her way towards the bank droid with Arin as backup. Baaros and Damon take Oovo’s place in the stakeout. Baaros is the hover platform operator.
Oovo and Arin wait in an alley for the bankdroid to pass on it’s round collecting all the credits from the bars along Market Row. The droid approaches, and Oovo sneaks up behind it and places a restraining bolt on it. She then slices the network perfectly and reroutes the transfers. She does discover though that the droid has a transaction backup, that eventually will be checked and then the transactions will be discovered. She has two options, either remove the backup disk, which will be discovered, or slice the backup disk to remove all traces of the transaction. The first option is easy, the second more difficult, but she goes for the second option and removes all traces of the transaction. Damon watches Oovo’s cameras and sees that they are cleaning up, some mouse droids are working there as well, and most of the guards seem to have left, only patrolled by two guards and a security droid. But the guards are different so there are at least 4 guards still in the museum, maybe more.
The group now regroups at Oovo’s stakeout place. Baaros gets an idea and orders takeaway pizza for the museum, and Oovo awaits the arrival of the pizza until she makes her move. The pizza arrives, and they can see some confusion on the cameras, but then two guards walk towards reception. Go! Go! Go!
Oovo sneaks out, like an invisible shadow, she spray some condensation spray on the closest camera to blur the image, then when she enters the jewel room, she sees one guard sleeping on a chair close to the jewel exhibit, and one just left for pizza through the other door. She places a stun grenade close to the sleeping guard and close to the security box controlling the force field around the jewel, and the explosion is almost silent. She grabs the jewel and runs back to the garbage room door and leaps inside, when she hears a voice shouting Stop! behind her and a blaster bolt hits the wall right beside her.
Arin shoots the door lock and Oovo jumps out to the hover platform and shouts to Baaros, Let’s go. Arin and Damon can hear that someone is blasting the door with automatic fire. Damon is rappelling down at ease, and Arin leaves last, and throws two stun grenades into the garbage room before he also is rapelling down.
The group is heading towards the rendezvous apartment, and when they are walking up some steep stairs between several floors, someone comes jumping over the side rails and blocks their way. It’s Eliza, she says: -”Please stop and listen to what I have to say. You have to leave the jewel to me. I beg you to.” Damon sees the lightsaber in Eliza’s belt.
Oovo is the first one that is able to speak and she says: - “I like your openness, but can we go somewhere more discreet to talk about it?”. Damon says to himself, Eliza, a Jedi, I didn’t see that coming. Oovo has been showing some interest in the ways of the force, maybe Eliza could guide her?”
Eliza points at a small alley to the left: - “Will that do?”. They all move into the silent alley, then Eliza continues: -”I am dedicated to fight for the freedom of the Galaxy. I need the jewel to be able to continue. The kyber crystal in my lightsaber is fading, when it dies, I’m unarmed.”
Damon says that he is good with giving the Jewel of Yavin to Eliza, for a greater good, but they now need to figure out how to continue. Baaros says that he bought drawings of the jewel when he got the 3D replicators that he bought to fix new parts for the race and the cloud car. The 3D replicators are already printing a replica back at the cloud car hangar. The group decides to meet Eliza back at the hangar, and give her the Jewel there, as they need to make the copy look as close to the original as possible. When the group arrives at the hangar, there is a voice message from Arend Shen, who wants a status update. Damon decides that they will not reply until the copy is done, as they are not here yet and have not seen the message. Oovo has checked all her surveillance cameras and no one has been in the garage hangar what she can see. The copy Baaros prints is very good, and then Damon shows his talent in making glass looks like diamonds and together with Arin’s knowledge and having the original to compare with, you could not tell which is the copy by looking or holding them.
When Eliza shows up, Baaros holds the original in one hand, and the copy in the other, and Eliza says she is very impressed by the work, and picks the original, sensing it with her force. She asks if she could follow the group to Nar Shaddaa, as she needs to leave Cloud City. Damon says it’s ok, and Baaros says he can sleep in the engine room, he spends most of his time there anyway. Doctor Tyhm is still not back, last seen by Arin when he followed Zekra Fol. The group decides to not tell this to Doctor Tyhm, what happens in the hangar stays in the hangar. Eliza says: -”I might help you find him?” Where was he last seen?” Damon explains and Eliza replies: -”Zekra Fol, she is probably the most dangerous person at the party. I cannot see where she is, she is a shadow, but I will do my best. May the force be with you.”
After first running 30 fast rounds around the hangar, Damon calls Arend Shen, breathing heavily: - "That was close, but I think we have shaken them off. Kaltho’s henchmen are really tough. We are on our way to the rendezvous location.” Arend replies: - “I was worried when I didn’t hear anything. Good work, I send a droid speeder to pick you up. The theft is all over the news, the Wing Guards have put Cloud City under lockdown, the speeder will fly you directly from the hangar to the rendezvous point, bypassing all checkpoints. We talk further when you have arrived.”
While waiting for Arend Shen's Speeder, Baaros got an idea for the Swallow, build a combined bacta tank / spa jacuzzi, as we have limited space, compact healing for the body and soul.Damon says: - “As Mandar does not know that we have made a replica, we should try to find him and let him do the talking. It’s much easier to lie when you do not know that you are lying.”
It’s 05.00 and the city is slowly waking up. Oovo checks the holonet and there is news about a theft where an unknown number of thieves has burgled the museum and stolen valuables. Cloud City is in lockdown while the Bespin Wing Guards search for the thieves.
Finally the droid controlled speeder bus arrives at the hangar, it’s a large speeder bus with space for lots of people, usually used for public transportation. Just as the speeder bus has opened the doors and the group is boarding, Doctor Mandar Tyhm arrives, with a briefcase in his hand. There is a logo on the briefcase saying Outer Rim Exploratory Mining Corporation. Baaros asks: -”Mandar, where have you been?”, Doctor Tyhm replies: -”Excuse me, it’s Doctor Mandar, and I’ve been tying up some loose ends”. When all are onboard and the speeder bus takes off, Baaros gets a feeling that the right repulser lift is not sounding right. Baaros quickly removes some inner panels. When someone asks what he is doing he replies:- “It seems to be a problem with the central rotor.” Baaros makes his way into the belly of the speeder bus and finds a bomb, counting very fast down on a small display, it’s an IDE, a homemade device.
Baaros shouts: - “I don’t think Arend likes us, he is also tying up some loose ends. We either need to jump soon, if I fail to disarm this one.” Damon jumps over to the driver’s seat and tosses away the pilot droid who loudly protests, and quickly takes the speeder down over a roof. Baaros cuts the blue wire, and the timer stops at 002. Oovo asks the droid if he was on the way to the given address, and he was, and Arin says that a huge amount of energy is needed to make a lightsaber, so the jewel would survive a crash. Damon lands on the roof he was aiming for.
The group quickly discusses what to do with this new situation, they still want the money for the job. Oovo says we should deliver the bomb to Arend in the box where he thinks the jewel is, then she goes onto the holonet to see what properties and locations Arend might be at. He has an office close to the museum, a residence in the Plaza area, and a building down in PortTown, and his yacht, parked at a landing pad in the Plaza area. Oovo then just checks with the apartment renting agency, or their computer, if Arend really rented the rendezvous location, and he did. Baaros says: - “We know Arend planned to leave as soon as he got what he wanted. He even offered us a ride with his yacht, so he is probably at the yacht, let’s head there.”
Damon takes over the pilot seat again and tries to navigate the unseen traffic flow rules, but being a newbie to the rush hour traffic in Cloud City, Damon breaks a few traffic rules by cutting ahead of a line and not yielding at an intersection. A wing guard cloud car comes up behind and over the radio and from the speaker on the cloud car a voice is heard: – “This is the Bespin Wing Guards, pull over and land at the nearest landing pad.” Quickly Damon puts the pilot droid back into the driver’s seat again and tells the droid to land, pointing at a landing pad. The droid objects saying that will cost extra, so Damon just says the droid should add that to the tab. Baaros puts the bomb and the jewel box back where he found the bomb.
The speeder bus and the cloud car land and two Bespin Wing Guards walk over to the speeder and say: – “Explain yourself!”. Damon says: – “Excuse us officers, do you recognize me? I’m Damon Finn, winner of the Cloud City Grand Prix, and me and my team were summoned to the team manager, Arend Shen, a known businessman here in Cloud City.” The wings guards recognize Damon and says: – “We do not know who this Mr Shend is, and there has been a theft at the Museum tonight, valuables have been stolen. Where were you last night? And why were you moving away from the driver’s seat?”. Damon says: –”We were at the Museum, the gala party, and I think we left close to midnight.” Baaros jumps in: – “I think we ended up at 124 ½, but I’m not sure, I got a splitting headache and we were woken up by the boss and I had my shoes on, I must be allergic to leather or something.” Damon continues: – “And no, I did not trade places with the driver, I was just leaning over to grab a bottle of mineral water, I’m so thirsty this morning, I don't understand why, I did drink a lot yesterday. But I do confess that I did argue with the pilot droid and challenged him to drive a little more offensive, you cannot let the boss wait you know.” The Wing Guards accept the explanations and say: – “Ok, drive carefully, have a nice day.”
When the Wing Guards have taken off, Damon climbs back into the driver seat and they set off towards the landing platform where Arend’s yacht is said to be standing. When they arrive they see a huge landing pad, and a large yacht type ship is standing on the pad, aft facing the hangar. There is enough space to land the small speeder bus on the pad in front of the yacht. The yacht seems to be big enough to carry up to twenty five people.
The group jumps out of the speeder bus, all alert and ready. Arin is first out, walks to the port side of the yacht, and sees that the side door is open and the steps down. Damon follows Arin and spots someone in the cockpit that tries to stay hidden. He walks beside Arin and tries to look real tough. Suddenly the yacht powers up some of the systems, the sound of repulser lifts starting can be heard. The weapon systems are activated, and are pointing directly towards the little unarmoured speeder bus. Everybody else jumps out and Baaros grabs a bag with the bomb and the jewel box and shouts to the pilot droid to get the hell out of here.
Two goons come out from the hangar on the yacht’s port side, and fire against Arin and Damon, and Damon takes a hit to the chest. Oovo rushes after Arin and Damon and shoots one of the goons in the leg, then Baaros moves in and fires and shoots both the remaining goons. A new group of goons shows up, and fires at Oovo, who dodges the bolts and is unharmed.
Damon rushes forwards and fires covering fire but does not hit anyone, but Arin who comes second fires and hits one goon in the shoulder. The yacht pilot opens fire with the ship guns and the speeder bus is turned into a ball of fire and all has to duck from flying debris. Baaros runs aboard and to the cockpit and shouts: - “Hands where I can see them!”
Oovo also runs towards the door, and turns around when she’s inside and shoots one of the goons. Oovo shouts: -”All onboard!” and hits the close door button. Doctor Tyhm runs under the yacht and into the ship through the door. More goons come out from the hangar on the starboard side of the yacht and fire at Arin under the yacht, but miss. The other goons fire at Damon and hit him again in the chest, but his armoured clothing still protects him, but it hurts. Damon rushes aboard the yacht, turns around in the doorway and shoots a guard in the chest, and he falls down, then he continues inside. Arin follows Damon and shoots the last guard on the port side in the leg.
Arend Shen comes out of the hangar and the group see him through the many windows, he looks really pissed off. The pilot suddenly pulls his gun and fires at the flight control and the yacht’s engines go back off again with a humming sound. Smoke and sparks come out of the flight control pane. Baaros says: – “That was stupid!”, and fires at the pilot with stun settings, the Pilot is hit, falls down, and slams his head in the console, luckily he wears a helmet. Damon quickly walks to the console to take a look, it’s damaged beyond simple repairs, will need spare parts. Baaros is an optimist and tries to bypass the control panel, but it just resulted in more sparks, flames and smoke. Damon checks the ship’s cameras, and sees a group of goons and Arend behind the ship where there is a loading hatch.
Suddenly a voice is heard over the ship’s speaker system, the voice of Arend Shen: – “You cannot leave, I have placed a bomb on the ship. Give me the jewel and I will let you live. Wing Guards will soon come and swarm this place, you cannot win, just give up.” He has connected through the dataport at the aft loading hatch. Meanwhile Doctor Tyhm plunders the yacht’s medical bay and gives Damon a stimpack shot to ease his wounds, and he feels much better.
Baaros replies: – “We want our money, you will get the Jewel.” Oovo and Baaros move to the aft and the engine room to place the bomb, but the aft hatch opens and four goons and Arrend Shen enters into the small loading area. Oovo opens fire and then jumps into cover. Baaros then throws a stun grenade into the small loading section and closes the doors. Arin sees everything from the other side of the loading area through the window in the blast doors. Three goons are knocked out.
Arend opens the blast door using his key and manual override and the last goon runs out towards Baaros, fires and misses. Damon now hears the fighting and rushes aft. Doctor Thym finds a large bag and puts his briefcase in it, and starts to fill it with medical supplies from the medical bay. Baaros shoots the goon and he goes down. Baaros points at Arend and says: – "Drop the gun!", but Arend ignores him. Arin opens the door on his side again, and fires at Arend, but his gun says low battery. Arend shoots at Arin, but misses. Arin now sees that Arend doesn’t have an ordinary blaster, but a prohibited disruptor pistol, a disintegrator.
Damon runs in and shoots and hits Arend In the rear. Oovo moves in and fires two-handed against Arend, but falls and rolls backwards when she tries to lean against the door to the captain’s quarters that was opened, not closed. She fires a line of blasts into the ceiling. Damon shoots again at Arend, and hits him seriously but his heavy blaster says low battery. Baaros opens fire against Arend, but he misses again. Oovo sits up, and shoots all she can, fires and she hits with both her blasters, she kills Arend.
Arin looks at what Arend has, he has a key to the ship, a data pad and a credit stick with 5K and some other keys. They hear fire alarms from the hangar. Doctor Tyhm sees three incoming cloud cars, and shouts: – “Incoming!”. Baaros puts the copy of the jewel in the captain’s quarters inside his special steel box, then he and Oovo run to the engine room. Damon, who heard Oovo shouting: – “Set the ship’s guns on auto fire, that will scare them off”, runs to the cockpit and puts a piece of tape on the main gun trigger so it starts to randomly fire into the empty space ahead, not hitting the cloud cars, but they will need to make evasive maneuvers and approach more carefully, and this will buy the group time, precious time. Doctor Tyhm throws a bag of illegal drugs into the captain’s quarters as a last effort before everyone exits through the aft hatch. Oovo shouts: - “We gotta run now!”
Doctor Tyhm has a huge bag and says: – “I found some bacta for the bacta tank, it will be enough for a foot bath anyway”. The group jumps into a TurboLift, and Doctor Tyhm says: – “I always have problems with these TurboLifts, they make my tummy tickle.”
After just a few seconds in the lift, the whole elevator begins to shake from a distant rumble and Oovo says: – “Right on time.” They decide to go down to level -3, and from there Damon found a route through a forgotten service tunnel at level -2 ½, so they escaped the Wing Guards iron ring around the building. They decided to head for Market Row in Port Town down at level -100 and find a small quiet bar to rest at. They went into The Silver Fishling, a small bar who serves small live silver fishes in the drinks, the fishes live in alcohol.
Oovo checks the datapad and she slices it rather simply. There is some info about Arend Shen’s network, his residence, his office and his secondary office, which is located here in Port Town. He is not a mafia boss, but he has a group of people on his payrolls. There are no exact information about the credits he got from the transactions, but they have been transferred to 5K Credit sticks of the type we found on him. We try to identify the people in his network. He seems to have most dealings with the secondary office, this seems to be the shady side of his business, not for the sunlight. The whole escape and data pad slicing took about an hour.
Suddenly on the holo projector in the bar, there is a Captain Bialar Selis of the Wing Guards speaking:– “We have two persons of interest related to the night’s theft at the museum. They are in connection with a speeder bus that was blown to pieces. Wing Guards are looking for Baaros and Damon Finn, winners of the Cloud City Grand Prix, they are travelling in a group of five people, and the Wing Guards are very interested in talking to them about last night’s theft and events.”
The group quickly discusses how Aris Shen fits into all this, is she to be trusted or not. Arin said he has promised to take her off this planet and he will stick to his words. Damon contacts Coil back at the Swallow: – “Coil, prepare the Swallow for departure, soon. An elderly woman by the Eliza will show up, she is ok, but keep her under watch.”
At the same time Arin calls Aris on the phone number to the residence, hoping she will be there and answering, and she is. Arin: – “Are you ready to leave?” Aris: – “What has happened? Wing Guards have been here and I cannot get in contact with my father.” Arin: – “Just get to the Swallow, now! No time to talk right now.” Aris: – “Where is my father? Is he alive?” Arin: – “Last time I saw him he was alive.” Aris: – “I will come as fast as I can, everything is packed.” Arin asks Aris to bring the money, but she replies that her father handled everything with the money.
Damon contacts Coil again to inform him that even Aris will show up at the Swallow. Coil gets grumpy shouting: – “Who the heck are those people? What do they look like?” Mandar asks Damon to tell Coil to look for a potential bomb, and Coil swears and says: – “Bomb? What the hell have you been doing? Is it that Doctor Mandar who has leaked our position? And what about radio silence?” Then he ends the conversation.
The group moves on in Port Town and Damon leads the group safely without any encounters with the Wing Guards to Arend Shen’s shady second office.
The office is a little aside, only access point is through an elevator, going down, Oovo gets an idea: – “Why don’t we just say that we’re hired by Arend to pick up the money.” Doctor Tyhm adds: – “The Hutts are after him, they attacked him and he sent us to collect the money”. All going down the elevator, Damon and Doctor Tyhm will do the talking.
The elevator door opens and there is a small hallway with a locked door on the other side. Damon opens the door with the keys Arin picked up from Arend Shen’s body. They see a large square office space with several interlocked cubicles in the centre and door and stairs on the walls. There looks to be a second level above with a railed balcony all around.
Damon: – “We come to pick up the credit sticks. The boss has been attacked by the Hutts, and sent us, it’s urgent, hurry up!”.
Doctor Tyhm decides to distract them a little and says: – “Who is responsible for the security around here? This is a disgrace! What a mediocre level of professionalism this security system has. The boss will have your heads on a stick when I tell him how easy someone with evil intentions could enter this building. I will bring this up at the next board meeting.”
The man they talk with presses a button to a bell and two people come out through a door on the other side of the large space. The man shouts to the two that came from the door: – “They are here to collect the credit sticks, they are sent by Arend.”
One of the men draws his gun and replies: – “Arend is dead!”. Doctor Tyhm throws himself prone on the floor. Damon sees that the men in the cubicles that he was talking to, all carry carbine rifles, so he draws his gun and shoots the man in front of him, in the forehead, saying: – “Boring conversation anyway.”
Oovo rushes towards the two newcomers and she shoots both of them and they fall to the ground. The thin cubicle walls get seriously damaged when the goons fire and hit Damon several times in the chest, and he falls down on the. Arin, still in the elevator, shoots and hits one and then Baaros, also still in the elevator, shoots at the same goon and misses. Doctor Thym reaches for Damons foot and injects him with a stim pack in the foot, it feels good. Goons appear on the upper floor and they shoot at Oovo and hit her in the shoulder.
Oovo continues to the staircase and rushes up and shoots at one of the goons on the upper floor who leans over the rails shooting down, she misses, but hits the lamp in the ceiling and it falls down and it throws him down over the rails and he falls down and lands on a desk. Damon fires and misses, then he moves closer to the cubicle wall to get some cover. The goons in the cubicles fire at Arin and miss. Arin shoots back at the goons and hits one of them. He then changes target and fires over the covering Mandar and kills another one. Baaros shoots and hits one of the goons on the second floor, and the goon drops his weapon down on the first floor. Mandar pulls his gun and looks nervously around.
The goons on the top floor fire against the elevator where Arin and Baaros is, but misses. Oovo steps forward from the elevator and fires on another upper floor goon, who is leaning over the railing to aim for Baaros and Arin, and she hits him and he falls over the railing and breaks his neck landing badly. Damon fires again and on the goon in cover and misses again. The goon fires back at Damon, through the wall, and he hits him in the chest and Damon falls down. Baaros goes wild and shoots two goons as an action hero. Arin rushes into the cubicle and fires again the goon that shot Damon, and hits him in the back with several shots until he falls down.
looks like this will leave a scar
We will soon know, maybe it's fatal, maybe just a scratch.... stay tuned....
Doctor Tyhm crawls over to Damon and is about to give him another stim pack or drag his body away, but Damon is alive, just got knocked out by the hit, and Doctor Tyhm says: – "Doctor’s orders, you just need some good rest and you will be just fine."
The last goon comes out with his hands over his head: – "We can talk about this, take what you want, just let me live." Oovo tells Arin to tie him up. The goon points to the credit sticks, there are the credits. The group collects ten 5K credit sticks, that is 50K, not bad. Then they decide to leave as fast as possible, just quickly sweep the place. Mandar finds some stimpacks. Arin finds another 7K credits on a stick. Baaros finds a very good and rare oil removing soap, perfect addition to the workshop. Damon likes the nice black leather sofas, they would look good in the captain’s quarters, but are too heavy to take with him, especially in his current condition.
The group is at the elevator on the way up, when Haken contacts Baaros over the radio. – "Everything has gone straight to hell, the jewel is stolen, they are looking for infiltrators, Gantel Dro is mad, I'm hiding at a shabby motel." Baaros says: – "I know who stole it, Arend Shen. By the way, have you seen Jessa since the party?". Baaros gets a bad feeling and says to the others: – "Haken is probably captured by Jessa".
They decide to split, Damon and Doctor Tyhm move towards the Swallow to prepare it for a quick take off, while Oovo, Baaros and Arin move to the cloud car hangar where Baaros has told Haken to meet them. Baaros is sure this is a trap. Oovo's group moves fast, but Damon and Mandar see too many recognisable groups, Hutt goons, Arend Shen's goons, Vorse Tarbith's goons, Wing Guards. They have to move really slowly and stay hidden. Doctor Tyhm tries to heal Damon in a small alley doorway, but fails, and Damon accuses Doctor Tyhm that he has brought the medical license at a black market stand, and Doctor Tyhm replies that it was cheap, so he saved a lot of money.
Baaros enters the hangar after Oovo has checked all her surveillance gear and it looks clear. Baaros sees nothing and says: – "I got a bad feeling about this!". Baaros goes to the kitchen and says he will make some coffee. He tells Oovo to stay away from the coffee machine. Then he moves out to the hangar, there is another speeder, Jessa and Haken. Jessa says: – "You were lucky when you left the party and I couldn’t take you out.". Baaros replied: – "I have something you don't have, great friends." They argue for a bit about how Jessa has turned to the Empire, something she did not embrace when they shot down Imperial Transporters back in the days. Jessa says: –”To clear my name I will bring you traitors in.” , then she says: – “But I don’t have to.” and she shoots at Haken and hits him in the head from behind.
At the same time the coffee maker explodes as Baaros had tampered with it. Big shoot out, shots fly all over the hangar and Oovo takes the last shot that makes Jessa fall down. Arin came rushing in just when Oovo shot her final shot. Baaros moves to Haken to see if he can be helped. Oovo moves forward to Jessa's speeder, Oovo sees that something is flashing in the cockpit of her speeder, and it looks like it’s sending on the official Police channel, she has a transmitter sending to the speeder. Oovo removes the radio. They crawl into the speeders. Baaros drives the winning cloud car and Oovo Jessa's Speeder, but first they put a tied up Jessa in the trunk of the speeder. Right then. Eliza arrives at the Swallow and Coil shouts over the comm: -"The old lady is here, why do we bring her here?".
When Baaros and Oovo fly through the Port Town tunnel towards Landing Pad 123C, two Wing Guards cloud cars come up behind and shouts: – "Pull over!". Baaros replies – "We have a medical emergency here." Wing Guards: – "We can escort you to the nearest hospital" Baaros replies: – "Yes, perfect!" and sets off at high speed, but the traffic causes Baaros to navigate around several obstacles and Oovo passes him. And when they are close to Landing Pad 123C, Damon and Doctor Tyhm show up, and Aris too, coming from different directions. Aris asks about her father, and Doctor Tyhm replies: –”He is most probably ok girl”. When they arrive at the Swallow, Aris says: – “Are you flying that? You are braver than I thought.” Doctor Tyhm, Aris and Damon runs up the ramp of the Swallow when the two speeders comes flying and Baaros shouts on the radio: – “Thanks for the escort Wing Guards, this is my medical facility.”, then he makes a perfect air handbrake turn and breaks just outside the ramp, blows the tops off, jumps up and drags out Arin and Haken out of the cloud car and onto the ramp. Oovo totals Jessa's speeder into the landing pad wall trying to be as cool as Baaros, but she survives without a scratch. She leaves Jessa in the trunk as the speeder is a wreck, and jumps on board. Damon takes the pilot seat and leaves Bespin air space, shaking a half dozen cloud cars trying to chase them. Finally in space once again.