Star Wars D20 - Freelancer(IC)

[lawful_evil]

Several minutes later, JZ returns to the common area holding the documents that Vicks provided. Looks around and noticing Kera and Daine's absence, JZ says, "Geesh, what are they half Lepi or something?" Placing the document on the table, JZ continues, "Seems to indicate that Vicks was from Varonat. That's over on the Corellian Trade Spine."

JZ sits down and starts to nibble on the scraps from Trill's meal and says, "When we get to Wezen, we will drop off the ore to be sorted and appraised. That'll take 5 or 6 hours. Instead of waiting around for it, we can take care of Little Johnny's business."

JZ leans back and picks at his teeth as he continues, "We are supposed to sell a case of ancient Wezen artifacts to the five Henn brothers. I don't trust them to deal fair with us, so we need to all go and make a show of force. We collect the local cash equivilent of 10,000 credits. We get to keep 2 and we need to bring the other 8 back to my friend, Little Johnny, on Wezen."

"So I don't have to repeat myself, I suppose I should wait to give you the details of 'the plan' till after Kera and Daine finish with their, um, repairs. Say, where did those cards go to?" JZ leans forward with a hopeful smile.

[Lord_Kimboat]

Kaff is still a little disturbed by Vicks' death and also by the Captain's cavalier attitude towards it. 'This his how he would react if it were Evayn or even me.' But he also realizes that this has probably happened a lot. There is little in the way of law and order out here, no company looking out to make sure that everything runs right.

Shaking off the morbid thoughts, Kaff grabs the cards and deals out some to the captain, himself and anyone else that wants to play.

"Well Captain, what's this place we're going to like?" Kaff asks as he looks at his cards.

[donteatdave]

Having recovered his composure, Evayn sits to play cards for the duration of the short trip. Thoughts of just how far he was from home, both literally and figuratively, occupy his mind and he's more quiet than usual.

[lawful_evil]

While playing cards JZ looks up at Kaff's question and eventually says, "Well, Rutan is Rutan, I picked you up on Rutan, I guess I assumed you'd been there long enough to look around."

"The ore is being taken to the a place called 'Solid Commodities Traders Inc.' They'll scan the ore and make us an offer for the ore. I've dealt with them before. From what I can tell, the scans are accurate, but the prices are a little low. We could take the ore and try to sell it somewhere else. Lots of places won't deal with such small amounts and we'd have to spend a lot of time scanning and separating the ore for those that do. It just seems better this way."

"Once we've taken care of that, we'll head over to the bar to meet the brothers. The bar is in Titus City a couple blocks from where we met. 'Fat Polur's Bar' I've only been in there once. It seemed safe enough, but it seems to be popular with the Squib community. I just can't relax around them, always getting into things." JZ shivers for a moment and then continues.

"I was thinking that we'd head into the bar together. The four of you would linger by the bar with the artifacts while I go talk to the Rodians with an empty case. If they're on the level, I can take the money in the empty case and signal you to bring the artifacts over. You drop it off and we all back away."

"We'd then head over to exchange the local currency for republic credits. Then head back to Wezen."

[Lord_Kimboat]

"I was thinking that we'd head into the bar together. The four of you would linger by the bar with the artifacts while I go talk to the Rodians with an empty case. If they're on the level, I can take the money in the empty case and signal you to bring the artifacts over. You drop it off and we all back away."

Kaff looked up and then back at his cards. "Well, that's one plan, but I'd like to suggest a change - from a security standpoint you understand. Does it have to be you to make the exchange? I mean if something suddenly goes down and they don't like the fact that you have an empty case, the Rodians might shoot you before you get the chance to say - 'hey, the artifacts are over there!'. Why don't you let someone else make the exchange?"

[lawful_evil]

JZ smiles and shakes his head, then says, "That's noble of you to want to go in my place, but why is my life more valuable? In anycase, I've dealt with them before, it should go a little more smoothly if they are dealing with someone they know."

"This is half the reason I don't like doing this 'secret' deals, the whole 'I will give you the product after you give me the money. nono, I will give you the money after you give me the product.' thing."

[Lord_Kimboat]

Kaff smiles back, "actually I was thinking that Evayn here should go. The reason I think it shouldn't be you is that if something happens to you, it's going to be hard for us to convince people that we actually own this ship. We'd be stranded. But I get your point. Just know that we are 'highly' motivated to make sure you are okay."

[Santanya]

Daine

Daine walks out, slipping a screwdriver back into his repair kit. "That should do it," he says as he walks out. "Let me know if it needs anything else," he adds as he steps into the commons area. He glances up towards the others as they look at him. "What?" he asks raising an eyebrow as he gets a bottle of whatever is available easy from the cooler.

[dauphinous]

Kera

Walking out a few steps behind Daine, Kera zips up her flight suit with a grin on her face. "Yeah, that was really annoying," she says to Daine. "Thanks." She grabs some of the now cold scraps of food and devours them with her fingers. "So what's the plan? We all go in waving guns around, or are we going to try that 'subtle' thing?"

[Lord_Kimboat]

Kaff

Kaff smiled and chuckled a bit as the two crewmembers entered the common area. He had no doubt that what he had seen had been a bit of a performance for amusement. Isolated crews were like that, especially when things went bad. He remembered one time when a mine collapsed at a far flung outpost burying the camps supplies. They had no food and very limited power supplies for a week and every night a group of miners would put on a show by firelight. The talent wasn't great but it was a good way to take ones mind off of an empty belly.

Throwing in his cards, he'd had a terrible hand anyway, Kaff got up and went to his room to retrieve his blast pistol and holster. Returning, he went to Daine and said, "here you go Daine, take this for a while. The plan that we have for Rutan is that we'll have the stuff while the Captain talks to the Rodians. You shouldn't have to fire it, just wear it and look tough."

[lawful_evil]

JZ suddenly pulls out his datapad and checks some information before saying, "Ah, I just remembered... the time for the meeting. It was supposed to be almost 42 hours from when we talked to Little Johnny. Well, with our expedious retreat and short hyperspace route, we're going to have at least 36 hours to burn before the meeting, probably closer to 40 hours. Any ideas?"

With that, he puts the datapad away and relaxes a bit more, knowing that they'll come out of hyperspace soon and be busy again.

[dauphinous]

Kera

"That should give us time to get at least one of the droids working." She pauses. Did Evayn tell JZ what we got? "We were able to get two droids, really cheap, but they're in parts. It'll take a while to get them back together and working in good condition. It's possible that we only have enough functional parts for one complete droid." Stuffing some more food in her mouth, she thinks for a minute. "And we will have to deal with the spider mice loose in the ship at some point. There's at least two, maybe more."

[Santanya]

Daine

Daine takes the blaster pistol, frowning slightly at its weight. "Well, it'll make a descent club at least," he remarks quietly. Smirking as he wraps the holster's belt around his waist, letting it sit low on his hip.

Daine makes a face as the mice are mentioned and nods. "I'd like to get something done about them as soon as possible." They seem to like coffee coated wires," he says with a slight grin. "Other than the droids, I need to take a walk around the ship and see what repairs are needed on the outside," he continues as he leans against a counter. "Any chance we can do some looking for parts? We could definitely use some more hull plating." He looks to the others as he takes a drink, trying to look hopeful.

[lawful_evil]

JZ frowns at the new expenses and says, "We'll probably have to wait at least until we get paid for the ore before we can pick up much of anything. Although, hull plates are pretty cheap."

[donteatdave]

Evayn stirs from his silence, the talk of money and the droids jogging his memory. "I forgot, here's everyone's money back," he says, handing JZ his credit chip and giving Kaff back his cash. "The droids were cheap," he explains, "And, I can see what I can do about lowering our costs and the like, as well as help scrounge up some parts. I'll do some comms once we touch down, see if anyone I know is planetside. You're on your own on the... what... spider mice? Not touchin' those with a two-meter pole, thanks. Speaking of coffee-flavored wires though..." he stands, suddenly aware that he hasn't eaten, and begins collecting food and coffee after thanking Trill.


[BTW, not sure how you're planning to handle XP for this game, and it's my first PBP so I'm not familiar with the etiquette. In any case, how does that work, what with the running and flying and repairing and all ?]

[dauphinous]

Kera

"I can probably help out with where to look for getting good deals. Evayn is pretty smooth, though. He'd be way better at actually cutting them." Shoveling the last of her food into her mouth, Kera checks the time and notices a buckle on her flight suit that didn't get buckled. She stands up, tosses her plate lightly to Trill, and fixes the buckle. "I'll be up in the cockpit. We should be dumping out of hyperspace soon."

[Lord_Kimboat]

Daine takes the blaster pistol, frowning slightly at its weight. "Well, it'll make a descent club at least," he remarks quietly. Smirking as he wraps the holster's belt around his waist, letting it sit low on his hip.

"Hey, you bend it and you've bought it!" Kaff scolds gently and listens to what is happening around him. "Uh, what are spider mice and should I be scared?"

[lawful_evil]

JZ takes the credits back from Evayn and asks, "Does this include the 35 credits that Vicks was supposed to get? He was supposed to sell our last shipment for 550 and buy the new one for 515."

[dauphinous]

Kera

Halfway up the stairs, Kera ducks her head back down and grins at Kaff. "Big, strong guy like you? I'm sure there's nothing at all to worry about." Then she quick-steps up the rest of the way to sit down and strap herself in.

[donteatdave]

Struck for a moment by JZ's question, Evayn realizes that Vicks never disclosed any money, then he truly begins to worry as the chain of thought is followed through to conclusion. "I never got any money from him. We'd better check his body and gear, but I have a feeling our cash is spread across the hall outside the bar at Wezen."

[lawful_evil]

JZ frowns and says, "We should check to see if he has our credits, but I don't want any 'looting'. Vicks was a shipmate, for however brief a period, and I won't permit anyone to dishonor him."

A moment later a beeping is heard from the bridge, which indicates the ship will be coming out of hyperspace soon. JZ grabs a last bite of food before heading towards the bridge mumbling around the food, "Get ready to come out of hyperspace and land."

[Santanya]

Daine

Daine nods and starts back to the engine room. "Aye," he says as he grabs a bite of food, nodding thankfully to Trill. He pauses, moving back towards the laddder up. "Do I need to boost the shields again? This rock is alot bigger than the last ones!" he shouts up to Kera.

[dauphinous]

Kera

"Funny." Kera straps herself in and puts her hands on the controls, getting ready to fly the ship in for a (hopefully) smooth approach and landing. "Just because I crashed the ship the last time we landed here has nothing to do with this time."

[lawful_evil]

The crew responds to the alarm by taking up posts around the bridge, ready to deal with whatever may happen.

The ship comes out of hyperspace near Rutan. As the crew regains their senses they notice quite a bit of activity in the space above Rutan. Even considering that Rutan lies on a major trade lane, the concentration of space traffic is high.

Kera eases the ship toward the surface and Evayn scans the area. Before the ship has managed to get more than a few km, the comm system activates and the following message is heard, "Attention Cargo Freighter, this is Guardian 314B. Slow to docking speed and prepare to be scanned for contraband. Identify yourself and state your cargo and destination." Evayn reports the message is being beamed to the ship from an Imperial Light Cruiser which is on an intercept course.

Kera looks around and can see the shape of the ship approaching from the starboard side in the distance. She also glimpses what appears to be some sort of combat well off the port side. That combat is too distant to make out any of the ships involved.

[dauphinous]

Kera

"Hey JZ, is that crap we're carrying for your friend 'contraband'?" While slowing the ship, she takes a quick peek at the starchart, trying to pick a system to chart a course to. Just in case they had to run. Merga's close. We could maybe get there quick. I hate doing that in a rush, though. Too easy to screw up. She pauses with her hand over the switch to radio back as requested until JZ tells her whether to play nice or run for it.

[Lord_Kimboat]

After hearing Kera's shout, Kaff recovers his helmet and decides to head to the cargo bay. From here he can get to one of the rear facing blaster cannon mounts, he's not really familiar with heavy weapons like that, 'but how tough can it be?' He thinks to himself, 'point the big gun at the enemy ship and fire.'

Also, he can attempt to repel or even welcome boarders depending on the situation. Or, should the Captain request it, grab and maybe hide the case that Little Johnny gave them.

[lawful_evil]

JZ is momentarily flustered by the Imperial request. He then says, "Um, I'm not really sure. From what Little Johnny told me the case just has old rocks and historical artifacts. I doubt their scanner could distinguish these rocks from any other rocks or even from the rocks in the cargo area."

JZ looks around to see if that sounds reasonable and then says, "Stop the ship. While we wait for them to come to us, plot a hyperspace jump." With a slight grin, JZ adds, "Just in case."

{{
FYI : All weapons can be fired from a 'gunner' position on the bridge or they can be overridden and fired from the gun mount itself. A couple of things to note... If you fire from the gun mount you can't get a bonus from the sensor operator. If you fire from the bridge, you only get as many shots as the operator, while the ship could get up to 4 shots if one person manned each gun.
}}

JZ moves over to the comm controls and responds to the Imperial request providing the requested information on the ship, the ore, and their destination.

Evayn brings up the sensor data for the Imperial Light Cruiser. The ship is a little less than twice the size as The Angry Mule and sports quite a few forward guns and couple turrets. Their shields are currently down. Along the ridgeline at the top of the ship it appears several tiny star fighters are docked. It is approaching at a fairly cautious/casual speed.

[dauphinous]

Kera

"Okay. I hope you're right." Putting the ship to a full stop, Kera turns to the astrogation console. She looks over the star chart again. We only have recent data for Wezen. I don't really have time to double-check numbers for Merga. I guess back to Wezen is the best choice. That or take a huge risk on flying through a star. Kera sighs and starts punching in a course back to Wezen. We can always take a little more time when we get there to put in a new course for somewhere else.

{I'll take the +2 to the DC for a quickly plotted course back to Wezen. Astrogate check: 16
*gulp* Here's hoping we don't need it.}

[lawful_evil]

The cruiser continues to close on The Angry Mule and just as it enters close scanner range, the Comm System plays this wideband broadcast.

"This is Capt Ruudy of the Freighter 'Ruta Paradise'. We are under attack by 3 pirate vessels. Please help. Our coordinates are <<coordinates>>. Can anyone please help?!? Our engines are down and our shields are failing."

A moment or two later, the cruiser turns suddenly and accelerates towards a battle in the distance off the port side. A message then arrives, "This is Guardian 314B, you are free to go."

JZ sighs, and says, "Well, that was easy. I hate to let the pirates win, but I'd like to check out the asteroid damage before getting into a fight."

JZ walks up to the front of the bridge and puts his hand on the back of Kera's chair and says, "Bring her into land. Just northwest of Titus City, you'll see the smoke clouds from the refinery." JZ then straps himself in for one of Kera's patented landings.

[dauphinous]

Kera

"No problem." Punching the ship quickly up to full speed, Kera gives the fight a wide berth to avoid any accidental involvement. That asteroid field was probably enough of a thrill for these guys. She grins. Ah, who cares? Pushing the ship as fast as it can go through the atmosphere, Kera only slows down when she can see the smoke clouds. Once close enough to do so, she radioes in to the local flight control, requesting permission to land.