LogDeniable Asset-Jason-1

Game log for the 2024/10/20 session of Star Wars - Deniable Asset, as taken by Jason

It's less than a year after the Battle of Endor, and the New Republic is in the midst of a constitutiona convention. The interim government is on Coruscant. Out to the galactic west, there are entire regions still under the effective control of the Imperial remnant, under a Grand Moff who is acting as a sort of new Empire. There are also many systems hesitant about joining the New Republic. Entire sectors are not precisely separatist, but certainly hesitant, and the Imperial remnant agitates on many of them. The New Republic is taking a light hand because they want to be the good guys. There's no consensus about how to reform the bureaucracy, either, and squabbling about how to deal with ex-Imperials in important places continues. Covert operations allow the New Republic to influence events without being seen to influence events. The crew of Deniable Asset try to interfere with Imperial remnant activity and nudge things in the direction of the New Republic. Their contact with the Diplomatic Ministry (MiniDip) is Gerez Ofnar, a Duros, also a covert operative.

The ships is in the edge of the mid-Rim, the Borab sector, between Hutt and Bothan space. This region was part of the Old Republic, but there was substantial Separatist sentiment, and the Clone Wars were rough on the area. It's a sparsely populated sector, but contains a little of everything.

Play begins in a dive bar called McClunkey's on the Hub 7 space station, orbiting the planet Elnoor, which is the ostensible sector capital. Elnoor is a colony a couple centuries old, mostly mining and heavy industry, with some ship manufacture. The orbital hubs are mostly shipyards and trade yards. With the New Republic weak, the neighboring Hutts are getting frisky, raising the possibility that the system will come under cartel control.

Gerez does not love humans, which leads many of the team members to hang back and let TLDR do the talking. He joins the team at the table, raises the privacy screen, takes our reports, and tells us that the former sector governor, Kanen Orz, has fled his post. There have been confirmed sightings of him on the planet of Sebec, and in the holographic evidence of his presence, stormtroopers can be seen in the background. Sebec is an inhospitable and remote storm world, used primarily for mining. Mr Ofnar would like the team to deal with the situation. He also wants to know why there's a refining facility hosting meetings with stormtrooper guards. Finally, significant disruption of the mining facility, forcing their customers to trade with the New Republic instead, would come with a large upside. Once everyone understands, Gerez turns to Phex and says, "Now, punch me." Phyx is baffled for a moment, then lands a sort of punch-shove that knocks him out of his chair without really hurting him. Gerez says nothing but stalks off, as Con loudly proclaims, "What a dick."

Igli and Myyla are able to discover that one specific sort of soporific spice ("yellow bliss") is most in demand in the Sebec system. Unfortunately, the dealer from whom they find this out also has a monopoly, and doesn't feel like selling any lots to the team. Igli also picks up a quarter of a hold full of algal starch, which should be tradeable there, maybe.

Deniable Asset jumps to Sebec and finds the system dead quiet. We came in with a moon between us and the Sebec III, so nobody might know the ship has arrived. Igli activates the transponder, which identifies the ship as the freighter Yellow Vagabond. Traffic control directs TLDR to dock at Core Zero drilling. As it comes down, it's met by a Razor Crest system patrol craft, which tells us to follow them in, and expect a bumpy ride. As we descend, the Razor Crest gets hit by lightning, loses nav, and calls a mayday. Now Igli has to lead them in, which he does, despite a brief moment when the patrol craft falls back out of sensor range. Igli's landing is textbook, whereas the Razor Crest bounces. The landing pads actually clamp the ship down, and then retract it into a hangar area. The retractor mechanism is broken. Unloading will happen in gale force winds, if at all. The crew makes it into Core Zero after a few minutes, and there's a Twi'Lek in flight gear waiting inside the airlock, eager to buy drinks. To the bar!

The station has a population of maybe a couple thousand, is run down as hell, and seems to be in shift change, because the cantina is populated. The Twi'Len turns out to be Captain Enzo. He asks what brings us there, and when told about the starch, cheerfully refers us to the station quartermaster. Enzo asks if the Hutts have invaded, and gives a significant look at the people sitting at one of the other table. As he's leaving, Enzo warns Igli that if the wrong people see Myyla, bad things could happen.

The table identified as possibly Hutt-connected is two humans and a Rodian. The Rodian has a jacket with a fur collae, the humans in the equivalent of track suits, and they're definitely taking notice of the crew of Yellow Vagabond. One of them pulls out a commlink. Igli makes sure Phex notices that. After some time, the Rodian walks out without the humans. Phex and Gar follow the Rodian, who isn't really making any effort to cover his trail. He meets up with some humans and a Twi'lek, and works himself into earshot. Turns out they're planning to wait for the crew to be busy unloading, create a distraction, and then ion zap Myyla, then sell her. They specifically mention selling her to the Imperials. They duck out and contact the crew to warn them.

TLDR sells off the algal starch at a profit, and the quartermaster adds us to his list of ships that can take consignments. We review the open contract list, and find a shipment of refined heavy metals waiting to go. Unfortunately, it's too big to fit in the ship's hold. There's also an intra-system contract to bring some materials from the gas giant down to Selenium Federated. TLDR tries to negotiate a higher salary, since the consignment from the moon has been sitting there a while, but they don't budge and also require an insurance form.

Con tries to fix the conveyors that would bring the ship in, but concludes that it's just beyond repair with what's on hand. They'd have to jack up the entire landing pad to take the load off, and then fix new gears, that aren't on hand. The repair is very possible, but not in the time available.

Phex sets up as a sniper to cover the unloading. Gar tries to mingle with the crowd. Mylla's working the unloading winch. Igli's leading the unloading. TLDR is supervising the receipt of the goods with the quartermaster. Con's in the ship.

Unloading gets interrupted by an explosion on the Razor Crest, which scatters the crowd and distracts a lot of people. Some hostiles are coming over the edge of the far side of the landing pad, armed with blasters and grenades. Myyla takes cover immediately, as the bad guys huck a stun grenade into the midst of the unloading. Igli fires his slugthrower, and the shock of the impact causes one of the hostiles to drop the stun grenade he was about to throw. There's another explosion that knocks two bad guys down. Gar draws his weapon and goes to cover. TLDR goes to cover and tried to pull the quartermaster down with him, but the little Ugnaught eludes him and goes his own way. Phex gets into the fight and absolutely wrecks one of the hostiles with a shot from his sniper blaster, then repositions. Mylla ducks into the Deniable Asset. TLDR moves into the open, scanning for more hostiles, and confirms nobody else is out there. Igli takes cover and tells Phex to set for stun. Gar runs up to check the hostiles.

Gar recognizes the Rodian as one of the ones the Rodian from the bar met with, and decides to try to take him back to the ship as a captive. Con opens a hatch near their location, and TLDR creates a distraction by telling the biologics to close the door for public safety. That puts a lot of attention on him. Gar and Igli quickly hustle the body behind a cargo hauler and onto the ship before anyone notices.