LogDeniable Asset-Jason-6

Game log for the 2024/12/15 session of Star Wars - Deniable Asset, as taken by Jason

Gar grabs a medpac and tries to treat Myyla and Phex out, while Con grabs a repair kit and puts TL-DRs parts back in the proper places. That done, we deliver Gareth Destarian to Ques at the appointed desert coordinates. Ques tells Myyla to load Destarian onto his speeder. Phex looks around for an ambush, but sees nothing. Myyla, TK-DR, and Gar bring the victim down the ramp. Ques wants to pay us off and conclude the deal. TL-DR confirms that the contract on Destarian is from Ques' employer, and then tells him that the droid's associates do not deal with middlemen. Ques counters that his skimmer isn't big enough for the whole group, so he needs to wrap up the deal and turn them loose. TL-DR theatens to set the prisoner free and abandon the deal, at which point Destarian offers to pay double what Ques is offering to be set free. Myyla realizes that they need to appeal to Ques' greed if they're going to get what they want out of this. TL-DR convinces him to give them a new introduction to his boss instead of credit payment.

Deniable Asset follows Ques' speeder to a large repulsorlift barge/yacht. The barge lowers a boarding ramp, and Ques tells the gang to go aboard and partake of his employer's hospitality. TL-DR is pleased that droids are welcome aboard. Everyone but Igli and Con goes to visit the yacht, and finds that it's about what you'd expect. The uppermost deck, under the awnings, is for entertaining, and once the barge gains a little altitude and gets above the worst of the heat, it's quite nice up there. The company isn't a nice. The assassin droid they met before is there, although Elmer isn't. They and the prisoner are brought before Goro the Hutt. Gareth swears he has Goro's money and it's all accounted for! Goro explains that it's not enough to be paid. He has to be paid on time, or things get more costly. For Destarian, they have gotten so costly that he can no longer afford them. He therefore must be tortured to death. He's dropped into a pit with a Rathtar. One can reasonably conclude that we shall not hear from the local sabacc entrepreneur again.

After all the hangers-on enjoy the screaming, Goro thanks Ques for taking care of business, and adds that he's heard about how it went down, so he'd like to meet Ques' new associates. TL-DR comes forward, thanks Goro for his kindness and hospitality, and claims that their success comes not from their proclivity for violence or mercenary talent, but because his group of security consultants wants to create a working relationship with the Hutts. Goro inquires why such a subtle and clever team had such a loud and violent encounter in Aygor. TL-DR counters by asking whether Goro would have been as interested if the team had not demonstrated a willingness to go loud. Goro accepts that, and asks about how the ship eluded pursuit, and the conversation winds around to Goro wanting to meet the entire crew, no exceptions. They circle back and pick up Igli and Con.

Igli boards wearing his Imperial pilot helmet, figuring he might as well fly the colors. Con's trying to pretend this isn't happening and focuses on the yacht's systems. Goro has Igli brought forward, and compliments him on his decision to elude the authorities rather than engaging them, though he does believe the ship might have held its own in a fight. He and Igli agree that fighting always comes at a cost. Anyway, Goro seems interested in doing more business with the crew of the Deniable Asset / Fuzzy Pumpkin. In fact, he has a fancy bit of flying he needs done. The chasms on Tios can be hazardous, and Goro needs a cargo smuggled into one. That will definitely require fancy flying, and possibly use of some other skills. Goro and TL-DR negotiate, and settle on a thousand credits plus reasonable expenses.

Goro then hands them off to his majordomo Iros, a Duros, who will settle the details with them. Iros is heavily scarred, and not in a ritualistic manner, but in a way that says he's seen serious action. Their cargo needs to go to a place where the local authorities have very strong controls over distribution of goodss, and there are people lower to whom Goro wishes goods sent, goods which those authorities would not want delivered. The agreed-upon fee is for delivery, but if the people taking delivery also need te services that the team provide, they can negotiate a fee. The recipients are the Ul-shanar tribe, the goods are bacta tanks, and since the tribe does not recognize the authority of those dwelling higher in the chasm, those same surface-dwellers would not like the Ul-shanar to acquire bacta tanks. They've been fighting a low-grade civil war, aided by the very hostile fauna of the deep chasm. Oh, and if they find a Geddian centipede, Goro will pay handsomly for its eggs. Iros provides a docking bay and warehouse contact for getting the bacta tanks loaded.

Iros frees the crew to mingle. A droid approaches Con and tells him about a ZZ-700 first model repulsorlift unit. The droid, 7U-A8, a heavily modified four-armed but otherwise humanoid repair model, runs the yacht's systems and does other work as well. As he and Con talk, several other old B1 battledroids come up to 7U to task questions or get orders. Con reckons their combat programming is still in there somewhere, giving Goro a significant reserve he could call upon.

A Rodian approaches Phex and asks him his clan. They discuss family history, clan, and origin. This guy is Krose, a bounty hunter. Krose worked for the Empire. He once hunted Han Solo himself! Phex says he worked for the Rebellion. Krose finds this interesting. He wants to get paid, believes in nothing, and has no moral compass. He likes working for Hutts, because they keep things simple.

Someone comes up to Igli and addresses him as Lieutenant, meaning this guy knows Imperial insignia well. This guy also has a military bearing, though he's wearing civilian robes common on Tios. Igli tells the guy he will not be saluting. The guy turns out to be Argo Keln, former Imperial army officer. Keln served all over the Borab sector, commanding a regiment. Igli itches to kill him, but maintains a pleasant demeanor. Keln asks why Igli didn't head for the remnant if he has a ship, and when Igli explains that he's done taking orders, the colonel says that he's in the same situation. One can only put up with orders from incompetents for so long. Igli says he'll give his loyalty only if someone earns it. Keln says that's a practical attitude, and cautions Igli that Goro is indeed a Hutt. Igli says he's getting used to working with inferiors. As Phex approaches to join the conversation, Keln politely dismisses him.

Ques approaches Myyla to thank her for doing a good job and not embarrasing him. He looks forward to working with her in the future.

The team takes a day of downtime to heal up. Gar develops an infection. He's able to heal one of Phex's critical wounds, and Myyla's as well.

Back to work the next day, the ship picks up the cargo. Things go smoothly on that leg. As they load the bacta tanks and media, Con noticies that there are more "mechanical parts" than this many bacta tanks would require. He notifies the crew.

Flying to the drop-off will be sportier, since there's an active insurgency, and the airspace is closed. Gar plots a route in, but there's no obviously advantageous route to take. TL-DR suggests that logically, there will be some manner of defensive installation in the chasm at the spot where the marked insurgency zone begins. Iglies flies the approach while Con uses the ship's systems to jam sensors. The pilot's having to fling the ship all over the place, wrenching welds and running power systems from max to full reverse and back again. Between the stupid speed Igli carries through and Con's wall of white noise, augmented by reflections off the chasm walls, the preinstalled air defense turbolasers don't even come close to having a firing solution. Once inside the zone, Igli relaxes a little bit, allowing the ship to fly safe. As they approach their destination, Con goes around resetting breakers and tightening bolts. Deniable Asset is still his baby.

Igli asks Phex to keep an eye out as they land. Thankfully, things look clear, though the bioscanners are just going insane. The entire floor of this canyon is alive, and most of it's moving. Most lifeforms are centipedal, so the ground is just a big pile of wriggling legs and segments. The crew stay buttoned up, waiting for people to arrive. Instead, something large and centipedal comes toward them. Phex fires the ventral turret at it, exploding it into a splatter of yellowish goo, and other things begin piling in to snack on the goo. Some might find this disturbing. This is why Con doesn't get out of the ship. Eventually, some people turn up out of the chasm floor fauna, on foot. They don't have a vehicle, just a bunch of repulsorlift harnesses. One of the announces himself as the Voice of the Ul-shanar, and tells them they've picked an unfortunate place to land. TL-DR tells them they know what's being delivered. They ask to inspect the cargo. We lower the shipment down, they confirm it's what they expected, and the Voice tells them they've done the resistance a great service. TL-DR asks what more the Asset can do to help. The Voice says that the sky will be full of patrol craft for many hours, and so the ship cannot take off for hours. Anyone not wanting to stay with the ship (meaning, everyone but Igli and Con) should go with the Ul-Shanar. The Ul-Shanar put bursting charges into some gourds that they detonate under the ship, creating an improvised chemical weapon to keep the fauna off the YT-1300.

TL-DR tries to get to know the locals, walking on eggshells because he doesn't know anything about their culture. Inside their encampment, it looks an awful lot like a Rebel base. Everything is cobbled together for a purpose, mixed with traditional local decoration and materials. As they walk through, they go through a giant ring burner, which they turn down to idle (but not off) as the guests come through, then crank right up again. Despite such precautions to keep the centipedes out, a lot of kids seem to be on vermin-skewering duty. These are proud people who value their way of life, and don't appreciate surface-dwellers trying to tell them what to do. They happily deal with the Hutts because the Hutts deal openly and honestly. Oh, and they recommend extensive decontamination and quarantine protocols, because the local spores travel. The greatest need of the resistance is coordination and communication. Different tribes in different chasms have difficulty communicating, and the surface dwellers jam or destroy any relay they set up. They provide a data disc for the Asset to take to Goro, along with some trade goods. The locals have Geddian centipede eggs to trade, and Gar does some doctoring for trade.

When the crew returns to the ship and explains the problem to Con, he modifies the local's comm systems to improve their ability to deliver big power, then begins pinging the satellite, decrypting the local government protocols, and delivering a backdoor the locals can use to communicate. It's one-way, though, because only the Ul-shanar have it. That's their problem. They offer a few more eggs, for a total of a half-dozen Geddian centipede eggs.

The crew decide to return by hopping into a different chasm, then following that chasm out. Con burns out the comm system by pushing a ridiculous amount of power through it to jam the drone sensors, and at a spot where two chasms are near each other, Igli goes up, rolls over, skims the surface so low that the sentries have to duck, and pops down into the other chasm. Once out of the insurgency zone, the ship will need to return to Aygos approach control and talk its way through to a landing bay.