Just Another Blue Milk Run - A Star Wars Legends RP (IC Thread)

[Tytor]

Tien didn't need telling twice.  He'd just shot and presumably killed an Imp inquisitor with this thing's self-defense weaponry, after all.  The Marilite might be little more than a glorified cattle barge with a hyperdrive, but she packed a wallop.  He keyed on his comlink and called the Ace of Staves.  "Threebie, I want you to meet us at Drop Site Cresh Five," he instructed the little droid in Sullustese, "You know how to get there."

«Drop Site Cresh Five = on Nal Hutta // Tien = sure about this?» Threebie whistled in reply.

"Yes, I'm sure," Tien said in mild exasperation, "Just get down there so we can ditch this Imp transport."

The droid whistled a hesitant acknowledgement, and through the viewport Tien saw the freighter start heading into the atmosphere.  With any luck, the drop site's location would throw the Imps off their trail long enough to get everybody secured aboard the Ace of Staves and off to Telos.

"You back there," he called back into the personnel bay, now in Basic, "Master Jedi; Gav, if you're conscious; come up here.  I need all hands on deck right now."

As Tien gave instructions to his motley crew, he piloted the transport deftly out of the spaceport and into the atmosphere.  He could see the Star Destroyer the shuttle had come from in orbit over their heads, which ruled out heading up and out; here in the atmosphere, they were out of reach of the ImpStar's tractor beams.  Fortunately, the spaceport was on that side of Nar Shaddaa that faced out into space, so Tien was able to relatively quickly put the moon between them and their pursuers (as there were bound to be).  In not too long, he was settling the shuttle in a small, sickly-looking grove of trees deep in the swamp of Nal Hutta.  He knew the Imps would come for the Marilite, so he spent a bit of time rigging it with a few trip mines from the cargo bay of the Ace of Staves.  He primed a thermal detonator with a proximity sensor in the cockpit, and then followed his passengers out of the vessel.  It was a pity, really.  The Marilite handled well, and she really was a good ship; her main problem was that she was conspicuous.

Tien bid farewell to the ship that had saved his life - not to mention the lives of at least three of his companions (the Zabrak was a surprise) - and boarded the Ace of Staves.  As he'd expected, the freighter was cramped.  There wasn't room to swing a mynock, what with nearly a dozen orphans, a fugitive Jedi, and four other outlaws (including Tien himself; SoroSuub wasn't likely to be the only organization with a price on his head anymore).  Without much ado, Tien got the ship off the ground, out of the planet's gravity well, and into hyperspace, with all fifteen sentients aboard her.  Fifteen sentients.  Fifteen.  And the Ace was only rated for seven.  This trip to Telos was going to be a long one.

[Geo]

Argo tapped his gun with a stick.
The orphans, gathered around in a circle looking up at him.
He tapped the gun again, rapping the stick against the side of a metal crate as he began to knock out the tunes to a tradition folk song from Darkknell. His uncle had taught him it, drunk over a pale of ale, and now he would deliver it to those young gathered before him.
He hummed along, the basic and simplistic tune of the song soon being picked up by the children.
Soon, they were rapping on the floor along with him as they reached the end of the song.

After having rounded them onto the ship, Argo had taken it upon himself to keep the children marginally entertained. Despite there being one or two aliens in their midst, the majority of the children were human, so Argo felt compelled to stop their minds drifting to the sounds of shooting and other fighting sounds that were going on around them. Plus if the kids were not emotionally dead, he's probably get paid more.

Ah yes, pay, he thought to himself. He'd had yet to discuss terms, something he was even now kicking himself for. He got up and stretched.
"I'll be back in a bit guys", he said to the kids as he left the room.

[Achkaerin]

Anja slowly, almost on auto pilot made her way through the ship, checking on the kids but her mind was elsewhere the image of Ruves burned into her eyes and mind, the man who'd trained her was now an agent of the dark side. The first person she would normally have reached out to for help she couldn't. She slumped down onto the deck of the cockpit leaning against the wall as the Ace of Staves continued to travel, she glanced over to where Threebie was "Do you remember him?" Anja asked "Ruves, my old master? I thought he was dead, lost in the massacre..." she trailed off as the sound of footsteps brought the rest of what was now certainly a band of outlaws into the cockpit. Anja took a moment to get her mind back where it needed to be, hard as it was for her to do, she took a deep breath, the people who were now risking their lives on this had a right to know what it was all about.

"My name is Anja Jonew." Anja said "I'm a Jedi one of the last, I was still early in my training when the Jedi massacre happened, I escaped it along with my master, we hid traveling from planet to planet never staying in one place too long. The Inquisition caught up with us as we were fleeing Nelvaan, I got away my master didn't. I thought he'd died." she slowly looked up "It would probably have been better if he had, but that masked inquisitor...it was him, they turned him..." she took another breath "The Empire is after this" right on cue Threebie produced the holocron "It's a Jedi holocron I don't know what it contains, it's written in a language I've never seen and even then I don't believe it's complete, the way it displays when activated it appears that it's multi-layered. However the fact that the Inquisition want this thing is enough to do everything I can do to keep it out of their hands." She got to her feet somewhat shakily her body still feeling the effects of the duel she'd just fought "When I was in hiding I reinvented myself as a bounty hunter I'd hoped that my status as a bounty hunter would be enough to get me access to an old Jedi academy on Telos, but after what we just went through there'll be a price on my head and we'd be walking right into a den of some of the most skilled fighters in the galaxy. I'm not entirely sure that Telos is a suitable destination now..." she trailed off for a moment before looking at Gav "Where did you get this holocron and were you taking it?"

[Tytor]

"Krant," Gav said, "It's in-"

"Bothan Space," Tien finished for him, "I know the place; had a job out there once."

"Nice enough people," Gav said, giving the Sullustan an appraising glance.

"More importantly, I assume you've got a place to hide it or someone to give it to out there," Tien countered.

"Well, yes," Gav admitted.

"All right, then here's what I'm thinking," Tien sad, "We're on the Ootmian Pabol right now, heading to Randon, where we'll change onto the Randon Run.  We'll then take that up to Lantillies, which is on the Perlemian Trade Route, which we will take to its intersection with the Hydian Way at Brentaal.  We'll then take the Hydian up to Telos.  Or at least that was the plan.  If we want to get to Krant instead, we'll still go to Randon, but we won't get onto the Randon Run.  Instead, we'll get onto the Trax Tube and head to Daalang, where we'll transfer onto the Bothan Way, which we'll take to Bothawui.  Krant is just a few small jumps along minor hyperlanes away at that point.  Either way, we're looking at travelling a while; the trip to Krant may be shorter, distance-wise, but the route to Telos is more heavily trafficked, and thus travel time is deceptively faster.  The question, I suppose, is which one we want to take.  I can guarantee safe travel at least as far as Brentaal or Bothawui, but Brentaal is in the Core, and Bothawui... well, I've never really felt I could trust any of the Bothans I've ever met.  Anything could happen after that."  He snorted with mild amusement.  "Well, after all that, I suppose I can add 'walking star map' to my list of skills.  Gav?  Anja?  The Ace of Staves is at your command; which route shall we take?"

[Achkaerin]

At the mention of the planet Krant, Anja smiled wryly it was perhaps a surprising reaction under the circumstances but after all the darkness of the last few years, all the running, all the hiding, all the fearing that she could conceivably be the last of the Jedi...that one planet name basically said "You are not the last" she glanced at Gav the hope welling up inside her "And your starting point?" she asked "Who gave you the holocron?"

Gav took a moment "A woman gave it to me, brownish hair, blue eyes asked me to take it to Krant for someone." he spoke slowly "I was on Five Points."

Anja, if it was possible grinned even more broadly, letting out a sigh of relief with the smile that would probably raise a few eyebrows, she'd have been punching the air if not for the situation they were in, she looked at Tien "Krant." she said before stifling the giggle "So she was lying after all..."

[Tytor]

The weeks passed.  Before too long, Tien was getting ready to drop the Ace of Staves out of hyperspace in the Both system.  The journey had been uneventful enough; just a few overzealous customs officials, and no sign of Imp pursuit.  Yet something about this trip made Tien uneasy.  At first, he thought maybe it was his basic distrust of Bothans, brought about by a run-in he'd had in Bothan Space a few years ago, but no... this was different.  Despite her promise to tell Tien more about her experiences in the Clone Wars, Threebie had remained tight-lipped (could a droid be tight-lipped?), and Tien had yet to work up the nerve to ask the Jedi for more information himself.

Tien sighed to himself.  The moment had come, and it was time to end this leg of the journey.  The ship's computer chirped at him, and he pulled back on the lever to revert the freighter to realspace.  There was the system's primary, Both, shining brightly as ever.  There was Bothawui, a mottled green-and-blue sphere splashed with the white of clouds.  There was the typical traffic of such an important shipyard, mingling with the world's own defense force.

And there, dead ahead, was an Imperial Star Destroyer.

Tien was shocked.  The Bothans did not take kindly to Imperial meddling in their space.  Tien didn't blame them; as an Imperial client state, Bothan Space was supposed to enjoy a degree of independence from the Empire, as it had as an Allied Region under the Republic for thousands of years before the Emperor was even born.  Tien couldn't tell exactly what the Star Destroyer was doing here, but based on the security vessels shadowing its movements, the Bothans did not seem to be very happy about it.  Tien keyed the Ace of Staves's intercom.

"Well, folks, we've made it to Bothawui," he said, "But we may be facing some issues here before we can continue to Krant.  I suggest everyone find a place to strap in, because things may get a little dicey before we're through.  And Master Jedi?  I would appreciate your presence in the cockpit as quickly as possible."

Tien half-remembered from stories he had heard told over the years that Jedi could sense other Force users.  While it seemed almost impossible that those inquisitors could have reached Bothawui before them, it seemed too much of a coincidence for him to want to ignore the possibility.  He switched the intercom back off and leaned back in his chair.

"I have a bad feeling about this," he muttered.

[Achkaerin]

Anja made her way to the cockpit, her sense of the Force had practically screamed something was up and Tien's tone of voice was more than enough to give her confirmation. She'd spent most of the time meditating and keeping an eye on the kids, not to mention keeping a discreet watch on the Dathomirian. She was pleased to have learned from Gav that a friend of hers had survived the purge, and the directions for Krant were enough to tell her what that friend had in mind. Stepping into the cockpit she saw the Star Destroyer hanging there and let out a deep breath, she knew they had a head start on Ruves and having looked around the Ace of Staves she was fairly convinced a Star Destroyer wasn't as quick as this ship, still if that Imperial ship was here for them then Anja could tell how it was possible - the Miraluka inquisitor, it made sense didn't it? Probably the most Force sensitive species it wasn't beyond the realms of possibility for the Miraluka to be able to sense her but even assuming she had tracked Anja it was highly unlikely that the inquisitors were aboard it. Still it did present a problem.

"Nice and easy." Anja said putting a hand on Tien's shoulder "No need to do anything alarming. Let's try and bluff this, see if they're here for us or if this a random flexing of muscles."

[Tytor]

Tien jumped at the sound of Anja's voice.  He hadn't heard her come into the cockpit.  Still, her presence was calming in an odd, almost unrelated way.  In the back of his head, he was aware that it was probably something to do with the fact that she was, well, a Jedi, but this didn't really bother him at the moment.

"Nice and easy," he echoed, and steadied himself.  There was relatively little to fear, in the event that the Imps were just harassing the Bothans and not actively looking for the Ace of Staves, as the old girl had a few tricks of her own up her metaphorical sleeves.  For one thing, she actually had a few different transponder codes that he could swap out whenever he needed.  In fact, he'd been on Nar Shaddaa using the transponder code of a fictional freighter called the Druckenwell's Bounty.  He'd had the foresight to swap codes during the first jump to Randon; they were now registering on any scanner pointed their way as the merchantman Force of Habit.

The comm buzzed insistently at that moment.  "Unidentified freighter, this is the Star Destroyer Vainglorious," a bossy male voice said, "Identify yourself and state your business."

"Vainglorious, this is Captain Siuv Sall of the Force of Habit," Tien replied at once in Sullustese, "We are a private contractor with SoroSuub, transporting a shipment of grain to Kothlis."  There was indeed a private contractor named Siuv Sall who did, in fact, work for SoroSuub on occasion, but he owned an Action IV transport - a bulk freighter.  Tien was hoping, almost against hope, that the Vainglorious would buy the story without looking too deeply into the details.

There was a long pause on the ImpStar's end.  Tien realized that the Imps were doubtlessly doing some factchecking.  It didn't take too long for Imperial Navy interpretation software to translate a simple sentence of Sullustese into Basic, after all.  Finally, the comm buzzed again.  "Very well, Force of Habit, you are cleared to transit the system," the bossy voice said, "Due to circumstances here, we're rerouting you somewhat.  Please adjust your course to the heading being transmitted to you now."

"Acknowledged," Tien said, still in Sullustese, deciding in an instant not to push his luck further, "Thank you very much, Vainglorious."  He switched the comm off and collapsed into his chair, practically melting into the soft synthleather seat in relief.  He keyed the autopilot to follow the course the Vainglorious was giving the Ace of Staves, and swiveled his chair to face Anja.

"I don't know whether you speak Sullustese," he said, speaking Basic once more, "But we've got ourselves a change of plans.  Rather than going straight from here to Kranth, we're going to have to jump to Kothlis to keep up appearances.  Fortunately, it doesn't seem like the Imperials are actively looking for us here; we seem to have bumped into them by mistake."

[Achkaerin]

"A wise Jedi Master once remarked that there's no such thing as a coincidence." Anja said as she kept her eyes firmly on the Star Destroyer, even if it wasn't the Inquisition it was still the Empire. "But yes we should keep up appearances, however let's not stay at Kothlis too long." she knew the longer they took getting to Krant the greater the chances of their being discovered were. She'd been on the run for so long that she knew better than most of the galaxy how this game was played, you ran, you kept your head down, you let life in the galaxy go on, you survived and you believed that the day would come when the Jedi would return and destroy the Sith at the heart of the Empire, order would be restored to the Galaxy and hopefully this time without perceived arrogance going with it. "Fate has a wicked sense of humour." she mused "Still if there's a chance he's alive that's useful right now in more ways than one."

[Tytor]

Tien pretended not to hear Anja's muttering, and nodded fervently.  "Yes," he said, "It definitely wouldn't do to stay at Kothlis too long.  Though I think we may want to at least stop for a few hours to fully dispel suspicion.  I told the Imperials we're transporting grain, though obviously we don't actually have any on board aside from whatever's in our provisions.  However, what with the Inquisitorius after you and all, I think it might be a good idea to find a place on Kothlis where all these orphans of yours can lay low until we can get them all off to Telos.  I believe I recall a nice enough apartment complex not far from the spaceport in Tal'cara, if you believe it worth the potential risk."

Just then, the Ace of Staves reached the edge of the gravity well, and a light told him that the navicomputer had the route to Kothlis calculated.  Without further ado, Tien punched the hyperdrive into action.  He sat back amid the silence as the stars lengthened into streaks across the pitch black void of realspace, and then all was swallowed into the pulsating blue and white of hyperspace.

"Anyway," he continued after a moment, "As I'm merely the hired pilot, do let me know what you would like to do.  If we choose to offload the orphans, I think I can estimate a stay on Kothlis no longer than... oh, three or four standard hours, give or take a few minutes' haggling."

[Geo]

Teth looked up as the Imperial TIE fighter flew low over the valley in which he had his home, and screeched along. Ever since that imperial highup had arrived to oversee whatever imperial exercise was happening, TIE fighters had been a consistent feature of Kothlis' sky. Not that he could prove it, but he was sure that the constant screeching and whatever space engine fuel they were leaking on their flights was disturbing the activity of his beer worms, reducing their appetites, and thus reducing the amount of their secretions. Without their secretions he couldn't make beer. His one-man business was also hurt in another way by the recent influx of imperial force; every time he went to the market he got harassed by the storm troopers there, causing him to often drop and spill the sacks of grain he had to haul up the hill to his home.

Walking into the silo where he kept the grain for brewing, and checked the levels. Sighing, he saw that the grain levels required him to pick up some more from the markets within the nearby city. He went into his house, and pulled on his backpack, the head of A-2H "waking up" as he pulled the pack out of its charging slot. Putting a bag over his shoulder, Teth began to walk into town.

[Achkaerin]

Touchdown for the Ace of Staves seemed routine enough, at least as far as Anja could tell though there was nothing routine about this trip, it had been hard to miss the TIE fighters on their descent, so the Empire was here as well. There were going to be very few planets this rag tag crew were going to be safe. But despite that knowledge Anja's awareness of the puzzle of Krant and what that meant kept her hopeful. However Anja knew she couldn't afford to be complacent, even if the Empire wasn't hunting Jedi here that didn't mean they didn't have a list of people to be on the lookout for her and other fugitives, she also knew it was highly likely that sooner or later the Empire would have a galaxy wide alert out for their ship. She barely got out of the cockpit before something through the Force hit her, a familiar presence but not one she'd felt in a long time.

"If four hours is how long we need to be here for appearances sake we better make use of the time." Anja said "Take on supplies, stock up for a journey and so on."

[Tytor]

The Bothan official who greeted Tien on the landing pad seemed irritated.  Tien assumed that probably had something to do with the TIE fighters which had shadowed Ace of Staves on the way down the well.  Tien was glad he'd resisted the temptation to change Ace's transponder again, just in case Vainglorious had relayed any suspicions to the Imp forces here on Kothlis.  And there was the problem, no?  Imp forces, here on Kothlis.  Heck, it was like the Empire had just outright occupied Bothan space, and Tien didn't like it.  Did this mean there were going to be inquisitors waiting for them on Krant after all?  Tien sure hoped not.  The trio on Nar Shaddaa had given him enough of the creeps to last him a lifetime.  No, scratch that.  Three lifetimes.  Oh merciful Triakk, he thought desperately, I'd give anything not to have to face the Inquisitorius again.  Which, come to think of it, was probably the point of their brutal tactics: intimidation.

With a mental sigh, Tien set out into the city of Tal'cara, directing his steps toward a local market he remembered for its fresh vegetables.  Threebie trundled along behind him.  She was unusually quiet given the circumstances, but Tien was so preoccupied with his thoughts that he almost didn't notice.  He'd invited any of Ace's passengers to come along who wanted to, though Gav had made an excuse and most of the orphans seemed content to stay aboard the ship.  However, two had decided to accompany him: the Twi'lek and one of the Humans - Tien could never remember their names, and telling the Human children apart was all but impossible for him, even after weeks in hyperspace with them.

As Tien and his motley entourage entered the marketplace, he observed several things.  First was the small contingent of stormtroopers patrolling the place.  Second was a Talz who looked very out of place surrounded by Bothan merchants, all evidently trying to sell various pieces of merchandise.  Third was a Human (Tien thought it was male) trying very hard to remain inconspicuous and, in Tien's opinion, failing miserably, though it didn't look like the stormtroopers had noticed yet.  And fourth... fourth was the very vegetable stand Tien had hoped to find here.  Tien smiled to himself and began to push his way through the crowd toward it.

[Cool101jr]

Gareth was failing at looking inconspicuous because if no one could see him, he wouldn't be able to get clients. He stood against the wall double checking his pay for the job that he had just finished that had got him onto Kothlis, which was a little further from the Outer Rim than he liked. He needed a drink, then he needed to leave. What he really needed was a job to come as soon as possible.

He glanced up and watched as the group made their way through the marketplace. The way the Sullustan was looking around, even eying him at one point, Gareth knew they were nervous. Why he didn't know, but he knew potential customers when he saw them. He brought up his hood and faded into the crowd of market stalls until he reached an alley he could slip down that would allow him to tail them from a distance. He wanted to follow them for a bit and learn a little about them and their business before approaching and offering his services.

[Achkaerin]

Even though there was no sign of the Inquisition, Anja was still being very very careful as she perused the various market stalls, making sure to avoid the gazes of any passing stormtroopers she just didn't know how much information had been relayed across space. She still had the knowledge that her old master was now her pursuer, they'd been lucky so far but with Ruves hunting her she would have to throw out everything she knew, she'd have to start to think differently, to start seeing the whole board from another angle. Then of course there was the holocron, that was one heck of mystery but did she really have to worry about it? She'd decided to take it to Krant to help Gav deliver it to someone there and if that was who she suspected then it would be in safe hands, but part of her wanted to know what the mystery was all about. Looking around the marketplace she noted the various shoppers and customers and then her eyes landed on a human, female with blonde hair and brown eyes. Anja's eyes widened as this human walked, very briskly, over to her and hugged her.

"I thought you were dead." the new human said
"I could say the same." Anja said "Well until a few weeks ago at least."
"What are you doing here?" the other human asked
"Long story." Anja said "Want to swap?"
"Later." the other human said

[Geo]

Teth glared angrily at the imperial storm trooper in front of him. He had been trying to make his way to where his neighbour, Old Man Kleet (a retired Trandoshan mercenary nearing the end of his life), would sell his grain at his stall. But the short man in the white armour was saying all kinds of stuff that grated on the nerves of the already grumpy Talz and he had had enough of it.

With a flick of his wrist, and a shout of obscenities that A-2H did not translate for him, he sent the storm trooper flying across the market, before rounding on his accomplice and bashing him over the head. The first storm trooper went flying into Old Man Kleet's stall, sending his sacks of grain spilling all over the place. Angrily, the Trandoshan punched the storm trooper, sending him stumbling into a group of people. Fighting descended into the market. Shouts of imperial soldiers could be heard, trying to restore order, but the chaos of the melee and the sudden ripple of blaster fire distracted from that.

Teth picked up a large ceramic pot, and threw it at a storm trooper, the momentum of the throw spinning him around, causing him to accidentally bundle into a group of two humans that had taken a step back when the fighting broke out, glancing at them, A-2H translated his hurried apology, as the butt of a blaster slammed into his face.

[Tytor]

«Talz = starting fight // Tien = be careful» Threebie whistled suddenly.  A split-second later, Tien heard a crash and turned just in time to see an Imp stormtrooper decked by the Trandoshan proprietor of the stall he seemed to have been knocked into by the force of the Talz's anger.

Nonplussed at the sudden outbreak of violence, Tien turned back to the vegetables he was trying to purchase.  "Sixty five credits for the lot, then?" he asked the Bothan seller, but he didn't get an immediate reply.  Right at that moment, a blaster bolt seared past Tien's head, and sent the merchant diving for cover.  Tien jumped and whirled around, drawing his own blaster from its holster, but the shooter was not obvious.

In fact, there seemed to be several shooters, none of whom were aiming at him.  Tien reholstered his blaster and turned once more to the vegetable stall.  He pulled out a credit chit and checked the balance on it.  Seventy five credits, which was ten more than the basket of vegetables he'd collected cost.  He glanced at the display, selected one more bushel of denta beans, and tossed the chit to the merchant.  "Keep the change," he said, and then started looking for a way back to the spaceport, preferably one that didn't involve wading through the brawl now occupying most of the market.  In retrospect, Tien decided he probably should have left the two orphans back on the ship, but it was just a little too late for that now.

[Cool101jr]

When the fight broke out, Gareth quickly disappeared into the chaos, making his way around the edge of the market, watching the Talz, the Sullustan, and especially the Imperials. He knew how jumpy they could get when a fight broke and knew he didn't want to deal with an entire squad of pissed off stormtroopers. He rested his hand on his blaster and got near the Sullustan, eying the troopers and the kids, ready to step in if the fight got too close to them, but didn't present himself yet, know by the look the Sullustan had that he wasn't worried about what was happening.