The party receives a holocall from Zorbo the Hutt, to go to the planet Khomm, an agricultural world in the Deep Core that specializes in algae production. They're to steal a large sample of L-4 as well as the dataplans for it. The hyperspace travel takes two weeks, with a temporary interruption of being knocked out of hyperspace because of a gravity storm; nearly instigating violent attack from the planet, Calligrattica, they ended up in orbit while they attempted to reorient their location. There's a bit of eyebrow raising at the sensors picking up signals of beetles the size of mountains on the planet's surface, concerned that attack might be reminiscent of the scene from Starship Troopers. Thanks to allaying debate, they keep the territorial natives from opening fire, and continue on their way.
Upon reaching Khomm, they pose as wealthy patrons wishing to purchase L-4, and are greeted by one of the nobles upon a litter. He presents an ornate litter for the party to use, flippantly killing a number of slaves to provide higher quality ones when the opportunity arises.
As they ride toward the L-4 facility, the noble provides a tour of the planet and their algae producing ways, all in an attempt to ingratiate himself for the chance at profit. Due to the distances involved, the party stays the night in one of the palaces, where the grounds prove to be exceedingly heavy in slaves. The two most perceptive members of the party (Sorbin & Daquan) are able to notice, but the servants move entirely through secret passageways, using innumerable hidden hatches and doors to clean and refill food trays when their heads are turned. A couple occasions, one of the doors leads to a different room than before, the entire palace having been built semi-modular such that a dedicated team of servants below can operate the cranks to subtly rotate the rooms in relation to each other.
Just before dawn, Sorbin notices an armed individual sneaking into the room through one of the hidden doors, to which he knocks out the intruder with a blaster shot to the chest. The noble enters out of concern from the noise, and questions where the blood came from, blithely not acknowledging the body even when the party points at it; in fact, the noble starts to feel ill, leaves for a moment to retch. He returns to a clean carpet (the body is over Imriel's shoulder) and apologizes for his behavior, as he cannot recall what the concern even was, but is glad that the guests aren't concerned about the noise. Providing the privacy they asked for, the party dumps the body in the tub and do a little first aid after disarming him entirely. There is a fresh glass of ice water when they decide it to be time to wake him, and Imriel is creeped out by her boots already being cleaned of the blood without her noticing.
The intruder is a revolutionary, and points out the 'mysteriously' appeared torture implements next to Imriel when he starts to withhold information. Proper applied pain gets him spilling beans. His mission was to sabotage some of their gear and scare them away as customers to harm the nobles. Seeing the opportunity, Daquan offers to help the cause by telling him to find a way to get more nobles to the L-4 facility, and they will be rewarded.
Later that morning, Imriel and Sorbin state a need to make a holocall and to obtain some of the credits for the upcoming purchase, and are given a litter and mobile chef for their breakfast. Meanwhile, Pradeque & Daquan are carried to the facility. L-4 is an acidic algae that will dissolve metal, and metal alone, and works much faster with a specific alloy; a trait that must be tweaked on request.
While delaying for time, a high noble named Lord Nirsal and several other nobles arrive for highly esteemed guests, only to be blasted by a surprise arrival of the Closest Shave. It lands near the ruined crater of an entrance, in which Imriel & Sorbin pour out to kill the guards. It's a heated fight with the 30 soldiers, and Pradeque calmly picks up the L-4 containers and walks by, ignoring their attacks the entire time. The sales-noble is devastated before slain on the spot by Imriel when it's all said and done, and the party leaves the planet with their spoils.
At the station, they drop off the L-4 tanks and the data, noticing that Zorbo's accountants have been replaced with Imperial Givin and the ship has been repaired drastically faster than expected (nearly two months ahead of schedule). With a shrug, they continue toward the far off moon with the Chadra-Fan for their next mission.
No comments:
Post a Comment