(Star Wars d6) #30 - The Caves of the Great Island

The Current Crew of the Pretio

Ne'vets Aharo - an exotic animal broker, both legal and otherwise, majority owner in the Pretio.

Evus - Twi'lek free mercenary, Ne'vets' armed muscle with a keen eye and a tendency to shoot first.
Tarrie - Human pilot "under contract" to fly the Pretio, and drive the Piscopo.  Brother of potential terrorist, rebel  Latorna Savvn.
Frokazza - Wookie co-pilot, mechanic, and unarmed muscle. Very distrustful.

Kafla Thingvellir - Billionaire entrepreneur turned zoological enthusiast, in search of the Translucent Chromatic Trapper.

Island Getaway!

After bumbling encounters with

Some of native fauna of Planet 576-908, 

The Star Safari of Kafla Thingvellir 

and his hired crew move on to the 

Large island in the center of the "Great Sea"

The Pretio lifted off from the rudimentary "spaceport" established by the Explorer Corps, nineteen years previous.  Destination: the Great Island of the Great Sea.  It was hoped that a quick diversion to the island might net some clues as to the location of the elusive Translucent Trapper.  

The island was dominated by one long ridge line running north and south.  It was the highest elevation on the island, a towering 200 meters at its highest.  

Crossing the green-blue water of the Great Sea, Frokazza picked up some vague lifeforms on the island.  There were three major clusters on the island,  two near the center, and one on the far northern tip.  

Kafla was incredulous, "This is impossible.  More opportunities here than the spots that should have?  Sure, whatever, let's investigate."

Ne'vets decided to visit the northern signature first.  Tarrie found a safe spot to land and the Piscopo disembarked for a short jaunt to a cave on the ridge wall.   

Frokazza worried about cave-ins,  "Do we need to bring in heavy weaponry?  Any little blast might cause a collapse." 

Tarrie translated for his friend and the larger weapons were secured in the Piscopo.

Tarrie nominated Frokazza for point and quickly walked back to grab his blaster rifle and sling it onto his back.

It took the better part of the day to explore the cave network, It only meandered 500 meters deep, before resulting in a sizable cave-in.  There was evidence of the tiny wildlife found on the mainland occasionally ventured onto the island, and the cave in particular.  

They did discovered another cache of the orange Denuli crystals, albeit the same "spent or burnt" ones Kafla showed them before taking the mission. 

Still unsure of the signature on the sensors, the crew went back to the ship and called it a night. 

43 days to go...

The following morning, Tarrie flew the ship south to the next cluster.  

The readings pointed out another cave entrance..  Frokazza immediately regretted it, as the tunnel never went higher than six foot fall.

The cavern system was quite meandering, but trackable.  Another pile of thirty or so Denuli crystals laid about the complex.  Tarrie was also keen enough to notice the sound of moving water, even if they couldn't find the source.  

Going further into the network, one moment, they turned back to talk to one another, then notice Frokazza was missing, replace by a large hole on the floor.  A few moments later, the hole opened up further, swallowing everyone. 

The fall was quite short shaking the crew up more than injuring them, but the ensuing fall of rocks from above, made everyone scatter further into this lower cave.  The crew was relatively unscathed, although Tarrie was struck in the head with some of the smaller rocks.  Lucky for him, Tarrie was wearing his trusty helmet, the only party member to do so. 

Ne'vets took a personal inventory before counting the crew.  His Binoculars and lone tangler grenade were lost, under tons of rock.  

To his surprise, Frokazza handed him his missing grenade.  The binocs, however, appeared to e a lost cause. 

Digging out back to the original tunnel would require heavy mining machinery to clear out the rockslide, for further down into this new tunnel was the only option.  

The cavern had little deviation and continued a slow descent for possibly hundreds of meter.  The sound of moving water was much louder.   

Evus was the first to notice a lifeform in this cave, a lizard over three inches tall, more than double the size of the largest specimen they found above ground!

Kafla was still not interested in any creature other than the trapper in question. 

Ne'vets thought he was dreaming, when he saw a series of fresh boot prints along with the crews' fresh steps.  

"That boot print has a bunch of zig-zag lines on the tread.  None of us have those boots. 

Of course, everyone in the party checked their character's footwear, including the bare footed Frokazza.

"Is this your tipster friend, Kafla."

"No, they're much too fresh, he's been gone from this planet for quick awhile.  I'd be surprised if they survived," Kafla surmised.  

"Regardless, they're heading in the direction we're going, Be on the lookout," Evus warned everyone.

Continuing down the passageway, Evus swore he heard something, voices in an alien language:

So then, when the Boss had them all dead, we wrote 'Death to the Unbelievers" on their ship.  That'll teach those smugglers to mess with us... Hey what's that light over there?  Hey, where'd that light disappear to?"

The party had been caught and extinguished anything that was lit.  

Ten foot away, so could faintly see a few pairs of glowing eyes and the hum of a item with a vibration. 

Ne'vets ducked behind and ran to the back of the group, stumbling and knocking down Kaflas.  

Kafla freaked out, "They got me, They got me! Save yourself!  Take whatever you can and leave me to die...!"

Evus, turned on a massive flashlight, half-blinding everyone.  

In front of the group were four Snivvians in black tunics with hoods, with vibroblades perilously close to the Wookie's genitals. 

Frokazza jumped back in utter surprise, running right into Evus.  

With everyone else tripping or falling over, that left Tarrie standing there, blaster rifle targeting the Snivvian's chest. The alien flew back and did not move again.  

With their friend motionless on the ground, the other Snivvians froze in place.

With blades still in hand, the Snivvians raised their unarmed hand, and in Galactic Common, pleaded for surrender and their lives.

The aliens slowly walked backwards to what appeared to be a river(?)

"Not another step, drop your weapons." Evus demandeed.  

They complied. 

"We don't need to shoot anymore?" Tarrie asked.

"Point your weapons down, let's talk," Ne'vets decided.

"What are you guys doing here?"

"You fools, you fools!  We know nothing, we're just here to bring supplies to the holy place.  Ohhh, you're unbelievers, you're all going to die horrible painful deaths.... Man you guys were loud, we almost got you."

"How many of you are down here at the holy place?"

"So many people, I can't count how many, and they all want you dead... by horrible means that are so awesome.  I mean, people so much better than us will find you and kill you."

Tarrie doubted them, "Are you sure I can't just shoot them."

"No-no-no... no reason for our painful death."

"How do we get to holy place?"

The one Snivvian pointed behind him, to a large river and a submersible watercraft.

"How did we miss that?" Ne'vets inquired.

"You know, humans have horrible sight, you won't even see your..."

"...Horrible and painful death, we know we know.," Tarrie finished his sentence. 

"How do we get there?"

"I don't know, I just press the button and we get there."

The crew left a few crates of foodstuffs on the shore, and quickly tied the four Snivvians up.  

The submersible had four seats: one for the pilot, one for the gunner and two passengers.  Evus volunteered to stay in the cargo hold.  

Everyone inside, Tarrie closed the canopy and began a painful experiment of piloting in the water.  Frokazza and Tarrie began bickering about the controls for the ship.  Neither noticed the herky-jerky motion of the ship, nor the black gloved hand of Kafla, reaching between them and pressing the "AUTO PILOT" button.

"If we're going to succumb to the 'The Worst Death.... Ever!' we might as well make the trip pretty easy."

Next: #31 - To a Dark Fortress