(Star Wars d6) #55 - Ctoria

The crew of the Pretio in this week's episode:

Ne'vets Aharo - an exotic animal broker, both legal and otherwise, majority owner in the Pretio.
Tarrie Prolek- Human pilot "under contract" to fly the Pretio, and drive the Piscopo. Brother of potential terrorist, rebel Latorna Savvn. His climbing skills are suspect, but his dance moves are above par. Edging a dangerous lifestyle of drugs, booze, and loose women.

Frokazza - Wookie co-pilot and friend of Tarrie, with a rare Wookie skin condition, but the strength of ten banthas.

Duk'k - Sipsk'ud Bounty Hunter, recently rescued by the crew.  Offering his services in order to get off this barely existing hunk of mud.  His warning shots are dead center mass kill shots.

Pet Food and Supplies

After travelling to the planet Rena

To capture the near-mythical Tree Kraken,

Ne'vets Aharo and the crew of the 

Pretio were en route to deliver the creature,

When the discovered that all of the 

Food and vegetation for the creature 

had disappeared!

It is now time to land on the planet Ctoria, 

In search of suitable flora, and whatever

Type of Tree Kraken Chow was available...

As the Pretio moved reached the planet Ctoria, Ne'vets Aharo covered his mouth with his hand to hide his concern.  Ctoria was not supply stop he had been thinking.  He couldn't remember what the name of the planet he was thinking of was, but it should have been a rich swamp planet, full of settlements selling the supplies needed to maintain a Tree Kraken.   There were some nice blue oceans, but the land was reddish and rocky.  Certain parts of the planets were covered under a circular clouds of blue and red.

"Cephalopod care is such a pain in the butt..." Ne'vets whispered under his breath.

Planetary control contacted the Pretio and requested credentials, and directed them to land.  

Approaching the suggested starport, they could see the town was atop a very high mesa.  The strange blue and red swirling clouds were actually below the mesa.

"No worries, Ne'vets,"  Tarrie reaffirmed his boss. "We just need kraken food, top off the fuel, and get back on the path to Sulo."

Ctoria

The Pretio landed without incident.  Tarrie pulled out the Piscopo and they drove into the center of the town, Downyonder.  

The local tradesmen bureau was quite sparse, but they managed to cobble together two bags of appropriate food to last the rest of the journey to Sulo.  

After Frokazza loaded the bags into the Piscopo, Tarrie suggested a drink at a local watering hole.  The walk down to the street met some amused looks by the locals, but no other vehicles, save a number of large dirigibles in the sky, one in particular floating into town from off in the distance. 

They reached the Consolidated Tap cantina in a few minutes, and found two booths and immediately reached out of refreshments.  A Transdosian bartender was teaching a young human the finer points of polishing glasses.  

The most obvious oddity among the patrons was one human sitting at the bar.  Instead of a drink, they had a large container of some frozen treat, which they were eating with a universal utensil found in most mess kits. 

Dressed in a black flight suit with a black jacket was a woman with nearly platinum hair.  She was focused on her dessert. 

Tarrie walked over to the bar to interrupt the bartending lesson and get drinks for the group.  Coming back with the drinks, he only had one question for them.

"What's up with the ice cream girl?"

Once the drinks were on the table, Frokazza clobbered Tarrie in the shoulder, knocking him to the ground.  "C'mon man, behave..."

Tarrie dusted himself off and looked over to Ne'vets for guidance.  Ne'vets was not amused, "I don't tell you what to do, you do whatever you do.  You're on the ground before your first drink."

Nursing his shoulder and his drink, Tarrie walked back over to her.  The Correllian cut of her jacket. Perhaps she had a ship they could use/commandeer, and if things went bad, befriend.

Duk'k leaned over the table to the others, "I don't know what's up ice cream girl?  Should I?" 

Ne'vets could only roll his eyes.

Tarrie sauntered up to the bar, top four buttons of his shirt opened, bought a second drink and sat next to the woman.

"Hey, what's your deal?  I'm Tarrie, I work with that crew over there, and you seem kind of pissy, what's up."

The woman finished her bite of ice cream, put the cover back on the container and turned to directly face Tarrie.

"What can I do for you?  Can I help you?  Are you drunk?"

"No, we're just transporting live animals on our ship and needed extra supplies and wound up here.  What's your name?"

"I'm just another traveler here, who's asking?"

Tarrie was a bit flummoxed.  "Clearly I'm asking.  Are you in trouble?  You need some help?  Are you doing okay?"  He pushed his second drink towards her, "And if you want me to walk away, here's a drink, maybe you can turn that into an ice cream float."

"Appreciate it, but I don't drink.  To be honest, I am interested in transport off-world."

"Okay, where you headed?"

"Hold on a moment, please, I will be back," and with that, the woman stood up, and walked over to the refresher.

Tarrie stumbled back to the table.  

"I'm striking out with this chick, but she needs help to get off-world..."

Duk'k beat Ne'vets to the punch, "Does she have credits?"

"I don't know.  I'll bring her over here when she comes back."

Tarrie waited for her to return and convinced her to come over to the crew's tables.  She refused to take a seat, standing at parade rest.  

Duk'k started the conversation.  "My friend tells me you're looking for passage off-planet"

"Yes"

"Any particular direction?"

"Anywhere farther away than here."

"Any particular reason?"

"I lost my ship."

Frokazza interjected,  "In a Sabaac game, or did you forget where you parked it?"

Without a beat the women understood the Wookie, and replied, "Someone took it."

Tarrie laughed, "It's a real-life version of 'Bro, Where's My Speeder?  Anyway, we never got your name?"

The woman turned to Tarrie and Tarrie alone, "My designation is SD-072."

"So you're Empire?"

"Noooooo....."

Duk'k raised a few eyes at this individual.  He normally could read a person like a schoolchild's datapad, but she seemed like she wasn't trying to be vague.

Tarrie kept peppering with "Are you willing to pay for transport? Are willing to pay for transport?  Are 

your stranded?  Did you spend your last credits on ice cream?"

She pulled out a few cred stick, "I also have service, labor.  I can pilot any craft superior to others, and I'm properly trained in combat."

Tarrie whispered to the crew. "No way she's better than me..."

Ne'vets finally spoke up, "Are you wanted by anyone, any bounties our on you?"

"Yes....  Probably..."

Duk'k chuckled ,"That's refreshing honesty."

Ne'vets looked towards his crew, "Duk'k you find out how much trouble this person is in.  Tarrie, you fetch SD-54."

"SD-072"

"Okay, 72, get here some more ice cream.  You need a better name, how about Sid."

"Sid will work."  

SD-72  "Sid"

"Mister Monzal didn't like my name either"

"And who is this Mister Monzal?"

"I think he's the one who stole my ship.  We flew it here together with another individual, a Mister Blaine, from Takodana."

The crew's jaws collectively dropped, save Ne'vets who seemed indifferent.

Tarrie got excited, "Waitaminute, it must have been one of Evus' relatives..."

"His name was Evus, he personally started calling me just SD."

Pieces started falling into place a bit faster from there,  Sid explained he was voluntarily detached from the Empire, found refuge on Takodana, and grabbed a flight with Blaine Hansen and Evus, somehow reached Ctoria, and Evus left with the ship, stranding both she and Blaine on planet.   Blaine got passage on the next freighter and left Sid there to fend for herself.

Ne'vets paid for extra ice cream and Sid went back to her bar stool while the crew discussed the options of this charity case with only 1,000 credits.  

"Worst case, she can replace Frokazza as co-pilot, he's a good fighter, but a horrible pilot."

Frokazza launched over the table at Ne'vets.   Duk'k dove into the separate the two, while Frokazza and Tarrie started yelling at each other in Wookie.   Frokazza let go of Ne'vets and shoved Tarrie across the cantina.  The pilot crashed through three sets of table and landed on a group of cantina patrons.

Frokazza roared, "We're friends, but humans are not allowed to speak to Wookies like that."

"That's not the way I expected an opening," Ne'vets mused.

The bartender and his stead came over the bar, "Hey we don't tolerate things like that, get out of here, take ice cream girl with her." 

Ne'vets stood up and tossed a pile of creds at the bartender, "Sorry about that, this should take care of that."

Frokazza seemed much calmer as he walked over to the unconscious Tarrie, the other patrons gave him wide berth. 

Duk'k followed the Wookie, buying drinks for the inconvenienced patrons.

Ne'vets looked toward Sid, "Well Sid, might as well go see our ship..."

Back at the Pretio,  Ne'vets gave Sid a tour of the ship, apologizing for the damp and moist conditions in certain sections.  "Grab those two bags of Cephalopod  Chow off the lift and I'll show you how to feed the Tree Kraken..."

Sid hefted both bags, which where as tall as her, and carrying them into the cargo hold with haste.  Frokazza witnessed the effort and felt far more impressed than threatened by this new person. 

Sid was briefed by Ne'vets about the feeding and care of the creature, and she was completely enraptured by the Tree Kraken.

Frokazza dropped the still unconscious Tarrie off at the medical droid, Dr P3PP3R, and moved to the cockpit. He sat crooked in his co-pilot's chair stewing at the ongoing situation.  He was surprised to see a lone person entire the hanger.  He ran off the ship to scare him off, but he realized it was one of the cantina patrons.  

"What do you want?" Frokazza yelled.  

"Easy big guy, I saw what you could do first hand, I think I've got a business arrangement that can help both of us."

Frokazza took him on board and pulled Ne'vets out of his quarters.  After the a half hour of talking in private, the man left the ship with a satisfied look on his face. 

The next day, Frokazza and Sid used numerous lifts to load additional cargo aboard the Pretio from a different ship in the spaceport to the remaining room in the vessel.  A legal side job where Sulo was an acceptable destination sounded too good to be true, but Ne'vets knew he wasn't the one hauling it all to and from. 

Everything finally settled, it was time for the Pretio to leave for Sulo.  The Quarren Dallin Wallof  must have been impatiently waiting for his or her Tree Kraken.   Meanwhile, Ne'vets just stared at the thirty metric tons of glow rods than were heading with them as well.

"I hope they can tolerate the moistness."

GM Notes: Ctoria was patterned after the planet Victoria, as presented in Journal of the Travellers' Aid Society #2. 

Next: #56 - Abandoned Sulo?