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.
"Sid" - A peculiar woman who has shown to be a better pilot than the previous one. Possible Imperial ties, but a far better shot.
Evus - Twi'lek male, former slave, then former associate of Ne'vets, currently working for Crom-Crom the Gungan on Naboo, but caught back up in the nonsense of the Pretio.
Latorna Savvn - Noted terrorist working for the Galactic Rebellion. Wanted by the Empire and multiple systems for multiple deaths in the name of "Freedom." Laying low on the Pretio, while also bleakly looking for any news that her brother, former Pretio pilot Tarrie Prolek, is still alive.
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. Currently blown out of the Pretio while manning the top turret and is presumed lost on the planet Ruie
Checking In
The crew of the Pretio, contracted to rescue
Sergei Oberlates, son of industrial magnate,
Mark Oberlates, have arrived on the planet Ruie.
Within a few minutes, the ship came under attack
Duk'k the bounty hunter was ejected from the craft.
Using the Something Awesome, Rebel Agent and Saboteur
Latorna Savvn made contact with Duk'k but also has
Made contact with two Z-95 Headhunters, which
Certainly does not match the tech level of the planet.
Will the crew make nice with the locals, or will there be
A sudden influx of off-worlders in the planet's penal system?
With two Z-95 Headhunters powering towards Something Awesome, she did not feel like testing the full capabilities of the experimental aircraft.
"We will comply. We're missing a crew member on the ground from an explosion. He was last seen in an area with three local transports."
"We can send a recovery team once we smooth over the details."
Latorna switched channels and provided coordinates to the Pretio and followed the navigation. At the altitude programmed in, she could notice more buildings, although most were one story tall, and none more than two. Once arriving at the coordinates, a blast door door opened up from the the rocky ground and an entrance to an underground hanger could be seen. Latorna landed in the first of many empty spots in this hanger, unbuckled, took off her helmet, popped the hatch, and waited for the welcoming committee.
A few moments later, a squad of men in jumpsuits emerged, followed my a group of men in cheap light armor and ridiculous helmets. At first look, it appeared that each of them were armed with a flame thrower, but the upon further inspection, all but one were energy packs. One of the larger fellows was indeed, armed with a flame thrower.
Upon the
Pretio's arrival, the first squad motioned the crew to disembark from the vessels and come forward. Everyone but Sid and the droids left the ship.
Once they left their ships, two native individuals seemed to take the lead, a small-ish pale human with spikey hair and a nervous visage, and a darker-skinned individuals with arms like a Rancor which dwarfed the flame thrower he carried.
"Welcome to Ruie, guys. You know you guys can't just land. We are in the middle of a war zone."
"That wasn't on the travel brochure."
"We have a brochure now? These off-worlders bring nothing but problems."
"And money, don't forget about money."
"We'll talk about that later. I'm Dash Anker, the large fellow next to me is Big Bob. Welcome to the Jingarlu Union."
Going through the formalities, a discovery was made to the poor sensors on the Pretio. One major omission in the scant planetary information was the solar radiation levels on the surface of the planet. Moderate exposure of just a few weeks would be debilitating at best, deadly at worst. The original colonizers had brought shielding for residences, but as communications evaporated and materials dried up, civilizations immediately began looking beneath the surface, coming out only the plant, maintain, and harvest crops (the radiation did help create bumper crops, even if there was a quarantine period before one could consume them.) Everyone above surface used
"You guys are missing someone too, how did that happen?"
"He fell out after the explosion."
"You don't have seatbelts?"
"He's a bigger dude, seatbelts aren't always comfortable."
Big Bob nodded, "I feel you."
Dash kept going, "If have coordinates, we'll have the same artillery guys who hit your ship look for him."
"We got hit by artillery?"
"Yep, lucky shots happen. Why are you guys here?"
"Tourism... and we'll talk about our friend missing and jail on planet later?"
"You're here for the Oberlates kid?"
"Yeah, you heard about him?"
"Of course, I kriffing heard about him. His old man raised a stink, but the kid's in Neevlethorn. It's not going to fun...."
Back on the surface, Duk'k was carefully making his way through the forest, heading towards wherever the natives and the transports had appeared and returned to. He quickly ducked back into bushes as the three transports came back down a trail, much slower than before. The soldiers were bellowing into the woods.
"Bro!!!! You out here, Bro! You're friends landed safely and reported you missing. Man, are you okay? We don't want to shoot anybody else today, we just want to return you to your friends!"
Duk'k pondered the situation for a few moments, and decided emerging from the woodline with a tangler grenade in hand wasn't the silliest action he would do over the past few months.
"Hey, he's right there. Dude, sweet purple armor... oh...oh... he's an alien too!"
The soldiers offered to take them back to their base, patch him up, feed him, and wait for proper transport to take him to the city. Duk'k deactivated the tangler grenade and agreed.
The majority of the soldiers' base was underground as well, a concrete motor pool, and a lot of camouflage netting. They spent most of the time asking Duk'k questions and taking pictures. They even showed the Sipsk'ud how they were integrating the cupola from the Pretio into their anti-aircraft explosive slugthrowers. Duk'k also received a layman's version of politics involving Jingarlu, Neevlethorn, and the Commors Union.
Within a few more hours, a single, four-seater speeder arrived and whisked Duk'k away from his fan club and back to his fellow crewmates.
DM Notes: This episode brings out two cameos from another Star Wars campaign. My friend Eric "The Other Eric" to some, EricFromNewJersey on Happy Jacks ran a Star Wars campaign in the mid to late 90's that was simply the gold standard I measure all other Star Wars games by. The leaders in the hanger meeting the group I vaguely modelled after the captain of the "Blitz" and a certain Big Bob Watts, a large black man with heavy weapons, who was the exact copy of Big Bob Watts from Mutant Chronicles/Doomtrooper CCG fame.
I'm sure I'll borrow others as things progress.
Next: #76 - Cold Call
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