(Star Wars d6) #86 - Back to Bad Practices

 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.

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.

"Sid" - A peculiar woman who has shown to be a better pilot than the previous one. Possible Imperial ties, but a far better shot.

 
Latorna Savvn - Rebellion pilot and saboteur, trying to lay low from the Empire after a series and destructive attacks.

Evus - Twi'lek male, former slave, then former associate of Ne'vets, who has found his way back to the Pretio but caught back up in the nonsense of the Pretio

More Travel By Galactic Map

Tatoonie, New Cov, Naboo

Just a short list of places the crew of the Pretio

Have travelled in search of leads to

an elusive, but profitable opportunity

Working with the Empire.

But now, the crew has reached 

Their final destination - the planet Botajef, 

With one of the planet's most hated

Criminals on board....

"We're going back to Botajef."

With those words, Ne'vets Aharo froze, his mind racing as Duk'k asked an appropriate follow-up question, "What's wrong with Botajef?"

"Really not much, we helped out an Imperial customs house against criminals, we ran into Tarrie's long-lost cousin, Latorna, and then she proceeded to blow up a bank and a Jawa Juice.  Only easy thing we did on the planet was buy the Pretio...."  Ne'vets scanned his crew, and once realizing that Evus was sulking in his room,  "Heck, Sid, Duk'k, even the droids weren't with us back then."

"For starters, I didn't know where we were headed when we started searching out this job opportunity.  I just thought if we were, or were harboring fugitives from the Empire, working for the Empire was well under their radar."

Duk'k concurred, "Hiding in plain sight. Smart."

"Right.  Latorna, we can drop you off if you want, but we're probably going to be security for the science planet, so I'm assuming the don't rubber stamp these jobs."

"That's fine, we don't need to do that," Latorna countered, running her finger on the astrogation charts.  "If we stop on Karivia, I get pick up new documents, maybe a good wig, and I'll be Marie Prolek, at your service. Just give me a day."

Once they landed on Karivia, Latorna was the only one to disembark.  She didn't bring a com as well. 

She didn't come back after a day.  On the morning of the second day, the crew did Rock/Datapad/Blaster to determine if they were leaving her on planet.  Blaster won.

Ne'vets scoured the newsfeeds, waiting for the first report of some explosion, or robbery, or a robbery of an explosives plant.  Fortunately the news on planet was relatively calm, but on the Imperial News Networks, Latorna's life was getting complicated.  Not for the worse or for the better, just.. complicated.

It was reported that Investigators for the Imperial Shipyard explosion announced that the cause of the explosions was now being  ruled accidental.  A corporate contractor failed to properly install energy reservoirs, which, when they were breached, caused catastrophic damage.  

Ne'vets ask Duk'k to check on Latorna's bounty, and lo' and behold, half her offenses were scrubbed from the bounty description, and the total bounty dropped from 75K to 15K.

By dinner time on day two, Latorna finally returned to the ship, extremely annoyed, but holding a long blonde wig. "We're good... just.... go, please."

Ne'vets sent Sid to the cockpit, and slyly lowered the volume on the news feed. 

Arriving on Botajef, Ne'vets, Duk'k, Sid, and "Marie" disembarked to find the Ministry of Science office. 

The satellite office of the Science Corps was built atop the ruins of the destroyed Jawa Juice.  .Five stories, with stark construction.  "IMPERIAL MINISTRY OF SCIENCE - BOTAJEF SATELLITE OFFICE" across the top, it stuck out like a sore thumb on a busy commercial street.

Ne'vets adjusted his clothing, "Anyone want to come in with me?"  Having and alleged imperial soldier and a rebel terrorist in attendance, he was really directing the question to Duk'k.  

"I'll make a go of it.  Latorna, stay with Sid." and they went inside.  

Sid was sitting compactly on a bench.  Latorna looked around.  Botajef Inter-galactic Bank was still across the street.  The ATMs had been replaced and upgraded.  She had at least twenty minutes to check up whatever security upgrades were made...

Botajef Inter-galactic Bank

Meanwhile, Ne'vets and Duk'k arranged an impromptu face-to-face of Captain Galleh Atar.  It took a long time to narrow the conversation down to the research facility on Myrkr. Like previous conversations, the situation was high on pay and low on details.  Vague details about long-standing tree research, even vaguer details on staff turnover.  More security was maintained by a private merchant and his teams.  

"There's not even a mission statement on this one, it's a bit surprising," Captain Atar said.  She did offer to forward the necessary data to the mission director and security company.  

"I'll try to reach out to them now and see if we can pull more detailed specs for me.  In the meantime, there's a personal beverage dispenser by the front window.  You're welcome to use it."

Ne'vets took the Captain up on her offer, and stared out on the busy street below as his personal beverage brewed.  He saw Sid still sitting on the bench.  Latorna was nowhere to be seen.

Latorna had already made it across the street, past the ATMS, and had entered the bank.  She scanned the main lobby: one security guard, a Byzantine array of stanchions and ropes for the three whole customers to navigate before speaking with the three working tellers.  Right beside the tellers was a wide open vault. 

Latorna slid over to the end of the tellers and nonchalantly scanned to contents of the vault.

Captain Atar had difficulty contacting the facility, but simply offered the jobs to Ne'vets and his crew, largely sight unseen.  The only requirements were each crew member applying in person.   Ne'vets hemmed and hawed, but Atar stood firm, "Less than two years again, the area where this building now stands was a Jawa Juice.  Rebel saboteurs blew everything up to distract a bank robbery across the street.  We're trying to prevent these things from happening again on all planets across the Empire."

"Can I bring them around tomorrow?"

"That would be great, we can get a code cylinder with everything you need for tomorrow."

With that, Ne'vets and Duk'k departed and found Sid outside, still sitting on her bench.

Back inside the bank, Latorna hopped over a short gate and found herself inside the vault.

She began stacking trays of established credit sticks into multiple camtonos.  As she hopped back over gate and headed towards the door, the security suddenly woke up from his apparent.  

"Hey, you didn't go through the line!  Where did you come from?  Why are you carrying those?"

Latorna fired a hastily held blaster into air....

Across the street, Sid was catching the duo up.

"Mister Duk'k.  Latorna... now known as Marie, walked over to the bank.  I stayed here."

Ne'vets peered across the street.  No one was entering or leaving the bank, but he could see a woman with long blonde hair run directly into the inside door, attempting to leaving.    A terrible crash could be heard from within the building, followed by the implosion of the large glass skylights dotting the bank.

"Oh my" was all Sid could muster.

Ne'vets grabbed Duk'k and Sid by the arms and started walking down the street.  A block further and Ne'vets taking his com and making an open channel to call the Ministry of Science.

"Captain Atar's messages please...... 'Hello Captain Atar, Ne'vets Aharo.  I've talked it over with my crew and we're going to decline that opportunity. Thanks again for the consideration!"

Next: #87 - Want Ads in the Credit-Saver