Kai's Journal #4
[decryption successful… resuming holojournal, circa 2 BBY]
… when we opened the door, we noticed a Med droid, designated FX-769. We tried questioning it, but when it refused to cooperate Slee decided to put a restraining bolt on it so Keva could slice it and download programming logs. The feisty little thing attacked us, and so I scolded it soundly. A med droid has no business attacking people! Something was clearly wrong with its programming. Keva shot it, distracting it's attention, and Slee took the opportunity to get behind the droid and quickly spot-weld the bolt.
While Keva and Slee sliced FX, 87 and I checked out the refresher. More bad news - two more corpses. 3D informed us that they were Narin & Surmace. It's not getting any less creepy here, and our droid suspicions were furthered when Keva called out, “Ah, got it… 'Organics, die die die die die die'. We may have a problem here.”
We found the main office, and our mechanically-minded friends got to work again, slicing into the mainframe. With a triumphant cry, Keva squeaked, “What do we want to know? We've got complete access!” We examined video footage of various security cameras - a scout droid leaving in a Cloud Car, workers entering the mine earlier in the day, as well as the arrival of a Sullustan on a freighter a few hours before us. That one had suspiciously missing footage; it looks like EV-83, the supervisor droid, was involved in something there.
We also accessed the status of the mine, and it confirmed that the profitability charts and projections were both dropping, and maintenance was not done properly. Keva found the safe, and he cracked the lock with ease and took all the credits.
3D was looking over our shoulder, asking about the credits, and I confused him with some story of Moray being dead, trying to sidetrack him. I think I was a bit confused as well - things were a bit of a blur. In any case, I distracted 3D enough that he stopped asking about the credits.
We continued cautiously towards the mine. 87 was our scout, since we figured that a droid was safer here than us 'organics'. In the main warehouse, 87 ran into the R2 unit, who started stuttering around in binary. The R2 then quickly left in the direction of the mines, so we then entered the warehouse as well. We turned off the load lifter droid in the room, and everything else looked quiet. Crates of consumed foods and “Oridel” boxes with empty oridium slots lay scattered around.
The next room was a small smelting plant, with an oil bath along with some ore and cooling racks. Keva crept over and picked up a bunch of restraining bolts on the table. When we peeked into the oil bath, sure enough, another dead body. I was getting quite tired of this. We pushed 87 into the next room ahead of us while we peeked around the corner and listened in through our comms.
EV-83, along with some unarmed battle droids and PK units were busy erecting a barricade in front of the mine entrance. He told us the facility was hit by pirates; an Aqualish, a mean Gamorrean, and a Sullustan. I thought back to the security footage and it sure didn't look like pirates arriving on that freighter.
We decided to check out the freighter, in any case, and crept back through the warehouse and up the lift. The small freighter was on the pad, with some oridium crates nearby. Bloodstains smeared the freighter, and … guess what - another body. One starts to get a tad desensitized. It's either that or go crazy.
It appeared as though the ship did in fact have weapons in one crate, but they were currently missing. This did not look good.
Back at the mine entrance, I strode into the room and tried to convince the droids we were synthflesh droids, but he didn't bite. But on the bright side, they didn't kill us, either. They actually let us try to tinker with the battle droids, but we couldn't access their program properly.
So, down into the mines to check out the “pirates”. Keva decided to stay behind, and we told him to get the disabled med droid and bring it to our ship, and then fly our ship over to the second hangar bay adjacent to the warehouse.
Meanwhile, 87 expertly navigated us to a waystation, where we met the miners. As I burst through the door they took a potshot at me, but thankfully missed and hit the doorframe. They also managed to shoot 87's rifle right out of his hands. We refused to shoot back, and I managed to talk them down and convince them we were friends, with a bit of flattery and flair.
They told us their story, and Marv Moray along with Bonda and 10 other miners agreed to go back up with us. They were insistent that we shut down 87, but with a smile and gracious words I triumphantly smooth-talked them into letting 87 not only stay powered up, but he drove us back up in record time. We comm'd Keva to cause a distraction as we arrived, maybe try to sneak up and put a restraining bolt on EV.
But as he walked into the room, all the droids eyes swiveled back to him, and they opened fire with apparently newfound weapons. Keva screamed as he first shot at the droids, ran as fast as he could into the mines, and then was hit by blaster fire himself. I suppose that worked as a diversion, though not quite what we intended.
Slenahn was thinking quickly, and as we jumped out of the mine cart he rigged the front one to go flying into the barricade the droids had erected. It took out a PK unit, it's head flying off and smashing down their cover. Marv dove forward, destroying a droid with a quick shot of blaster fire, then ducked back behind cover. Bonda followed suit, and another battle droid started sparking. The other miners just hid behind some rocks.
AD-87 stepped forward, brandishing his heavy blaster rifle, and flicked it to autofire. I think he was maniacally laughing as he sprayed energy bolts towards the remaining battle droids, and when the dust settled they were all lying on the ground, a few sparks and an occasional “Roger, roger”.
But then I noticed something large come around the corner, flooding the mine with light. It was a load lifter, heading straight for 87! “Look out!” I shouted, but the loader slammed down into 87, crushing his head. I shot at the hulking beast with my stun blaster carbine, and it seemed to disable one of it's legs, slowing it down somewhat.
Then we heard EV-83's voice on the comms, yelling binary profanities at us. He's definitely up to no good. “Get restraining bolts on the droids, men! And we need to take down EV!” I shouted to the group.
Slee jumped on the loader and managed to take control of the beast. He yelled at Keva - “slap one on the droid, too! He and EV seem to be involved with controlling the others!” Keva wrestled with the R2, but managed to subdue it, and then he wisely jumped behind it as cover.
Meanwhile, Marv, Bonda and 87 ran forward into the entranceway. Bonda took out a PK droid, and after Marv blasted EV, 87 finished him off. The remaining lifter stopped moving.
“Warning, Shield generator #4 offline. Send maintenance crew immediately.”
Marv suggested we leave immediately. We all ran towards the ship, Slee & I hauling up the inert R2 unit, who should be useful. Marv ran towards his office, and I asked 87 to follow him, and blast the terminal to remove any evidence of what we were up to in case we had to double-cross the Hutt. I won't take chances with their cheating kind. Marv asked about the empty safe, and 87 said nothing. When Marv left, 87 blasted the terminal.
Once everyone was on the ship, we powered up and flew towards the located cloud car. Slenahn was pushing our bucket of bolts, and the creaks and groans were quite unnerving. The scout droid in the car entered our sight, and 87 and I climbed up into the turrets to take him out before the final generator fell.
He pulled ahead, but Slee took a sharp corner, systems straining, and as we got into range Marv shouted, “Take him out now! There's the generator!” We fired, and 87 split the Cloud Car in half, and the two sections careened into the rock face, causing two small explosions on either side of the generator. Everyone cheered, though I was busy trying to think how we'd get ourselves out of this situation without incurring serious debt one way or another.
I tried to convince the miners to join us, maybe find a new planet to settle down on, but they weren't even listening. Sure enough, as we landed, Marv started talking about the damage WE caused, and I told him to go back and tally the costs. Ungrateful, ignorant Rimworlders! As my mother would say, the dark side is strong here… I was tempted to fly off and shoot the generators as we left. I don't know why anyone would want to be essentially a slave to a Hutt.
In any case, Slee, 87, Keva and I discussed the situation calmly until Marv returned. He was demanding an outrageous sum, but after some serious negotiation and sweet talking, he backed down. We left him 22,000 for wages and repairs.
During negotiations Keva got to slicing R2-B7, and found out he was the mastermind behind this uprising. He was uploading programming to other droids, including EV-83, but set things up so it looked like EV was in charge. Keva asked if any of us had heard of the “New Droids Rights Movement”. Interesting.
We decided to buy R2-B7 off of Marv, and we also bought his silence by splitting the difference between Bargos' 100,000 credits and the remainder. We made sure to wipe his memory. We don't want that kind of trouble in the future. We also wiped EV-83 for the miners, not wanting to trust in their maintenance skills.
We left for Rorak right away, wanting to square up with the Hutt as soon as possible. I wandered through our nearly empty cargo hold during the trip, and noticed that we forgot to drop off FX-769. Because Keva had brought him onto the ship before meeting the miners, and 87 destroyed the terminal, I guess they won't know exactly what happened. Though with our help, the remaining miners didn't even get scratched, so at least there wasn't a desperate need for a med droid at the facility.
Right - we also still have all their restraining bolts… I hoped they wiped the rest of their droids properly. I guess they still have EV's bolt, and the one load lifter still had one attached. You know, they COULD have come with us.
Back at Bargos' palace, we quickly were received by his Royal Huttness, and he seemed quite pleased when we gave him the full amount he had asked for. He gave me 9,900 credits as recompense, and suggested that he might have work for us in the future. Personally, I think we'd have to be in fairly desperate straights, but then again, he actually paid us. Not that it was much.
As we headed back to the spaceport, I was thinking about what kind of trade we might do on our way back to Keyorin to deal with Crim, but a holovid caught my attention: a picture of Uncle Garm! “INN reports - Senators Mon Mothma, Garm Bel Iblis, and Bail Organa were arrested today for high treason.” Blasted 3 second news reports. May the Force be with them… I'll need to send some messages as soon as I can to Corellia and Alderaan.
