The Plan was Simple

I had big plans this month!

First I wanted to get Jern to start construction on a ship that could handle storms. He is always reminiscing about how “the ships back home were way more resilient” I’m sure he could show that he was capable and he wasn’t all talk.

Second, I lined up a lucrative contract with Porko’s slop shop. They wanted to get their business back after the health code violations, as well as a couple lesser violations. So it’s off to the Council tomorrow.

Finally I got in contact with Captain Vu Rondeln, so hopefully I can get him to ship vital supplies to the colony so I can sell it at a hefty profit.

I arrived at council chambers to meet the representatives of Porko’s slop shop. After a lovely conversation about how they weren't to blame for my little incident there I convinced them that I needed some of those mints they had given me earlier. They happily obliged by giving me a big handful of them.

Over the next few days I studied for the case and met the council's head of business, Haggis McQuaggis. Over drinks and a couple mints we discussed the goings on of the colony and generally got to know each other. Haggis is quite a charming fellow for a Klatooinian and we got along quite well.

After days of hearings then I won the case. The celebration afterwards was quite rowdy, with them being gamorreans.

I returned to find that the others had not fared as well in their plans. They had given up on finding the pirate base that was on one of the twelve moons.

I took the opportunity to talk to Jern about construction of a new ship. I told him that the best test of mechanical prowess was to build a ship. After all he should put his money where his mouth is, and build us a ship that could withstand these heavy storms. Just like the ships back on Dorin.

Jern’s response surprised me. He just ranted that a droid was the biggest test, that he wasn’t good enough, that we didn’t have the resources. I was stunned, it wasn’t unusual for Jern to go off on a rant about something he doesn’t like. But to value his skills so low to say he can’t build something that was weird.

Later I learned that Jern had just spent the last two days trying to reprogram a droid and had failed so miserably all the droid did was insult his skills. I guess he’s taking the droid's words to heart which isn’t a bad thing If he pushes through it and becomes better but he’s been different lately.

Arron returned with news that he had found the pirate base and with plenty of heroics he had escaped with only minor damage to the ship. We decided that the pirates would be expecting an attack immediately so we would wait two weeks. Maybe by then they’ll have cooled down enough to allow some infiltrators in.

With that news I turned to my other business venture: selling fuel shipped to the planet by Captain Vu.

My call with Vu went well. He agreed to ship 6,000 credits worth of fuel to me if he got a ten percent cut or fifteen if he arrived before the month end. While Vu flew out I started to find contacts that were in desperate need of fuel.

My first contact was a group of travelling performers that needed fuel for the float that paraded down the street. They offered free tickets and a good price for my fuel.

The real catch was when I was contacted through my more secretive channels. A besalisk by the name of Midge wanted the majority of my shipment. Turns out he’s an expert cyber tech that was for some reason or another living on Erimia. I quickly came to an arrangement with him. Selling the fuel for over triple the regular cost! Of course I preordered one of his custom cybernetic arms which helped the deal move along smoothly.

Two weeks later I came back to Midge with his fuel and he installed a perfect cybernetic arm. We thanked each other before I set out to the council meeting I requested a week prior.

I entered the council chambers and spoke.

“ I have discovered a grave truth. The pirate presence here is none other than the Gorensla kajidic!”

A collective gasp came from the council members. I thought it was odd but continued.

“ My Team of professional experts has discovered The Pirate Base. And we at SoFA are going to set out to rescue the ECC. But, I need some stuff from this council. I need the pirate ship that we confiscated from the pirates at the ECC compound. Next I need explosives.”

I eyed advisor Tirano as I said this. I knew he had ties to the rebellion. Maybe he could get some military grade explosives.

“ And one last thing. If I succeed in my mission I need a position on this council. As head of security. With proof of my capabilities and knowledge of our foes, I believe that my insight could prove necessary.”

The council thought about my requests for a time before we got into discussion.

It would have gone smoothly except the members didn’t want to dilute their power further. They came up with a compromise. I would replace Ojib as he was thinking about retiring anyway. Of course, I would have to prove myself. I got the ship and mining grade explosives from Corto. Not the military stuff I hoped for but I’ll take what I can get.

I returned to our homestead and went over my plan once more with the others.

“We have already completed steps 1-3 but I’ll read them all out once more anyway.” Then I started Reading out the list:

“Step 1: Acquire disguises and infiltrating gear.

Step 2: Jern modify mods, Vreck & Arron search pirate wreck while Varad talks to council

Step 3: Jern puts transponder onto new ship acquired by Varad

Step 4: Rangers + party gets on pirate ship to infiltrate. Aries flies the Jumpmaster stealthily onto the pirate moon.

Step 5: Attempt to lie to pirate guards to let us pass.

Step 6: Find computer access and acquire schematics of the base. Plug Aries into the system to disable security systems.

Step 7: Split up. Jern and Vreck plant explosives and Varad and Arron find ECC.

Step 8: Blow up the explosives and with that distraction we get the ECC to the ship. The Rangers keep the ship free from any hostiles.

Step 9: We all meet up at the pirate ship and we all make a clean getaway.

“You spelt Ares wrong,” pointed out Arron.

“Ares is commonly spelt with an i,” I responded. “It could have been either.”

“Any thoughts about the actual plan?” I asked. But the group had nothing else to say.

“Good, then let's get going” I said.

When we arrived in orbit the pirates hailed us.

“Come in, Poodoo Two, how’s it going? Had any good plunder?”

“This is Poodoo Two. Yes, we have good plunder. How are you?” I responded.

My nerves were a little frazzled, this was the make or break conversation.

For what seemed like forever, the guy on the other end wanted to chat but at last he said the code phrase.

“The Rancor stew tastes good tonight.”

I responded with, “Only with a side of mints.”

Tookoo’s code worked, and with a hearty chuckle from the pirate, we landed at the base.

We told Adi to stay in the ship with the rangers and headed down the ramp. I thought that having a force sensitive along was better than not! We started to offload the explosives when a human walked up to us and asked what we had in the crates. I told him that we just stole a bunch of Avaron explosives and he should have seen the look on their faces. Apparently my outrageous pirate accent was not the same as the officer I was impersonating, but Vreck chimed in and said I had got hit on the head and had been acting a little funny. That worked and he told us to drop the explosives off at the back. We left the explosives near the entrance and headed inside.

The noise was almost overwhelming, loud music and laughter rang throughout a dining hall of sorts. I signalled to Jern to find computer access. He found it with ease but hacking into it was a challenge. I tried to hide back in the shadows but another officer came up to me and asked for me to tell the boys what ventures I’d been on. I told them a wild tale about blowing up Avaron mining shafts, finding gold and stealing cheese. I made quite the distraction and Vreck got my signal to bring in the explosives.

I kept up the performance until Arron and Vreck and wheeled in the last of the explosives. I sat down with the other officer and had a chat about the ECC. I managed to get leave to interrogate them, so off I went. Down the stairs I saw through an open door the power generator. It had explosives planted around it. It was covered with a mesh and dust for some reason on top. This was problematic; if we detonated these charges then I wouldn’t be able to escape out this way. I commed Jern to see if there were any other exits.

Turns out Jern couldn’t hack a basic computer. I told him he better find an escape route before I rescued the ECC and hung up. I wandered around in the lower level until I found the prison cells, and saw the ECC trapped inside. One of them yelled, “Take off you slimy pirate!” I responded, “Oh, I’ll take you off… planet!” I wiped off my disguise to the astonishment of the two guards I had forgotten to notice in my moment of glory. “Uh, oops.” I said, before pulling my blaster and shooting the first guard. I think my new cybernetics may have some sort of AI targeting system. That and the fact that the grip on my gun was perfect now that Jern had a look at it.

The second guard dropped and avoided my shot. But I did hit the door controls for the prison cell. Mish’rak’nuolo rushed out, tripping over his own feet, missing the guard. Ar’tala swiped at the guard’s holstered blaster, but missed, knocking his comm to the floor instead. A chiss I hadn’t seen before (that I later found out was Sev’or’ko), punched the guard, staggering him back. Then Kiyo unleashed a terrifying tirade of threats that crushed the pirate’s morale and he surrendered.

I commed Jern to ask if we had an escape route yet. But Jern wasn’t responding. It was next on the plan for him; he probably was just sneaking around and didn’t want to be overheard. I got Arron and Vreck on the line and they said they’d plant explosives around back. I told the ECC we had to hunker down and that our escape route was being built as we speak. It was tense sitting in the dark, waiting. Luckily, it seemed that no guards had heard the blaster fire. After what seemed like hours, explosions started going off all over the base. We ran to the nearest hole in the wall and were met by all the rest of my crew, except for Adi. “What happened?” I asked. “Why are you not on the ship?” Jern then told me that he thought the Crimson Dawn had landed. Unfortunately, the main engines burnt out and crashed into our pirate ship. The Rangers had barely escaped with their lives! I started to panic.

“What ship landed? Did it have any markings? Where’s Adi?”

Jern confirmed all my worst fears - the ship was the Crimson Dawn’s flagship, First Light, and Adi hadn't come along with the others.

“We have to leave now!” I said. “If we are tracked back to Erimia, then it’s over. These guys are the worst of the worst.”

Arron wasn’t going anywhere without Adi. No matter what I said he wouldn’t listen. So I finally said, “Listen Arron, Adi is force sensitive. She’ll know that she should hide. Hide and wait, she's the smartest girl I know. It's too dangerous.” Arron didn’t listen and he decided to go after her. Vreck went, too, which was smart. When they were forced to run, they’d survive out here until things quieted down.

We rode the pirates’ speeders that the Rangers hijacked back to our Jumpmaster and waited. The rangers didn’t want to leave their leader behind, and I didn’t have the will to convince them otherwise.

We saw Crimson Dawn’s ship rise slowly and leave orbit, engines sputtering, and I feared the worst. But Arron and Vreck appeared shortly after, without Adi.

Adi had snuck onto the ship before it took off and was heard when Arron tried to comm her. Vreck had taken a shot at their leader but a bodyguard had jumped in the way. They took off not knowing that Adi was on board.

We flew back in solemn silence. It was really all my fault. I could have stopped Adi from coming. I could have saved her when she boarded the ship. The odds of us getting her back were, well… slim.

There's only one way to get Adi back. I have to outsmart the Crimson Dawn…