Is that a Fruit?{Smuggling Weapons to Sith Controlled Asahi}

[Victor Thrash]

Asahi.

It sounded like some squishy berry from some far off world. The Glaucus smuggler said the word out loud, trying to pronounce the planet correctly. Leaning back in the pilot's seat with his hands resting behind his crown of a head he swiveled back and forth whistling a tune. He could have been to the planet and dropped off his cargo by now normally, but the overwhelming presence of the Sith as well as the constant Republic checks along the Corellian Run and the detour onto the Hydian Way mad the trip agonizingly slow.

"Damned Sith," he muttered. The group was bad for business, always had been, always would be. They were more on top of their regulations and territory than the Republic was and if they wanted something it was always something weird or ghastly. And those were the kind of jobs many didn't come back from.

Honestly, the zealots just gave him the creeps.

As he began to close in on Sith space he swung his long legs off the dashboard and prepared the ship to exit hyperspace. The opaqued transparisteel began to become transparent once again, lighting the dark cockpit with the light of hyperspace. With preparations done he pulled the hyperdrive's lever back and exited hyperspace and into the Asahi system.

The Sith patrolled this system heavily. It was common knowledge that the people of Asahi were unsatisfied with their occupation and rumors of rebellion had spread like wildfire. He just hoped that the Sith wouldn't notice him.

 

[Taeli Raaf]

Taeli sighed as she gazed out the viewport of the ship she was standing on. She had gone to the Asahi system with three of the new Tenebris-class Heavy Cruisers, along with a squadron of Blade Fighters, to test their capabilities on the ring of asteroids that surrounded the planet, while also procuring some materials for ship production. The point-defense systems had worked just as she had hoped, and now they were preparing for the jump back to hyperspace and Coruscant.

"My Lady, we just detected a ship reverting into real space at the edge of the system," the sensor officer called from his area on the bridge.

"Hail the ship, Lieutenant," Taeli ordered. She was curious about why a single ship was entering a system that had been grumbling under the One Sith's control. It was unusual to say the least as most ships entering this area needed to pass a customs inspection to avoid any untoward things reaching the surface.

"Unidentified ship, you have entered One Sith space, identify your purpose in the system," the lieutenant spoke into a hailing channel.

[member="Galen Arterius"]

 

[Victor Thrash]

One of the many astromechs aboard the Avalon whistled in protest as Galen shut off the com channel. Grimacing, or attempting to, for Galen was no joke. His rows of sharp teeth were bared as the mandibles contorted into a look of disdain.

"I know, I know," he muttered under his breath. His hope was that he could either A; Make it behind the planet's moon, or B; they would fire a warning shot before attempting to take out the heavy freighter. For now, he would pretend as though he didn't hear the hail. For now.

Sweat began to collect on his brow.

[member="Darth Arcanix"]

 

[Taeli Raaf]

"They aren't answering my Lady," the com officer called out, and Taeli scowled, coming over to the comlink.

"Unidentified freighter, you have 10 seconds to respond on what your intentions are in this system, or you will be detained. Resist and we will destroy your vessel," she said, flicking her head at the flight officer. He immediately ordered the Blade squadron accompanying the cruisers to fall in around the freighter, while the cruisers moved to an intercept course.

"Make sure he doesn't try and out maneuver us, contact the local garrison to be on alert for a freighter attempting to land," she ordered as the seconds ticked by

[member="Galen Arterius"]

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Darth Arcanix"] [member="Galen Arterius"]

Another freighter exited hyperspace in the Asahi system. The telesponder read Role Model; it wasn't. Just a battered thirdhand mining ship with big plasma-jets and a quartet of little guns, nothing that could seriously threaten one of Arcanix' cruisers, let alone three.

She had more than a little sympathy for the Avalon -- though she'd never heard the name or met its captain, so far as she was aware, nobody deserved to be boarded. Maybe, if he was smuggling contraband, he'd dump the cargo and use it as a tractor shroud. Maybe she'd get past while he was in trouble; maybe he'd somehow use her to get away.

She drummed her fingers on the dash and prepared to be hailed. Her very scannable cargo holds contained lommite ore, not terribly common around here from what she'd heard -- and nestled inside the ore, several crates of heavy weapons from the Underground.

 

[Taeli Raaf]

"My Lady, a second ship just dropped out of hyperspace," the sensor officer yelled, causing Taeli to rush over to the sensor array to see.

"I don't know what's going on here," she hissed, looking at the two sensor pings. The sensors were picking up lommite ore within the new arrival, but Taeli could feel something very wrong about the whole situation in the Force. "Hail the new arrival, and inform them they are not to head anywhere near the planet until this situation is resolved . . . or they will be considered an enemy and be destroyed," Taeli said.

"No word from the first freighter, my Lady," the com officer said, as the seconds ticked closer and closer to her deadline.

"New arrival, you have entered restricted One Sith space, hold your current position or action will be taken against you," the com officer said in a hailing channel.

[member="Galen Arterius"] [member="Alec Rekali"]

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Darth Arcanix"]

Alec grimaced, but dialed down the engines to a pittance and oriented her ship toward the One Sith heavy cruiser. "Acknowledged, holding position."

 

[Victor Thrash]

Several pings blew up his sensor suite as Sith fighters peeled off of patrol paths and made a beeline for his freighter. Cursing under his breath as his astromech whistled incessantly he was about to punch the engines to speed around the side of the moon when a second ship exited hyperspace, calling the attention of the Sith forces patroling the area as well as the Glaucus'.

"Maybe..." He wasn't the most honorable of people, it came with the job description...But it looked like a simple mining vessel, he recognized Silk's work. Flipping a few switches he activated secure, encrypted coms hailing the small mining vessel.

"This is Galen Arterius. Do you feel like the Sith deserve a nice kick in the shebs?" Of course, the other ship followed orders. Growling a deep, throaty, primitive growl Galen began to order the many astromechs around the ship to prepare for combat. The seconds ticked down, at the last possible second he cut all engine power and hailed the Sith cruisers.

"Sorry about that, my CL-4P was having trouble stabilizing coms, could you repeat your request?"
[member="Alec Rekali"] [member="Darth Arcanix"]

 

[Taeli Raaf]

"Unidentified freighters, you are to state the nature of your business in this system and are to fall into a holding position," the com officer ordered. The Sith cruisers were now nearing where the two ships were, and Taeli was of the mind to have both boarded and searched. Something about this screamed smuggler, especially given the restlessness of some of those down on the planet.

If they were smugglers, well she could always detain them . . . but another idea came into mind. Whether they would take an offer or not would be up to their personal scruples, but credits were credits and these beings wanted to be paid she guessed.

"Lieutenant, give the boarding crews orders to stand ready and our gunnery crews permission to begin target locks on their engines if need be, but until we hear back from them, I want no firing on them. Understood?"

"Yes, my Lady," the lieutenant said, snapping a salute and heading off to relay her orders.

"Coms, tell our fighters to keep a holding position around our uninvited guests and contact the surface to see if they were awaiting any shipments," she called.

[member="Galen Arterius"] [member="Alec Rekali"]

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Galen Arterius"] [member="Darth Arcanix"]

Alec commed Galen on tightbeam. "This is Alec Rekali. Agreed. I've got you on tightbeam on a headset. Talk when you've got a sec."

Alec wasn't normally taciturn, but that was all she could fit into this particular timeslot. Things were happening too quickly for comfort -- the twelve Sith fighters had them both surrounded, and three cruisers were on their way, each studded with light quad turbolasers designed to shred ships very much like this one. There was no quick fix to this situation.

She adjusted the comms and replied to the One Sith vessels. "Independent miner Role Model, out of Altir with a cargo of lommite ore, hopefully for the Mitsuhide Doraidokku." She probably wasn't pronouncing that correctly, but the Underground wasn't paying well enough that she could afford to take a trip for them without treating it like a normal trip. The Mitsuhide drydocks, some of the finest shipyards in this part of the Unknown Regions, had a constant and powerful need for raw materials. She'd never been here before, but she'd gotten a tip and lined up this particular voyage on spec before the Underground had tapped her on the shoulder. "Looking to prospect for songsteel ores while I'm here - what kind of permit fees am I looking at?"

 

[Taeli Raaf]

Taeli snorted to herself quietly as the captain of the Role Model pronounced the drydocks a bit weirdly, although it was understandable given how complicated Ashaian names could be. While she gave the other freighter a few more seconds, she opened the com channel to the Role Model personally.

"Role Model, this is Darth Arcanix, a scanning crew will be coming aboard your ship to inspect the lommite shipment," she said as the lieutenant returned with the manifest for today. Looking at it she could see the Role Model was scheduled to deliver a shipment to the docks planetside, but given the other freighters arrival, she wasn't taking any chances. "We've been having some . . . malcontents on the surface and need to inspect shipments coming into the system. I'm sure you understand, and for your inconvenience you will be compensated for time lost to delivery. Songsteel permits are to be negotiated with the planetary authorities and the Sith governor to answer your question."

She hoped her suspicions were right that something shady was going on, she required a smuggler's special talents for a job. Payment up front of course, but if they refused, well . . . that would come in time. She would be curious who hired them.

[member="Alec Rekali"] [member="Galen Arterius"]

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Darth Arcanix"]

"Acknowledged. Fair compensation's music to my ears. My ship's an open book, Captain."

She cut the channel, unless the Sith cruiser had something else worth saying, but kept the tightbeam open. Fingers crossed, the Sith wouldn't pick up a tightbeam transmission. "Arterius, this is Rekali again. They're coming to inspect my ship, but they won't find anything worth their time. Just don't try anything while I'm linked up all peaceful-like."

The Shen-Ru cargo hold, heavily modified, was a miracle of innovation, a complex array of vacuum pumps and tractor whatnots that improved ore sorting efficiency. It gave her a goodly percentage increase on profit per cargo load -- and its parts involved some fairly dense technology. She'd nestled the crates up against that technology, shielded in most other directions by a hundred tons of lommite ore. The guns were Hekler'Kok automatics and shotguns, donated by Noah Corek himself; no power pack signatures or advanced circuitry to set the sensors ablaze. There was a pretty decent chance that the scanning crew would read the guns as just part of the ship, and clear her. Not a guarantee, but a very decent chance indeed that they would find her ship empty save for her, a bunch of droids, and just over seven hundred tons of lommite.

 

[Marcus Faust]

Vindica wasn't one to dabble in affairs of smuggling, but here he was on Ashi, to investigate said activity. He had all the clearance to mobilize a fleet if he'd wanted, the hands had privileges that came with the position. But instead he held back, tracking communications and most inbound non-Sith vessels from the security and concealment of his Daisya infiltrator. Not that he truly needed the communications, the crew of his vessel managed those affairs. The Lord's connection to the force tipped him off long ago something was off.

Keep your wits about you. He whispered telepathically to one [member="Darth Arcanix"]. Likely she wouldn't have a clue just who he was, buth hat meant he was doing his job right, and she'd heed the warning if she was interested in staying alive. The Hand of the Dark Lord didn't care either way, everyone died, and if she went down on some smuggling ship, or against malcontent citizens on the surface of Ashi, or however she died, it wouldn't affect him.

From behind the bone-white mask he stared blankly out into space, waiting the Sith Knight's response.

[member="Alec Rekali"]
[member="Galen Arterius"]

 

[Taeli Raaf]

'Keep your wits about you,' whispered into her mind, and Taeli froze in place at the com unit. A Sith, one far stronger than she had anticipated ever meeting at this stage of her career beyond her master, had spoken into her mind. She had no idea who this Sith could be or why he was here, but his warning only confirmed to the young woman her suspicions about the two ships her forces were surrounding.

'Your warning is heeded, my Lord,' she sent back to the mysterious Sith. She was more curious than ever about who it was.

Gesturing for the lieutenant again, she whispered, "Have the scanning crew find some reason, some regulation, that will have the captain of the Role Model arrested and brought before me. If the captain of the other freighter doesn't reply soon, blow his ship to pieces."

"Yes, my Lady," the officer said, snapping another salute and moving off to relay her orders.

She was uncomfortable now, knowing she had an audience observing somewhere, and now she needed to make good impression with her duties. She wanted to eventually meet who ever this Sith was.

[member="Darth Vindica"] [member="Alec Rekali"] [member="Galen Arterius"]

 

[Victor Thrash]

Giving the CL-4P astromech a three-fingered thumbs up the quirky droid saluted and wheeled away, its vocalizers giggling. Switching the com to reconnect with the Sith cruiser he wondered how this would go down. He had been boarded hundreds of times before, it came with the job.

"I'm just visiting some family friends, bringing them the best from Coruscant!" It was a lie, plain and simple. But Sith couldn't tell lies via coms right? And he was sure he at least sounded convincing. Tricking Hutts into thinking they were buy spice when he was back on Tatooine had its upsides. Hopefully the downsides of getting caught didn't end up with a Glaucus lightsaber skewer.

"I've also got-" CL-4P flipped a switch, cutting coms, giving his captain a blocky thumbs up. Switching back to the secured line he tried to contact the miner again.

"I've got a special shipment to get to some needy people down there, humanitarian supplies mostly," another lie, but he didn't need this girl getting scared and running off to the Sith at the mention of weapons, "They need 'em bad down there, so here's the plan..." His voice, though strange, was calm and collected. It was obvious he had done this sort of thing plenty of times before, he just hoped the miner girl didn't screw this up or they could both end up dead. After the plan was discussed he gave the silly astromech another thumbs up and the droid switch coms back on with the Sith.

"Damn it you karking piece of junk! How many times have I told you! Leave the power couplings on those transceivers alone! They aren't broken! Sorry about that Ma'am, piece of junk...I think it needs a memory wipe, t'get rid of all those quirks you know? Anyways, like I was saying, just visiting some family friends, bringing late Life Day gifts for the kids."

[member="Darth Arcanix"] [member="Darth Vindica"] [member="Alec Rekali"]

Spoiler

 

[Taeli Raaf]

"Family friends huh?" Taeli said into the com, her voice dripping with skepticism. Her audience was most likely picking up on her coms and she suspected that the two ships were silently communicating with each other, but the cruisers couldn't pick up on such signals. A modification she would need to address in later models, but that was by the by.

"If you wouldn't mind saying, sir, where are these 'family friends' located on the planet and what social class are they?" Taeli asked, wondering if the smuggler had done his homework about the planet and the fact it was still relatively isolated from other parts of the galaxy.

The lieutenant sent her a message to her datapad that read the boarding and gunnery crews were awaiting her orders, eager to deal with their "guests".

"Also, a scanning crew will be coming aboard to search your ship. We've been having some general malcontents below, so we are inspecting every ship. You'll comply or face consequences. Understood?"

[member="Galen Arterius"] [member="Darth Vindica"] [member="Alec Rekali"]

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Darth Arcanix"] [member="Galen Arterius"]

The cruisers had no hangar, and only the dozen fighters for small craft. As the lead cruiser nestled up against her, to dock and transfer over the scanning crew, she found herself evaluating and re-evaluating her options moment by moment. Her guns had no power.

But her mining ship's fundamental systems sure did. The cruiser's shields had to drop to dock, at the very least right by the airlock. That was an awkward angle for the plasma-jets and then some, but between an odd canted rest position that looked a lot like a real rest position, and the extendable arms that could wield smaller Koensayr plasma torches, she was fairly sure she could punch either eight or four hundred metres of plasma into the cruiser, right through the weak edge of the shield. A gutting strike, and nobody expected a mining ship's gear to have that kind of punch. But the risk was immense -- an absolute last resort. She'd get one shot, maybe.

She went to receive her guests.

The scanning crew got to work, a laborious process on a ship this size. Somewhere around the point where a couple of One Sith guards grabbed her upper arms and hustled her into the cruiser, it became clear that, even though the scanning crew hadn't actually found anything amiss, they didn't especially care. Her ship's modifications, the shieldcutter guns she'd powered down, were apparently illegal in Asahian space even though (or because) they'd been invented only recently. She managed to keep her headset for the conversation, though not after, and she hadn't keyed her pocket comm to link to the tightbeam and Arterius' ship. He'd heard what was going on, but they had no further contact unless she was to actually pull out her comlink, turn it on, and try to punch a transmission through.

The troopers marched her searched and stuncuffed self up to Darth Arcanix, wherever she'd chosen to meet her prisoner.

 

[Taeli Raaf]

Taeli stood on the bridge of the ship, looking at both ships as another of her cruisers moved to begin docking procedures with the other freighter, when the click of metal boots caught her attention. Turning, she smiled to herself as the young female captain of the Role Model was brought before her.

"My apologies for the capture, but we can't take any chances currently," Taeli said, flicking her hand and causing the stun cuffs to drop away. "While the scanning crew continues their work, I just have a few questions, and please, no lies. I would hate to resort to other methods when an amicable agreement can be reached that would benefit both of us."

Not waiting for a response, the young Sith asked, "Who hired you?"

[member="Galen Arterius"] [member="Alec Rekali"]

 

[Victor Thrash]

He nodded, idle chit-chat with a Sith Lord? Why not.

"She's a widow to a commoner. Can't make enough to give the kids good Life Day gifts, so I've been stopping by ever so often. Her husband saved my life once...I could give you the whole story, but then that would keep the kids waiting!" He let out a throaty, Glaucus laugh. "Ah...No problem, have them come aboard, but try and make it quick! This Hoth Chocolate isn't going to eat itself you know!"


Luckily the inside of his ship, like many other smuggling vessels, had secret ducts and hideaway cargo hold spaces that were difficult to detect. It was also convienient that he had a store of Hoth Chocolate and wrapping flimsi due to the holiday season on many worlds. It was an easy way to make some quick credits.

"They live along the countryside of the White Cliffs."

He heard what was going on on the miner's ship, and even as he spoke it was difficult to keep a straight face, not that it mattered. They couldn't see his face. As the second cruiser loomed overhead and began to dock a flurry of activity began as the five or so astromech droids began to roll and tween into position.

"Welcome Sithly travelers aboard the one and only Avalon! Right this way!"

It was a huge risk, with a ship this size. Even if he could get away from this single cruiser, there was no guarantee that he could get away from two more and a dozen or so fighters. Did he leave her to deal with the Sith and make his escape and delivery to live another day? No, it was his fault she was in this mess in the first place.

All these things at him, but as the Sith troopers rounded a corner with their scanners, he sighed and spun around the edge, his dual woebringer heavy pistols burning holes into the small party's chests.

"Punch it now M1-8!"

Life roared to the heavy freighter and the other astromechs activated the ion cannons. Turning their sights on the belly of the beast that had them hooked they fired repeatedly on the unshielded portion around the docking tube. Darkness enveloped the ship as the cruiser went offline from the barage and the docking tube released its hold. The engines of the Avalon roared to life and Galen took his seat proper. Without the proper support from at least one other pilot this was going to need doing.

[member="Darth Arcanix"] [member="Alec Rekali"]

 

[Taeli Raaf]

"The scanning crew is aboard the other ship and . . ." the lieutenant was cut off from replying as several ion bursts hit the second cruiser, disabling it temporarily.

Taeli whipped around, not paying attention to her guest currently as she ordered, "Have the Blades and out third cruiser shoot to kill, make sure he is cut off from any approach to the planet and alert the Shogun that the Asahi Defense Forces needs to scramble a force."

Turning back to her guest, Taeli scowled and used the Force to pin the young woman in place.

"Your friend there just made a very big mistake," she said, making sure the woman in front of her couldn't try anything. The Blade Fighters began opening up on the freighter, plasma bolts leaving ripples across the shields from near misses that were designed to harry his approach. The other cruiser began pursuit as well, bringing its turbolasers to bear against the smuggling craft. From the planet itself, a squadron of the local garrison began to rise, breaching the atmosphere.

[member="Galen Arterius"] [member="Alec Rekali"]