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

[Ashin Varanin]

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

The Sith had to be fishing; the scanning crew hadn't found anything, so far as she knew. And though she was afraid, her presence and her story had more than enough truth to them to fit together coherently -- she really was here to sell lommite and find a way to get songsteel. Alec was the daughter of a Sith Master and granddaughter of a Witch Elder; she was fairly sure she'd notice someone digging in her brain.

She kept such thoughts as quiet and emotionless as she could manage, subsuming them in the background wash of nervousness and uncertainty. Her focus had to remain on the moment, both to keep mind-reading at bay and to maximize her chances of survival.

"Lady, I'm for hire pretty often, but first an' foremost I'm a miner. Check my nav logs if you haven't already -- I mine things. It's what I do. Got a tip the Asahi yards needed lommite. Now if you need something run, my bays are always open-"

The harsh light of the Avalon's ion cannons washed through the nearest viewport, and Alec flinched, squinting, as Arcanix' Force grip pinned her arms to her sides and locked her in place. "No friend of mine," she gritted out, focusing on outrage. "He wanted to coordinate something. I told him not to try anything daft while I was docked."

 

[Taeli Raaf]

Taeli was silent for a moment, thinking. She could try and rip the information she was almost certain was in the woman's mind away, but that could be counter-productive. No, there was a smarter move here.

"Well as you are always for hire, I have a proposition for you," she began. "I personally don't care if you're smuggling weapons to the surface inside the lommite ore for instance, but I would be willing to pay you double whatever the amount the shipment was and take possession of it, I'll even deliver the lommite to the shipyards and transfer the credits to the account of your choosing. You would also get to leave the system unscathed, and with my contact information for a possible job I need doing. I'm a business woman myself and it wouldn't be anything too dangerous, as I know we Sith tend to have a penchant for giving . . . unorthodox missions, just a simple mining job down the road. Would you be amendable to that?"

She was hoping the woman would be or she would be forced to take more drastic actions, including tearing the Role Model apart piece by piece until she found the shipment she was almost certain was there judging by the warning she had received from the mysterious Sith.

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

 

[Victor Thrash]

As the droids attempted to keep the fighters off of their tail, Galen attempted to stay out of the Cruiser's firing range, or at least make it difficult to pin down slowly several more ships pinged into existence on his scanners and the Glaucus cursed under his breath. For now, he had more than enough defense to stay in the air long enough to put in a hyperspace solution if he needed a quick getaway, he could without a doubt outrun many if not all the ships in this area with his .68 Hyperdrive.

As the Asahi ships drew closer and closer their first shots began firing. Weaving and bobbing through the blasterfire he began to notice...They weren't trying, well not all of them. Some of them were looking to get favor with the Sith no doubt, but the little breathing room the others gave, was more than enough. Behind him some of the Sith fighters had stopped moving, the precision of his droids had knocked them out with his ion cannons and Quad Laser. But the fight wasn't over.

"Haaaarrruuummm!!!" A primitive sound resonated from his cranial crest as excitement built within the extragalactic alien, his equivalent to a "WAHOO!!". Flipping two switches and pumping a lever to his right his modified power core pumped into overdrive, his twin sublight engines blasted to life, also heavily modified. His ship plowed through the formation of Asahi fighters as his engines propelled him forward in a briliant display possible to be seen from the cruisers.

The speed rattled his skeleton and even CL-4P was having trouble standing, opting to magnetically calmp himself down and close all his openings, shaking in fear. "Alright," he shouted over the rattling of his hull, "We'll make a break for the Hangar-"

"There is no hangar sir!" CL-4P chimed in.

"What?! How does a ship that size not have a hangar?" Galen sucked his teeth. Looking out of his viewport he cursed. He'd be back for that prisoner...If she was still alive. His sudden boost of speed would have caught the fighters off guard, but not for long, he needed to lose them. Cutting off his flight patern he shot straight...Up(?) and shot towards the moon. He knew there was a military base there, they would find him eventually, but he needed a place to cool his jets. Literally. But the fighters weren't giving him any slack. What were those droids doing?

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

Spoiler

My Muse was FLOWING

 

[Ashin Varanin]

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

Alec wet her lips, her one concession to nervousness.

"I've got a counteroffer for you," she said. "Which isn't to say I don't like the offer you've made, and I'm considering it pretty strongly. But there's a refinement to be made here. I'm more than willing to take your occasional job, risk or no risk, but I'm of more value to you if I get where I'm going. See, you're half right. The guns I've got installed, the guns you pulled me in for, they're kinda unique. Valuable, to folks around here that like to modify ships for reasons I don't ask about too closely. So here's what I'm proposing. You unload every scrap of ore in my mandible bays and pay double like you said, I'll go unbolt the guns, you give me a handful of crap guns to bolt on in their place, maybe faulty, maybe with tracking beacons in'em. I'll comm the folks who asked about buying my guns and tell'em basic laser cannons were all I could sneak past you, and when they ask what happened when you intercepted me, I just show'em the empty mandible bays and say you confiscated my main cargo looking for contraband. I get my double, I keep my reputation, which is useful to you, we do business in the future, you get trackers on whoever was looking to buy my guns. Then I take my double, buy replacement guns, and run the jobs you want me to run. Literally everyone's satisfied, up until you decide what you want to do about those trackers."

 

[Taeli Raaf]

As Taeli thought about the woman's counter-proposal, it certainly had merits. Flickers of light started to show from the disabled cruiser as its crew got the ship's power supply up and running again, but it would take another minute or two for it to be fully operational again. The annoying smuggler was also disabling her fighters, but he couldn't keep this much up much longer. More and more forces would be arriving and if he headed towards the moon, the cruisers could pin him to the surface and just open fire unless he surrendered.

"Since you'll be leading us back to your . . . contacts, I'll raise the fee to double and a half," she said, lifting the Force grip she had on the woman. "I'm not unreasonable and you're right of course, your sterling reputation would be valuable. Just to be certain though, a company of troopers will accompany you back to your ship to make sure this isn't a double cross. One has to be careful after all and you are not to mess with said trackers or tip off your buyers, we will be listening."

Flicking her hand, the lieutenant came forward with a datapad with the rather large transfer sum pulled up, just waiting for the account information, while she turned back to directing her forces to capture or kill the other smuggler.

"Have our fighters and the Asahian forces pin him to the moon, then give him the same offer we just gave our new friend here," she ordered. "If he doesn't comply and continues these trying shenanigans, kill him."

"Yes, my Lady," the flight officer said, acknowledging her orders.

"My apologies for this unpleasantness," Taeli said over her shoulder to the captain of the Role Model. "I was here simply testing these cruisers and was intending on running an interdiction mission. I hope you don't mind watching the slippery one out there face the consequences."

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

 

[Victor Thrash]

The fighters peeled off, as if called back. The Avalon flew along the surface of the moon, its engines slowly powering back down to normal flight speed. Dying alone on a moon wasn't exactly what he had planned today. Had his love for the chase gotten him stuck in a corner he couldn't get out of? He would love to say this wasn't the worst situation he'd been in, but it was. One Star Destroyer was much easier to get around than three cruisers and a planet's navy. Though why they were throwing so much at him was beyond his mind.

The Glaucus and his droids flew along the surface until they found a cave to nestle in. The ship powered down and the boarding ramp slid down with a hiss and the Glaucus took the chance to stretch his lanky body. Those fighters had done a number on his primary shields, but hadn't gotten through his secondary deflectors, luckily.

Sighing and scratching his head he wondered if he should have just played it cool and not let himself get worked up over that girl getting taken. After all, they didn't have hangars so it wasn't like he could get aboard. But it was what it was. Closing his eyes he took a deep breath of the stale air of the moon. Taking out a cigar he light it and took a few puffs, smoke making its way out of the sides of his toothy moth.

Being such a short lived species, even by human standards, his species had an adventurous streak. Maybe that was why he put himself in these situations. Exhaling, smoke enveloped his head as it hissed out of the sides and front of his head.

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

 

[Ashin Varanin]

"If it's all the same to you," she said to [member="Darth Arcanix"], watching [member="Galen Arterius"] fight the good fight, "I'll get to work instead."

The troopers fell in around her, boots clacking on the deck in rhythm. This right here was every spacer's nightmare -- a jackboot escort to and from her freighter, through the halls of a capital ship captained by a Sith. They stuck with her, some of them; others fanned out through the Role Model. She really should have made this run with a false telesponder. Now they had her IFF and her engine signature. She'd have to get that filed down.

She followed the agreement scrupulously, with the close supervision of the troopers. That was the only way to survive at this point. They unbolted her paired ion/shieldcutters, unloaded every bit of lommite ore in the mandible bays -- the two big main bays, three hundred tons apiece -- and slapped on the crap laser cannons with the tracking beacons.

With that done, she took a seat in the tiny bridge. As the door shut behind her -- blessed silence -- she commed Arcanix's cruiser. "Sith vessel, this is Rekali. You've got my ore and the shieldcutter guns, and the new gear's installed. Your men are on their way out. Pleasure doing business with you."

She broke the airlock seal and angled away toward Asahi.

 

[Taeli Raaf]

"Make sure you are respectful on the surface," Taeli said into the com to the woman. "The Asahi love tradition and respect above all else, comes from their societal structure. When your business is concluded, you have safe passage out of the system and Sith space in general."

Turning away from the coms, she strode back to the bridge viewport as her cruisers began to position themselves around the moon along with two frigates provided by the Asahian military. Her forces had been able to track him to a cave, and it was time to show her elusive friend what consequences he could potentially face.

"Begin bombard of the last location of the freighter," she ordered and the turbolasers began flashing, streaks of plasma impacting against the moon's surface. She hoped the bombardment wouldn't kill him as she fully intended to offer the same deal to him as she did with the other captain, dealing with smugglers would serve her purposes.

"Lieutenant, keep the bombardment going. Then send small, encrypted packets of info detailing the tracker sequences in burst transmissions into space and the Asahian shogunate."

"My Lady?" the lieutenant asked, confusion apparent on his face as the bombardment continued and the Blade fighters began to reassemble in a position to intercept the freighter whenever he made his move.

"Just do it," she sighed and he moved off to follow orders. The burst transmissions would allow her mysterious watcher to deal with the dissidents, or at least the planetary authorities would.

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

 

[Ashin Varanin]

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

She caught herself shaking as she descended through the atmosphere. That had been...way, way too close. She had to try for the comm sequence three times before it entered encrypted tightbeam mode.

"Blue. I say again, blue."

"Suede shoes. I say again, suede shoes. A la carte?"

"Appetizer. Then dressing on the side."

A handful of contingencies, with appropriate recognition signals, had been given to her for memorization. This situation came reasonably close to 'I'm going to need to drop and then get repairs,' meaning she would come in low toward a chop shop and jettison the few crates of illicit cargo at coordinates she'd also had to memorize. For speed's sake, she'd also have to drop everything else in the secondary cargo bay, which held odds and ends plus a decent amount of ore for a small bay -- enough to shield the crates. She dropped all that on her low final approach to the chop shop; the crates had repulsorlifts, but she left a smallish trail of lommite down a private laneway.

She landed in the chop shop, but kept her engines warm. In person, outside the ship -- the troops could have left bugs -- she explained to a masked Asahian that the guns needed to come off and be sent somewhere isolated, as if to an insurgent base. Or maybe they could use the guns to frame an obstacle for insurgent collaboration. Just so long as they didn't destroy the ship-guns or deactivate the transmitters, or keep them in the same place as the crates of slugthrowers. The guns, of both kinds, were quickly removed, and nothing put in their place. Her payment for the run wasn't monetary.

It was a prospecting license.

She'd mentioned to Arcanix that she'd be sticking around the system to do some asteroid mining, and as she took off from the chop shop, that's where she intended to go. She kept the fast-acting navicomputer online, a handful of jumps already preset and constantly being updated, just in case. This could still all go to hell.

She couldn't help wondering about Arturius, but she'd gotten away clean and now had no weapons apart from her mining plasma-jets. That was the way of things in the Underground, of which she was manifestly not a part. Just a contractor on her way out. Hopefully Arcanix would contact her soon for that future job.

 

[Victor Thrash]

Peace, quiet, a moment to think. All of it was shattered as the air began to heat up around him. Just outside the mouth of the cave a streak of plasma crashed into the surface of the moon, blowing wind and debris into the mouth of the cave. Throwing up his arms to protect himself he took steps back towards his ship. The cave began to rumble as the moon which held an Asahi military base was bombarded by their oppressors, the Sith. If they didn't stop he was sure the cave would collapse on top of him and his ship.

If he left the cave he could stop himself from being burried, but there was almost no way outside of sheer luck that he could move fast enough to dodge those turbolasers. Grinding his teeth he held the metal beams of his boarding ramp tightly. A cornered Glaucus had, once upon a time, been a dangerous thing. They had enslaved the Vong in their ancient history, the people that bad brought this Galaxy to its knees. Now he called on that strength. He needed, no wanted, to get out of this alive and with a few more credits in his pocket.

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

 

[Taeli Raaf]

"Stop the bombardment," Taeli ordered and the turbolasers fell silent, but were still ready to open up again if she said the word. "Contact the freighter with his terms."

As she stood at the bridge, she could see the Role Model streaking back into orbit and heading for the asteroids. The tracker signals in the guns were indicating a chop shop of some sort and they were being moved, but probably not with the actual shipment of weapons her men had discovered and she hadn't mentioned they had found. The resistance was smaller than most people thought and the Sith had a unique way to deal with such insurgents so the weapons reaching the resistance wasn't an annoyance as much as it would simply give Sith Intelligence some fun.

"Keep an eye on the Role Model, I want to know when she leaves the system," Taeli said, moving to the com terminal again.

"Yes, my Lady," the lieutenant said.

"Freighter Avalon, surrender and you will not be destroyed," the com officer said, sending the message to the freighter. "Respond immediately and terms will be dictated to you at the discretion of Darth Arcanix. Refuse and you will be buried alive in that cave."

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

 

[Ashin Varanin]

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

Songsteel ores were very, very rare; traditional Asahian leadership controlled them tightly. Where this permit had come from, Alec couldn't say and didn't want to know. Arcanix would observe nothing more than the Role Model filling its holds with partially liquefied ore, courtesy of her plasma-jets and tractor beams. Powerful hardware; if the Jo'henry-class had a weakness, it was the same one boasted by the mole miners that had been its direct inspiration. Very good mining gear, very limited cargo space relative to the gear's accumulation rate. She seriously needed to invest in a larger and more temporally stable ship, just as soon as money happened. The double-and-a-half she'd gotten from Arcanix would help, and this cargo of songsteel ores, for which she'd gone to such ridiculous amounts of trouble, might help even more. Songsteel ores didn't really sell well, so far as she knew, but sometimes she had a hunch, and this one led to seven hundred fifty tons of ore filling all three of her cargo bays. Arcanix would detect nothing amiss because there was now nothing amiss to detect, just extensive use of four-hundred-metre plasma-jets to crack, melt and partially process asteroids, burning away impurities. In due course, unable to do anything to help the besieged Arterius, Alec leaped to hyperspace, bound for the great ore markets of 244Core -- a place where songsteel ores fetched a premium. She had a moderately bad feeling about sticking around.

 

[Victor Thrash]

The response was quiet. Mostly because the Glaucus couldn't answer, a small troop of Asahi military troopers had him, blasters raised. This was after all, their moon base. The proud people though accepting their overlords were not overjoyed, and though the actual "resistance" was small, it held supporters throughout Asahi society. The Asahi Lieutenant took the visor from the alien's face and answered.

"Lord Arcanix, this is Lieutenant Kishimoto, we have apprehended the..." he looked the man up and down, confused as to what to call him.

Galen rolled his eyes, "Glaucus."

"We have apprehended the Glaucus and his ship, we will make sure he doesn't leave the ground." Footsteps clanked up the ramp as the crates of guns and weapons were taken from their hiding places and placed on skiffs. The Glaucus winced as one of them scratched paint off the inside of the ship.

"Hey! Who's going to pay for that-" A raised finger to the Asahi's lips quieted Galen. The weapons were carted off towards the Asahi base. A Cred card was slipped into Galen's jacket pocket. Surprise overtook his face, a sly, toothy grin replacing it quickly.

"He is ready for you to take him away and hear your terms." The com clicked off. "You're welcome. Don't worry about the cargo...It will get where it needs to go make sure you put those credits to good use boy." They definitely weren't the resistance. Maybe a group of crooked soldiers, maybe supporters, but Galen had been a con man long enough to know truth in the eyes of a gambler when he saw it. He shook the man's hand and nodded, waiting, still at gun point for the Sith's response.

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

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Alec Rekali"]

Eventually she found her way to 244Core, governed by one Jared Ovmar.

Almost immediately after her ship left hyperspace she was contacted through her commlink, one would almost think Ovmar had some inside info.

‘Miss. Rekali, it has come to my attention you are in the possession of a substantial amount of a particular variant of ore. I am prepared to offer you a fair amount of money, but you’d be only selling to us. Seems reasonable?’

The Sith Lord waited.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Jared Ovmar"]

244CORE

Even though the trip was short, Alec's hyperdrive was slow, and subjectively the trip had been even slower, thanks to some seriously tweaked temporal shielding. She'd spent that time calming down, cleaning any bugs out of her ship, and laying plans. Plans that went entirely askew once Ovmar commed her.

See, she knew that name. Knew what he could do, to some extent. Her grandfather had seen to that.

She touched the commpad. "That seems...more than reasonable, Lord Ovmar. I'll jettison the load of ore right now, and I'm sending you an account number." One of her burner accounts, under a different name.

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Alec Rekali"]

'Excellent. You seem like a capable young woman, miss Rekali. I will be in touch.'

The ore was taken in, and the credits were transferred.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Jared Ovmar"]

As she watched the credits accumulate, Alec found it wise to start planning an exit. 244Core wasn't far from the Neutral Zone, such as it was. A quick hop to the Codian Moon would take her beyond the immediate reach of the Fringe and the One Sith. From there, Montitia, then...Kaeshana? Kaeshana, off to that new trade station.

Maybe in Protectorate space she could finally allow herself to relax.

She jumped shortly after receiving the credits, and was gone.

 

[Taeli Raaf]

Taeli smiled as the soldier commed her about the Glaucus, although she had not asked for any ground forces to be deployed. Overzealous to carry out their duties or looking to make some credits off this smuggler's mission, she didn't really care. She wasn't long for the Asahi system herself, she needed to be returning to Coruscant soon.

"Lieutenant, inform our friend that I would like to personally meet with him aboard my ship," she said into the com. "Disable his weapon systems and my fighters will escort him here. Hold the cargo in your base and my troops will come take delivery. Thank you for taking . . . initiative in apprehending this criminal, but we will take it from here."

Taeli waited for her second guest of the day.

[member="Galen Arterius"]

 

[Victor Thrash]

"Ma'am my men are still searching the ship, but all we've found are...Hoth chocolates and wrapping paper."

Either way, what would actually end up in the Sith's hands were the chocolates and wrapping flimsi. Climbing aboard his ship the Glaucus prepared to launch. His weapons were very much still active but he left them offline. He needed his astromechs at his engines and hyperdrive if they were going to get out of this alright.

Though his baby might come out of this with a few scars...
[member="Darth Arcanix"]

 

[Taeli Raaf]

Taeli started to frown as her Force senses were tingling that something was still off.

"I want that freighter escorted to this cruiser," she ordered the flight officer before switching her com back to the Asahian lieutenant. "Lieutenant, you and your men are to hold your position with all crates until my forces arrive. If we detect any movement, we will assume you are moving illicit materials and will begin bombardment. Understood?"

Not waiting for a reply, the Sith gave the order that the cruisers and frigates were to track the freighter with their weapons and if it even appeared it was going to make a run for it, they were ordered to shoot to kill. She really wanted to meet this Glaucus, she had never met one before.

[member="Galen Arterius"]