Risks of smuggling.

[Riley Reese]

Location: Orbital space station.
Planet: Unknown.
Goal: Deliver smuggled medical cargo.


A living, breathing, albeit sickly thing. That's one way Gida could describe the space station she currently sat in, if you could call it a station. The structure was nothing more than dozens of bulk freighters, capital ships and other vessels that had been stripped down and welded together over several decades. A floating city of junk flung into the far reaches of the outer rim.

Tight living spaces, poor maintenance, and working conditions had made life difficult for the people who lived here. Hundreds of beings called the cramped dirty corridors of the station home, some less willingly than others. Trash and scrap collected here and there, while outdated lights poorly lit rooms and hallways. Most of the citizens worked in the facilities forge, where ore was turned into precious metals. The stench from the forge could be smelled almost anywhere in the station. Those who didn't work on the station, worked on the mining platforms in the surrounding asteroid belt.

Gida sat on a crate near the top of the loading ramp. She drummed her fingers on her knee as she waited for the buyer to show up. Her eyes drifted over to cargo sitting in the hold. Most of the crates contained dehydrated food products, while a couple mislabeled ones contained medicines. Medicines to help curb a sickness that spread through the station like fire and was getting worse by the day.

Unfortunately, the ruling bodies of said station cared little for the wellbeing of its citizens. Most of the medical supplies were being hoarded by the local authorities and rationed of in small quantities. That's why Gida was here, smuggling was her job and someone was paying a hefty sum to get medical supplies to the citizens of this station. First, however, her contact needed to arrive and they were definitely behind schedule.

[member="Alema Rol'za"]

 

[Alema Rol'za]

An Orbital space station. It wasn't exactly the first thing that came to Alema's mind when thinking about places to deliver ordinary medical cargo to. The place looked so shady in quite a lot of ways. It looked like a safe haven to criminals and other misfits and the Twi'lek could easily imagine that the crates next to her would've been full of drugs or blasters, but... then again, who was she to judge? After all, Alema had barely until now seen anything else than sinister looking places in her life. Maybe she just didn't know how to see the difference between the two.

The tukian took a deep breath and opened her dark brown eyes. All she could see was the shiny roof of the cargo hold she was in. But then again, she was lying on her back on the dirty floor of it, bored out of her mind. She didn't know how long she had been down there, but the contract Alema and her 'partner in crime' were waiting for clearly had not arrived yet. She got up, sitting on the floor and checking that her scarf stayed on her face.

Alema took a glance at her wingman sitting on the crate next to her. A rutian. The two had not talked to each other that much on their way to the station. In fact, they had both acted quite a bit too... officially in Alema's opinion. She didn't see smuggling as a business this serious, but... once again, who was she to judge?

"Do ya' think they'll ever appear?"

The Twi'lek said, a clear Ryl accent in her voice as she looked at the dark figures moving back and forth under the flickering and faint lights outside of the cargo hold.


[member="Gida Rha"]

 

[Riley Reese]

Gida turned her hazel hazel eyes towards her partner for this mission. A tukian, who spoke in a Ryl accent equal to her own. Gida gave a shrug at the question. "I hope so. This place doesn't sit well with me." There was a lot going through her mind at the moment, mostly at how easily they made it in to dock. Sure this place was about as welcoming as Nal Hutta, but even that horrible swamp had some form of decent security.

Her mind drifted back to what their contact looked like. A human male in his mid fifties, with black hair growing gray. He would be wearing a brown leather flight jacket with a red flight patch on the left shoulder. His image was ingrained in her mind, but she had yet to see the man in person. "I hope they haven't forgotten about us."

Gida stood up and moved to the edge of the ramp. This whole thing felt off. First they made it here easily enough, and now they had to wait for longer than expected for their contact. Right now her gut was telling her to pack up and move out just incase.

Before she could get that suggestion out, she saw movement. Her eyes flicked up to see a male Weequay dressed in a security officers uniform heading straight for them. Barely a step behind him were two armed and armored guards. Their intentions were clear, they had come to inve the ship. Gida spoke just loud enough for Alema to hear. "We have company."

"Hello, hello!" Came the raspy voice of the Weequay as he reached the bottom of the ramp. "My apologize for the intrusion, but I've noticed that you've been sitting here for a while. Normally most folks would have unloaded and left by now. Since you're still here, then I'm gue that you have some kind of problem?"

"We do, actually. We've been waiting here for a very long time waiting for our cargo to get unloaded." She gestured to the crates in the hold. "Once that's done, then we can be under way and out of your hangar."

"That is a problem." The officer replied with mock surprise. "One that I can help you two lovely ladies with. You see, I'm authorized to have the all that cargo unloaded for you. That is if you'd like, which I'm sure you do. First, though, I'll need you to step down her and let us scan your ship. For security reasons of course."

Gida tried her best to give the Weequay a pleasant smile. "Of course." She then turned her attention to Alema and gestured for her to follow. Things weren't looking good now. All she could do was see how this played out and plan from there.

[member="Alema Rol'za"]

 

[Alema Rol'za]

"...This place doesn't sit well with me..."

The words echoed in Alema's head as her eyes jumped from an innocent looking passerby to another. Although the fact that the clearly more experienced one of the two Twi'lek's was feeling uneasy made Alema just a bit anxious she still didn't want to think everything was going horribly wrong. Perhaps everything was actually going completely fine? Maybe their contact was just... terribly late or wanted to make sure they weren't followed or something? The rutian wasn't exactly sure what the best excuse to make the situation feel a bit more in control was, but she still decided not to overthink stuff just yet. After all, she didn't know too much about the plan, her partner and the contact had possibly made.

But before the untroubled Twi'lek could zone out again, the words of her partner forced her to look around. And as soon as Alema saw the three people standing outside, she got up as fast as she could, making her way next to Gida.


A Weequay, eh? Alema didn't want to generalize, but all the experiences she had of the species... they caused her to think of them as one of the more dishonest ones. She had no idea if a place like this even actually had armed guards like the two behind the Weequay, but something just made Alema feel like these guys just couldn't be them.

The Twi'lek crossed her arms as she scanned the guards behind the Weequay. Alema had seen quite many dishonest people and bloodthirsty pirates in her life, and these guys filled the characteristics of both in her opinion. One of them noticed Alema and gave her a crooked smile, causing her to quickly look at the Weequay again.

Listening to the convo between her partner and the 'guard', Alema couldn't help but start to feel a bit uneasy herself. Maybe... just maybe everything wasn't actually going according to plan? If there ever was one, to begin with.

Immediately following the rutian when she gestured impatiently for her to, Alema kept her eyes on the 'guards' the whole time. When they started to make their way up, the used ramp, Alema made her way closer to Gida. Talking to her quietly and with an obvious bit of concern in her voice, Alema made sure she still had her blaster on her. After all, it was quite possible she would need it soon.

"This ain't a part of the plan is it?"

The tukian took a quick glance at the armed men, now making their way up the ramp

"I just feel like those guys can't be actual guards, y'know..."

[member="Gida Rha"]

 

[Riley Reese]

"No, no it's not." She whispered back to Alema. The guards, Alema had a point about them. "Maybe, maybe not. We'll just have to see."

Gida almost held her breath as the guard scanned the ship. This was the part where things could go wrong in an hurry. After several tense minutes, the guard came back down the ramp and handed a datapad to the Weequay. He took the device and read through the findings. The smile on his face faltered for a moment before he looked between the two Twi'lek's. "Congratulations. Your ship is clean and ready to unload. I'll have a crew down here to get to work immediately and then you can be on your way. Until then, come and let me show you the lounge where you can wait in the meantime."

A slow breath escaped Gida's lips at the findings, they had a few more minutes to think of a plan. That, or the Weequay was leading them into a trap. When he said he'd take them to the lounge to wait, Gida gave a hesitant smile and tried to decline, but the officer wouldn't take no for answer. So they had no choice but to follow.

The trio lead Gida and Alema to a large lounge with several couches, chairs and had a view of the hangar. Once they were inside, the Weequay excused himself, saying he had other matters to attend to. Then the doors shut, leaving Gida and Alema alone in the room.

The second the doors shut, Gida turned to Alema. "Right, we need to get out of here. I'm pretty sure he knows and is just trying to get us away from thethe ship. There's probably guards at the door, so we have to find another way out."

[member="Alema Rol'za"]