Public Space Race!

[Hego Hill]

Jerec Asyr Subject 73 Red

"Alright, both of you. Before I decide how much fuel is necessary, I need to do some investigative work to gauge the Eternal Empire. We need to see how capable their sensors are and how much of a prick they're going to be to us if we're discovered. My entire plan A relies on them being a bunch of myopic turtles when it comes to internal security. I will be in the bar area of the smuggler's hotel across the street from here if anybody needs me. I'll be renting a room for us so we can meet there and talk without these suspicious space port types ruining our conversation. Get over there within the next twenty minutes. Ask the clerk for the room; they'll have your names and you can go up. Move."

Jerec was correct when he said Hego was white collar and bossy. It came with the turf, so to speak. Jerec was a low-level smuggler and engineer whereas Hego ran a private banking business; quite the difference in terms of clientele, so to speak.

The Muun navigator bolted out of the space port and across the street to the hotel. "The Flying Spacer" it was called.

As he said, he rented a room. Now, he ordered a very small room and gave a pseudonym for himself but used his teammates' real names. This was designed to not attract any undue attention; owning a bank in the middle of the Unknown Regions gives you notoriety, and notoriety attracts bad things, like potential kidnapping attempts.

After doing that, he headed to the hotel bar, where he was greeted by a "HEY I KNOW YOU! from a former human business associate. Given the warm welcome, he could easily get to know the other smugglers.

Following a fifteen minute conversation, Hego managed to gauge the extent of the Eternal Empire's sensor array. They could potentially sense incoming hyperspace traffic, but the rimward systems of the Empire were left deliberately undefended to devote more resources to potential attacks from the powers of the Core. This meant that they were unlikely to send fighters to investigate in time to catch them. Remember, this was an extremely fast ship that could out run almost anything.

After finishing, Hego headed up to the room and waited for the others in the eating area of the room. He made sure to order wine and liquor, preferably the ones his teammates liked. He then waited.

 

[Subject 73 Red]

Hego Hill Jerec Asyr

Red nodded to both of them as they landed. They both seemed to want to be in charge. Hilarious. It was quite enjoyable to watch, but if it produced problems later on, Red would need to step in and intervene, having to be the one with the cool head, the voice of reason, if it started to get out of hand and produce problems. One was a smuggler and owned the ship, the other ran a banking clan. They were both used to people listening to them and having to take orders from them, Jerec was used to people on his ship to following his orders, and Hego used to a lot of people following his orders, running a bank and everything. Maybe they would listen to the genetically enhanced and lab created super-soldier, trained in special forces, black ops, and many other forms of combat, mechanical work, and tactical work. Maybe they would listen to the soldier that could physically slice their throats, break their necks, shoot them, stab them, burn them, blow them up, rip off their limbs, rip off their heads, rip out their hearts, eyes, throats, and many, many more forms of death, torture, and the likes, just maybe.

"Their sensors are probably fairly good, but it would probably be helpful to know anyway. Stay safe." He nodded to him as the Muun walked off.

Red walked off. He waited exactly twenty minutes, then followed after Hego. He walked into the hotel, and said his name. His name, as the Muun said, was already on the list. Red was given the room number, and he walked over to it. He approached and opened the door. Red looked around and noticed Hego. "How much money do you have to just throw around?" Red asked him.

 

[Jerec Asyr]

"Okay, they're gone, come on out."

Down beside the pilot's seat, a small smuggling compartment opened. The being who emerged was small, feathery, and furious.

"BUCKAWW!"

"Yeah, you said it, Quekko. Red seems like a decent guy for a commando, but I don't trust the Muun as far as I can throw his bank account."

His little Apokka first mate hopped up into the copilot's seat and nested happily. "Brrawk."

Jerec blinked. "Jeez, that's a low move."

Quekko gave him the eye. "Buckaw."

"Feth, yeah, you're right. And it's not like it's a bad place to get marooned. Farming and farm girls oughta do the both of'em a world of good. Okay, yeah, I'm sold. Don't know what we'll do for fuel, though."

"Buckabuckabucka."

"Didn't they just conquer that planet?"

"Arrawk."

"No, no, the Blood Trail's clear on the other side-" Jerec started hitting controls. The Infinity's Free lifted off, entirely abandoning both Subject 73 Red and Hego Hill at a hotel on the backwater farm world of Kammia. He'd probably just made an enemy of the IGBC, if they ever found out about it, but a little marooning was good for the soul. Maybe the banker would return to the civilized galaxy with a refreshed and more enlightened outlook on life, and they'd share a laugh over a drink.

Somehow Jerec doubted it.

"BUCKAWWW!"

 

[Hego Hill]

Subject 73 Red Jerec Asyr

Jerec might have thought himself extremely intelligent by marooning both Hego and Red on Kammia in the middle of nowhere, but little did he know that Hego had predicted what he would do. The question Jerec failed to ask was this: why did Hego spend so much time inside his cabin? The answer was simple: he had an ion pulse inside his cabin just in case the engineer decided to get stupid. Arming it required one thing: time.

Hego had bothered to directly position that room of his with a fantastic view of the space port. As Red came in and quizzed him about the amount of money he made, he responded, in typical Muun laconic verbiage.

"As much as we need. Look out the window. This is why I rented the room. I never intended to have a discussion with either of you. I could've easily ordered the refueling staff to refuel. He took my bait and is trying to maroon us."

Red would notice to his horror that the ship was leaving. That was until Hego whipped out what could be described as a detonator. He immediately slammed it. The pair would see a blue flash shoot out of all the windows on the ship. As fast as it lifted, it went down, with no damage, at least not extensive damage.

"It would richly benefit us to head over to the space port right the fuck now and talk to Jerec."

At the end of the sentence, Hego picked up his large, thin body from the chair he was sitting on and bolted down to the hotel lobby and out the door to the space port. He'd be hoping Red would follow.

 

[Subject 73 Red]

Hego Hill Jerec Asyr

Red nodded to Hego as he said he had as much as they needed. That's what he expected from the Muun. They always had a lot of money. Then, Hego motioned at the window. Red looked out of it. He knew why the Muun had chosen the room, Red could see it from the landing pad. The room over looked the ship, which was unceremoniously leaving them. Red wasn't shocked, not even moved a little bit. He expected this. Jerec was a jumpy little man, and Red wouldn't put it past him to leave them behind. The man did have a record, and not exactly good, either. It seems a lot of people hated him, actually, and he did have a bit of a criminal record. Red expected this. Hego explained why he had brought him to the room. "I could tell from your body language that you didn't just want to talk. You're a smart man, you would have just had the fueling staff do it without any of this other stuff. Don't forget, I have enhance senses, and I can easily read people from my bio-experiment training. I could tell you had an ulterior motive, but I couldn't tell what. So I played along, as you're a respected businessman, and Jerec has a criminal record, I figured I could trust you more than Jerec." Red admitted.

Then, the Muun pulled a detonator-looking device. Hego pressed it, and a large ion pulse emitted from the ship. Impressive. Very impressive. "An Ion pulse? You sneaky Muun. That's what you were doing in the cabin, huh? Alright, let's go talk to Jerec." Red put on his helmet and followed after Hego. Red and Hego moved quickly out of the hotel and towards the landing pad. Red had a wide array of weapons, grenades, poisons, and tranquilizers. He even had a lightsaber, from his Jedi training. This was going to be fun.

 

[Jerec Asyr]

The point of keeping Quekko concealed was so the little Apokka kept an eye on the strangers aboard. When the ion pulse weapon went off, it did so on its way out the nearest hatch, trailed by a furious BUCKAWW. The Infinity's Free staggered and corkscrewed, shields drained and systems faltering, but kept ascending away from the nowhere spaceport.

Up in the cockpit, Jerec cursed in several obscure trade languages and hit the hyperdrive. It clunked, but did nothing.

He applied the ancient ritual of percussive maintenance, with vigor, and tried again.

Still corkscrewing, the airborne freighter disappeared into hyperspace in a completely random direction at a screaming class-point-five, short on both fuel and systems integrity.

"BUCKAWW!"

"Fething right."

Hego Hill Subject 73 Red

 

[Hego Hill]

Subject 73 Red Jerec Asyr

First rule of banking: always have a Plan A, a Plan B, a Plan C, and a Plan D through Z.

Jerec was very clearly not an idiot; that's something Hego had predicted quite well. The man had a very good grasp of engineering. He also had a very good grasp of how to read people. In other words, Hego's feint was likely to fail. And it half did. The ship was rather bruised and it was unlikely that he would make it to Anthan Prime in one jump. Hego had predicted that they had, in fact, not enough fuel, and that he'd have to make a stop somewhere. Where he would had to be quickly deduced.

It was worth noting that Hego had also left a tracking device in a conveniently hidden part of his cabin that Apokka was literally powerless to find. The direction the ship would be headed could be easily inferred from that.

After having ran out into the middle of the street only to see Jerec engage in quite possibly some of the best piloting he'd ever seen, he'd go back up to the room to find Red.

In complete silence, without saying a word to Red as he passed by (clearly indicated Hego was severely pissed off), he'd put down a holo map, indicating the location of Jerec's ship as it left into hyperspace with a red blip.

"I have to give it to Jerec. He's not a moron. Smugglers usually can't outwit Muun brilliance. However, he hasn't outwitted my brilliance. There's a tracking device on his ship. He can't find it. Now, care to do a bit of brainstorming about how we're going to get off this backwater? I know where Jerec is, I don't know how to chase him. And yes, Jerec is a criminal, something I feel we need to use to our advantage somehow."

 

[Subject 73 Red]

Hego Hill Jerec Asyr

Red watched as the ship jumped away. Man, Jerec must be an amazing mechanic to be able to still keep his ship flying and be able to use his hyperdrive to jump away after on ion pulse. Red had to hand it to him, he was good. Hego walked past Red, silent, obviously mad. Red followed Hego back to the room. Hego spoke, a tracking device? Talk about paranoid. Then again, Red did the exact same thing, but Hego's ion pulse fried it. At least they had one more. "A tracking device, too? I planted one too, but your ion pulse fried mine, so it's all up to yours.Yeah, I can get us off the planet. I have an idea." Red motioned at the window, conveniently, another ship was landing on the landing pad. Another weary trader, stopping here to rest. Lucky for Red and Hego, bad for the trader. Red walked out of the room and out of the hotel lobby. He approached the trader walking out of the ship.

"Can I help you?" The trader asked.

Red waved his hand, speaking in a low, monotone voice. "You will let us borrow your ship." Red said, using a Jedi mindtrick on the man.

The trader blinked. "I... will let you borrow my ship." The man said.

Red patted him on his shoulder. "Thank you, much appreciated." Red walked up the cargo ramp into the ship.

 

[Hego Hill]

It was rare to see a soldier so gifted in the force. It was usually one or the other, but Red had managed to defy Hego's expectations again by literally being able to mind trick a guy into giving them his ship. Hego had planned to steal one, but this was good.

As Red walked up the ramp, he was followed by Hego, carrying his holopad and computer. He snapped to the refueling staff to fill 'er up, using his position as a hugely respected businessman to buy on interest-free credit. The staff knew Hego; you get that position as a banker in the middle of nowhere.

"The staff will take ten minutes to refuel the ship. Now, check the specs of the ship please, Red, and inform me of what cargo we have on board. While you do that, I will attempt to construct Jerec's potential route using my holopad."

There were three possible stops that Jerec could make. One was on Cattamascar, one was in Eternal Imperial space, the last was on Anthan Prime. Now, see, Jerec had said earlier that "a stop on Cattamascar was out of the question" however Hego knew he was bullshitting. It was the only safe place he could land without either getting arrested or running out of fuel.

Now, Hego, being the good horse race better than he is, decided to hedge his bets. One, he would use his respectable position as both businessman and creditor to ingratiate himself to the Eternal Empire. Everyone loves public credit bankers, after all. He'd schmooze the Blackwatch commander Ingrid L'lerim to do some work for him. Secondly, he'd contact Cattamascar to have them stall Jerec as much as possible. Thirdly, he'd get someone on Anthan Prime to create some trouble for him.

Did the ship have enough fuel to get straight to Anthan Prime? Yes, it did! And that was their advantage. Jerec would be stupid to fly to Anthan Prime without a full tank, which he did not have. They still needed to wait for it to refuel.

As the staff went about their business, he opened him holocommunicator and punched in the coordinates for the Imperial Blackwatch Commander. She'd see hers ringing.

[ Subject 73 Red - Ingrid L'lerim - Jerec Asyr ]

 

[Subject 73 Red]

Hego Hill Jerec Asyr

Red nodded in response to Hego's orders. Red was created and raised to follow orders, so it didn't bother him when Hego gave Red orders, as Red was used to it, and Hego was usually in charge of things, which meant that he most likely had a greater business and public standing than Red did, but military wise, Red was obviously higher than Hego. But, this could be considered business and public, so Hego was his superior. "Yes sir." Red nodded as he sat down in the pilot's seat in and started typing into the console. He started to look at the certain specifications the ship held, like shields, weapons, engines, and the hyperdrive. Red then checked the ship's manifest, looking at what cargo they currently held.

After doing that, Red got up and walked through the ship. He checked the engine room, looking at the sublight engines, power cells, hyperdrive, and shield generator. Once Red had observed it all, he walked to the cargo bay and started to examine their cargo. He counted the crates, opened them, and logged and counted everything that was in them. Red returned to the cockpit and sat down in the pilot's seat. He took off his helmet and set it next to him.

Red turned to Hego. "We have a Class 1.5 hyperdrive with a modified T-14 hyperdrive generator. It has ion engine sublight drives. The deflector shields are a mixture of ray and particle shields. The weapons include multiple laser cannons, and a turret on the stern side of the ship, near the engines. The ship also holds a small ion cannon, along with the other forward laser cannons. there are multiple proton torpedoes already loaded into the ship's torpedo slots. It has slightly advanced navigation, and communications is standard. Our cargo is mainly rations, provisions, raw materials, some basic tech, and a lot of other contraband items, including spice. The trader was not interested in entirely legal trading, hence the ship having advanced systems, in order to outrun blockades and law enforcement." Red reported.

 

[Jerec Asyr]

OOC/ For kicks, I rolled for which adjacent hex Jerec wound up in, clockwise from the top.

Dice MaidenBOTToday at 11:03 AM
Jon Roll: [6] Result: 6

CC: Hego Hill Subject 73 Red

IC/ The good ship Infinity's Free hit realspace tumbling. Jerec yowled, Quekko brrawked, and together they wrestled the freighter into a straight-line course. At which point the sensors detected absolutely nothing.

"Calibrating. Alright, we've got a map heading, not nearly precise enough to make a jump yet. Looks like we're in deep space, basically the void outside the Ssi-Ruuvi star cluster. Good news is, nobody's finding us anytime soon. Bad news...well, you know the bad news, bud."

Quekko pecked the nav panel peevishly. Like many, many other instrument panels, it showed systems failures and error messages aplenty. The little Apokka spat a curse and embedded himself in some wiring, feathery tail fluffing with angst.

Half an hour's work got the bulk of the error messages taken care of and a real thorough search done. A couple of dead tracking beacons got melted to feth before they could reboot. Anything valuable and simple got stuffed in a sensor-dampening compartment in case one of those had a tracker too. Everything else from in and around the two passengers' cabins got shoved out an airlock and torched. Jerec was in the mood for spring cleaning and no more surprises. Just in case, he coaxed the hyperdrive into a half-light-year hop to throw off...anything. The hop took the fuel gauge from 'pretty low' to 'really fething low.'

Jerec and Quekko reconvened in the cockpit, deep clean and systems refresh complete. The nav computer bleeped to mark that it had finished its assessment of their precise location. The two spacers strapped themselves in.

"Buckabucka."

"Yeah, agreed. I'm not going back to Lwhekk with my tail between my legs-"

"BucKAW."

"-so to speak."

"Cluckluckluck."

"Yeah, navigating the star cluster would cut our mileage way down. Don't think we'd make it to Lwhekk. Agents of Chaos turf might be too far as well. Back to Kammia's out for obvious reasons. I'd try Cattamascar but it's just as far as Chaosland. We could try the straightaway to Anthan but it's a coin toss whether we'd run out of gas in the deep void."

"Pucka?"

"Pa'Desh? Feth no. That place is...no." Jerec sat back in his crash couch and rubbed his eyes. "We gotta dig deeper. Keep at it. Let's spool up a few...yeah. Let's figure this out. And feth, get us both a beer."

 

[Ingrid L'lerim]

Ingrid L’lerim
The Red Witch; Emperor's right hand; Director of Blackwatch; Baroness of Vengard​

---

Location: In her office
Equipment: Uniform
Tag(s): Hego Hill

Just a few people know Ingrid's private holocommunicator’s number, so Hego Hill could only call Blackwatch’s office, not the commander personally. Ingrid was sitting in her office, and read the new files and reports. It was early afternoon out there, she was recently returned to her office. Her work was interrupted by one of the officers, who was knocking on the office. She is looking up from the datapad.

<”Come in!”> she said.

<”My Lord! We got an urgent call from Hego Hill, he wants to speak with you my Lord!”> said the officer.

<”I don’t recognize his name, who is this man?”> she asked.

<”As far as we know, he is a banker and he has a company. I don’t know what he wants, he is only willing to talk to you, my Lord!”> he said apologetically.

<”Turn on your call!”> she ordered.

<”Yes my Lord!”> he replied and saluted, after that he left the office.

A few seconds later the line was established, and the woman appeared on the holo broadcast.

”It’s Ingrid L’lerim, director of the Blackwatch, who are you, and what do you want?” she asked Hego Hill on cold and rigid sound.

​

 

[Jerec Asyr]

The modified, untested, overstressed hyperdrive yanked the Infinity's Free to lightspeed without warning. Then again and again, as Jerec and Quekko freaked the heck out. That made a total of four random jumps since Kammia.

"Bukkabukkabraaaawk-"

 

[Hego Hill]

Hego knew he probably wouldn't receive a warm welcome from the Blackwatch Commander, given the EE's stickler for rules and viewing everyone that isn't in their aristocracy as peasants. He did however want to exploit their endless love of disproportionate punishment for his own benefit.

"Hello, commander L'lerim. This is Hego Hill, managing director of Hill and Company private banking services..."

This was designed to make himself seem super important. Being a banker in this part of the galaxy was a rarity and an extremely well-respected profession that the Blackwatch could likely associate with honesty and respectability. The fact he was a Muun didn't hurt either.

"Me and my partner here have had our goods stolen by some backstabbing marooner named Jerec Asyr. He has a criminal record I'm sure you can find quite easily given your station. He has stolen an expensive relic from me, one I can't really afford to lose. I would like to know if you could issue an arrest warrant for that given the circumstances. Theft is a crime according to Imperial Law and I'm sure trafficking in stolen goods in Imperial space is doubly so. I ask this because he's likely headed your way."

After finishing his sentence, Hill side glanced at the tracking device he had planted on the ship. It took an absolutely unimaginable level of effort on Hego's part not to smirk at best or burst out laughing in front of her lordship at worst as he noticed that his ion pulse had completely unbalanced the hyperdrive and the fact Jerec was going in the opposite direction.

[ Jerec Asyr - Ingrid L'lerim - Subject 73 Red ]

 

[Subject 73 Red]

Hego Hill Jerec Asyr

Red sighed as Hego contacted the Eternal Empire. Great, now he was contacted them. This guy was persistent, Red had to give him that. But the Eternal Empire? Why did they need to get involved? Red saw no reason for them to get involved. Now, Red had nothing against the Eternal Empire, but Red thought they would most likely refuse, then something else might happen. Hego might be a tad bit too overzealous with this quest.

Red heard Hego mention that Jerec has stolen goods from Red and himself, and that Jerec had also stolen an expensive relic from Hego. Now, there were two things wrong with that. One: That might be the last thing you want to tell the Eternal Empire. They might decide to take it from you as a payment, and any other goods. Or they'll just kill you and take it from your corpse. Red didn't know how the Eternal Empire operated, but that was pretty much a basic rule in the galaxy full of crime and distrust. Two: It was just straight up lying. Neither Red nor Hego had left anything on Jerec's ship, to Red's knowledge at least. Except for the thing that made the ion pulse, and Hego's trackers. Another thing you don't want to do with the Eternal Empire is lie to them for your own benefit. They probably wouldn't like that either.

"Why am I always stuck with the nut jobs, overzealous businessmen, and sociopathic criminals?" Red muttered to himself as he typed something into the ship.

Red had decided not to trust any of Hego's intel. Even though Hego had placed trackers on board the ship, it is most likely that Jerec had gotten rid of them all. Jerec knew his ship better than anyone, so he must have known all of the places that things could be hidden. So Hego's intel was out.

Then, Red remembered something. He had left behind something, on accident. His pit droid. The ion pulse would have fried it, but by now its systems would have rebooted. He could even contact it, and it to him. Red was also abe to track its location. Of course, Jerec would just throw it out, but if they could get his last known location, they could draw a general path of where he is going, as many hunters do when tracking a prey. They use tracks and evidence of their prey to create a general direction of where their prey would have gone. Simple, but effective.

In Jerec's ship, the pit droid activated and sprung open. It looked around in confusion. "Where am I?" The pit droid asked no one in particular. It walked around through the ship, looking for Red, and trying to figure out where it is. Then, it arrived in the cockpit. "Hi! I'm Pitt. Who are you guys?" The pit droid asked, oblivious to what had happened in the time that it was offline.

 

[Jerec Asyr]

Subject 73 Red

"Gah, feth, almost gave me a heart attack."

"Brrrukka."

"Red's? Okay, you made the right call not spacing the little guy, just make sure he doesn't do anything weird. And run a scan for explosives."

"Cluck."

"Well run it again. I got crap to do."

They needed a port with a gas station or they'd be just as marooned as Hill and Red. This was way out as far as the Lords of the Fringe had ever come, or the First Order either. Nobody published up-to-date charts for this turf. Half a dozen dubious destinations suggested themselves, all very close. The modded drive was running on fumes. Nobody answered the comms on any spectrum.

"Okay, I've got us a port. Maybe. It's a pure backwater called Charal that doesn't show up on most charts. Lots of hyperspace disturbance between here and there. Gotta love the Unknown Regions."

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

​

Team 1	Team 2	Team 3
Jerec Asyr	Jai'galaar Gred Eocin Chiyat	Hego Hill Subject 73 Red

The race had taken on a much different angle than had been anticipated. Tens of thousands of entertainment workers shuffled to make the appropriate changes and alterations required as orders were shouted into the chips that were attached directly to their brains. It was not a nice feeling at all.

But whereas earlier, cameras had been in place everywhere to capture the interesting moments, some of them now no longer worked, and there was a new ship in the mix that had never been properly wired to the broadcasts. Everywhere, audiences were watching with wide eyes, looking at team 1 and the newly created team 3 which had somehow turned into a solo mission.

Team 2, in the mean time, had arrived at their destination.

---

TEAM 1

You are now alone, and separated from those who were your former team. The ship's comms are still working.

"Mr. Asyr?" asked a high pitched female voice that came with the holo of a Rattataki female, her tone unbelievably chipper and bouncy, "You have removed our cameras and microphones! The audience cannot see you! Please use your emergency camera kit and hang the cameras as per the instructions. The audiences at home love you! You are a fan favorite! Don't deny them the chance to see you now that you have officially become a Team of your own!"

---

TEAM 2

You have been first to reach Anthan Prime! Congratulations! As your ship nears orbit, your comm systems beep, and up comes a holo of a Quermian's head.

"Welcome to Anthan Prime, Team 2!" he said. In the arena and in people's homes, cheers could be heard by all those who had supported team 2 up until now, and those who now, that the team had arrived first to the first location, had become #Team2 all the way. "Anthan Prime is a beautiful planet, known to be one of the first go-to places for the wealthy ones who want a stay-cation! Of course, alongside the rich people, are those who love to steal money from rich people!

We are sending you the coordinates to the spaceport of the city of Savyon, one of the richest areas on the planet. Two mobs are there right now as well, and are amidst a battle in the spaceport.

Your task, should you accept it, is to get into that spaceport and find locker ÞÆÅ. If you can open it, you will find the name of the next planet you must reach."

* Other teams that reach the planet - you will be sent to other spaceports/dockyards.

Spoiler

If you want me to DM the gangs once you've landed, let me know (comment here or a DM/PM would also work!

---

TEAM 3

The woman had run cross the entire dockyard to reach them on time. As their ship had not yet lifted off, she banged her hands against the door, praying that they would open it and that she would not lose her job.

"Mr. Hill! Mr. Red!" she shouted, "Please! It has taken us longer than anticipated to understand where you are! You are currently disconnected from the broadcast! Please let me in so that I can connect you back in! I have the bag with me!"

 

[Ingrid L'lerim]

Ingrid L’lerim
The Red Witch; Emperor's right hand; Director of Blackwatch; Baroness of Vengard​

Location: In her office
Equipment: Uniform
Tag(s): Hego Hill

Ingrid did not respond immediately, she searched his name, not the muun, but Jerec Asyr. In the files she found he is working to the Outer Planets Alliance. OPA again, she is not happy with this development. If Hill tells the truth it was a sensitive diplomatic affair. Maybe she was the third person in the Empire, but she didn't want to start a war with the OPA. If they do this in the future, it was the Emperor’ or the Empress’s job, not hers. But, she can do one thing; under Hill's talk, she starts running programs to locate the muun’s position.

”I see, and you have proof? I’m a busy woman, and my men are busy too. If you only want to put aside your opponent, your enemy… you are already in great trouble” she said on cold and rigid voice.

She looked at him questioningly, tried to read from his face and body language if she can, and she saw him, not just his face. She was distrustful as usual; this is why she can’t ask immediately what the muun wants from Jerec Asyr. Normally that would have been enough to hunt down the criminal. Of course she found his case, and saw what he had done before, but it doesn’t matter now.

”So! If you have proofs… what do you want for the information?” she asked.

Ingrid knows perfectly Hill will never give the information free to her. The bankers, company directors never do anything for free. They always want something, news, rumors, money, favour, or political influence etc. The good question, what he wants?

​

 

[Subject 73 Red]

Scherezade deWinter Hego Hill Jerec Asyr

Red turned his head as he heard a commotion coming from the door. What now? There have been so many different things happening in such a small time period, Red was getting real tired of all of these surprises. Red got up and walked over to the door. He listened to the woman speaking. Really? Now? They were worried about that now? They were holding them up when they needed to leave? Great.

Red sighed and opened the door. He had his blaster carbine pointing at the woman. "Alright, go right ahead and get us hooked back in, but if you try anything, well, you get the idea." Red warned her, motioning at his vast assortment of weapons, and the rifle pointed at her face. He had decided that he would watch her the entire time while she set it up, and if she tried anything, he probably wouldn't kill her, just scare her, then let her go with that in mind. They were running out of time, and they really needed to start making progress.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~​

Back on Jerec's ship, Pitt looked around at the two, still in confusion. When Jerec talked to the weird small creature that Pitt had never seen before, he said, "You can understand that thing? Well, people can understand Wookies, so I guess it is possible to understand whatever that is." Pitt said, being his usual, vaguely obnoxious self.

Then Jerec said to run a scan for explosives. "Explosives?! Is there one on me? Get it off, get it off!" Pitt said. Of course, there was no explosive on the droid. Red wasn't heartless. Besides, Red liked Pitt, so he would never attach an explosive to the little droid.

Then, the hologram of the woman appeared. Pitt jumped back. Then, looked at the hologram. "Who are you?" Pitt asked. Then, the woman said something about Jerec being a team all on his own, Pitt was exasperated. "All on his own?! Lady, you're crazy. Obviously, me and this weird feathery creature here are on this team too, I think." Pitt said.

 

[Jerec Asyr]

​

"Mr. Asyr?" asked a high pitched female voice that came with the holo of a Rattataki female, her tone unbelievably chipper and bouncy, "You have removed our cameras and microphones! The audience cannot see you! Please use your emergency camera kit and hang the cameras as per the instructions. The audiences at home love you! You are a fan favorite! Don't deny them the chance to see you now that you have officially become a Team of your own!"

Back on Jerec's ship, Pitt looked around at the two, still in confusion. When Jerec talked to the weird small creature that Pitt had never seen before, he said, "You can understand that thing? Well, people can understand Wookies, so I guess it is possible to understand whatever that is." Pitt said, being his usual, vaguely obnoxious self.

Then Jerec said to run a scan for explosives. "Explosives?! Is there one on me? Get it off, get it off!" Pitt said. Of course, there was no explosive on the droid. Red wasn't heartless. Besides, Red liked Pitt, so he would never attach an explosive to the little droid.

Then, the hologram of the woman appeared. Pitt jumped back. Then, looked at the hologram. "Who are you?" Pitt asked. Then, the woman said something about Jerec being a team all on his own, Pitt was exasperated. "All on his own?! Lady, you're crazy. Obviously, me and this weird feathery creature here are on this team too, I think." Pitt said.

"Agh. NOISE."

Jerec waited until everyone and everything, Quekko included, had spoken its piece. He was trying to focus on getting them safely to the potential fuel depot at Charal. He was largely failing. But random chance smiled on him, and as he went around hanging up the backup cameras, the freighter emerged from hyperspace near a gas station.

"Hokay. Hokay. Hello, uh, everyone. This is Team One: Jerec Asyr, Quekko the Apokka - Apokkas are sapient, by the way - and a chatty pit droid that got left behind when I, uh, marooned Hego Hill and Red on a nowhere farm planet."

He told the story, more or less accurately, as he messaged back and forth with the local authorities. They didn't take any currency he had on hand, but the Infinity's Free was a hundred-metre hodgepodge of cargo bays and barter was absolutely on the table. In exchange for a couple hundred kilos of fissionables, a couple hundred hours of Corellian holodramas, and a couple bottles of decent whiskey, he secured a full gas tank and enough local nav data to get him back on the road. They even gave him a discount for his recent nav tapes. Apparently this place was big on navigation.

In fairly short order, he and Quekko tightened up the hyperdrive so it wouldn't do the random-jump thing again anytime soon. They set a course for Anthan Prime. Even at point-oh-five with the Charalian charts, it would take a little while.

Jerec fully intended to spend all of that time in the bath. Yes, his ship had a bath.