Weekend Treasure Hunt 25: Terrible Hothpitality

[RC 212]

[member="Gray Raxis"] [member="Katbirye Rekr"]

Another hair brained job. Except this time Ellie wasn't delivering a package, she was on the payroll of a salvaging company to go scout out some kind of super spaceship. On Hoth. ..... Yeah.

The cold itself and the planets rep made her apprehensive at best to even take it, but the belly was equally as empty as her bank account. After a rash of failed and botched smuggling runs she'd decided to just stop wasting the money and go back to what she was good at. Delivering and finding things.

It had been a months long trip to get here and finally she felt some sense of relief as the Crop Duster touched down. Not being one to walk she'd decided to put down right next to her quarry, unawares of the actual danger in the area.

"Keep her running R7." Ellie said, zipping up her spacesuit and sheathing both sawed off shotguns on either side of her rucksack. The suit was designed for space, but would do in a cold environment. She glanced at her datapad one last time and grimaced. Daylight was scarce so she only had a couple of hours before she had to hole up.

*Beep boop!*

"No I don't know when I'll be back. If anyone comes just take off and look for my tracking beacon. You can find me later ok?"

*Beep!*

"No you're not coming, do as I said."

Her hand hit the hangar release and the ramp whooshed open, heavy magnetic locks and hydraulics hissing. The cold air whooshed into the cabin, reminding her to slide her helmet on. Even in her zero-G suit it was cold, the heating coils were old. And just as she stepped off the ramp, there was an explosion.

Laser beams rocking the ground as they pummelled wreckage nearby.

"Frak!"

She took off, bounding down the ramp and falling flat behind some debris.

"R7, get out of here!"

 

[Yag'dril]

Location B

She could hear sounds in the distance from inside the ship, her own force energies expanding out to sense and feel around the wrecked ship into a half buried camp. She wasn't certain what was there feeling around in the snow until she came away with a half broken lightsaber and some frozen things there. Slowly she slithered through all of it to a tent. There didn't seem to be anything here to point them forward and she could feel in the snow there were vibrations coming from all around alerting her to more people in the distance faintly. "Hmm." Yag said it rising up a little as she held a section of tent but there was a pathway away from the camp and seemed like the next avenue of exploration. As she would do on her own planet exploring in tight spaces came with some advantage when your body was very flexible.

 

[Aedan Miles]

Aedan felt a surge in the force as the girl appeared by his side snarling he glanced at her before a silent warning blazed in his head and he ducked quickly spinning his body around to land a force enhanced kick in the stomach of a wampa. As he finished the turn he saw that another wampa had taken a swing at him while the third seemed to be advancing on the girl cursing her quietly the young man leapt backward gathering the force around himself he leveled a hand at one of the wampas and channeled his power through it taking hold of the wampa's body he lifted it boldly into the air before tossing it after the one he had kicked. First things first deal with these two beasts and than help the girl hopefully she could live that long. His comlink buzzed in his ear and he looked up seeing the ship he spun his weapon to get attention before pointing with the crimson portion back towards the ship hoping whoever it was would understand to drop it back there.

[member="Jorus Merrill"] [member="Zak Dymo"] [member="Calina Ovmar"]

 

[Mia Monroe]

The wampas were large and should have been terrifying, but to Calina who had spent her childhood facing against the likes of Anaya Fen and Kaine Zambrano they seemed like a walk in the park. Their movements were slow and predictable and Calina relished at the oppurtunity to turn the snow red with their blood. She ducked low as the advancing wampa took a swipe at her her, retaliating with a strike the carved through its trunk like legs, a sharp push in the force toppled it away from her and she almost skipped over its torso, seperating its head from its body with a delicate swing.

She felt alive, more so than when she trained with her mother and for a brief moment she understood why her Anaya felt such satisfaction in killing. That moment was swiftly followed by a sickening feeling in her stomach as she found yet another similarity with her kin she'd rather not have. A fourth beast, camouflaged in the snow was trying to blindside the Jedi already occupied by two others.

No mercy.

Her mothers lesson echoed in her mind and she released the saber from her hand, guiding it in a wide arc towards the sneaking predator. It scored a deep wound across its chest, causing a bellow of pain to erupt from its lips. Calina advanced, a fire burning in her eyes, immersed in the dark side.

[member="Aedan Miles"] [member="Jorus Merrill"]

 

[Darth Osano]

[member="Pauul Farrlo"] | Pawnchee | x5 Guavian Security Soldiers

Eugene, one of the more violent members of the Guavian Death Gang, had grabbed a Weequay by the scruff of his neck and was dragging him forcibly through the snow. The Weequay struggled and kicked, begged and bartered, but Eugene paid him no mind. He kept dragging the Weequay and eventually threw him at the feet of a thickly clothed Givin by the name of Pollux. Pollux was in the process of making a name for himself in the underworld. It wasn't working, but he had embedded himself in the Guavian Death Gang. He was an informant, a money lender. Something of an adviser. Pollux had a knack for getting into the right places with the right people, though he had yet to try for anything loftier than, say, a gang of criminal misfits.

"Found him hidin' not far from where you said he'd be." Eugene said. "He had a campsite."

Knowing full well what to do at this point, two of the other Guavians peeled off from the group to go pick through the Weequay's campsite. The Weequay got up on his knees and looked pleadingly at the Givin. "This- this is about the- the, uh, money, right?"

Pollux nodded. The Weequay opened his mouth to speak again, but Eugene was feeling a tad more vocal. "Thought you could run, bub? Just gonna lay low on some ice ball 'till we forget?" He put his foot against the Weequay's back and forced him back into the ground. "Guess again, buckaroo. If you ain't packin' cash, we'll be packin' your organs." Eugene looked over to the other two Guavians, who were standing over by the large landspeeder that had ferried them this far out. "Go get the cooler and my tools."

"Wait! N- no! Don't," The Weequay barked, partially muffled by the snow. "I, I've got the money!"

The Givin held out a hand and both the Guavians paused for a moment. Eugene took his foot of the poor debtor's back, allowing him to get back onto his knees. Pollux looked at the Weequay rather expectantly. It took a few seconds of the Weequay panting and his eyes darting back and forth to realize he might be spared, so he launched right into it. "There's a cache, just- just a, uh, a decent walk East of here. Savages everywhere, but- but!" He yelled the last word because it looked like Pollux lost interest for a minute. "Roonstones! I heard about it from a friend. There's- there's roonstones. Lots of them! I was- I was going to- to use them to pay you back!"

Pollux turned his head to look behind him, directly at Pauul, clearly expecting for the Rodian or his Gran companion to weigh in on the matter.

 

[Gorba the Hutt]

Guavian Death Gangs were serious business. On his best days, Pauul was more than a bit cautious 'round the fellas. Now he found all their bullseye mugs staring at him and Pawnchee expectantly.

Pauul shivered - not entirely from the cold - and pulled the heavy white jacket closer around himself. Goggles covered bulbous multifaceted eyes. His tapering snout wobbled, the only part of him exposed to the unforgiving elements of Hoth.

The agent exchanged a glance with the Gran. The Gran gave a dull, three-eyed stare, then bleated.

"Eh, yuz right Punchy. Whys not see if the sap's tellin' us straight," he said, high-pitched voice thickly accented in Rodese, "Maybe we find us a few clams. Maybe we don't and bump him off."

Farrlo waved the end of his VT-Needler in the Weequay's direction with one hand.

"But if we'z gonna do this let's get a wiggle on." He jerked a suction cupped digit back in the direction of the swoop bikes. "Don't want to be out on this ice ball any longer than we have to."

[member="Pollux"]

 

[Darth Osano]

[member="Pauul Farrlo"] | Pawnchee | x5 Guavian Security Soldiers

Without registering that he actually agreed or disagreed with Pauul, Pollux turned back towards Eugene and nodded. Eugene snarled and grabbed the Weequay, whose name will be Devin for the sake of future ease, by the scruff of the neck once more and pulled him to his feet. "Alright, slim, get in the speeder." Shockingly enough, Devin resisted, but managed to explain why before Eugene was able to pummel him violently into submission.

"We can't get there in a speeder. Terrain is too dangerous, we're gonna- aha, have t- to- walk. Plus, there's the sav- the savages."

Eugene shook Devin violently as if to illustrate some unspoken point, then looked at Pollux. The Givin made no sound, only staring directly back at Eugene. After a moment slid by, Eugene blinked as if snapping out of something, nodded, then shoved Devin towards Pollux, Pawnchee, and Pauul. Eugene was joined with another Guavian as he returned to the speeder and started the engine. They were going back to the shuttle and would pick up the rest of the team once they were gone. That would leave Pollux with three Guavians now that the other was returning from Devin's camp, plus the hired Rodian-Gran dynamic duo. Devin watched Eugene go, then turned towards Pollux, only to flinch violently when he found that the Givin had silently produced a DL-18 blaster pistol and was pointing it square at his chest.

"Walk." Pollux ordered.

Devin, already shook up, did not require any further encouragement and so began leading the party as fast as he could.

 

[Gorba the Hutt]

Nearing "the Ambria's Fury"...

Walk? Nobody said anything about walking. Walking hadn't been part of the original deal.

Freezing his mouth off, Pauul trudged after the taciturn skeleton and their reluctant hostage. He rubbed his hands together. Fortunately, he'd bought a pair of gray all-porpoise mittens for this little venture. Kept his hands a more bearable temperature, though Pauul wouldn't be opposed if their next trip was to somewhere tropical, with beaches and those coconut drinks that had the little umbrellas.

Crunch, crunch, crunch through the tundra, leaving a set of tracks in their wake even a Gungan could follow. The monotonous drudgery would've been easier if it hadn't been so blasted cold.

As they came around a snowy berm, the wind picked up a bit. The Rodian pulled the hood of his parka low. He stared through the goggles and into the white wasteland beyond.

The Gran bleated.

"Yeah, yeah. Yuz right as usual, Pawn. Should've taken the Tauntauns."

Farrlo thought he spotted something out there in the waste, right under the base of a ridge. A campfire? He trudged to a stop.

"'Ey Polly, think there's somethin' out there. Punchy, hand me the 'nocs, yeh?"

Holding up the macro binoculars, Pauul zoomed in until he could clearly make out a couple figures in the distance. Tiny red dots streaked through the air around them, like angry fireflies. Except Hoth didn't have any fireflies.

"Eh?"

He panned over to the source of the blaster fire - the base of the elevated ridge line. He saw now that what he'd mistaken for a rocky low rise was actually the dilapidated wreck of a ship. Several people stood or knelt in hatchways in the side of the ship, busily shooting at the two strangers.

"Looks like we'z got company."

Pauul offered the binocs to [member="Pollux"].

[member="Gray Raxis"] | [member="Katbirye Rekr"]

 

[Titan]

Katbiyre hopped out of the Echoy'la's pride, and iniated a lock down for it, before running over to Gray. "So, how's RID doing?" He would ask [member="Gray Raxis"] in a casual tone, while pulling the pin on his thermal imploder and chucking it up at the remaining savages. "CDA's doing okay, but I think maybe a joint project. Something big maybe, could profit both of us." *BOOM* "Okay I think we're good. Katbiyre would ignite his lightsaber, and leap over the piece of hull that he and Gray were behind. The savages bodies were laying all over the place, mangled by the explosion. "Yup, we're good." Katbiyre walked into the ship.

 

[Darth Osano]

Location C

[member="Pauul Farrlo"] | Pawnchee | x3 Guavian Security Soldiers

If Pollux was at all bothered by the cold, he had a very hard time expressing it. Perhaps Givin had an increased tolerance to extreme heat and extreme cold considering they could get along pretty well in the merciless void of space for twenty-four hours on a good day. Maybe, internally, Pollux was screaming and shouting and bouncing up and down because he regretted not taking a Tauntaun and not dressing even more heavily than he already was. The internal machinations of his mind would forever remain an enigma, as would just about everything else about him. Except for the fact that he liked money, maybe.

They paused on a ridge, as there was already a firefight raging between one party and the alleged savages. Pollux took the binoculars offered to him wordlessly and watched as the savages were finally finished off by a well-placed thermal detonator. One of them looked like a Mandalorian, the other carried enough weapons that he probably was Mandalorian. One of them skipped on into the wreckage, which finally provoked a visible reaction from Pollux: a frown. Apparently Devin was not the only one who had come looking for the fabled treasure of whatever this wreckage was once called. Pollux handed the macrobinoculars back to Pauul and gestured for Devin to keep walking.

"What- what about the- the- you know, what if there's more of them?" The Weequay babbled.

Pollux said nothing.

Devin cracked and nodded along, beginning to walk down the slope, barely a second later. "R- right, ok- okay."

 

[Gorba the Hutt]

Location C

Well, seemed like ol' Polly was carrying a torch for the 'strong and silent' motif. Not Pauul's style but fair enough, fair enough. Bil'gruff didn't gab much either, but they'd gotten along just fine going on about ten years now. Just meant Farrlo would have to do enough talking for the both of them.

After accepting the 'nocs back, Pauul promptly passed them over to Pawnchee. They all resumed walking.

"Ey Polly, Devin yuz ever 'ear the fable 'bout the Boarwolf n' the Sand Panther? No? Color me purple n' call me a Herglic. Well, it goes summat like this, see: One day a Sand Panther and a Boarwolf showed up to a watering hole in the hood, both thought the water was ducky, since they'd been dyin' of thirst. Only they couldn't decide who should drink first. Panther thought she should, since she was queen of the sands, but the Boarwolf said his tusks were sharp and'd cut that sheba right quick."

The story cut off as Pauul broke down in a wheezing cough. After a moment he forged on.

"Anyway, while those two put up their dukes they didn't notice a gaggle of carrion birds perched nearby. Pikers were just waitin' to see which one fell first, so they could eat 'em both. Don't know which ending is on the level after that, but I like to think the panther and boar wolf got the worst of it, 'cause see we'z all a bit like the pikers. Just watching, waiting to swoop in and snatch up those rubes from underneath the palookas noses, eh? That's my kind of ending."

Pauul chuckled to himself.

"Oh, and here we are already. Time flies, eh?"

[member="Pollux"] | [member="Gray Raxis"] | [member="Katbirye Rekr"]

 

[Rusty]

Over Objective A

"What the KARK is that?!?" Koko shouted over the comms.

The Crystal Method wasn't technically a gunship, but since Rusty was both an arms dealer and slightly unhinged, he made sure to include some of the better features from them in his personal ship, like the thermal imaging targeting system that afforded the pilot a bird's eye view of the ground below. That gave Koko an excellent view of the extremely dangerous looking bipedal creatures bearing down on the crashed ship.

"Looks like wampas," Rusty replied. As usual, his reaction to stress was to fall into a state of preternatural calm. His voice was so laconic, Koko wondered if he had somehow shut off his emotion programming. "Rotate thirty degrees to starboard, lemme see if I can get a shot."

The Shard woman complied, nosing the ship around carefully. At a standstill, the winds weren't bad, but the bitter cold of the ice world made for some unpredictable convection currents around the decidedly warmer ship. Holding it steady was taking all of her concentration.

Two of the ape-like creatures were being engaged by folks armed with what looked like lightsabers. They certainly looked like they knew what they were doing, but she knew the Boss would want to take one for himself. So she wasn't surprised when Gertrude's earth-shattering BOOM rattled the ship.

The projectile lanced towards the unattended wampa at speeds that would make a atmospheric fighter insecure. To the FLIR camera, it looked like a white-hot line had been drawn in the air. The projectile was so fast, it literally burned through the surrounding atmosphere on the way to the target. The poor creature never stood a chance. The 17mm frangible round came apart as it struck, transforming from a solid bullet to a mass of metal powder. The energy transfer was on the order of a small bomb going off in its chest cavity, and where once stood an apex predator was now a cloud of pink mist, fur, and viscera. Fortunately for the fighters on the ground, the tiny droplets of blood and other less identifiable fluids would be flash frozen in the extreme cold, so they didn't have to worry about getting soaked. They just had to brush off the biological sleet that was raining down, once they were finished with their targets.

Koko whistled under her breath. That was the first time she had witnessed Gertrude's effect on a live target. She was starting the understand why the Boss loved the damn thing so much.

[member="Aedan Miles"] | [member="Calina Ovmar"] | [member="Zak Dymo"]

 

[Titan]

As he entered the ship, Katbiyre was awed at the size of the ship. Seeing ancient computers, he ran over to them and stuck in a datastick in order to download everything. "Amazing stuff in here. Schematics for something big too. Kark it."He said the last words as an error sign showed up on screen, *File too large. Please insert more dataspace.* Katbiyre promptly plugged in 4 more datasticks. After what was probably 5 minutes the download complete sign came up. "Well that's that. Time to make sure no one else can get it." Katbiyre opened the system control menu, and clicked delete.

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Katbirye Rekr"]

An ancient artificial intelligence woke up. It blocked the delete function. Katbirye's datasticks promptly melted. The Mandalorian would need to put in more effort to claim a prize around here.

 

[Darth Osano]

Location C

[member="Pauul Farrlo"] | Pawnchee | x3 Guavian Security Soldiers

The Guavians were far more interested in the story of the Sand Panther and the Boarwolf. Devin was too fidgety, given that he was being held at gunpoint and Pollux was... Well, he was Pollux. The Givin was more concerned with whether or not Devin was going to snap and make a run for it. Still, he could vaguely hear Farrlo's talking and wheezing in the background. It was impossible to tune out. His allegory was amusing, not to mention accurate. Farrlo was more intelligent than the Rodians Pollux usually worked with, but no less surly. The Gran, meanwhile, had met his expectations exactly.

Since the outside area had already been cleared of savages by the two mystery figures- one which Pollux had lost sight of and the other which he had witnessed enter the ship -the gang stepped over the still-smoldering corpses and ash piles, entering the colossal wreck of a ship through a gaping hole in the side.

Pollux was not familiar with ship layouts, much less millennia old ones that had crashed into the ground. If he had entered a giant droid, that would have been different, but this was foreign territory to him. Once they entered the dark, decaying interior, Devin hesitated. "I, uh, I don't- don't know the exact way from h- here. But it's, er, here somewhere, I, I know that much." Pollux made a noise that might have been a sigh, and suddenly Devin was thrust up against the wall by one of the Guavians.

"Then you wait here." The Guavian, who probably named something mundane like Bob, Bill, Jim, or Harry, said. "If you're not here when we get back, we'll find you again, and then we won't be as understanding. Okay?"

Devin gurgled something in the affirmative. "It's towards the- I think the tip said- you know, where- where they maintain- like- the ship. Yeah..."

Well, maybe Devin would leave here alive and with all his organs just yet. It remained to be seen. Pollux let the Guavian that had most recently accosted Devin take the lead as they descended further into the ship.

 

[Yag'dril]

Objective B

Her body moved and she felt something along her underbelly with a small look as she pulled out a crate. There was not a lot here, a lot fo the snow when she pulled her body in closely to look over parts of it. She dug at the snow coiling her body while she lifted the boxes looking over parts of it all to give some of the bigger things now. She didn't know what was in there or if it was useful to her finding things that might be in there. She touched the saber she had brought for protection smacking at the lock to open it up with whatever was in there she could find. There was some stuff here she couldn't read up it looked like star charts maybe? She wasn't certain while putting them in a pack and she moved off to the side of the tight area searching for anything that might lead her around the frozen camp or find any of the things. She found some footprints leading towards the snow banks.

 

[Titan]

"Kark it." Katbiyre had just wasted 15 minutes of his life trying to download the files, and he had, till some stupid AI had deleted them all. Just then he heard something from above, and decided to go look. Once he reached the source of the noise, he saw a motley group of individuals standing there talking. "Who are you people? And what are you doing here?" Katbiyre ignited his saber and adopted a ready stance, in case they attacked him. "Are you bounty hunters or something?" Why couldn't life be easy?

[member="Pollux"] [member="Pauul Farrlo"] [member="Jorus Merrill"]

 

[Gray Raxis]

Location C

Gray was having an easy time dealing with the salvagers. They hadn't figured out his trick to the deflection, so he just had to rush them and cut them down. It would have gone smoothly had it not been for someone suddenly firing on him AND the salvagers. It was completely unneeded for him to shoot with.....was that a podracer on Hoth? Why would someone bring a podracer to Hoth of all places? The planet was nothing but ice, snow, and wind. It was so cold the engines would threaten to stall and freeze over if left off long enough. It was just the worst place to be with one. And then why did he have weapons attached to the thing? Gray just needed to stop questioning why and deal with the situation.

Gray was going to say something to the guy when he suddenly threw an explosive and killed people. He then ran off further into the ship. Why was he in such a rush? This was now hostile territory and a very old wrecked battle cruiser. It was going to be very dangerous inside of the place. He decided to follow the young man inside and watched him put modern memory sticks into the old computers. What did he expect to get doing that? The code on the computers was likely in such an old version that it might as well have been an unknown language by this point. The other problem was it all must have been encrypted on top of being an old code. It would take an expert slicer to break into the systems. He acted like waiting a few minutes as well to try to download the full data of a battle cruiser was a little optimistic. Oh well, he would figure it out.

As if to prove him right, the datasticks suddenly melted. Now that was unusual and worth looking into. After the man left to follow some voices he heard, he walked over to a nearby computer and looked at what was going on. Was that an AI that had blocked the download and melted the memory sticks? This might be worth investigating further. Gray said as he began trying to get the AI to interaction with him, " Seems this old lady has some spirit left in her. Lets see if I can get her talkin' to me and tell me a little secret." He hoped this route would prove fruitful, because he began to hear the sounds of salvagers converging on both him and even more of them on the people who apparently were above him.

[member="Jorus Merrill"] [member="Katbirye Rekr"] [member="Pollux"] [member="Pauul Farrlo"]

 

[Darth Osano]

Location C

[member="Pauul Farrlo"] | Pawnchee | x3 Guavian Security Soldiers

"Wait." Pollux said, holding up a hand to stop any imminent bloodshed. He might have been talking to both Katbirye. Or his men. Or both.

No sooner did [member="Katbirye Rekr"] leap into their path, lightsaber held at the ready, all weapons in the party were trained on him. The only reason they weren't already firing was because the Mandalorian had not actually attacked them. Mandalorians were a terrifying presence to begin with. This one had a lightsaber, which was even more disconcerting. While it was plausible that the three Guavians, Pauul, Pawnchee, and himself could probably gun the fellow down before he got very far, Pollux did not want to chance it. The Guavian on point glanced over at Pollux, who nodded.

Bob, Bill, Jim, or Harry, launched into a terse, impatient explanation. "We're contractors. This is a recovery mission. Client lost something valuable in the ship's medical bay and we're getting it back."

The Guavian shifted uncomfortably, grip tightening around his rifle. It was more than likely they weren't going to relax while that lightsaber was still out... Not to mention this ship was probably still crawling with feral salvagers who were bound to show up again at any moment. When they did, the Guavians and Pollux were going to prefer they be closer to their objective, not held up in a hallway by a wild-looking Mandalorian. This normally would have been the part where Pollux or someone else asked the Mandalorian a similar set of questions, but truth be told they didn't actually care.

 

[Titan]

<Maybe I should have counted how many there were, before leaping out> And with that thought Katbiyre would walk slowly away, lightsaber still held at the ready, towards were he came from. Once he reached the hallway, he would turn his lightsaber off and run back to where [member="Gray Raxis"] was working on the computer, "Sorry about earlier." Katbiyre would say, "Guess I need to learn how to be more patient. Need any help?" <Hopefully he doesn't shoot me or something.>

[member="Pollux"] [member="Jorus Merrill"]