Fwurg

[Mercury]

Ajava and Ariana

The Rodian didn't seem to like the sudden appearance of Ariana, but he was getting his money so he decided to let things go, heading off into the station with Leba, Ajava and Ariana.

Soon the four of them arrived at a luxury restaurant, colourful lighting and comfortable tables, even candles, despite the fact that open flames were usually forbidden in controlled atmospheres. Behind a table in the back of the restaurant was a muscular Quarren with facial tattoo's marking him as an outlaw. His red clothes and gold plated blaster made him stand out even more and from the way he carried himself, it was clear this guy was the boss.

Next to him was a large near-human man wearing a bright red soldiers body armour and smoking something that resembled a cigar. From the way he sat back, with his hands in his neck and his feet on the table, he either wasn't the bodyguard or he didn't take the job very seriously.

Finally, behind the two men were two Rodians dressed in red armour, though they were skinnier then the near-human and obviously could not afford the same level of inattention.

"What do you want?" one of the two Rodians asked, stepping forward as if to act as a gate keeper to prevent the padawans and their escort from interrupting their bosses.

Nebesnogo and Darones

Nebesnogo and Darones quickly found their way off the ship. The cantina was the most obvious place to go to so the group quickly found their way there.

Upon asking around, they soon discovered they could take several approaches to gather intelligence or prepare other plans.

The cantina itself offered arena fights - no doubt any new blood who could best a veteran would gain favour with the Hutt running the arena battles, after all odds were generally against new blood so they'd earn him money, which he might be willing to give out as information instead.

Another avenue was the Togruta Madam who was running a house of ill repute next door - the girls there probably picked up on a lot of things.

Finally the duo had noticed a maintenance tunnel on the way to the cantina, which lead to the stations computer core - it'd be guarded though so that might entail a battle which they'd have to finish before anyone could raise any alarms.

[Shebi Ajava]

Ajava looked oddly at the rodian escorting her and then directed her attention to the guard.

"You have some nerve", Ajava reacted angrily, "I did not come here to be harassed by the likes of you."

Shebi Ajava looked both guards over for a moment, mostly to give one of the bosses time to start paying attention.

"If it's not enough that I'm accompanied by one of your own and this useless Hutt, and his little debt payment, I might have to make my point some other way. So here's the choice: step aside and let me do my business here, or get turned into ashes so I can ignore you and do business here."

[Ariana Danacia]

Ariana waited at a distance. She stayed close enough to be able to hear the conversation. Ariana monitored the situation at the table and looked around for possible exits. ((OOC: Force level 4 + Vision 3))

[Mercury]

"She has a point." the boss noted and the guard quickly decided that whoever this woman was, she meant business. Stepping aside, he cleared the path to his boss.

"But so does he. What do you want?" the Quarren boss inquired.

[Shebi Ajava]

The veolian padawan walked past the guard, and sat down at the table with the boss.

"It's simple really", she stated while looking looking over the bosses, "My business here is two-fold. I've got the debt payment of mister Leba with me. However, a promise to mister Leba was made: I will only pay his debt if our deal works out. No point in paying no-good intermediaries if they don't get the job done.

Secondly, I wish to obtain Exotic Matter explosives. As this is not something one just carries around, my associate and I will remain on the station for the day, to allow you the time to arrange for a more discrete location where we can inspect the goods. If I am satisfied with the quality verdict of my weapons specialist, I will place a substantial order."

((OOC: EDIT: minor mistake))

[Ariana Danacia]

((OOC: Ariana stays on guard duty.))

[Mercury]

"That's quite a thing to ask for. Exotic Matter explosives are dangerous goods and I don't know you. How do I know I can trust you? I certainly don't trust that Hutt."

Seeing his payment, and his life, at risk, Leba interjected.

"Oh, you don't have to trust me! But you do trust your own reputation right?"

The Quarren boss was confused but not so much amused by the interjection, but he let Leba finish.

"You see, I really want to keep breathing. You don't take kindly to bad customers and your reputation is pretty hard when it comes to dealing with people who bring you bad customers. If I bring you a bad customer, you'll track me down and kill me!

You don't have to trust me, but you can at least trust that I would not risk my life by bringing you a bad customer, yeeeees?"

The near-human in red armour grinned behind his smoke. "The man's got a point. If he brought us a bad customer, we'd kill him."

The Quarren boss shook his head though - he wasn't buying it, but before he was about to speak, Leba interjected once more.

"And she'll make a down-payment too. That way you know you get paid, no risk!"

Leba looked at Shebi nervously, but at least his proposal seemed to interest the Quarren.

"Alright... How much does Leba owe us again? We'll take that as down-payment now and Leba still owes us until the deal is finished. Once you've paid, we'll send word to you on where to meet to test the quality."

[Nebesnogo Sveta]

After they find a more quiet spot so they wont be overheard Nebesnogo says. "I don't think that that house of pleasure is a place that is for us maybe more something for miss Shebi and I'm not sure about getting into a fight we are supposed to remain undercover." He looks at Darones "Do you have any ideas?"

[Shebi Ajava]

Shebi Ajava looked at Leba for a moment, before replying: "Very well."

She put the credit chit with 50 million credits on the table.

She looked at the boss again, "I will consider you to be in breach of agreement if I'm not contacted within 24 hours."

Shebi Ajava stood up, signalled Leba to come along and left the establishment.

"We will soon have a meeting with the red troop in a discrete location. Where have you two been?" she said over the comms after leaving the restaurant.

[Ariana Danacia]

Ariana leaves the restaurant behind Shebi Ajava. When they left Ariana turns to Shebi Ajava.
"We wait 24 hours on the ship?"

[Shebi Ajava]

"No. We want to be findable. Besides, they'll probably not wait the full 24 hours when they see that I just dropped 50 million credits without a problem.

Let's see what local points of interest are available after we meet up with the others."

[Nebesnogo Sveta]

"I'm sorry miss Shebi but we have found several sources of information. But I'm afraid we would stick out like sore thumbs if we went to investigate." Nebesnogo responded seeing as Darones did not have an idea either.

[Shebi Ajava]

"How so? I'm reasonably sure that this station has seen its share of strange visitors..."

[Nebesnogo Sveta]

"Well we have about 3 options the first one is crawling up a maintenance shaft to the computer core beating the guards and getting at the data. I don't have to tell you why I would not want to do that.

Option two is going in to a house of ill repute and asking there. But since both me and Darones look no older then a ten year old human, you can see where that plans goes iffy.

Our final option would be getting into one of the pit fights but I'm not sure if I can fight in those and not draw more attention that it's worth."

He sighed.

"If you have an idea I would be glad to hear it."

[Shebi Ajava]

"I understand. We do have a few hours to kill, the Red Troop will probably take some time to set up a meet. After all, they need to move their people into position to make sure we don't try anything funny.", Shebi Ajava's smirk was nearly audible.

"It would be nice to have some more information on the Red Troop's ties on this station. After all, we will probably end up in all-out combat... I don't want to be surprised by backup they might have. Let's meet up at the ship. We'll evaluate the possible sources of information."

Directing her attention to Ariana and Leba: "We should be contacted by the Ultramarines soon, they're currently checking their own intel. Good talking in there, Leba, keep up this level of cooperation and I'll see if we can spare you a bonus."

Shebi Ajava navigated the stations walkways to get back to the ship.

[Ariana Danacia]

Ariana follows Shebi Ajava back to the ship.
"The house of ill repute is probably the best option to get some information on the Red Troop. They probably have a lot of 'contact' with the Red Troop."

[Mercury]

House of Ill Repute

Here as guests, the Red Troop had a lot of sway but they were not in control of the station. Despite posing as a star base, the station featured a large weapons factory, producing blasters of all sorts of sizes - not as exciting as Exotic Matter Weapons, but interesting for the Red Troop as a supplier no doubt. Rumour had it the owner of the station had invited the Red Troop, probably to arrange some mutually beneficial trades.

((OOC: Doing this in paraphrase to speed things up - if you have specific additional questions, do ask ))

Ultramarines

"We have confirmed our intel and are currently on secondary objectives." The ultramarine commander informed the team. "We are replacing the current leader of the Red Troop. It's all not too complicated: we kill the Quarren boss and he gets replaced by his brother, who has 'conveniently' made sure to be out of the way taking some of their elite guards with them. The brother will be much more inclined to see things our way and we have leverage on him.

You Jedi take point, we will offer support. Keep an eye on the human bodyguard. He could be a problem. Also, keep in mind we cannot blow up the entire station so try to stick to personal weapons."

He paused a moment.

"This could get messy, and we may have to leave in a hurry, so make sure you finish up any business on the station before meeting with the Quarren again. Any questions or suggestions?"

((OOC: If you have any specific questions or plans, please let me know, otherwise I will be moving on to the confrontation with the Red Troop boss))

[Shebi Ajava]

After coming back from her visit to the house of ill repute, Shebi shared the information she gathered with her companions.

((OOC: I'm ready for the finale.))

[Ariana Danacia]

Ariana sharpens her knives for the upcoming fight.

((OOC: I am ready for the finale))

[Darones Rei]

Thus far Darones had enjoyed the relative calm of the station, but now he was anxious to make himself useful again, since he felt that besides flying the Winged star here, he hadn't contributed much to this part of the mission. The latest intell however suggested that this Quaren figure, could pose an interesting challenge and prove to be a good fight.

((OOC: I'm ready for the Finale))

[Nebesnogo Sveta]

Nebesnogo checked his equipment one last time and went to join the others.

((OOC: I am ready for the finale))

[Mercury]

Finally the call from the Red Troop leader came, calling for a meeting on the second floor of the cantina. As the team readied, they remembered their original objective - to find out whether the Red Troop recently sold any Exotic Matter explosives and if so, to whom. The fact that they were now willing to sell those same types of weapons to the Jedi implied that they had, and replacing the Quarren boss would no doubt get them access to all the intel they needed.

The ultramarines moved out to get into position and provide support, letting the Jedi take the lead in the entry, and leaving it up to them to decide how long they would want to keep up appearances.

Soon the group found themselves at the staircase of the cantina's second floor ((OOC: X)) opening up to the main floor, which was a large and open area filled with a few benches and tables. To either side was a raised platform, accessible by short stairs, where more tables awaited and in each corner was a bar, manned by a protocol droid reprogrammed to mix drinks. Finally, a stage to the left of the stairs offered a place for performers to ply their trade.

No performances graced the cantina this day however, and in fact the entire second floor was empty save for the two droids, which upon closer inspection did not have a lower body but were welded in place ready to serve customers at all hours.

For a moment, it seemed as if the entire thing was a set-up, but then the Rodian the team had seen earlier appeared, stepping forward.

"Over here, the boss is waiting." he motioned to the leftmost platform ((OOC: Y)), where the Quarren boss was sitting at a table. Also present were the near-human bodyguard and another Red Guard they hadn't seen before.

((OOC: Could I please get a formal list of who is entering through the front door and who (if anyone) is not in the main group?))

[Shebi Ajava]

Before they entered the cantina, the veolian padawan quickly informed the other's of the plan: "Listen up. The plan is to terminate the boss, and eliminate any resistance.

Me, Ariana and Nebesnogo will be entering the normal way. Ariana takes the role of bodyguard, Nebesnogo the role of explosives expert. Darones, please gain entry to the cantina through covert means, and position yourself for a surprise attack on the boss; he's the large quarren. We can expect at least one capable bodyguard.

Darones, inform us as soon as you reach your position, or if you are deterred from doing so. We'll attack as soon as Darones gives the signal. Darones, your signal will be something like 'Go in 5', which will indicate we attack in five seconds. Try to give it via radio, so the ultramarines receive it as well. Should Darones be hindered, or if some other unexpected circumstance pops up, we will also engage if one of us communicates the word 'dwarf', regardless of circumstance.

As for the rules of engagement: try to keep casualties to a minimum, use blasters if possible. If we meet heavy resistance we will switch to sabers. Once one of us breaks mercenary cover, everyone is allowed to take up sabers -- we need to make sure that knowledge about jedi involvement doesn't get out.

Let's move."

((OOC: The rest of the post only if no one objects.))

Shebi Ajava entered through the front door; and moved onto the platform, towards the boss.

"Hello again.", she said while she sectioned off part of her brain to analyse the combat capabilities of the human bodyguard and the other guard.

She nodded to Nebesnogo, "this is my explosives expert. He will be inspecting the device before we talk delivery schedules and quantities."

[Ariana Danacia]

Ariana followed Shebi Ajava through the main entrance. Ariana stays close to her companions and kept her role as bodyguard.

[Darones Rei]

" Understood " Darones said, as he hear Shebi spell out her plan " I'll see if you can gain entry from above, good luck. "

He then left the group and looked for a way the gain entry into the bar covertly for the outside, preferably by a roofhatch, airvent or maintanance corridor. ((Check: 8 = 4 Force Level + 4 Vision -- ))

((OOC: only if aforementioned goal can be achieved))

Once his point of entry had been located, Darones waited to study the surroundings and movements of people and droids around his entrypoint, to determine the changes of detection, the relative security and required effort to gain entry unnoticed. Should these provide ample security he would then enter, make sure the entry point is securely shut behind him and then make his way towards a favorable position inside the bar for a strike on the Quarren boss.