The circle wipe opens up on an empty corridor in the massive Star Destroyer. Distant sounds of the bazaar can still be heard, but more prominent are the hum of the air circulation, engines, and compensators. New music replaces the last as the droid and miraluka from the previous scene move towards the camera.
The pair have a short conversation (to be described below) before the droid turns abruptly, springs out a scomp-link, and plugs into a terminal in the wall. Projections of the Errant Venture float holographically between BB and Siet, eventually settling on one of the docking bays.
The moment Siet and BB decide to leave this area is the cue for everyone else to run in and find them.
While Hiden continues to walk toward his ship, he takes the comlink out of his utility belt. “BB, how’s the little explorer doing? The ship will be space worthy shortly. Any good leads on work?”
OCC: In the era of cell phones, no one is lost. Notably Siet doesn’t have a comlink.
“Mr. Marr, you must stay calm. Its not MY fault my sensors are working, someone must have activated a cellular device in the area I was trying to scan! Now, if you’d just pause for one second, I am sure I can figure this out….” BB links up at the nearest scomp terminal, only to find out the docking bays are NOT next to the Kegores Fried Bantha stand. Good to know their signage is all wrong around here…
Just as BB and Siet are back in the right direction, he receives a message from Hiden…”Hiden, I am happy to report we have found the Sybil’s Silence, and may require you assistance in…reclaiming it…(opening the com to more channels)…Shalo, Erska your presence is requested in docking bay 4 to resolve a matter of great important to Siet.
Siet gives a wry smile. “This day may end up much better than I expected. Or, y’know, we’ll all die horribly.”
The Miraluka strides over to the turbo lift, and waits a moment for the droid to join him. “Docking Bay 4, you said? Any idea of what kind of resistance we may expect to find there?”
“Unknown Mr. Marr…I will find out when we get there, assuming blaster fire doesn’t overcome our sense of reason…”
“Docking bay 4. 10-4 good buddy, we’re on our way. Keep the com open and try to delay Siet at least until we get there… I’ll try to get some intel.” Hiden then turns to Shalo and Erska, “Better head up to docking bay 4, we may have negotiations of a more energetic fashion up there. I’ll hang back and see if I can find anything else.” In a lower voice to Shalo, Hiden adds, “Make sure no one does anything stupid.”
Hiden takes out his data pad and sees if he can find anything out.
OCC: trying to find anything on docking bay 4, Sybil’s Silence, and Nolest Tortola (I probably know about this name from Siet). Mostly I want to know what the ships carrying, who they’re meeting, and how many people are there. I use either Gather Info (+8) or Use Computer (+9), datapad INT 12. If it exists, I’d love to get a security feed of docking bay 4.
“Very well. Come, Erska, I believe there will be more opportunities for ‘negotiation’ in the docking bay.”
“Right behind ya, bossman-Jedi-sir.” Erska shifts quickly side to side, feeling the weight of her weapons in their proper places, then follows Shalo to the nearest turbolift. “Finally, time to do something I can actually do.”
testing gravatar….
[Hiden Gosek]
The inquisitive duros plops himself down in a well-traveled section of the bazaar, and logs into the Errant Venture’s public network. Between listening to conversations, checking social networking feeds, and browsing the Star Destroyer’s information banks, Hiden learns several things.
• Nolest Tortola is somewhere on the Errant Venture.
• As far as the network knows, Sybil’s Silence belongs to Tortola.
• Ship’s manifests are only available to those who need to know.
• Errant Venture security staff patrols the docking bays, to discourage petty theft, vandalism, etc. This is a shadowport, and all sorts of questionable behavior happens here, but annoyances like that are bad for business.
Suddenly, Hiden’s comlink chirps – it’s been 20 minutes! More information might be accessible given enough time to slice the network, or physical access to a secure terminal.
[Tech]
Gather Information (18) – typically, these are pretty time-consuming and costly, but decent rolls can give a quick snippet. This gave you the Nolest tidbit.
Use Computer (21) – good information, given your access level.
[Everyone else]
Erska and Shalo exit the port turbolift to find BB and Siet about to enter the wide archway into the expansive Docking Bay 4. There are over a dozen ships, in various states of refueling, repair, rest, and boarding, parked along the inner wall of the bay. The outer wall reveals a view of the moon through the blue-tinged force field. Around the edge of the huge portal is visible the trademark red of the Errant Venture.
Waiting just inside the archway are two humans in what appears to be Imperial military garb, except it’s been brightly dyed green and gold. They have fairly large blaster rifles, and incredibly bored looks on their faces.
OCC: quick question on the docking bay, if I were to sit in my ship right outside the door, would it effectively block the door?
… which door? I don’t have a detailed image in my head yet for the Centennial Sparrow, but it’s probably far too small to block the main bay opening, and too large to fit close enough to the creature-sized archway.
Are you looking to keep people in/out of the bay, or ships in/out of the bay?
I was looking to keep ships in.
I picture the hangar similar to this or this.
It might take some pretty heady Pilot/Perception/Deception/Use Computer checks to basically body-check a ship trying to get out. Sounds eerily like a skill challenge to me.
[To guard]: “Sir, we’re looking for a mister Tortola. We have urgent business with him, of the he-owes-us varitey. Might we find him inside?”
Basically, Shalo is atempting to distract the guard from the shennanigans about to happen. I fully expect Erska to disuade anyone else from pulling a weapon. If they do so, I suspect they might get a lightsaber up the ass for their trouble. We just want the ship.
OOC: I suppose we could Jedi Mind Trick along the lines of “this is not the door you’re looking for…”
Read up on Mind Trick. If you spend a Force Point, you might just make the bored guard “helpful”.
Remember, leveling should happen quickly in this game. Force Points will replenish faster than usual. Is that what you want to do?
[Pretends to listen to comm] “My goodness! There appears to be a Quarrian Musk Fish emergency in the other docking bay! It’s not a very pretty picture; there’s fins everywhere and my God man, think of the children! Better go check it out. Bring some paper towels and a hose.”
OOC: Yeah, let’s do that. Spend a force point to suggest the guard check out a different bay while we rough up this one.
OOC: W00T, attack of the rancid Quarrian Musk Fish!!!
Well, as Hiden really wants a shower and is potentially going to be late for the fight, he heads for the Centennial Sparrow. Whistling while he works, he does the standard checks, gets in the cockpit and radios the docking chief. “Howdy, how’s it going with you? It appears that some one dropped a create of Quarrian Musk Fish. While it’s been cleaned up, the place smells so bad it scaring off customers. The people I’m meeting are in Docking Bay 4, can I park my ship there?”
OOC: If possible, I’d like like the Centennial Sparrow to be a used Dynamic-Class Freighter (unmodified at this time), which having bought this from a loan shark and with the missed payments, it’s probably 4-4.5 K a month for the next 2-3 years.
Relevant skills, Deception +8… oh and the Quarrian Musk Fish is a Quarren delicacy, but smells as if some one stewed 3 dead bodies in a hot tub for three weeks and then dumped a kitty litter box used by 5 cats and not changed for 10 days.
As it’s taken me a while to gather the info, and move the ship, let me know when I get to docking bay 4 relative to the rest of the party.
[Hiden]
The dock chief’s bellowing voice comes through the com. “Excuse me, who is this? What’s your operating number?” Sounds like an ithorian – don’t want to get this guy yelling at you.
[Tech]
Dude. Natural 1 on Deception (9).
And an untrained Knowledge (Bureaucracy) (15) is enough to know that there are some clearance codes that can cut through red tape. But Hiden doesn’t know them.
[Shalo]
The guard looks shocked, disgusted, then relieved to have something to do. “Wow, that sounds pretty serious! Lanny, go grab Fink and let’s get over to the other bay to help.” The other guard trots off to the other end of Bay 4, while the first one pulls out his comlink. “Hey boss, I hear there’s a musk fish issue in another bay. Ya happen to know which one?”
The booming answer almost blows out the comlinks’s speaker. “What!? It’s gotta be 18. Of all the…” the bzzt of the disconnection cuts off the obscenities.
He looks at you, shrugs, smiles, shoulders his rifle, and says, “Thanks for the tip! Have a great day!” After which, all three guards take off on the port turbolift.
[Tech]
Mind Trick: Use the Force (21) vs Will 11
Using a Force Point moves his attitude from indifferent to helpful (sweet!)
“Is…is it always supposed to go that easily?” Erska asks once all the guards are out of sight. With them gone, she scans around the room, seeing who all is left and if there are any good areas for her to station herself at.
Tech
Perception +8
“Can you at least open Bay Door 18 so that I can get out of here?”
OOC: Can I open it by shooting it or smacking it with a lightsaber? No? Then sorry, we’ll need to ask the droids.
OK, so what do we see in Bay 8 now that we’ve cleared the guards? While Shalo is no mechanic, I can try a quick Pilot check to see if the ship is at least outwardly space-worthy and ready to go in a somewhat hurried fashion?
OOC: Sorry if I’m confusing people. Hiden is on the other side of the star destroy with his ship (docking bay 18 I guess). The rest of you all are in bay 4.
[Erska Treyker]
There is no longer any Errant Venture security in Bay 4. You see a couple of humans directing labor droids in loading their freighter in slot 1, four unattended Z-95s in slots 2 and 3, and slot 4 is empty. Five has an Imperial shuttle which appears to be leaving, and 6 just received a Redthorn scout, out of which came a togruta, a human, and a twi’lek. They are walking in the direction of the archway in which Erska, Shalo, Siet, and BB are standing.
I will let Jon describe the evidently unattended ship docked in slot 7. There are more ships beyond, but Erska’s attention was drawn to the Sybil’s Silence.
There are a ridiculous number of places to hide, if that’s what you’re looking for. Cargo crates, partial partitions between the docking slots, fueling tubes, power conduits, worker droids, etc.
[Tech]
Perception (13) – you don’t notice much past slot 7.
[Shalo Darilian]
Every ship in this docking bay appears to be hale and hearty to your undiscriminating eye. In fact, it occurs to Shalo that Bay 6 is the mechanics bay.
[Tech]
Pilot (16)
Mechanics (7)
Untrained Knowledge (Technology or Bureaucracy) (15)
[Hiden Gosek]
“Fine. Follow pattern Echo-seven-Luck to get to Bay 4. Looks like slot 4 is available. And don’t forget to transmit your operating number!” Transmitting the number turns out to be a trivial task, done while completing launch procedures.
[Tech]
Persuasion (25)
OOC: I will note here that the Centennial Sparrow has not yet had the catalyzer replaced and won’t be doing any long distance traveling.
So bay 6 is empty and might have spare parts, and it happens to be next to the Silence?
Erska, we have a dual job now: find a catalyzer in bay 6 and then find a way to sneak onto the Silence.
OOC: suggestions on the amount of violence to apply?
Hrm… I perhaps chose some ambiguous language. So we do some impromptu world-building! (totally going contrary to canon ISDs, since I already made mention of “Bay 18” from the get-go)
The docking bays are the large hangars than can be seen externally. Bays 1-4 are on each of the four sides of the huge ventral opening of the Star Destroyer. (seen swallowing the Tantive IV in ANH) Each one has a couple dozen “slots”, each of which can cater to a single largish freighter, or three or four small snub fighters. Bays 5-20 are increasingly smaller bays on the sides of the Star Destroyer. Bay 18 only has 2 slots, and is situated close to the anterior section of the ISD.
Bay 4, Slot 4 happens to be empty. Bay 6, all slots, is where ships go to get fixed.
“Okay operating number, uh,” Hiden actually checks his license (he never can seem to remember the number). “Here it is: 543DF843AE984B6A. Thank you, have a nice day.”
Hiden takes of and flies in a bit of a orbit of the star destroyer. He radios the team, “Okay, let me know what’s going on. If they try to run, I’ll block them in. If they stick around, I have a parking spot a few doors down and can come running.”
OOC: For the love of god, don’t make me remember a random 16 digit hexadecimal code, I’ll just call it my operating code from now on.
Can I leave the ship on auto pilot and try to get the catalyzer in, or is flying this close to a ships need constant attention?
Heh, you don’t have to remember. This is PbP. Not that I’d make you anyway.
And… given the character resources expended (technically none) and fluff description of the Centennial Sparrow, I’ll be the mean GM and say the autopilot is probably only good for hyperspace and open space.
The docking bay empty, Seit smiles. “I love it when a plan comes together…” he reaches down for the cigars he usually keeps in his pocket, only to remember that those too were stolen. “Nuts.”
Motioning to the other, the Miraluka steps into the docking bay and jogs down to that familiar blob he can see in his minds eye. “Here she is, the Sybol’s Silence. An old Ghtroc 720 freighter I picked up in lieu of pay from one of my earlier jobs.” He leans over to BB, & motions to the ship. “I had it painted black with star points on it, so it’s harder for other pilots to see it.” He gives a sly grin.
The ship, painted a garish burnt orange and light-green, looks to be an older 720 model. The wide, side thrusters and dual engines in the back almost make it look like some sort of turtle with a flattened shell. (http://www.dndweekly.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/SybSil.png )
“Now, anyone else have a problem taking my ship back, and getting the hell out of here?”
So’s I have everything cleared up as I work on the next scene… (feel free to keep doing stuff – it’s not set in stone until it’s posted)
Siet and BB are in the just-recently-vacated slot 5, “gazing” past the redthorn to the Ghtroc in slot 7. Erska’s hiding, probably using the redthorn as cover, and Shalo I assume is doing his best to stay within “protection range” of her. Hiden and the Sparrow are in a holding pattern outside, having just watched the leaving imperial shuttle deploy its lower wings and shoot off towards a large corvette.
As of this moment, there has not been a sound, or a moving creature, in slot 7, and the bay lights are dimmed. The folks in slot 1 are still working, but the redthorn crew is just now exiting the hangar. There are another ten or so ships in the slots beyond 7 (along with attendant cargo droids), but no other creatures.
As previously mentioned, there is no security presence, but that won’t last forever. The “lutefisk gambit” was well executed, but not permanent.
“Ladies, Gents, Others… Please don’t make too much of a mess or at least make it clear that the ship is stolen property,” Hiden says over the com to the group. “We may need to come back to the Errant Venture. Siet, do you have any paperwork on the ownership of the ship?”
Siet nods. “Yeah, I had all the documents in a datapad onboard that I was the owner. Let’s just hope that they weren’t modified.”
“Hopefully BB or I can recover the data… or remodify it…”
“Mr. Siet, I suggest we hurry onto the ship, I will need time to correct any forms about the ships ownership.”
OOC: Sorry I haven’t been posting, caught in a whirlwind at work + the holiday. Do we have a destination if we are to leave with the ship? Its not like the security forces here are just going to easily side with us in a ownership dispute…
OOC: We already have a catalyzer, it’s just not installed, correct? As for the other thing…
Once the redthorn crew has left the hangar, Erska does her best impression of a redthorn shadow and approaches the Silence from darkness. Once clear, she darts across to the Silence and inspects it for any signs of life aboard. “I might be able to sneak on board, but someone will have to direct me on any computer techie stuff. Unless I can swipe something and bring it back out.”
Tech:
Stealth +10, no need to hurry as she moves towards the Silence, assuming nothing happens to make her think she’s been spotted.
If she does make it to the Silence, Perception +8 if she can see or hear anything going on inside.
Ideally, she ends up near the entrance to the ship but out of sight of anyone inside.
OOC: Reread over skills and just realized Stealth basically counts as the Thievery skill as well, so woo!
Our saga continues in a new post – Scene 3 – Conflict!