Aftermath Session III

[baronsamedi]

We have arrived on Utapau. It looks like everything Captain Salvo said was true; this new “Empire” does seem to be controlling everything. Utapau was once a minor, independent place, but it is clearly now under Imperial control. And we seem to have run afoul of them already.

The trip there was pretty quiet. Aya and I had a heart to heart with Jek about splitting up. Aya did most of the talking but Jek assured us we would probably not be splitting up anytime soon, and he would not have a hand in making us do so. That was nice. Greegan healed some but was still injured on our arrival, while Bishop healed a bit better I think.

We decided to send out all of us but the clones, who may attract undue attention, and Nika, who seemed intimidated by the prospect of leaving the ship. I would also be remiss in not noting a couple other things here. Namri got some new threads to look less Jedi-ish, and she was…very…nice to look at in them. I found myself peeking at her more than I should have now that she was no longer hiding in a robe. Master Paelle was dressed kinda like Salvo. I guess they found those cloths on the ship or something, but I don’t remember seeing them. We decided to have Aya come with us despite being a bit unsure how a Kaminoan would be received. Sigma Seven, for his part, put on a robe and gas mask to disguise as a Kubaz. He had droid parts on his belt, and Greegan told him not to speak so he was silent. Thank goodness for that. So anyway pretty much everyone went out but the clones and little gal.

When we arrived a port authority met us outside our ship. His name was Eth Valan and he was a scary looking mofo, though the Pau’ans generally are apparently. Still, I would not want to tangle with that man. However, despite having a rather menacing exterior he was very nice and polite to us. He made a point of not being too intrusive but he was obviously kinda curious. He worked for the Master of Port Administration and we discussed the sale of hyperdrive parts. He seemed willing to help us on that front. He mentioned a restaurant named “Min’s Fountain” that was a good place to stop, so I assumed he had an arrangement with the management. However, time would show he may have had more benevolent intentions. I kinda liked him, honestly.

There were a lot of propaganda posters around. Apparently, anyone can be a clone trooper now. Well, not anyone. I…yea more on that in a moment.

We went to the library first. I recall Khayall was making a note of market prices, which was a good thing. Khayall is very clever. Once there, all of us hit the terminals. We discovered basically that everything Salvo said was true. Also that the Empire was overly fond of the small pink sort of race of humans like Jek and Khayall were. Their military positions and military seemed limited to them. Other races got more or less flack overall. Ithorians apparently don’t have it too bad, by comparison, but may be discriminated against, so we may need to use Jek, Khayall and Master Paelle for faces for the group sometimes. Uh…I found out about some area Ithorian works, apparently they don’t really come to Utapau so much. Found out Tion Madon the previous Master of Port Administration was locked up for not cooperating with the Empire, and a lackey replaced him. I felt slightly worried about Eth, but I assume he knows what he is doing. Khayall and Paelle discovered a Jedi named General Kenobi died here. Jek looked up stuff on his family, and found he was apparently exonerated at least to some degree for not listening to tiny headed Jedi in the past. Greegan, oddly enough, discovered he was rich. Like, really rich. Of course, I saw some points adding up with Sheela at that point. Um…Kamino is apparently OK but heavily occupied. Ithor is OK. The Empire is clamping down on some Rim worlds but they don’t control everything yet. Stuff. Not having been a thug before, I read up on weapons and their legality. My guns are of course horribly illegal. The big problem was Sheela’s V-19 Torrent. It was not only illegal, but Imperial troops had seen it land. Greegan put together some forged documents for it later, but Sheela did not seem satisfied. I dunno it looked OK to me.

Anyway, afterwards we decided to eat. We had just passed this kennel looking place with the most awesome looking lizards I have seen in some time when Paelle declared he wanted to “look into this New Order himself”. He said some other stuff, but man those lizards were really cool. I would love to ride one of those someday. I mean, it does not look like I would get to anytime soon, and we probably could not get them on the ship to store anyway. Anyway, when I looked back from checking out the lizards (which are awesome) Paelle was walking off, and Namri looked relieved, actually everyone did. I hate to think I would feel better without Paelle around but it kinda felt that way right then.

We went to Min’s Fountain. The restaurant was nice, and it was the first time we had food that was neither rations nor anything any of us cooked. Amusedly enough, the Gossam, as the race that founded this restaurant also discovered and named everything on Yanab-Uru. Gossam are tiny little folks, just a bit bigger than Nika. Just in case anyone missed hearing the name Manxzu thrown around, here it was again. Our newly wealthy Greegan, for his part, showed just what sort of person he was. He treated us all to dinner, and encouraged us to eat well. Class act, Greegan. I thanked him of course. It makes me feel good about my herd when they do things like that.

Afterwards, we went downstairs to the Cantina. Jek wanted some Corellian whiskey and Sheela wanted some stronger stuff than they sold topside as well. The bartender was a Gossam shockingly, and kinda cute in her own way. I think her name was San Pia. Very small. She wanted to speak to Sigma, but our “Kubaz” was silent, as per. Khayall and Jek spoke to her. I was checking her out a bit while they talked…from what I caught she was curious about us and Khayall and Jek were deflecting questions. Still, she made a point of telling us we could talk to her if we “needed help.” Oh, yea, she asked about resale, and when we said we had a factor she asked who it was. She said Eth was trustworthy, but highly implied some others were not. I noticed she and Khayall had a hushed conversation on their way out, and I think Greegan asked her about droid parts from some big battle that happened here. Oh, while we were there, we found a drink called Yanab Sunrise. I think we all exchanged a look when we saw it, but it was pretty good.

We were on our way back to the ship with food for Nika and the clones when we saw a group of Imperial troops, Stormtroopers I think they call them, and their commander, a brunette lady, outside our ship. She noted our Consular Class Cruiser was a type used by smugglers (shockingly) and that she intended to search the ship. Jek and Namri spoke up and talked her into waiting until the next day, which was good as truthfully I was a bit concerned. She looked at Jek a bit oddly too. I thought at first she might have a crush, but I was corrected that in fact she may have recognized him somewhat, which may be more likely.

Well when we got back it was crisis time. We inventoried what we had illegal (Kaminoan DNA samples, Sigma Seven and everything he ever touched, my Heavy Blaster and Sniper Rifle, The lightsabers, the Clones weapons, and the V-19. We stowed them in the secret hatches we found, well, Sigma’s guns and extra arms anyway, except my Heavy Blaster, which Nika was assigned to hide at the last moment. While others stowed I watched the door. Khayall lead Tycho, who took his turn being the “Kubaz” (though was notably shorter than Sigma Seven) to Min’s Fountain to arrange a hiding place for the clones.

We also discussed the Yanab Sunrise we had found. I think several of us got the idea to rename The Lethan’s Fancy The Yanab Sunrise at that point. It seemed like a good name. We all felt…at peace with it. Sigma cheerfully went to modify the nose art.

Master Paelle arrived back shortly after Khayall left. He was typically evasive about what he had been up to. He went to talk to Jek more about what he found, I think, but I went back to watching the door. After a while, Khayall returned and took the remaining clones to their hotel. I sort of dozed watching the door.

But the troops will be here soon and I need to be ready. It’s time to stow this recording and my Heavy Blaster Pistol, to be ready for them. Here we go.