Aftermath Session XX

[baronsamedi]

We have a seriously gorgeous woman on the ship right now. OK, that’s not news we usually have several. But I mean a new one, at least temporarily. Riyo Chuchi is a Pantoran, a race of blue folk from the moon of Pantora, and she is really smart and her voice is like silk. But I digress; I am getting ahead of myself.

We stopped on Pantora briefly on the way to get some equipment for surviving the cold climes. Greegan was very generous in helping finance things for us. From what we gathered, one needed a permit to land on Orto Plutonia, so Greegan arranged for that too…or at least got some red tape going along those lines. Did not seem too strict though.

Upon arriving at Orto Plutonia, we had Greegan and Aya scan for signals, and found two fairly weak ones we could not pinpoint, but we had a general area. As I liked to remind the Herd, the purpose of our expedition was to discover what happened to the last two expeditions, so being careful was warranted. We landed on Orto Plutonia, and Khayall, Namri, Greegan (against Aya’s wishes, as he was still wounded), Sigma 7, and Lucky set out; Khayall, Namri, and Lucky on the BARC Speeders, Greegan on his Wheelbike, and Sigma on his STAP. I was never so good at driving those crazy things, though Khayall is kinda pushing me to as he was…not happy I was unable to join the expeditionary force, being a ranger and all. If I had a Varactyl I bet I could keep up and in the process look awesome because Varactyls are awesome. I mean, it was cold enough it would probably fall asleep but they are still awesome. Also, Varactyls are awesome, I am not sure if I mentioned that.

They should be kept and bred by Ithorians.

Anyway, I did loan Khayall my survival kit before they left. The remaining clones and I formed a perimeter around the Sunrise. They were gone about four hours when I noticed an Imperial Probe Droid creeping around the ship. I alerted Greegan to this, and he enthusiastically told me a whole bunch of stuff I don’t remember. Mostly stuff about the droid's numbers and such. It was decided we would move the Sunrise to another location away from the blasted thing. We told them where we moved it to, as not doing so would be really funny but they would be kinda mad with the whole ice planet blizzard thing and all. They searched for another couple hours when apparently Lucky noticed a spire on one of the rock columns had a hanger, and closer inspection revealed a blast door. They investigated and found the door shut tight and unable to be breached. Sigma flew his STAP up to the hanger and found it abandoned. The others climbed up. A search of the base, which was called Glid Station, revealed it was apparently evacuated carefully. Greegan checked the computers and found the location of a nearby Trade Federation base, probably the place we had come to salvage. Sheela was sent to scope it out in her Torrent. Khayall also noted movement in the area…some of the natives were around, big white furry guys called Talz. As night was falling we decided to fly the Sunrise to the station, but first we had to load the speeders onto the ship, as leaving them at the bottom was a bad idea. This decision had unfortunate repercussions.

We landed and the clones took perimeter, and that’s when the Talz appeared. There were eight; four rose from the snow beneath our feet, four charged in on their mounts. They moved directly to engage the five clones and Khayall (who was in his clone trooper armor) except one who went after Sigma. A huge mounted one leading the assault moved to double team Whistler. In addition to the five clone troopers, Khayall, Greegan, Sigma, Namri and myself were outside. Lucky was, well, Lucky, but Whistler took a heavy blow from the huge warrior, whose name was Chaz Mufka, which knocked him off his feet. Bishop managed to avoid harm but Gusto and Cam were hit hard as well. Khayall drew his lightsaber to fight his assailant, the first time I had really seen him use it. Sadly…it showed, as he had a great deal of difficulty attacking his opponent. I wanted to help Whistler, but what seemed like the best idea was to free up Sigma from his assailant, so I shot his attacker down and killed him. Greegan moved to assist Whistler, hitting the smaller Talz attacking him, though I think he was aiming for Chaz. Namri also dismounted the Talz attacking Gusto. Sigma seized the moment of not having a Talz on him to open up on Chaz, provoking the huge Talz to attack him, which staggered the droid. Even so, the tide was turning in our favor. I shot down the other Talz on Whistler and injured the one on Gusto. Gusto finished him off even as Cam gunned his down with his huge repeating blaster. Seeing half his numbers depleted and our forces barely scratched, Chaz called a retreat. I took a couple shots at them as they retreated, I admit. But he had beaten up Whistler and Sigma kinda bad, and Whistler is not really…fixable. I helped him back on the ship.

We had a pretty good idea what happened to the earlier expeditions at that point.

We stayed in the Sunrise in the hanger that night. Sheela had scouted well…she had found a fairly defensible place to land the Sunrise near the CIS base. Before we left, I spotted (along with Namri) some imperial Snowtroopers near Glid Station across the valley on a neighboring rocky outcropping. One figure with them had longer hair and was clearly not dressed as a proper Stormtrooper…Khayall speculated he was a mercenary, guide, or bounty hunter. We took care to not show any evidence of spotting them and moved on to the former Trade Federation Base. Unfortunately, the hanger there was closed so a fly in just was not possible. Arriving at the base, we had the clones secure the area again, and Khayall, Namri, Sigma, Greegan, R5 and I disembarked. We were not shocked when more Talz appeared from the snow beneath our feet, ten of them this time. However, this time they hesitated before they attacked, and talked among themselves…Sigma apparently understood their language. Droids. Why can’t R5 understand them? [Editor’s note: Because I am not a Protocol Droid or even half of one, that’s why. –R5-D7] Anyway They expressed confusion and trepidation over our persistence, I think, and called us “white shelled ones.” When Sigma translated that, Khayall immediately began trying to explain our difference from the Snowtroopers we saw. Sigma translated. Then their leader, Thi-Sen emerged. There was talking I could not understand. Khayall (through Sigma) explained we were looking for previous expeditions and salvage. Thi-Sen’s Talz, it turned out, were trying to defend someone in the base. Khayall said we did not wish to harm them, and asked to enter. Thi-Sen acquiesced, and had their forces bring in some of us…Khayall, Greegan, and Sigma (to translate.) R5 tried to roll along with them but was made to stop. [Editor’s note- Jerks. –R5-D7] Khayall pointed out given the risk they were taking, he wanted some of the Talz to remain with us…not as hostages per se, but kinda. They agreed and sent Chaz out, still injured. Now we had had quite a throw down, but here they were being nice and all, so I stepped forward and gave Chaz a hand.

He did not seem to expect it. I gave him my two nicest smiles and waited patiently. After a moment he took my hand, and I helped him to get to a seat. As our allies went in, I sat down next to him and began to talk. I heard Khayall warn Thi-Sen there may be ‘white shells” not far away, and he sent scouts to investigate. I chatted with Chaz a bit about hunting expeditions and battles with white-shells, and I really feel like we bonded there. He could not talk to me very well but he could understand, and I kind of got the gist of what he was saying.

[Editor’s note: less then 12 hours earlier, Master Dumaw was in combat with this (enormous) guy, and even shot him in the back while he was running away, now he is chatting with him like an old friend. I don’t think this Chaz fellow knew what to make of it. Master Dumaw is odd. –R5-D7]

They remained inside for awhile, and Khayall eventually talked to us on the comm. Turns out that inside was an ex-senator from Pantora named Riyo Chuchi. She had negotiated peace with the Talz awhile back, and they were trying to protect her from Stormtroopers because she was hunted by the empire for her views. After talking to the trio, she elected to go with us off planet to find somewhere safer.

Also, there was salvage.

Riyo was led out and onto our ship. She is really beautiful. Smooth blue skin, lavender hair and big golden eyes a man could lose himself in. I made sure to help her get aboard and make her feel welcome. But also, I spoke with the Talz and arranged for Chaz to get some medical attention on the Sunrise before we left. Seemed only right. They salvaged a lot of droid parts and bits of a number of droids. Also, a small Porax-38 craft Sigma seemed keen on (Khayall referred to it as a Magnaguard Starfighter). Greegan and R5 got that fixed up while Khayall and I made sure the base was clear of any trace of Riyo…and made sure it was clear salvagers had hit it.

Eventually, we bid the Talz farewell (Chaz is a hugger. I like that. I am a hugger.) and headed out. I believe we will be jumping to empty space in hyperspace then doing a second jump…but all of us, Riyo included, will need to decide where to next.