What a trip this is going to be, although I'm wary of the amount of money that is going to be made. Although we are going get paid some credits and have free use of a freighter for this mission from the New Republic. We actually had a meeting with Leia herself, I'm sure that will come in handy in business negotiations.
Basically we are being sent to the Cron Drift to scout the place out for possible new business ... I mean diplomatic opportunities, or at least find out as much as possible about what needs to be done for diplomatic negotiations to be opened up with the populace of this drift. What a great opportunity to scout out new merchandise and selling old merchandise, no diplomatic ties means a lack of trade ties too. Might be able to sell some cheap items, as novelties in the Cron Drift, like those cheap toys from ....oh wait...this is a diplomatic mission. On the way to the Cron Drift we are supposed to make a quick stop at a planet called Bimmisaari for I guess just a quick hello, and a supply stop.
Along with me for this mission is a young human Jedi named Ben. He appears to be very young and doesn't look like he knows which end of a light-saber is what just yet. Then there is Roshan, a brash solider. Brash is a good way to put him, since when we met Leia one could hear him muttering some colorful remarks under his breath. Who knew one could actually whisper a whistle. Later at the freighter we met our pilot, a Duros named Kadlo. Kadlo so far seems laid back and more concerned with him so far, not much more than that to say.
Well we are off to the Cron Drift, for the glory of the New Republic and maybe a couple of credits along the way. Dang it, I forgot to fill the hold with those cheap toys.
Quick stop was a very optimistic thing to say. We are now stuck on Bimmisaari, thanks to those nasty Hutts. They've blockaded us in because of some stupid reason or another. I'm wishing I had filled the empty holds of this freighter with some weapons or something, since blockades make good customers of the local revolting populace, as well as good profit.
We've joined forces with the underground revolt against the blockade, mostly because we sort of got off to a bad foot with the Hutt minions, by shooting at them and stealing one of their junky little hover sleds. Although they shot at us first, since they probably thought we were trying to escape the blockade.
All we did was walk down the street heading back to our ship; I guess it was just the wrong street. The little fracas was not that bad for the first round with a new group. I must admit to having a few good shots, Kadlo and Roshan also got a few. Although it seemed that we only barely survived because we were up against some bumbling lackeys. They tended to drop their weapons, which was beneficial to us since we were quick enough to pick them up and use them in our favor. Sadly the bumbling didn't help us either. Ben dropped his light-saber, much to our chagrin, but fortunately enough he dropped it where he could quickly pick it up before he dove into a hover sled near by. Granted he paid for it by getting blasted pretty hard as he dove into the sled.
If it weren't for the amount of blood in the bottom of the hover sled, we might have been able to salvage a good price for it. The scratch marks on the back from where Kadlo backed over the few remaining lackeys probably wouldn't have helped either, that was after Kadlo had a problem figuring out how to start the thing.
We are now part of the underground resistance to the blockade for sure. We've been met by a local whose father was a Minister in the local government before the blockade. It is always a good idea to have business contacts within the government, or uh...be sympathetic to the local causes. Her parents were being held in a small prison at the center of one of the many plazas in the city, and since we had "shown" ourselves capable in the last run in with the occupying forces she asked us to help in saving them.
Roshan of course was all for it, or all for saving her from the plight of being a good looking woman without a date maybe. I don't think he was very good in his negotiations for that type of payment. Apparently since this is a blockade and things are tight, we might not get any recompense at all for this, except a nice government official to call upon for favors later.
Once we made it to the plaza we crouched behind the nearest wall to the prison, which would provide us cover without being seen. It didn't seem that things would be too bad off; there were only two guards at the door to the make-shift prison, and two "merchant officer-types" watching them from on the steps.
We spent some time trying to watch the guards and the officers so that we might be able to catch a glimpse of the pass-code to the prison door, but that didn't work very well. A few screams of pain from within the prison made us aware that our business contact, I mean the prisoners were not being treated fairly. The time to act was now, and since these were Hutt cronies, I figured money was a good way to get the job done.
Kadlo and I proceeded to walk up to the merchant officers, leaving Ben and Roshan behind the wall as backup. As we approached one of the merchant officers walked off, but not thinking much of it we let him wander off, thinking he was just possibly making rounds. Besides it is always easier to bluff with one person than with two. The remaining merchant officer was suspicious of us, but my story of the business partner who they were holding captive owing me money didn't seem to impress upon him the need for us to get into the prison. But once I mentioned that we would let him have a slice of the money my friend owed me he perked up a bit. When we told him we would give him a small slice of about 1,000 credits he bumbled over himself and gave us the pass-code to get into the prison.
I then proceeded to the prison entrance where the two guards stood, while Kadlo walked a bit behind me. The two guards were not very convinced we were supposed to be there, even after telling them that if we knew the pass-code we must be ok to be there. Then things went bad.
One of the guards didn't like me trying to open the prison door and tried to stop me with a blaster shot. Fortunately he was not a good shot and missed me. The other guard quickly turned on Kadlo and began to attack him. Ben and Roshan came out from behind the wall where they were hiding and began to attack the guards as well. So began the fire fight.
Kadlo was really good, and took out the first merchant officer, while Kadlo and Roshan together took out the one guard. Meanwhile I opened the door to the prison and dashed in to talk to the prisoners. With the fire-fight going on outside I tried to convince them that we were there to save them. Finding the minister in the group, and mentioning his daughter had sent us, convinced them that we were there to rescue them. The problem was that they, especially an old wounded solider, were not convinced we could actually do it.
How was some simple Rodian supposed to save them from the blaster wielding guards outside, was their problem, since up to that point they had only seen me from the rescue party. The various blaster shots from outside didn't do much to convince them either that a rescue party was really a rescue party. I then proceeded to spin a yarn about how we were so good and brave and dedicated to saving their lives and rescuing them that we would throw ourselves at the guards if need be to manage their escape provided they would just follow me and run out the door.
hmm...uh...hmm....how to say what happened next...
Well I turned took one step outside the door and was suddenly shot at point blank by the remaining guard. Sure enough the prisoners were not impressed by seeing me blasted against the door frame and seeing nearly all my blood pouring on to the ground, that blood which hadn't been burned into the door frame by the blaster shot that is.
Remembering what I had said about throwing ourselves at the guards to protect them, and realizing that the universe was a bit funny, since I had lied about doing this, I threw myself at the guard thinking I could tackle the guard to the ground and let the prisoners run past and free. Sudden loss of blood does two obvious things; first it makes one a bit clouded in the head, since I don't know why I thought I could tackle the guard who was bigger than me. Secondly it makes one lose consciousness a lot quicker after being thrown by a bigger-than-me guard, who promptly threw me to the ground where I can't remember anything more about that day.
From what the others have told me the following tid-bits happened while I was either with the prisoners or barely alive.
After Kadlo and Roshan had killed one of the guards, the second merchant officer returned with four more guards. Ben promptly charged at them and proceeded to attack them. After a spectacular fight, Ben made an amazing slice where with his light-saber he sliced into four of them in one fell swoop giving them considerable damage. He proceeded to kill them with ease after that. Roshan was the one who ran to my aide and with the help of one of the prisoners prevented me from dying and dragged me to safety.
To say the least this short stop at Bimmisaari is turning out to be a bit longer and trying then I expected.
I guess Roshan was better than I had thought; it seems he had gotten a date with a girl after all, since he wasn't around when we were approached by the queen of Bimmisaari. She wanted us to help her get into her royal palace where she could regain control of her planet or have access to the equipment to do so. All she needed was help crossing the main courtyard at the entranceway. Of course realizing that a Queen made for a better political ally than a minis....I mean we all realized the need to help the struggling people of Bimmisaari, and helping the Queen would be very helpful to them indeed, we agreed to help them, even though we were one person short on our team.
As I expected, this wasn't going to be a simple matter. The courtyard was filled with guards, one of whom was on a hover-gun platform. But to make things more interesting was a double-barreled tank too. With the three of us, the Queen, her hand-maiden and two of her personal body-guards, who didn't seem inclined to do much except run along side the queen, a tank and a mass of guards was a big deal.
All that was needed was to get the Queen into the palace, but it required a mad dash around the tank and guards. So a simple distraction to make the guards and all look one way while the Queen and her group ran the other way was the best plan we had. I was all for a march protesting the Queen and regaling the Hutt and their blockade. I figured who would shoot on a bunch of protesters especially when they were supporting them. That idea didn't go down well, since it was figured that they might shot anyways. Instead it was decided that I would play a drunken local and sing loudly enough that they couldn't ignore me and walk in the other direction.
With my best effort I stumbled forth singing as loudly and badly, or basically just singing, as I could and stumbling as best I could in front of the guards. It worked for most of the guards who promptly turned my way. Unfortunately my not stopping when they asked me to, just made things worse, since they decided it was easier to shoot a drunkard than try to arrest one. Luckily my stumbling made it hard to hit me.
Once the guards started shooting at me the group began their dashes across the courtyard. Kadlo came out firing at the large group of guards around the tank, Ben charged at the guard on the hover-platform and the two along with them to tie them up, while the Queen and company made a delayed run following Ben.
As I tried to dodge the shots from the guards firing at me and firing back, Kadlo had managed to charge close enough to the tank to jump on it. This was a good thing since, Ben had been doing well to fend off the guards he was attacking, and the tank had spotted the Queen's group as they were running across the courtyard. The tank began was able to take a shot at the group, before Kadlo tried to shove something down the barrel. But then the tank took the next shot Kadlo must have had his arm still in the barrel because he was blown off the tank.
Ben proceeded to tie up the guards as the queen and company ran behind him towards the palace entrance. At this point the Tank was taking a pretty good aim on the Queen and her party. Seeing that they might not make it to inside the entrance before the tank got a shot off at the Queen I made a mad dash toward the palace entrance from across the courtyard. I don't know how I managed it but I ran faster than I have ever run before, but I got there just in time to tackle the Queen into the doorway before the tank could take a shot at the Queen. It was a good thing, too, because the Tank did get a shot off and killed one of her bodyguards instead.
Once we got the Queen into palace, and not wanting to become part of a siege I than proceeded to run out the palace entrance and into a back alley behind Kadlo, before the Tank and guards could get a bead on me. Ben meanwhile had dashed off into another alleyway.
I took a nice little nap after that. That was a lot of running to do. Kadlo fortunately didn't lose his arm, but got scorched pretty good, apparently he tried to stick a blaster clip into the tank barrel in an attempt to disable it. Ben meanwhile had been swinging away with his light-saber as best he could to keep the guards off the Queen and her party, and was reveling in how he was able to do something with his light-saber for once, instead of just the lucky swing he had last time. Roshan seemed to have done well for himself since he hasn't gotten back yet, probably still on his date.
With the blockade over, we had time to get stitched up from the ruckus that we were all a part of. A few dignitaries showed up to celebrate the liberation, but unfortunately I couldn’t get any of them to sign any of the nice "commemorative" items I had. They would have been worth a few credits. Imagine a Hutt blaster used during their siege of Bimmisaari signed by the Queen of Bimmisaari. That would have fetched a few credits I'm sure. But none of the big-wigs would sign anything; even after all we did to help them out. They were even more reluctant to sign things at the funeral for the fallen heroes of the struggle.
At this funeral an elder Jedi named Ohmersi was "laid to rest." Or at least his robe was cremated. He was Ben's mentor, who was I guess trying to meet Ben here on Bimmisaari, but was side-tracked by the whole Blockade. Well that was a nice little funeral, shame the robe had to have been burned though, they go for a lot of cred....uh...it was a shame he didn't survive.
Before we could leave we were asked to partake of one more mission on behalf of the Queen of Bimmisaari. We were approached by Laila, the daughter of the minister who approached us before, and to our surprise and not just a little amusement we found out that she was Roshan's date for the previous night. All I can say about this is the less said about the date probably the better.
Laila was to guide us to some people who were not very keen on rejoining the Queen's rule over Bimmisaari. Being the nice people we were we decided to help out this time. After we were promised a good wage for the job, and that we were not going to be charged for any damage to the land-speeder that was being loaned to us we set out on the mission.
With Kadlo driving and Laila navigating, we spent a long journey from the city to the some far off swampy jungle. While navigating through the swamp there was the sudden sound of a huge crack, and a big tree began to fall in our way. Ben quickly used some jedi trick to slow the fall of the tree, which allowed Kadlo to take evasive action so that we wouldn't fly smack into the tree.
Despite avoiding the tree, we were still in trouble. Suddenly a huge beast, which I assume knocked the tree down, charged out of the swamp and knocked the land speeder over sending us all across the swamp (I knew getting a waiver against any damage to the land speeder was a good one). In the midst of all of this Laila yelled out that it was something called a Grak. Either way it was big scaly and quite menacing.
At first Kadlo didn't seem to scared by it, but when the Grak hit him, Kadlo started to scramble up a nearby tree. Laila, Roshan and I all ran for cover behind some fallen tress. Ben pulled out his light-saber and began to attack the beast. He even got a really good slice in on it too. Roshan was able to get a shot or two in as well, while Kadlo tried to get higher in the tree.
It probably would have been better if I followed Kadlo up the tree. I lost a relatively good blaster in the fire-fight. First it jammed. Then I tried to fire it again, but instead of the sound of a blaster all I heard was the splash as I dropped it into the swamp. Looking back on the loss of the blaster, it wasn't a bad thing, since it was one picked up from one of the Hutt's minions, so I didn't lose any money by losing it. But now I was without a blaster, I quickly ran to take cover behind Laila who had started firing at the beast.
While Ben continued to press his attack against the Grak, Kadlo had made it up to a branch on the tree and proceeded to throw a stick at the Grak. This distracted it long enough, that he was able to throw a wad of stuff into its mouth. Whatever it was it seemed to have had a affect on the beast, as it seemed to get a bit more sluggish. This allowed Roshan to get a really good shot off at the beast, and Kadlo got the final shot off killing it.
It was a pleasant thing to hear another splash, this time louder than the one my blaster made as it hit the swampy water. As Kadlo was climbing out of the tree he fell. While I helped Kadlo out of the swamp, Roshan stepped up and with Ben's help sliced off two of its claws as trinkets of the battle.
We then proceeded deeper into the swamp on foot, since the land-speeder was a total loss. Who thought the toughest part of trip so far was to result from the fact we didn't have a land-speeder. During our hike, Kadlo and Laila both stepped onto a crusted layer of some kind of quicksand. Both of them fell into the quicksand, and I was just barely able to not fall in myself.
Ben used his Jedi powers to keep Laila from drowning in the quicksand, while Roshan and I proceeded to try and pull her out with a branch we had. Kadlo on the other hand, in his own attempt to get out went under several times. It seemed he was about to go under for the last time, just as we pulled Laila out, but Ben proceeded to use his powers again to save Kadlo. That river of quicksand like stuff did more to actually kill us then anything else up to that point. Kadlo nearly drowned, Ben almost passed out from using his Jedi powers. On the plus side, I not having a blast didn't have that much of an impact on the problem.
Finally we made it to the outskirts of some ruins deep in the swamp. Before we could proceed into the ruins, Ben stopped us saying there was something evil here. Not having a blaster I took a step back, and let Ben, Roshan and Kadlo take care of the evil that was there. It turns out that it was some mutated kind of bush, Laila called it a Tangler. Being only a bush Roshan and Kadlo quickly killed it.
We then proceeded into the ruins, to find the "renegades" that we were to try and persuade to return to the Queen's government. The ruins were kind of disappointing. They we mostly brick and crumbling statues. No artifacts or objects that would fetch anything on the market. The statues were too big and crumbly to make it worth trying to move and sell them. What might have fetched any credits seemed to have been already taken.
My dismay at the lack of anything worth a credit was interrupted by a us stumbling across a nasty looking fellow in black. Now I'm not totally stupid, but anybody dressed all in black and standing in the middle of such ruins is not a good person to run into in ruins in the middle of a swamp. I quickly ran for cover. Roshan, Kadlo and Ben stood up and made a go of it against the guy. Roshan had a few good shots in, Kadlo got one or two in as well. Ben tried to get some attacks in, but I seemed to do better when I was able to hit the guy with a brick. The guy in black proceeded to tear into Kadlo, and had him on the verge of death before he disappeared into the mist.
Why he disappeared I couldn't say, but it was a good thing since it gave me time to patch up Kadlo. When I went to use Kadlo's med-pack (I wasn't going use my med-packs I spent my money on!) I found out what Kadlo had thrown at the Grak earlier. Kadlo's med-pack was missing all of its pain-killers and anesthetics. Kadlo had tossed them all at the Grak to slow it down. Blast him, because that meant I had to use the stuff from my med-pack to help him out. He definitely owes me now.
After patching up Kadlo so that he wasn't dying, we marched on wards into the swamp. A very short time later we came across what appeared to be the camp of the "renegades." We propped Kadlo up against an old tree and proceeded to enter the camp. Well I prodded Laila to enter the camp and try and reason with them, but then I had to go back her up. Apparently I didn't convince him, because he wanted to talk to a Jedi instead of me. Fortunately for me no money was on the line so I figured Ben could handle this.
Well I'm glad this wasn't a business deal. Ben didn't exactly wow them with his abilities. Moving small rocks didn't impress the Hungain leader, who the renegades turned out to be. But then Ben thought about something and a ghostly figure appeared. It turned out he was able to summon his old dead master, Ohmersi at will. The sudden appearance on the ghost Jedi did something as the hungain renegades got a little jumpy.
Being in the middle of a jumpy group of renegades, Hungain or not, didn't make me feel very comfortable. Laila and I slowly backed away from Ben and his ghostly master. It was a good thing we did too, because suddenly a destroyer droid rolled out from behind a fallen ruin. If that were not bad enough, an evil Jedi named Sabor Jibbs stepped out of a ruin as well.
Just as the shooting started, Ben tossed me his blaster since I didn't have a weapon to use. Roshan, who had stepped up with us earlier, was the first to take a hit, but it didn't seem to hurt him too much. As I tried to take a shot at the Droid, Ben's blaster lost power as the power cell went bad on me. Which meant I owed him a power cell for his blaster, dang it.
As Roshan retreated with us he managed to get a good shot off on the droid, which made its shield crackle a lot. Meanwhile I ran back to cover with Kadlo who kept screaming about wanting talk about things or something. He must have been delirious from his wounds or something. But once he realized that blaster fire wasn't a form of talking he whipped off a shot that hit the droid, along with a shot from Roshan as well.
Not having a weapon, I did the best I could and started throwing bricks at the droid. At least I wouldn't have to pay anyone back for lost bricks. Nor did they cost me anything.
All of a sudden Roshan gets hit really hard by the droid and I had to drag him behind the wall where Kadlo and I had found cover. Ben ran back to check on Roshan and try and help him if he needed it. At this point we learned that a wall only provides cover from the enemy if the enemy is on the other side of it. All of us were on the one side of the wall now. And when I say all of us, I mean Kadlo, Roshan, Me, Ben and now the droid. Sabor was just sort of watching us.
My quick thinking made me realize how much better it was to have the wall between me and the droid; I jumped to the other side. Unfortunately in my quick thinking I forgot that Sabor was on the other side of the wall, and was reminded of this by a blaster shot from Sabor which hurt pretty hard, but not enough to take me out.
With the only weapon I had at hand I figured it would be easiest to take out that droid then a Jedi, especially since I figured I had a better chance to defeat a droid than a Jedi. I mean a droid has a harder time avoiding a brick then a Jedi would, because the Jedi has that crazy ability to move things just thinking about it. Since Ben can move small pebbles, I figured this guy was much better and could easily move a tossed brick. So with that in mind I tossed another brick at the droid. This time hitting it right on the shield and causing it to do nothing more than disintegrate my brick.
Or at least I thought disintegrate my brick. It sort of felt as if the brick bounced off the shield and hit me square in the head. More like hit my brain that was inside my head actually. In any manner it felt like a brick was being used to smash my brains out through my ears. Yes I do have big ears being a Rodian, but it still hurts!
As my head cleared from this bricking, I was able to see Ben charge from his side of the wall towards the droid. It would have been darned impressive if it weren't for the fact he got shot on the way. It didn't hurt him too much but it did cause him to lose his speed. It was Kadlo who’s shot on the droid that actually caused the droid to look seriously damaged.
Seeing as how my brick didn't do anything against the droid I figured it was worth trying to heave one at the Jedi. He dodged it, as expected with ease. He also didn't take kindly to me tossing it at him, because he promptly shot at me and hit me hard. But maybe it was the bravery with which I took the shot, and how even though I fell to the ground from it, how I glared at him through the grimace of my pain he became scared. Yes it was the glint in my eye, not from the pain but of determination to get him. Yes that was it, he ran because I scared him.
It wasn't the fact that Kadlo's shot had caused some serious damage to the droid, which caused the droid to run. Nor was it the fact that Kadlo destroyed the fleeing droid that scared Sabor. It was my heroic jumping into the line of fire that caused him to flee.
After we, I mean I, scared off the dark Jedi, the Hungains seemed to come quietly back to the camp, after having fled the fighting. This time they seemed friendlier than before but apparently not sure of why they were friendlier, because they didn't know that they were unfriendly. In any case we were able to return to the capital having accomplished the taks of bringing the renegade Hungain, back in to the fold.
Upon returning to the capital it turned out the celebrations were still going on. Kadlo decided now would be a good time to test out his skill at racing in the local circuits, and Ben decided to join in as well. Not having any money I could make any wagers on the races. Luckily enough it wasn't a bad thing I didn't have the money. Ben actually won more races than Kadlo did, granted Kadlo won one race in face, while Ben won two in five.
In the meantime, Ben order some parts for something from Coruscant, apparently he is going to try build his own light-saber from parts left to him by his former master. I'm hoping it turns out well considering his early exploits handling a light-saber. Of course I'm not one to make snide remarks I guess about handling a weapon, but this time I should be better prepared. I bought two blaster pistols, so if one goes bad I don't have to borrow one from someone.
That is it for the stop at Bimmisaari. We've started on our true journey to the Cron drift, which is after a day of travel already is only another day to go. Of course I've just no realized I forgot to fill the hold with stuff......