The crew of the Archelon were on the run. The mission to steal data from the Black Sun records for the Pyke Syndicate had gone successfully, but the alarms forced them to make a break for it. Unfortunately, the Black Suns guards were hot on their trail and managed to wing their landspeeder droid driver and send the vehicle careening toward one of the many skyscrapers here on Coruscant. Xander personal mission to try and discredit his old nemesis, Sedonneo the sand merchant who was blackmailing him, did not go as smoothly and the computer system rejected his data deposit and was trying to trace back to him.
The bright neon-lit building was a shopping mall and this gave the team a chance to ditch their pursuers in the crowds and many businesses, but it was not that easy. The Black Sun had agents in many places and this was unfortunately one of them. Syalla and Irdis had managed to either escape pursuit or blend into the crowd enough to avoid further troubles. Irdis himself found a moment of reprieve just as his boss, Ranem Tivv had recalled him back to Rodia for a special mission. His time with the crew of the Archon was always going to be finite.
Meanwhile, Zavi and Ymira had a couple of encounters with Black Sun agents and couldn't seem to shake them. Beating down a few of them, they make a break and suddenly find themselves surrounded and outnumbered. The only option was fight at this point. Just then flash and smoke grenades went off and it wasn't Zavi lobbying grenades this time. A few quick blaster shots and then the words, "Come with me, if you want to live," whispered nearby. The pair slipped away in the confusion.
Reaching a safe space, Ymira was surprised to find that their rescuer was a Nautolan and not one of her own team. The green-skinned, amphiboid with big black eyes introduced himself as Maxir Desyk. He explained that the ocean spirit had spoken to him about Ymira. He was tasked not only with rescuing her but also training her. The Mirialan smuggler and pilot was a bit skeptical about what training he might have to offer. He then asked her about the strange experiences she had recently. Times when she could seem to more greatly influence others than by simple deceit, cunning or charm.
Ymira couldn't deny it. The most recent time was with the Imperial inspector on Arda II. Previously it had been more subtle. This time she seemed to almost know the potential was there. In a surprising turn of events, Ymira agreed to accompany Maxir for the training he offered. Apparently she did have some Force potential after all. What a surprise!
Black Sun Rising (Episode 26)
Moderator: GM Fang
Re: Black Sun Rising (Episode 26)
Xander had been also rescued. This was through the actions of an old acquaintance, the Devaronian named Cohr Zyrk. The red-skinned, horned explorer traded in goods and information and had been instrumental in getting Xander smuggled off-world originally.
The quick reprieve was ended with the sound of speeder bikes and the two took advantage of the narrow hallways Xander had slipped into to stay a step ahead of the trailing Black Sun bikers. Slipping into a side room and quickly locking it behind them, the reacquainted associates managed to ditch their pursuers. However, Xander still had the computer tracer working to find him. Setting to work on his datapad, the slicer set up a blocking program to give himself more time. It seemed he needed a data breaker and maybe some upgraded gear to pull off his attempt. This was turning out to be more difficult than he imagined, but the Black Sun were no fly-by-night operation. Getting involved with the Black Sun was always a dangerous proposition. Until now, Xander had done Seedoneo's bidding to keep from running afoul. He hoped to turn that back upon the Rodian cretin.
Roona soon checked in and wondered why Xander had not followed her lead, as she had suggested. His concern over the computer trace had interrupted his thoughts and when he turned to look again, she was already gone. The group planned to meet back up at the Archelon, but only Roona, Xander and his old acquaintance Cohr arrived at the rendezvous. Zavi seemed to be a bit despondent at the departure of Ymira, Irdis was called back to an important job for Ranem Tivv and Syalla seemed to be radio silent. With a chance to rest and recover in relative safety, Xander procured the credits from the job on Arda II and dispersed them to his previous teammates.
Next Xander, Roona and Cohr went to try and locate another building that they could infiltrate to once more attempt the data dump to implicate Seedoneo. Cohr, having done business with the Black Sun at various times, had several idea on what could be potentials. He knew that Diatek Security often managed the outward security for Black Sun operations, especially the less important and therefore easier to access locations, but the places they scoped out seemed to just result in dead ends.
Moving on to the second part of their mission, the trio got the coordinates from their Pyke contact to have the data the desired decrypted. The were picked up by a female Bothan named Jovel Nial. She took them to a a small, out-of-the-way garage known as Chopper’s. This speeder repair shop was the home of a confidant and employee of the Pykes named Cho’pa’ailor, a Besalisk. Everyone referred to the four-armed repairman as “Chopper” due to his skills with a laser saw and as a play on his name.
Sparks flew from numerous locations throughout the large, cluttered repair shop. Everywhere the trio looked, piles of speeder parts, half-built droids, and stranger contraptions were stacked to the ceiling. Several groups of Ugnaughts were welding and working away on a disassembled airspeeder, paying you no heed. A booming voice rang out from behind one of the junk piles: “My friends, it is so good to see you!” A large, green-mottled Besalisk emerged, his four arms opening to hug Xander in an uncomfortable embrace.
After Chopper greets the team, he quickly ushered them from the floor of the shop and into his private office in the back. He was anxious to hear how the job went and asked numerous questions about how they gained the file and the ensuing chase. After a brief discussion, Chopper asked to have the file downloaded to his terminal in the office. He began breaking the encryption to furnish the information. While he worked on the file, he informed them of the following news from their mutual employers. Jovel helped with the decryption using her slicing skills.
"Once we have this bounty hunter’s identity secured, the Pyke family wants you to bring him down for his betrayal. He cost the bosses a fortune by stealing a shipment of their spice and bringing it to Black Sun instead. Unsurprisingly, the Pykes aren’t happy about it, and they’ll pay well if you can take care of this problem for them."
Xander asked what the payment would be and Chopper indicated that the Pykes would reward them with 1000 credits each. When asked about the condition of the bounty hunter, Chopper replied that the Pykes have a bit of unfinished business with the bounty hunter that they’d prefer to wrap up, given the chance, but the syndicate will look weak if he gets away. If the trio can’t manage to capture him, they should instead make sure it’s the last time he’ll ever double-cross anybody again, or before they know it, they’ll find they have a bounty of their own.
The quick reprieve was ended with the sound of speeder bikes and the two took advantage of the narrow hallways Xander had slipped into to stay a step ahead of the trailing Black Sun bikers. Slipping into a side room and quickly locking it behind them, the reacquainted associates managed to ditch their pursuers. However, Xander still had the computer tracer working to find him. Setting to work on his datapad, the slicer set up a blocking program to give himself more time. It seemed he needed a data breaker and maybe some upgraded gear to pull off his attempt. This was turning out to be more difficult than he imagined, but the Black Sun were no fly-by-night operation. Getting involved with the Black Sun was always a dangerous proposition. Until now, Xander had done Seedoneo's bidding to keep from running afoul. He hoped to turn that back upon the Rodian cretin.
Roona soon checked in and wondered why Xander had not followed her lead, as she had suggested. His concern over the computer trace had interrupted his thoughts and when he turned to look again, she was already gone. The group planned to meet back up at the Archelon, but only Roona, Xander and his old acquaintance Cohr arrived at the rendezvous. Zavi seemed to be a bit despondent at the departure of Ymira, Irdis was called back to an important job for Ranem Tivv and Syalla seemed to be radio silent. With a chance to rest and recover in relative safety, Xander procured the credits from the job on Arda II and dispersed them to his previous teammates.
Next Xander, Roona and Cohr went to try and locate another building that they could infiltrate to once more attempt the data dump to implicate Seedoneo. Cohr, having done business with the Black Sun at various times, had several idea on what could be potentials. He knew that Diatek Security often managed the outward security for Black Sun operations, especially the less important and therefore easier to access locations, but the places they scoped out seemed to just result in dead ends.
Moving on to the second part of their mission, the trio got the coordinates from their Pyke contact to have the data the desired decrypted. The were picked up by a female Bothan named Jovel Nial. She took them to a a small, out-of-the-way garage known as Chopper’s. This speeder repair shop was the home of a confidant and employee of the Pykes named Cho’pa’ailor, a Besalisk. Everyone referred to the four-armed repairman as “Chopper” due to his skills with a laser saw and as a play on his name.
Sparks flew from numerous locations throughout the large, cluttered repair shop. Everywhere the trio looked, piles of speeder parts, half-built droids, and stranger contraptions were stacked to the ceiling. Several groups of Ugnaughts were welding and working away on a disassembled airspeeder, paying you no heed. A booming voice rang out from behind one of the junk piles: “My friends, it is so good to see you!” A large, green-mottled Besalisk emerged, his four arms opening to hug Xander in an uncomfortable embrace.
After Chopper greets the team, he quickly ushered them from the floor of the shop and into his private office in the back. He was anxious to hear how the job went and asked numerous questions about how they gained the file and the ensuing chase. After a brief discussion, Chopper asked to have the file downloaded to his terminal in the office. He began breaking the encryption to furnish the information. While he worked on the file, he informed them of the following news from their mutual employers. Jovel helped with the decryption using her slicing skills.
"Once we have this bounty hunter’s identity secured, the Pyke family wants you to bring him down for his betrayal. He cost the bosses a fortune by stealing a shipment of their spice and bringing it to Black Sun instead. Unsurprisingly, the Pykes aren’t happy about it, and they’ll pay well if you can take care of this problem for them."
Xander asked what the payment would be and Chopper indicated that the Pykes would reward them with 1000 credits each. When asked about the condition of the bounty hunter, Chopper replied that the Pykes have a bit of unfinished business with the bounty hunter that they’d prefer to wrap up, given the chance, but the syndicate will look weak if he gets away. If the trio can’t manage to capture him, they should instead make sure it’s the last time he’ll ever double-cross anybody again, or before they know it, they’ll find they have a bounty of their own.
Re: Black Sun Rising (Episode 26)
Next the discussion turned to some questions about covert slicing. Jovel shared with Xander that not only would he need a data breaker but also a computer spike. While the data breaker would work on splitting up the data blocks into smaller and smaller sections, effectively slowing down the system by multiple factors, a computer spike had its own important purpose. These single use devices carry out automated functions, such as flooding a network with garbage information, thus masking the slicer's movements. They are then designed to burn out to prevent the attack from being traced back to the digital signature of the hacker by the computer administrators. Computer spikes have to carefully calibrated to deal with a specific network and therefore generally require data sampling before they can be properly tuned. Jovel gave Cohr some ideas of where to check and he was pretty sure he could get the items that Xander needed. He always seemed to "know a guy".
After a time, Chopper finished his decryption of the file. He informs the team that the bounty hunter is Kaa’to Leeachos, a Nikto formerly bound in servitude to the Hutts. Since gaining his freedom, Kaa’to has made his reputation with a number of high-risk, unauthorized bounties and is considered a formidable operative. Chopper also mentioned that he is familiar with the Nikto hunter and knows of a few places he frequents or has been seen: the Umbra Club, the Spyder, and Zelcomm Tower. He suggested that the party should consult with any other contacts they have to gain more insight on their foe before confronting him however.
Several other bits of information were gleaned from the data Xander had acquired. Scanning through Kaa’to’s file reveals that the bounty hunter delivered only part of the stolen spice shipment. One message’s sender suspects the Nikto of holding out on the rest. The file also lists a series of pickups from Zelcomm Tower referencing both the 4th floor terrace and the side street underground entrance.
With this information in hand it was necessary to get the slicing gear that Xander required to make a second attempt at his personal subterfuge. Cohr found his way around the underbelly of Coruscant and managed to get a Data Breaker and have a Computer Spike made for him. He also upgraded his slicer gear and swapped out his datapads.
Back to quadrant 715 they were briefly stopped by a police droid, but Cohr managed to completely confuse the droid with his responses which the literal droid was unable to process properly. The police droid let them continue on their way. There they located the office block they needed and managed to infiltrate the building. Now armed with a more powerful array of slicing tools, Xander managed to drop the information that he wanted. Roona and Cohr kept up the deception and surveillance by posing a s a cleaning crew while Xander worked his digital magics.
While their images were definitely caught on cameras, the successful slicing mission would not leave any trace of their true purpose and at most they would be wanted on another breaking and entering charge. That was the least of their problems now that they needed to hunt down Kaa’to Leeachos.
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The following ship upgrades were installed by T'mennit's favor that was called in:
High Output Ion Turbine
Physical Countermeasures
Encrypted Computer
Unspent XPS:
Roona - 10 + 5
Xander - 10 +5
Cohr - 5 + 5
Group spoils (update)
Explanation - I added the money from the gun run and removed the amount for Tebora. This resulted in 32654. I split the remainder from Arda II job evenly which gave each member 4966. Roona and Xander's shares added to the new pool of 12786 credits. Xander spent 2500 credits on the slicing gear and tools and Roona spent 1500 (plus some of her own money on gear upgrades, with Cohr able to help find illegal items).
8686 credits (-100 speeder rentals)
After a time, Chopper finished his decryption of the file. He informs the team that the bounty hunter is Kaa’to Leeachos, a Nikto formerly bound in servitude to the Hutts. Since gaining his freedom, Kaa’to has made his reputation with a number of high-risk, unauthorized bounties and is considered a formidable operative. Chopper also mentioned that he is familiar with the Nikto hunter and knows of a few places he frequents or has been seen: the Umbra Club, the Spyder, and Zelcomm Tower. He suggested that the party should consult with any other contacts they have to gain more insight on their foe before confronting him however.
Several other bits of information were gleaned from the data Xander had acquired. Scanning through Kaa’to’s file reveals that the bounty hunter delivered only part of the stolen spice shipment. One message’s sender suspects the Nikto of holding out on the rest. The file also lists a series of pickups from Zelcomm Tower referencing both the 4th floor terrace and the side street underground entrance.
With this information in hand it was necessary to get the slicing gear that Xander required to make a second attempt at his personal subterfuge. Cohr found his way around the underbelly of Coruscant and managed to get a Data Breaker and have a Computer Spike made for him. He also upgraded his slicer gear and swapped out his datapads.
Back to quadrant 715 they were briefly stopped by a police droid, but Cohr managed to completely confuse the droid with his responses which the literal droid was unable to process properly. The police droid let them continue on their way. There they located the office block they needed and managed to infiltrate the building. Now armed with a more powerful array of slicing tools, Xander managed to drop the information that he wanted. Roona and Cohr kept up the deception and surveillance by posing a s a cleaning crew while Xander worked his digital magics.
While their images were definitely caught on cameras, the successful slicing mission would not leave any trace of their true purpose and at most they would be wanted on another breaking and entering charge. That was the least of their problems now that they needed to hunt down Kaa’to Leeachos.
-----------------------------------------------
The following ship upgrades were installed by T'mennit's favor that was called in:
High Output Ion Turbine
Physical Countermeasures
Encrypted Computer
Unspent XPS:
Roona - 10 + 5
Xander - 10 +5
Cohr - 5 + 5
Group spoils (update)
Explanation - I added the money from the gun run and removed the amount for Tebora. This resulted in 32654. I split the remainder from Arda II job evenly which gave each member 4966. Roona and Xander's shares added to the new pool of 12786 credits. Xander spent 2500 credits on the slicing gear and tools and Roona spent 1500 (plus some of her own money on gear upgrades, with Cohr able to help find illegal items).
8686 credits (-100 speeder rentals)