Living on the Edge- Episode 2- “Big Damn Heroes”
Last adventure, we left off with the heroic crew of the Pink Lady waiting on the dilapidated Kemal space station. They had made a trade with the Sullustan smuggler Taygeta Panaybe to exchange valuable Greel Wood for spice and a few other commodities. One part of the trade involved the installation of a smugglers compartment onto the ship.
True to his word, Taygeta dispatched Emiko Pajari, a former ship designer for Sienar Systems who owed him a favor. Emiko, played by one player who was sick last week, arrived and was aghast by the dismal state of the Pink Lady. While the stations droid had repaired the battle damage, the ship had been without a competent engineer for quite some time. While doing her work, she pointed out several potential hazards.
After discovering that the Pink Lady had a competent doctor aboard, Emiko worked out a trade with the ship’s captain. She would remain aboard and offer her mechanical services in exchange for treatment for her sick husband, Sam’meal (whose player is still on an oil rig). In desperate need of a mechanic, Captain Verci quickly agreed.
With, most, of the crew’s illicit spice cargo safely hidden in their new smuggler compartment, they departed Kemal to deliver the spice to their employer in the Pii system. Young adventurous Ria made sure everyone was aware she would never fly the ship back to such a boring space station again. Emiko just smiled, knowing the secret the crew had missed.
Arriving at Pii, the crew landed without incident thanks for their contact, Morani’s influence within the Greel Wood Company. Luck stood with the crew as word of their criminal exploits in the Cranan system had not yet filtered to Pii. With no love lost between Greel Wood and the Arkanis Mining Guild, they can only hope it will be awhile before that news arrives.
Morani proved quite happy with the haul the crew brought in. She readily agreed to allow the crew to keep the 3 containers of Syntonium as their share of the profits. Each to keep the spice flowing an arrangement was made for the crew to return in a month to pick up more wood to use to purchase more spice. This time, Morani wanted an entire cargo hold full.
While covertly unloading the spice for Morani, one of the starport workers recognized Captain Verci. A former smuggler by the name of Celriss had once run with Verci’s Ex, smuggler captain Togs Starburn. After “borrowing” some funds from Togs and disappearing, Verci has been trying to keep out of sight.
When he sees his friends former lover, Celriss is excited. Togs has offered some money to anyone who can help him find Verci. Fortunatley, like all smuggler, money is what Celriss is most loyal too. Not wanting to interfere with the captain’s careful negotiations, Dr. Evie leads the ship’s impulse control deficient pilot, back to sickbay, asking her if this rag smells like chloroform.
Smiling sweetly, Verci begins to lay on the charm. Hearing about the reward she makes him an offer of half of her valuable Syntonium ore in exchange for his silence. Rolling high on her skill check, she manages to sway Celris a bit to her side, reducing some of her obligation as he agrees to try and sway Togs to stop pursuing her.
With half of their profits from the last run gone, and none of it in the form of currency, the crew now debates where to go next. With little knowledge of the underworld or even the Arkanis sector, the crew aren’t even really sure how valuable the Syntonium they’re carrying is. They debate trying to find a rich world to sell it on but with the trouble with the Mining Guild many ports would be dangerous. Captain Verci refuses to try and sell directly to any of the rich but independent Hutts.
Emiko reveals to the crew the truth about the Kemal system. The space station they had visited before was just a front, a small refueling depot. The real smuggler den lay buried inside a large asteroid elsewhere in the system. With no other options they are willing to risk, the crew once again heads for Kemal.
Arriving in the system, the crew picks up a distress signal coming from a nearby transport. They report they are under attack by three fighter craft who they assume to be pirates. Heroic, and naive, Ria turns the ship to go to their aid before Captain Verci can make up her mind. Seeing the transport overmatched, she valiantly orders the crew to the guns.
Before they engage, the fighters, soon identified as X-wings, tells the Pink Lady to stay out of the fight. Neither ship is very forthcoming with details and Captain Verci decides to help the transport. Dr. Evie, on the big Quad-cannon, blasts away, obliterating one X-wing in a single blast. This begins the Doctor’s kill count for the day.
With the destruction of their wingman, the other two X-wings turn away from the transport and fire on the Pink Lady. The X-wings fire proves devastating, dropping their shields in a critical barrage. Swinging the ship in some fancy maneuvers, Ria lines up a perfect shot for Dr. Evie, who blasts away another of the X-wings.
Seeing his companions destroyed, the final X-wings sends a pair of proton torpedoes after the Pink Lady before bugging out. He gives them a final message as he departs, “You’ve made an enemy of the Rebel Alliance today.”
Turning their attention to the heavily damaged transport, Dark of Night, Captain Verci speaks to a grateful Captain Mar Thromi. He eludes to the fact that the Rebels were probably attacking him because of their moral outrage at his cargo of “workers”. Even naive Ria reads between the lines and realizes he’s carrying slaves. Outraged at what they did, Ria demands that attempt to free the slaves.
Being slightly more cautious than her impulsive pilot, Captain Verci agrees to meet Captain Thromi for a drink to discuss compensation for her rescue. On the smuggler hideout, the Dark of Night stops and picks up one of the Rebel pilots who had ejected after the Pink Lady destroyed his X-wing.
As soon as the ship docks, Ria grabs her pistol is ready to go be a Big Damn Hero and rescue the Rebel pilot and the slaves. It takes all of Evie and Verci’s efforts to convince the young rebel to wait and let Verci learn what she can from the captain of the slaver ship. With some reservation, Verci agrees to keep her comm open during the meeting. Wickedly, the GM flips a destiny point, the comm doesn’t have a mute feature. Ria’s going to have to hold her tongue.
Over drinks, Verci works out an arrangement with Captain Thromi. He’ll offer he some of his “workers” in exchange for saving them. She works out a deal to sell him her Syntonium at a good rate. Following the captain back to his ship to inspect “workers”, Verci lets slip the docking port over the open comm, right before convincing the captain to show her to his quarters to “celebrate their new business relationship”.
Taking this as the signal, Ria leads the charge and brings the rest of the crew, Dr. Evie and Emiko, to the slavers ship. Hacking through the security, the crew slip aboard and search the ship. Hearing some censored sounds from the captains quarters, they make their way to cargo after disabling access to the bridge and comm system.
With thoughts of heroism dancing through Ria’s head, the three burst into the cargo bay, blasting away at the two guards. One drops immediately but another manages to slip out of the bay, triggering an alarm. Dr. Evie races to try and lock the crew out while Emiko lowers an elevator down to the slaves, locked in a pit.
Before the slaves can be released, the injured guard returns along with two companions. They sustain some injury from Ria before quickly dropping Ria and Emiko. Hidden among some crates behind the guards, Dr. Evie whips out her can of bad ass and charges at the closest guard, narrowly avoiding flipping him over the railing and down into the slave pit.
Nevertheless, she gives herself some cover using the nearest guard and then picks off the other two, bringing the good doctors kill count to three. Unfortunately, the last guard drops her, leaving out three heroes captured by slavers.
The final remaining slaver guard dumps the unconscious invaders into the slave pit and then goes to rouse the captain. He opens the captains quarters to find the man strapped to his bed with a naked Captain Verci. Hearing what transpired, Captain Thromi orders Verci to untie him and, after slipping on some pants, goes to investigate.
Worried for her crew, Verci grabs her holdout blaster, but not her clothes, and follows the captain. Her attempts to remain stealthy fail but through her Zeltron pheromones and simple nakedness, convince the captain to let her tag along. She continues to use these advantages to sway the captain into believing that her crew were actually assassins sent after her.
Using every bit of charm she has, she convinces the captain to let her be the one to kill invaders, singling out Ria as her first target. Waking the other two with stims, they find themselves staring up at their captain, naked, who is pointing guns at both of their heads. Playing up her coldbloodedness, Verci shoves Captain Thromi’s heavy blaster into Emiko’s hand, ordering her to kill Ria.
Before Thromi can object, Emiko blasts the remaining guard just as Evie lunges toward the pile of their dropped weapons. The first blast injures the man just before Dr. Evie retrieves her faithful pistol and drops him, bringing her confirmed kills to 4. Hypocratic oath be damned.
Now in possession of Verci’s hold out blaster, Captain Thromi drops Emiko again before turning to run. With a witty one liner, Verci scoops up a dropped weapon and takes down the disgusting slaver captain.
Next time our heroes must face the consequences of their adventures. Will rescuing the Rebel pilot and the slaves convince the Rebel Alliance it was just a misunderstanding? Can they escape the smuggler den, having violated the one rule of the smuggler, leave each other alone while in port? Will Captain Verci ever put her clothes back on?
