Living on the Edge- Episode 7 & 8

Been a slacker with blogging lately. Missed the write up of the last “Living on the Edge” session we had. So, now, we’ll get two for the price of one!

When last we met, our heroes had tracked Cease Fussel to Vasch. Hoping to catch up with the man and recover the lightsaber of Mace Windu that he stole from the CEO of the Arkanis Mining Guild (and then used their ship as an escape vessel) the crew set down in the agricultural worlds capital.

After asking around in some of the seedier parts of the city, the crew find a lead on Cease and follow their contact into an alley behind a cantina. Instead of telling them everything he knows, the thug tries and extorts them for money. Naturally, Sam does not respond well to this.

A brief struggle ensues that results in four dead thugs and one hightailing it away. Not content to let anyone get away, Sam and Emiko pursue him into a busy street. To avoid causing to much of a ruccus, they hold their fire and catch up with the thug. Unfortunately, the resulting struggle finds Emi on the ground. in a bid to defend herself, she picks up a brick from the ground and smashes it into the thugs face, almost killing him. Fortunately, Dr. Evie shows up just in time to revive him.

The crowd had already started to gather when the fight first broke out and the police show up before Sam and Emi can flee. They are promptly arrested, though Sam does a remarkable job of convincing the cops that the death of the thug was an accident and that they were merely defending themselves.

Meanwhile, Evie, Verci and Ria attempt to interrogate the one thug whose still alive. He reveals that Cease paid them to take care of anyone who came asking about him. After revealing that Cease was planning to head into the jungle at the planets equatorial region, they let the man go and head out after Sam and Emi.

Upon discovering their companions arrest, Verci goes with the cops to the station while Ria casually slips back into the cantina. It doesn’t take the cops long before the bodies of the dead thugs are discovered. She attempts to seduce and/or bribe the head detective but wisely backs off before getting herself arrested for attempting that.

While the crew head back to the ship in order to decide what to do, Emi and Sam sit in a holding cell. Suddenly, the wall explodes, revealing the street behind the police station. An armored figure steps out of a speeder truck and tells them “Come with me if you want to live!”

Climbing into the speeder, Sam and Emi learn the armored figures are bounty hunters sent to capture Emi and take her back to Sienar Systems, who have some unfinished business with their old employee. Emi thinks fast and convinces the bounty hunters that Verci will pay them more for Sam’s life than Sienar will and they agree to a meet.

After arranging a quick exchange on the tarmac of the cities starport, the bounty hunters arrive at the Lonely Refuge (former Pink Lady) Verci, Evie and Ria are waiting with the agreed upon supplies of stims and cash. Not content to let Emi get taken by the bounty hunters, Sam forces the situation to turn violent when he attacks his captors. Ria responds as only Ria can, by killing many bounty hunters with her tricked out guns.

During the fight, the police catch up to the bounty hunters and the crew are forced to extend the fight. Ria is conflicted, believing it wrong to attack the police who are doing their job to serve and protect, but Verci convinces her to take them all down with stun weapons. Before reinforcements can arrive, our heroes take the bounty hunters speeder truck as a consolation prize and take off.

Once they are safely in the air and not being pursued, innocent Ria goes down to the cargo bay and proceeds to casually dump the bodies of the dead bounty hunters, who were still in their speeder truck, out the airlock. Surprised by the casual  harshness Veric asks:

“I don’t understand your moral code. You won’t shoot cops but you’ll happily space dead bodies?”

Ria just shrugged, “But they’re ex-people.”

Episode 8

After the shoot out at the starport, the crew head down to the tropics where Cease was last seen. They ask around the nearest town and learn where he headed into the jungle. They pick up a large assortment of supplies and proceed to follow him.

The jungle proves dense but Ria and Evie are able to pick up Cease’s trail, or at least, a trail. The going is tough but they make reasonably good time. That is, until the stumble upon a Vasch Python nest. Snakes, Ria asks, why does it always have to be snakes?”

Lashing out at the group from three directions, the hissing creatures attempt to coil around the crew. Emi is caught by one group and suffocated into unconsciousness. While trying to revive her, Dr. Evie is likewise almost eaten. Fortunately, the firepower of the rest of the group takes care of the rest of the snakes.

The crew stop to tend their wounds and make camp for the night. During the night, Emiko starts breaking out into hives, having a severe allergic reaction to the local flora. Dr. Evie manages to control the reaction slightly, preventing an incapacitating reaction but Emi is quite uncomfortable for the rest of her time.

The next the crew follow the tracks to a ravine with a raging rapids below. There is, of course, a rickety rope bridge strung across. Ria volunteers to go first, and, of course, almost falls to her death, narrowly catching herself. After that, Emi starts to freak out a little and demands they rig a safety line across.

Most of the rest of the crew make it across without incident, except for the large Sam. Part way across his safety rope breaks as he nearly falls. In an attempt to save himself, he manages to break the bridge, causing it to fall to the river. But the resourceful man that he is, he grabs a hold of the bridge and uses what’s left to climb up.

Eager to make up for the lost time with the bridge and the snakes, Ria and Evie scout out a path that they think will allow them to make up some lost time. Proving surprisingly resourceful, the pair pick out a path that leads them directly to Cease. Coming upon their old nemesis in the middle of a clearing, Verci uses her considerable charm to diffuse the situation before it turns violent.

Cease, upon hearing Verci’s story about their trouble with the Arkanis Mining Guild, and her admission that they have information about the location of the lost Reliance, agrees to work with them. Though successful, Verci’s Charm includes some hints of Despair, which will be important later.

There is a native village of Vasari not from them. A Clone Wars era Y-Wing sits at the center of the village, which is Cease’s target. He had been trying to figure out how to approach the village without being seen. The Vasari are a matriarchial society who don’t like dealing with outsiders, especially men. Though they do love Caf, which he brought with him just in case. Everyone gives Ria a dark look. Before setting out she had recalled hearing about the Vasari, their love of Caf and their preference for male leaders.

Verci takes the lead and boldly strides into the camp. She asks to speak to their leader. Through broken Basic, she tells the Vasari how she is there to pay tribute to their idol and has come bearing Caf.

The village Matriarch tells her a story of a fallen god who had come out of the sky on a powerful vessel many years ago. He had possessed great powers but because he had been cast out of heaven, had soon died.  Before he did, he asked the village to guard his ship until the day his companion came to claim it. He told them a secret that would identify them.

Thinking fast, Verci summons Cease forward and orders him to give her the “item”. Playing his role as a dutiful male servant, Cease reluctantly hands over the lightsaber of Mace Windu. The vibrant purple blade is enough to convince the Matriarch that Verci is the one they have been waiting for and she takes them to the ship.

Emiko gives the ship a once over and judges that it will fly, though roughly. Cease demands that they download the navigational logs before flying it out of there, just in case. When Emi attempts this, she discovers the logs have been wiped. She notices a metal cylinder, much like a lightsaber, plugged into the Y-wings computer, just before Cease removes it, and slips it into his bag with Mace Windu’s.

Having fulfilled their mission, the crew depart the jungle and return to the Lonely Refuge. Cease agrees to continue their partnership to the end if Verci will reveal her part of the puzzle. She tells him about 1D-J0 and the secret coordinates he contains. Inexplictibly, she accedes  to Cease’s demand to turn the droid over to him and agrees to meet him in orbit.

The crew are livid at their captain’s decision, especially Ria at the loss of DJ. To the surprise of none of the, upon reaching orbit, they are approached by three unidentified ships who refuse to respond to hails. Not wanting to risk anything, they immediately engage.

Sam, ever the gunner, blows away one of the approaching starfighters in the first pass. Emi and Evie turn their weapons on the larger Skipray Blastboat, but the ion cannon overloads, forcing Emi to begin what will be a long period of running around the ship fixing things. Ria begins going evasive, a difficult prospect with such a large ship.

The remaining fighter lights off a concussion missile, scratching the paint on the newly refurbished Lonely Refuge. Unfortunately, for them, this is the last mistake they ever make. The upgrades previously made to the old Wayfarer freighter have turned her into a capable gunship. The advanced targeting array proves worth its weight in gold and the remaining fighter is quickly dispatched and the Skipray heavily damaged.

Clearly outmatched, the Skipray attempts to flee but Ria manages to keep her within weapons range. Emiko tries her hand at again at hacking, trying to disable the Skipray electronically. Unfortunately, the ship’s ops officer is on hand to reverse hack them, disabling the ion cannon again.

The chase is touch and go but eventually the ion cannon is restored and Dr. Evi uses it to  disable the Skipray. While deciding what to do with their newly disabled vessel, the crew learn that the skipray had been hired by Cease merely to delay them and he is not onboard….

Living on the Edge

• Episode 1
• Episode 2
• Episode 3 & 4
• Episode 5
• Episode 6
• Episode 7 & 8
• Episode 9 & 10