Growing more and more frustrated with the situation, Sting slams a fist down on the console "**** CEC, POS. Say what you will about Incom at least their stu"ff works." he says in Huttese. Turning to Lyanna "Got any more ideas that I can help you with?" again in Huttese

"Well this might work," Lynna says, entering a series of commands into her console.

Piloting (Space) check: 1eP+3eA+3eB+1eD+1eS 3 successes, 4 advantage

There is a satisfying hum as the ship's engines start to cool down, resetting into a more stable rhythm. "Did that do anything?"

Rapidly going through display screens and enter commands, all while listen to "Prefect" drone on over his shoulder, seems to begin to take it's toll on the sweating Duros. Suddenly, the screens indicate the sensors are back on line and the subspace communications come to life.

"Finally, something seems to work the way it should on this garbage scow..."

Edad eases back into his seat, exhaling a deep sigh of relief. Slipping his hand into his pocket, he grasps his trinket and closes his eyes to enjoy a brief respite before moving on.

">Hack< Glad to make a >cough< difference." Klyp heads to the door.

"And good work too, Massan."

Making his way back to the Gunner's station he thinks; I guess that's our excitement for today.

With patience and Prefect's help, Edad finally gets the sensor station back up and running. While the Duros reaches for the trinket, the sensors starts receiving information about the area they are in...

Working together, Lyanna and Sting manage to get the avionics system recalibrated and ready for use. A quick glance out the bridge shows they are not endanger of hitting anything or crashing into a planet. In fact, while they are looking, R4 beeps, indicating it has finished with it's own calibrations and calculations for the next two jumps, which will lead them to Nal Hutta.

In the cargo hold, Tion looks at the handiwork he has done, satisfied that he was able to turn the warning system off. Though it will have to be repaired later on, everyone can breathe a sigh of relief and think better.

Getting up after inspecting the work on the engine, Captain Trell rotates his neck as he feels one more issue is getting fixed, then looks at Massan. "Massan, the only reason why I 'hired' you and your buddies was because your boss, Bargos, hired me to transport you there. I am merely giving you and your friends a chance to earn your keep and not go insane for the trip. As for the loadmaster, he decided that a hotwiring of the alert and warning system was in order."

Sighing as he looks around, Masan can see the sadness in the older human's eyes, the resignation of someone who is on a bad streak. "Truth be told, this old girl isn't getting younger. Between the Empire causing more trouble for honest traders and everyone being suspicious of each other, that's why I am moving out here. Used to be a Gozanti was a welcomed sight for people, but the Empire regulations meant I had to strip out the torpedo launcher and two of the dual laser cannons. That's why I am also out here, hoping this deal with your boss and Reom would be beneficial to me."

As he looks, Captain Trell reaches down and pulls out a flask, taking a swallow from it before stowing it away.

*****

Wiping his brow, Tion shakes his head as he rechecks his handy work, slightly annoyed that the Captain was angry for what head done. As he places a hand on a near by crate to think, his weight causes the label it rests on to move, the adhesive not strong enough to hold it in place. As he looks down, he notices a second label underneath it...

*****

Letting the silence set in, the emergency crackles to life, causing everyone to look at. Prefect quickly reaches out, turning the comms to shipwide so that everyone can hear it.

"Attention, any vessel within range of this transmission. We are in need of assistance. Our ship was ambushed by raiders, and we are dangerously close to losing life support. I repeat to anyone within range, we are in need of immediate assistance..."

The transmission cuts out suddenly, silence returning once again. Prefect looks at Lyanna, then flips to transmit. "Unknown vessel, this is the Fool's Errand. Say again, over."

As the tactical droid hits the switch, static fills the air.

[What do you do?]

Sting gets up and surrenders the Captain's chair to it's rightful occupant. He starts back towards the galley, but before he leaves the cockpit, he catches the incomming broadcast.

He places both hands on the the bulkhead and hangs slightly. "I got a bad feeling about this..." he mutters and trails off unto a sigh. He heads back to his bunk to retreive his weapons.

"True, but that still doesn't make him my friend. But I'll fix his mess anyway, captain. At least he silenced the klaxons," Massan replies, as he works the computers to transfer more power to the environmental controls in engineering. It doesn't seem to challenge the Klatooinian's skills at all since he barely seems to focus on the task. After a few quick keystrokes the system hisses and sputters and starts sucking in the smoke.

"I hope things work out for you in Hutt space. Although the Imperials can be over the top with regulations, inspections and more regulations at least you can usually sort of figure out what they want and how to give it to them. That is more complicated with the Hutts. But you really should get the ship into a dry dock for some serious repairs," Massan says softly to the captain.

Satisfied with his handiwork, the bulging Klatooinian moves to the main engineering panel and watches the critical systems, praying the engine he's just repaired starts normally when the pilot powers it up.

Settling back into his station, Klyp checks his weapon status.

No knowing what trouble that ship is in.

Tion walks back to the cargo hold, grumbling to himself about the Captain and Massan's talking about him like he wasn't even there.

"Fine," he thinks to himself, "complain about my methods, but I got stuff done and it helped everyone else. It's not my fault your 'ship' is a barely spaceworthy rattle trap."

It feels like a bad beat, a churning in the pit of your stomach when you made the right call and still came out on the losing end anyway, but thankfully he knows how to handle those. Taking a breath and refocusing, he lets the emotion drain and refocuses on making sure everything in the cargo hold stayed secure during the chaos. He sees one crate that shifted and decides to resecure it, lest he have Prefect on his case too. Upon sliding it, however, he discovers the packing slip peels away to reveal a second one.

"Odd," he thinks. "Why would someone double label something?"

Looking closer he realizes two very different cargo are represented.

He thinks about alerting Prefect, but decides the droid would at best chastise him and at worst terminate his employment, so instead he sets about looking for other peculiarities.

He moves carefully, watching the open hatch for company while picking his way through the crates. He finds three that have also been tampered with. He's confident he'd find more, but he doesn't want to risk moving too quickly or getting careless with covering his tracks.

"Now," he thinks, "what do I do with this information. And, more importantly, who can I trust?"

OOC: The roll.

Checking labels: 2eP+1eA+2eD 4 successes, 1 threat

Letting a sigh out, Prefect looks at the rest of the bridge crew. "Unfortunately, it seems their systems are down. Have we gotten a direction for the unknown vessel yet?"

The tactical droid looks at Edad first, then at Lyanna, waiting for a response from the two crew.

Sting makes it back to the bunks where his gear is stowed, he's thought's quickly forming a plan.

In the hold, Tion quickly goes after three of the larger crates, looking for any odd and strange tampering. Sure enough, he discovers other mislabeled or misleading crates. In addition to those, he notices a number of smaller packages that have similar issues. However, while the first crate was full of parts to vehicles, the others are an eclectic bunch. Each of these give Tion pause as he considers the impact of his findings.

As eh moves among the packages, Captain Trell marches into the hold. Seeing the gambler, Trell sighs and shakes his head. "Thanks for shutting down the alarms. However, please ask next time if that is ok? You're adding more work for you partner back there."

Turning around, Captain Trell heads to the bridge and sits down in the pilot's chair. A quick glance around and he starts moving in the chair, taking stock of his station before looking at Lyanna. "Was someone in my spot?"

[We are still in somewhat structured action mode. There are a few actions that are needed, mostly just the run of the ship:

• Restart the portside engine. That is either an Easy Mechanics or Pilot (Space) check (DS).
• Get a bearing on the distressed vessel. That is an Computers check, as well(DS).
• If ay characters want, they can prep helping the distressed vessel.

Let me know what you want to do.]

C

D

S

Sting straps on his holster and checks the sights and power levels of his blaster. He holsters it and then picks up his gaffi stick and slides it into the holder on his belt. Satisfied that he is properly armed in case of a boarding action. He then heads to the docking ring and starts to examine places to take up position should it be needed.

Lynna grins at the captain. "Oh don't worry about your spot. A big man like you needn't worry about something like that," she grins wickedly, then keys the comm, attempting to return a message to the distressed transport.

"Attention unidentified transport. Say again, this is the Fool's Errand. We are willing and able to provide assistance as needed. Please respond, over."

Massan looks up and watches the speaker in engineering as he hears Lynna's reply. After she cuts off the transmission he quickly grabs his comlink and opens up a line to the helm. "Hey, I just got the engine back online, but this ship is in a bad state. Be careful with her, I'm not sure we can be of much use in a rescue operation."

He looks around to see if the captain is standing behind him, but sees he is no longer in engineering. Thinking that the captain must be on his way to the bridge since the pilot is addressing the transport he quickly adds. "We are not so far from needing assistance ourselves, to be perfectly honest."

Lynna responds over the shipboard intercom. "Be that as it may, we could be the only ship in range to respond. They might be in a better state than us, in which case I'll beat their comms officer to death with his own distress beacon, but if - as is likely - they're worse off than us then we're in the best position to respond quickly, before it gets any worse," she turns to the Captain. "Well then, what's the plan?"

Edad pours over the sensor station, trying desperately to get a bearing on the seemingly distressed ship. With the stress of the ship falling apart around him, and his relatively untrained skills in this area, he can't find anything on the sensors. "Great!," he thinks to himself. "Now I'm going to have to ask that **** droid for help yet again."

OOC:

No sooner does Tion slide the label to the second double-labeled crate back into place than he hears Captain Trell's footfalls echoing off the durasteel walls leading to the cargo area. Tion figures he has less than 2 seconds to make certain he left no trace of his handiwork and to appear busy with something else before the captain can see him.

Heart in his throat but exuding an extremely cool outward appearance, Tion turns to see Trell approaching him, shoulders a bit slumped but otherwise as intimidating as ever.

Tion opens his mouth to start speaking but is cut off by the captain.

"Thanks for shutting down the alarms," Trell says. "However, please ask next time, if that is OK? You're adding more work for your partner back there."

And with that, he's headed back for the bridge.

"How thick in the skull does he think I am?" Tion thinks. "He's already made it abundantly clear he doesn't care for improvisation, the fool. Maybe the rest of his crew needs to be told the same thing repeatedly and he thinks we're just as needy."

Tion briefly considers hot wiring other sections of the ship just to spite the man, but lets his better judgment prevail. Just a few more days, tops, on this heap.

He gets back to his investigation and hears Lynna hailing some other vessel, but doesn't give it much thought. His attention is singularly focused on making sure he won't get caught since the captain already has such a low opinion of him.

Going through other crates he recognizes what amounts to an old smuggler trick to fool both customs officials and pirates by masking a cargo's true value. Why these seemingly innocuous and legally obtained crates are being treated in such a way is a bit beyond Tion at this point, but he decides to keep the information to himself. He's learned that secrets can be the most lucrative cargo of all.

He reaffixes another label just before Sting stalks past, seemingly headed toward the docking ring and kitted out like he's expecting a fight.

"Hey Sting, what's going on?" he calls out to the Rodian, subconsciously adjusting his black leather belt and holster. "You expecting a Krayt Dragon to pop through there or something?"

"We exit hyperspace and have convenient mechanical issues, then we get a distress call from another wayward ship....sound too convenient for me. I suspect pirates...just being cautious." he says as he goes about his business

"I know it's in the job description, but I think you're being paranoid," Tion says. "We're in Hutt Space on a ship - a ship I'm surprised made it this far already - hired by Bargos. I can't think of too many pirates that would hit a Hutt's ship in his own backyard.

"Not ones that want to live long, anyway."

Before the words have completely cleared Tion's lips, even he's not convinced himself. Sting's always had good instincts and the chain of events do seem awfully convenient. And that's not even taking into account the cargo discrepancy. Gears start spinning in the human's head and lots of not so great possibilities seem equally likely.

He pulls out his own blaster and checks the charge, making sure it's ready.

"But just in case you are right, what can I do to help?"

"My job IS to be paranoid, Grab your guns and be alert when we dock with them and keep an eye out for anything fishy."

Transmitting the message, Lyanna hears nothing but static over the line. A quick glance from the intercom to the Captain conveys a look of concern, one that is equally matched by the Captain. "Best get to it. Prefect, help Edad with that frakking sensors and take his position. Edad, you and Masan will need to get erady to help them out. Seems like Sting is expecting trouble, so make sure you let him decide on how he wants to proceed."

Taking his seat, Trell keys the intercom, clearing his throat. "Listen up crew. We have a possible distressed vessel that we are going to investigate. Any one interested in helping out are now earning hazard pay. Any crew that wants to join in will also be eligible for it. Everyone interested in that need to come up to the bridge."

Keying off, Trell looks at Lyanna, shaking his head. "So much for an uneventful run. "

Computer roll: 2eA+2eP+1eD 1 success, 4 advantage

As the Captain looks on, Prefect moves over to Edad, mechanically going over the system "Sir, it looks like the ship isn't too far away and we can get there with in a few minutes. I am also tracking no other vessels in the area."

Shaking his head, Trell looks at Lyanna, his eyes and demeanor disgusted at what is going on. "Either it is legitimate and they need help or it is not and they are looking to cause some. Not the best idea, but any thing we can do to help can't hurt us in the end. Lets check it out. Lyanna, you guide us in."

[My apologies for the lack of communication and updates. Last few weeks took a turn and gotten me off track.

1. Lyanna to do an Average Piloting (Space) check with environmentals (DDB). In addition, Captain Trell will be assisting you, providing you with Piloting (Space) 2.
2. Due to Stings suspicions, all players get to make either a Hard Discipline Check or a Hard Mechanics check with environmentals (DDDB). Please post results here and in the OOC.
3. Prefect has added two (2) floating boost dice to the encounter. I'll update the OOC momentarily.
4. There is one final action before you get to the ship.

]

"I hope they don't need too many spare parts, looks like we're going to need what little we have if we want to get out of here," Massan mumbles to nobody in particular. He decides to go over the long list of things to do to keep the ship running but his mind is not focused on the list of problems. Instead an old fear keeps gnawing at his innards. What if this was a trap? This was a common tactic for pirates, after all. Send out a false distress signal and then pounce.

The pudgy Klatooinian makes sure his pistol is charged and that it is set on kill. No pirate is going to be afraid to board them if faced with weapons set on stun. Massan shivers. "I have a bad feeling about this," he whines as he strolls closer to the docking area, the problems in engineering forgotten for now.

Forgotten setback: 1eS 1 failure

Sting takes a brief second to peer out through the porthole at the "distressed" ship as they close.

Roller

Edad pours over the the screens and readings one last time. Watching as the "distressed" ship gets closer, he releases the strap on his blaster and turns the safety off, preparing for the worst. With a quick squeeze of his trinket, he wonders to himself " I wonder what "the worst" will be this time..."

Tion looks to Sting and shrugs.

"Looks like the captain wants to organize the boarding party on the bridge. I'll head up there. You coming with or do you want me to tell him you'll meet him here?"
As he makes his way to the bridge, Tion tries to grab glimpses of the suspect ship. Sting's concern has gotten to him and he wants to see if he can notice anything out of the ordinary. Maybe earn a small modicum of respect back from the captain.