Tales from the Fringe Anthology IC

By P-47 Thunderbolt, in Star Wars: Edge of the Empire Beginner Game

Barda scratched her chin thoughtfully.

"Maybe I should go along with you, Sienna, as I've a bit of experience with cheaper forms of accomodation when off-planet," she said. "However, I think that we should also bring the trade goods with us to the hotel for safe-keeping, while the others scout out the landing field for Gala's ship. Then you and Aleena can do the trading afterwards - the two of you together seem to be a good one-two combo when it comes to negotiations like that."

Sienna nods, "Okay, that sounds alright..." Turning to Cadena and Aleena she says, "You're sure you won't need any more help at the field?"

Cadena shakes her head, "Unnecessary. I'm sure we can handle it ourselves. Don't get mugged."

"We'll be fine... Crash will protect us. Won't ya, Crash?"

Aleena set up her comlink as Crash had suggested, and was already looking through the briefing materials supplied by Mother Celia for any information on Gala's ship.

"Sounds sensible," she muttered distractedly as she read her datapad.

"Glad to hear that you approve," said Barda drily to Aleena.

Aleena nodded and continued reading.

Barda rolled her eyes and then checked the crates on the pallet. After getting her comlink synched with Crash's system, she then removed her own items from the Clunker.

"Aleena, you might want to make sure that you got all of your stuff off the ship," she reminded the distracted woman.

"What ... oh, right, of course," and Aleena scrambled to retreive her belongings.

"You can put on the pallet any stuff that you don't want to lug around the landing field," Barda reminded Aleena and Cadena.

Edited by Bellona

"No problem. We travel light." Sienna gestures to a pair of small cases already on the pallet. "Actually, we hardly ever travel."

Cadena grunts in agreement. "If that's all taken care of-" "Yes," Sienna interjects, "let's get going!"

Maybe it's the fighter plane in me showing through, but I had completely forgotten to even consider trivial, unnecessary things like, you know, a change of clothes, or a toothbrush... silly little things like that...

:D

42 minutes ago, P-47 Thunderbolt said:

"We'll be fine... Crash will protect us. Won't ya, Crash?"

Crash's head almost spun in 180 looking back at her. oh no.. this probably won't end well...for me I mean.. B one's never did, when dealing with Force users...

"Would it make you feel better if we protected you?"

Crash considered, I don't think I have much to worry about since the Jedi are gone.. but, yes... I am a veteran after all....

Sienna and Barda leave the spaceport and head for the hotel Sienna selected as their best opportunity. Walking down the street with a battle droid and a cargo pallet draws some stares, but no one bothers them. The hotel isn't exactly in what would term a nice part of town, but is alright itself.

The Twi'lek receptionist is decently helpful once they've assured her that Crash is completely reprogrammed and not threat to anyone. Well, anyone not in a ship he's flying. Sienna thinks to herself, amused, though also knowing it's not entirely fair and mentally apologizing to Crash for thinking it.

After a short discussion, Sienna and Barda decide it's best to choose the crew room and stay together. Lodging for the four of them and the droid, they are informed, will be ninety credits per day. They decide to reserve only one day, not sure how long they'll be staying in the area.

With Crash's help, the two women move the luggage and trade goods up to the room, passing through halls that, while relatively clean, could definitely do with a good scrubbing. The room is in better shape, as the cleaning staff clearly pay more attention to the rooms themselves than they do to the hallways. Sienna gently sets her satchel on one of the top bunks, then sighs and stretches. "I call top bunk. Ooof... I'm tired and still stiff from sleeping in that shuttle." She looks around the room with half-lidded eyes, not really paying any attention to what she's looking at. "I suppose we should comm the others, see how they're doing, let them know our status... Anything else on the docket, or are we just waiting on them now? If the latter, I call dibs on searching the room for loose change."

Edited by P-47 Thunderbolt

While the others are still clearing the last of the personal belongings from the soon-to-be-salvage shuttle, Aleena and Cadena leave the spaceport on foot, heading for the landing field on the edge of town. On their way, they pass The Sleeping Hutt, the hotel adjacent to the field.

"That's an awful pun!" exclaimed Aleena, staring at the hotel's sign.

Cadena just shrugged and continued walking towards the nearby entrance to the field. Aleena hurried to catch up with her.

Just inside the main gate was a building which housed the field's office, the ATC tower, and a maintenance hangar which looked as though it could handle up to mid-sized freighters. At the far edge of the field some light fencing enclosed what looked like a salvage yard and its scrapping facilities. Scattered around on the landing field itself were several freighters and smaller ships, parked in only a fair semblance of order; some kept to their marked spaces but others looked as though their pilots had failed the "precision landing" portion when qualifying for their pilot's license.

"Alright," said Aleena, casting her eye over the landing field. "I guess that we should start looking around. Maybe avoid asking questions at first, so as not to alert anyone hostile to the fact that we're searching for Gala and her ship."

Cadena nods and begins scanning the ships for the Dune Lizard fighter outlined in the report.

Aleena stood still, closed her eyes, and pictured the ship as per the information which Mother Celia had supplied them. Then she reached out in the Force to find it's match.

Yes. In that direction!

She opened her eyes again and looked across the field in the direction indicated to her by the Force.

"I do not see it yet... Have you spotted something?"

"This way," Aleena said confidently and lead the way across the field towards ... "Oh, no!" She burst out in horror at the sight before her.

They could see where the ship had been. As they approached, even Cadena could see the mess strewn around. A crumpled section of wing and various bits of debris were all that was left. Scrapes in the hardpacked soil were deep, and lead towards the scrap yard.

The Force around this spot is full of pain - pain, fear, and anger.

"I really don't want to meet whatever did this," quavered Aleena as she felt buffeted psychically by the sensations which she could pick up in the Force. "It reeks of the Dark side!"

Cadena is unaffected by the sight, but mildly frustrated by the turn of events. She is likewise unconcerned by the presence of the dark side, having felt and faced the darkness before, each time prevailing. "Prepare yourself, because we likely will and when we do, we must not balk. Meanwhile, we should see if we can find evidence of the astromech droid's destruction. If we do not find that evidence, we will not know that the droid is intact, but there may be a chance that it is and that we can still find it."

Cadena starts pacing a circle around the debris, looking closely for any parts of the droid.

After a couple minutes, she shakes her head, "I don't see anything. The droid may still be out there. Shall we see about investigating the rest of the wreck?"

Edited by P-47 Thunderbolt
New information

"Yes," said Aleena, trying to compose herself. "Even if we only get part of the droid, I might be able to get some information from its memory. It is possible - not easy, and certainly not guaranteed."

Edited by Bellona
Wording

Aleena activated her discreet comlink.

"Sienna, this is Aleena," she said. "We're investigating the landing field. We found the spot where Gala's ship was, but there's not much left of it at all. The Force around where it was stinks of the Dark Side. It also looks like some parts were dragged off to the adjacent scrapyard, so we're going to investigate that. Join us if you want."

Sienna bounces up from her hands and knees where she was looking for loose credits and fishes her comlink out of the pocket, listening to Aleena. "Ohh, that's concerning. We'll be right there! That's more interesting that what I was doing, and I was almost done anyway."

As the group move towards the Salvage yard a pair of Jawas slowly walk along the path from the yard to the spot where Gala's fighter had been. Every few feet or so, they stopped to pick up items and place them into the hover cart that tailed behind them. As the women drew closer, the Jawas took notice, and stepped to the side to let them pass.. but they couldn't hide their interest in Crash, who moved so one of the witches was between him and the jawas.

At the gate to the yard stood a old man with gray beard, goggles with a leather apron over grease stained coveralls working on a swoop that looked like it was built using parts from the yard.

Cadena looks back in the direction of The Sleeping Hutt and wills Sienna and Barda to get a move-on. "I suppose we should wait for them to show up before we go looking for the wreck."

Sienna grabs her satchel off the bunk and turns to leave. Halfway to the door, she hesitates and pulls a sprig from an alchemically-useful bush native to Dathomir, turning back to lay it on the bunk and cement her territorial claim. "Alright, now let's go. Cadena will be getting impatient, so we should hurry on." She pulls up her hood, having previously decided not to take Cadena's suggestion.

Sienna and Barda move quickly through the streets towards the field, weaving through foot traffic. Sienna doesn't so much walk as she does sweep, bouncing slightly as she moves.

Back at the salvage yard, Cadena wards the Jawa's off with a no-nonsense glare, then gives Crash a look that says Really? You're scared of a couple overgrown rats? Grow a spine. before turning back to her examination of the salvage yard.

At a word from Aleena, she turns and sees Barda and Sienna approaching, the latter much more conspicuous than the former. "Finally. I thought I told you not to wear that thing?"

Sienna scrunches up her nose, squinting at her sister comically, "I told you I'd consider it, and I did. Now what's this about the dark side disappearing Gala's ship?" She puts her hands on her hips and peers at the debris marking the spot where Gala's ship used to be.

Barda felt an unsettling chill run down her back as she approached the spot where Gala's ship had suffered so much damage.

"I have a bad feeling about this ..."

Edited by Bellona

Aleena gestured towards to spot where Gala's starfighter had been.

"As you can undoubtably sense, this landing spot reeks of pain, fear, and anger. We haven't been able to find Gala's astromech, but signs point to parts - and maybe the droid - having been scavenged, either by the Jawas," she wrinkled her nose at the nearby pair, "or someone at the salvage yard just over there," and she pointed to the scrap yard's gate where the old man was working on a swoop.

"Shall we speak with the Jawas first - diplomatically - before tackling the man at the yard?" Aleena continued, looking around questioningly at the others.

Sienna exhales out the side of her mouth, blowing a stray hair out of her face. "Yeah, I noticed. Somebody else will be feeling pain and fear when we catch up with 'em I'll bet. I'd like a closer look at the wreck, try to find out what did it in. That might give us an idea of our adversary."

She looks at the Jawas, then back to Aleena. "Do any of us speak Jawa? Jawa-ese? Jawese? I think we're probably better off with the old guy."

Cadena shakes her head, "Let's talk to the Jawas first, he does not look like he'll be going anywhere."

Aleena walked over to the two Jawas with Barda in tow.

She smiled in what she hoped would be interpreted as a friendly manner, and then began to speak with them.

"Greetings! We're looking for a friend of ours ..."

Edited by Bellona
Wording, opening line of conversation.

The Jawas looked up at Aleena, their bodies seemed to instantly relax, what ever items they still had in their hands dropped to the ground. <.... friend?...> The first Jawa slurred.. the second looked each woman in turn in what seemed like mild confusion. <...looking...?>

<Yes, Yes.. find friend.> Said the first Jawa, <what friend look like? >

<like you?>

Edited by RuusMarev