The Azure Expanse

[entropy]

Sorry Edj, it didn't go as smooth as you wanted. But the captain was only wounded this time, and since you spent the whole fight in the parking structure, you don't have to see the doctor. Besides, now that Zeek is back, we can use the medical bay again. Real bacta... not that stuff that bonesaw plugged you with.

-Drax

[Edj]

Wasn't the whole fight... I had a very nasty tussle with the immalleable shoulder blades of our massive, shag-covered, brute of a, erm... (heh, sorry Rika...) I mean delicately proportioned, luxuriously flocculent and wholly magnificent Wookie (cough) right at the get go - bruised my cheek and everything.

I swear I'll be picking wookie fluff out of my nose and teeth for weeks. At least she didn't tie my headtails in a knot this time.

I'm a little disappointed in myself that I never did get ahold of their sedan, but there was a nice payout from the bounty on the bum, we're all alive, the cap's new cherrywood foot didn't get scuffed or stolen, and -

Hey, what do you mean by "[i]that stuff[/i]" anyways? That was real bacta, right? I mean, I paid 600 creds to have that pumped into me. It's gotta be alright, right? Right?

Oh man, my stomach's starting to hurt...

[K_Feldspar]

Somewhere on Coruscant, deep in ISB headquarters there sits a figure wrinkly but observant. The room is dark except for the flickering glow of a dozen or so monitors and holoprojectors. He sits, and watches, and waits.

The door hisses open and a young ISB officer walks just through the doorway. The door hisses shut, and the officer snaps his heels and bows with precision. “Reporting as ordered, sir.”

The seated figure responds without moving, “Officer Stygian. There are individuals and organizations fomenting unrest in a territory of interest. Take your team, and any supplies you need, and go to the Azure Expanse to neutralize these recreants. Begin your investigation with the Poland Aluminum Company.”

Stygian repeats his precise bow and reports, “Yes sir, we will leave immediately.” He turns on his heel as the door shoots open, and quickly leaves.

As a final hiss issues from the door the dark figure adjusts his posture ever so slightly. Then he reaches for a heretofore-unseen cup of tea. As he drinks, one of the datastreams begins showing video of a strike in process at a plant on the planet of Pyros. The cup is returned to its saucer. The figure again sits, and watches, and waits.

[entropy]

Star Wars: The Azure Expanse
Episode V - A Strange Encounter

As the party is sitting around the ship discussing recent events and what to do next, there is a commotion outside the starport. Karol is leading a group of hundreds in protest of the working conditions on Pyros. As the group reaches the steps of the municipal building across from the spaceport, they all sit down in the middle of the road, still chanting in protest, “Unfair wages, poor conditions!”

Stormtroopers and imperial officers begin to arrive on the scene when suddenly a bright green blast strikes the crowd from above. The road, and part of a nearby building explode in a shower of debris. The protesters caught in the blast are instantly vaporized, while those around them are badly burnt or buried under rubble. The protest breaks into chaos as many of the workers run screaming, while a few hold their ground. Barely audible, but somehow just as strong, the chant continues, “Unfair wages, poor conditions!”

The party looks around for Karol, but he is lost in the chaos. Explosions are heard throughout the town and suddenly the power cuts out. The energy shield over the spaceport, closed for a week due to terrorist investigations, goes down. Ships begin to flee the chaos as another blast of turbolaser fire comes down. The party heads back to their ship.

Just as they arrive at the ship, another group of humans is runs toward them. One says to the party, “Is this The Gathering Storm?” When the party affirms, he continues, “We need to get him off planet as soon as possible.” A man pulls back his hood to reveal that he is Karol. Drax inquires, “How much does it pay?” Karol replies, “2000 now, 4000 at the destination. I can’t tell you where that is until we get out of the system.” Drax asks if it is in the sector, and Karol says it is. Edj voices his objection, but the party agrees to transport him. Drax pulls Edj aside and says, “Don’t worry, if we get caught, we just tell them we were bringing him in for the bounty.” Edj is not convinced.

The ship leaves the spaceport, and Drax gets on the sensors to find out what’s firing the turbolasers. Seeing nothing, he turns to Rayne and says, “Captain, I can’t see anything through this atmosphere, you’ll have to get us above that cloud ceiling.” Ships are fleeing the city in greater numbers now. Some are leaving orbit, while others are making small hops to other areas of the planet. The party decides to try to get out of the system.

Finally Drax notices that he’s running the sensors on passive, switches over to search, and immediately sees the signature of a Corellian Corvette. He also spots a smaller system patrol craft approaching them. The patrol craft hails them, asking their destination and cargo. At this point the crew starts arguing whether to make a break for it, or try to take out the patrol craft, or wait until they dock and try to take it over. Rika gets into the gun turret. Drax realizes the patrol craft is not hyperspace capable, so taking it would result in a very short chase. Then, the party realizes that they haven’t done anything wrong, and they’re not carrying anything illegal, except Karol, so they shouldn’t have anything to fear. There are dozens of ships leaving, there’s no way these two patrols are searching them all.

The system craft repeats its hail, and Edj answers, “This is the Gathering Storm, we’re headed to the Suzuki system. We have no cargo, but they’re shooting at people down there, so we’re leaving.” The system craft orders, “Stand down and prepare to be boarded for inspection.” Rayne stops the ship, and Karol hides in the hole in the wall of one of the cabins. The familiar ka-chunk of docking is heard, and Drax opens the hatch.

The inspector apologizes for the formality and states that because of the big-shots on the corvette, everything has to be “by the book.” He walks around a bit, checks out the cargo holds, and sends the party on their way. Rayne punches up a course for Suzuki and the ship enters hyperspace.

When the party tells Karol it’s safe, he comes out and gives them the coordinates for the rendezvous. Rayne punches it in, and tells the crew it will be a few days. Drax talks to Karol for a while. Zeek goes back to work on his powersuit. Around the time people are going to bed, Drax suddenly remembers Rika in the gun turret, and lets her know that they’ll be in hyperspace for a few days.

Zod gets bored and goes down to engineering to see what he’s doing. He watches for a while and accuses Zeek of being slow, “You work in sections, don’t you.” Zeek just glares back at him. A little while later, Zod says he’s going to help, and starts to play with the pieces. Zeek can’t take this anymore, and smacks Zod with the hydro-spanner, stunning him. Zod glares angrily and storms off to the bridge.

At the bridge, he has no more luck combating boredom, as no one will let him touch anything, and Edj comments to Rayne that they really need to install fake control panels next to his seat. That does it for Zod, who goes and complains to Rika, the wookie. She threatens to break Zeek, who hides in his powersuit. Edj and Rika have an argument. Eventually everyone calms down, and the rest of the trip passes uneventfully.

As The Gathering Storm exits hyperspace, Drax gets on the sensors and picks up a Nebulon-B frigate near the wreckage of a smaller starship. The crew panics, everyone is shouting at once. Rayne starts plotting a mini-jump, when a communication, rather than laser-fire comes from the Nebulon-B, “This is The Blue Lightning, we’re looking for Karol. Is he there?” Karol says, “I think I recognize that voice, can I use the comm?” Over the comm, he says, “Mike, is that you? It’s Karol.”

The ships dock, and Karol is exchanged for the payment. An eager crew divides up the money, and Karol thanks them again, “If you ever need any help, just ask. I’ll be back on Pyros as soon as things cool down.” The Blue Lightning leaves, and Drax decides to do one last scan of the wreckage. He detects a weak energy source, focusing he realizes it’s a droid brain. Rayne pilots the ship around to catch it in the hold. Drax and Zeek go to check it out.

The object is a black sphere about a meter in diameter with both an imperial insignia, and another unknown symbol on the side. Drax immediately calls for Zod to do a communications sweep, and jam any communications from the ship. Zeek goes to work on the droid. Despite his proficiency with droids, computers, and security, he is unable to come to any conclusion of what this is supposed to be. Suddenly it speaks, identifying itself as an ISB Sensor drone, and demanding it be releases into space. Zeek tries to power it off, but upon opening another panel, sees the power unit is wired to a device that looks a lot like the core of an over-sized thermal detonator.

Rayne does a mini jump, just to get out of the place where the droid was found. Zeek very carefully removes the explosives and powers the droid off. They put the explosives in an old helmet and space it. Rika has some fun shooting at it with the laser cannon before they make the next jump to the Suzuki system.

Suzuki is a water planet, dominated by algae and fishing industries. On the approach, the crew sees the quarter-mile long harvesting droids gathering the algae, and Drax notes, “Good, we should have no trouble finding an over-sized restraining bolt here.” While Zeek and Drax do some shopping, Edj and Zod, go to watch and gamble on the swoop races. Rayne manages to find a cargo, a shipment of an unusual algae-shellfish symbiot bound for Balius. When the crew returns, the cargo is loaded, and they head out.

With two weeks in hyperspace, and a brand-new restraining bolt and droid repair kit, Zeek takes another crack at the encryption on the droid. After a week and a half, he manages to break it, and discovers that the droid has been monitoring the Azure Expanse for months, reporting and logging anything that might be of interest to the imperials. A quick search reveals that its last entry was to report that it was fired upon, its ship was destroyed, and it was requesting a pick-up. The crew breathed a sigh of relief that their actions hadn’t been recorded.

Zeek spent the rest of the time removing and disabling communication systems and de-programming the droid’s loyalty to the empire. Drax painted over the insignias, a decidedly low-tech approach, but what are the odds a random customs inspector is going to recognize a secret ISB sensor drone if he saw one? Edj and Rika get into another scuffle, as Rika decides that Edj’s tentacles would look better decorated with fishhooks. It culminates in Edj firing his blaster at her (not on stun), and Rika shrugging it off. Edj then realizes there’s not much he can do about her.

The arrival at Balius is uneventful. The shipping lanes are so busy that the ship doesn’t even get searched. They drop off the cargo and receive their payment, and it’s time for more shopping. Drax and Edj go check out the shop of a shady ship mechanic he once arrested. There they make an agreement to pick up the parts to do some transponder modifications on The Gathering Storm. While waiting for the parts to arrive, the crew plans their next action.

[entropy]

See Edj, we're not always picking fights. There was no danger at all this past week. Unless of course you count being 100 meters from a planetary bombardment by a Corvette... or aiding the escape of a wanted fugitive during a planetary bombardment... or the fact that the kid is walking around wearing that dead cult leader's ring... or that oversized thermal detonator Zeek pulled out of the droid... or the wookie wanting to pull your arms off after you put that burn mark in her fur with your blaster. Have you considered just being nice to her?

No danger at all...

-Drax

[Edj]

[i]Nice? [/i] No.

I must admit I haven't lately thought of engaging in attempts to flatter to our flossy effete. Of course, it's difficult to reasonably ascertain an appropriate, erm... sacrum osculation (cough) to apply when ones headtails are tied in a pretzel or stapled together with homemade lures.

Methinks, perhaps, I may simply endeavor to resolve our standing disagreement with the age old remedies of silence and, where possible, avoidance.

For those of you eavesdropping on our adventures over this frequency, I beg of you, please remember, at all costs - NEVER SHOOT THE WOOKIE (or suggest that in matters of trigger work a used ISB Security droid in the gunnery seat might be, well, more adroit).

Incidentally, does anyone know where I can find a nice curio shop on Suzuki?

[entropy]

Star Wars: The Azure Expanse
Episode VI – Not Just Another Job

With some slightly less-than-legal transponder modifications installed, and a cargo hold full of gunsights, the crew gets the ship ready and heads for the planet Dvorak to make their delivery. Zeek takes another look at the droid, to try to convince it to give us some information out of its database. In between slinging insults at the aliens in the party, Drax manages to find out that there are a lot of illegal gun running operations on Dvorak, and a strong possibility that the green droid gang is involved.

Edj finds a nice music box, and records an apologetic message to Rika. He leaves it in her quarters the first night in hyperspace. When Rika finds it she is confused and talks to the only person on the ship who seems to understand her, Zod. Zod points out that grown-ups sometimes give each other gifts as a sign of romantic interest. This freaks out Rika (as much as a Wookiee can freak out) and she avoide Edj for the rest of the journey.

As the ship comes out of hyperspace after the first leg of the journey, it is greeted by laser fire. An unidentified light freighter is firing on them. Zeek sets the shields double front and Rika runs for the turret. Drax tries to scan the freighter, but can’t seem to get it working. He says to Rayne, “Sorry captain, I can’t see anything through this black hole.” As another laser shot misses wildly he adds, “But they can’t seem to shoot through it either.”

Rika hops in the gun and takes a shot just as the freighter is passing over them. It goes right through, and the party cheers as the ship starts to break apart. Just then, Drax gets the sensors working, and announces that there are three snub fighters approaching, two from the front, and one from the back. He checks their transponder codes and finds that they are from the Cargill Corporation.

After a heated battle, two fighters are in pieces, and the third is drifting blindly into space. The crew goes to retrieve it, and finds the pilot dead. While reclaiming his space suit (hey, we’re poor), they notice the familiar green droid tattooed on his arm. They scavenge what they can from the starfighter and head to Dvorak.

On Dvorak the drop goes well, and the crew decides to invest in some ion cannons for added firepower. While they’re being installed, Drax, Edj, Rayne, and Rika go to look for some cargo. They meet up with a guy in a clean, middle-management type bar who asks if they’re interested in shipping blaster gas, indicating that it will be worth a little more to them if they can keep a secret. Rayne says that they are interested, so the guy gives them an address and tells them to meet him at 1900.

The address is a bar in a shady neighborhood. Groups of people walking around with light repeaters are common, and as the door to the bar opens, the party is looking down a hallway at two humans manning an E-web. They wave them through, and the party quickly spots their contact. He is willing to pay 30,000 credits to ship a load of blaster gas to a drop point about a day and a half outside the system. This seems a little odd, but it’s a lot of money, and the man hints that if the job goes well, there will be more in the future. The party is instructed to go to docking bay five and ask Fred for the special delivery.

The party manages to stay out of trouble for the rest of the week, and when their new ion cannons are installed, they head out. The tower directs them to bay 17, but Zod notices some interference in the signal that turns out to be an encrypted audio stream overlaying the tower’s transmission. It says to ignore the tower’s instructions, and proceed to bay 5 as planned. They load up the blaster gas and head out.

As they come out of hyperspace, Drax does his standard sensor sweep and immediately recognizes the Nebulon-B Frigate in front of them. He grabs the comm and announces, “Hello, Blue Lightning, this is The Gathering Storm. Is Mike there?” A very confused reply comes back, “Uh, err… no, Mike’s not on the next shift, are you here with the speedy delivery?” “No, a special delivery,” Drax corrects him, and docking arrangements are made.

On the Blue Lightning is none other than their old friend, Karol, who introduces them to Captain Helmut von Steuben, commander of the ship. Karol indicates his surprise in seeing the party again so soon, and asks if they know who they’re working for. When the party says no, he tells them.

[entropy]

I think we can consider this a success, right Edj? We made a lot of money, and you got most of your laundry done during that dogfight, while the rest of us were doing things like trying to keep the ship in one piece. I must say you did an excellent job of cleaning up the kid's vomit from the hallway outside the cockpit, though. I can barely smell it at all anymore.

Oh, and the rumor is you've been hitting on Rika... Are you sure that's such a wise idea? Getting into personal relationships with business partners often ends poorly for everyone involved. Besides, do you have any idea what Wookiee mating rituals are like?

-Drax

[Jedi Skyler]

Hey, guys! Keep up the posts; this stuff is hilarious! I enjoy reading/ hearing about other groups' adventures, so this is great.

Running the risk of irking someone, for Edj: You may want to consider studying the Klingon mating rituals; they may help to slightly prepare you for what's in store should Rika decide she really likes you!

[Edj]

Sigh... Nobody respects the position of domestic concierge anymore.

I'm dismayed at the general failure to realize the full and startling impact of clean laundry in such far-reaching matters as, say, pecuniary negotiation. Hundreds of surplus credits have flown effortlessly from merchant credsticks to our accounts on wings made of nothing more than the impression borne of our spotless attire.

And for those scoffing at such a task as diligent stain removal when compared to starship gunnery, let me assure you, no greater effort was ever put forth blasting "warships" from deep space than I apply weekly to the myriad unmentionable debris left clinging to the crew's, well... unmentionables.

I simply fail to see how sitting in a padded bucket seat, peering through a ship guided sight and frantically tapping the hair trigger remotely compares to grinding steel wool against an unsettling spot of body soil.

But I see the way of things, and so have recently picked up (at quite a fine discount I might add), a used (and apparently underground) copy of Rebel Starship Gunnery for Dummies. Having diligently committed to memory the chapter dealing with ion cannons, I believe I am ready to tackle the process of "making the Empire [my] bizatch" - it's a quote from the book. I swear.

Concerning dearest Rika - while I'm not educated on the mating customs of our fine velutinous neighbors from Wook, so far I am very pleased with the results the gift has yielded. So small a gesture, so magnificent a return.

As they say, music soothes the.. well, no sense in going there.

Klingon - that's when a sock sticks to a different article of clothing after the dryer cycle right? I don't know that process qualifies as "mating", but in a broad sense it might apply. I'm amazed they have entire books on this simple phenomenon, but if you are sure it applies, I'll check into it.

[K_Feldspar]

Edj for such an awesome, hilarious, and evincive post as that I award you an extra character point!

Furthermore since I am managing to maintain a much needed munificent mood I award an additional character point both to Edj and Drax for their obvious dedication to participating in this thread.

[Jedi Skyler]

[entropy]

evincive a. Tending to prove; having the power to demonstrate; demonstrative; indicative.

I had to look it up, so that I can reap the rewards of future character points by evincivating my evinciveness (or would that be evincivity?)

Thank you for the character point, and thanks to all those who are still reading this thread even after that one week when I posted the events of every round of combat for the night. That was awful. All future adventure stories will be paraprhased, probably in the same style as this last one.

[Jedi Skyler]

Actually, it was kinda fun to read what all happened at the game, so don't sweat it. Obviously those of us still reading don't have a problem with it or we'd have A) told you about it, or B) quit reading the thread.

Keep up the good work!

[K_Feldspar]

A holoprojector snaps to life with a small blue-tinged image of Daneel Stygian. The wrinkly figure in the observation room speaks with a gravely voice, “What do you have to report Officer Stygian?”

“Sir,” Stygian pauses looking rather grave, “we found the wreckage of the fighter housing, but the central processor is gone. The last information PWN-3D transmitted was a second small transport jumping into the area. After that all communications were jammed.”

The gravely voice has a faint hint of irritation now, “How much more time are you dedicating to retrieving our equipment? You need to focus on your mission.”

Officer Stygian looks sullen for a moment, but then quickly straightens up. “Yes, sir. We will pursue PWN-3D only for a short period of time, and then we will send the destruct code. Our full focus will return to the infiltration of the rebel cell soon.”

“Make sure it does, Stygian.” The wrinkly figure leans forward and manipulates a small control, and the blue-tinged image of Daneel Stygian blinks out of existence.