Jewel of Yavin Episode 1: Odds and Opportunities

*An auction for a rare jewel up over the clouds of Bespin gather all sorts of individuals...some more willing to play dirty to gain the prize than others. However, before the heist can be pulled, some clout will need to be garnered among Cloud City's movers and shakers...*

## Agents

### Investigation Team

* Fai Mei
* Gerold
* Hack
* Rogesh Vai
* Sebelle

### Racing Team

* Alro
* Chim Chim
* Jokan Benn
* Kii'Vera
* R0C-K4

## Mission Report

*Written by JB, Racing Team's Perspective*

At their new Altar Mountain Base, the crew receives a holocall from Borga.  The agents answer; however, they do not find Borga on the other end but Makren Duvel, one of his agents.  Makren informs the agents that an incredibly rare and expensive corusca gem, nicknamed The Jewel of Yavin, is going up for auction in Cloud City, capital of the gas planet Bespin.  The agents are to rendezvous with Makren in Cloud City where he will introduce them to their liaison.  And so the agents depart.

Upon arriving, the Coronet Cell meets Sebelle, a Zeltron who will be joining them on this mission for her own purposes.  All together now, Makren leads the crew up the high rises of Cloud City to a luxuriously decorated penthouse where they finally meet with the Pantoran crime lord, Arend Shen.  He informs them that the current owner of the gem, Marcus Grayson, is selling the gem but for unknown reasons as of yet.  He is known to have Imperial connections though.  Arend Shen is interested in obtaining the Jewel of Yavin for himself and proposes a plan to the agents.  They’ll steal the gem not once - but twice!  However, before the actual thievery can begin, they are informed that Arend’s plan necessitates several steps.

First, the agents must enter the auction itself in order the raise the price of the Jewel of Yavin as high as possible, astronomically preferably, so that when Arend resells it on the black market he can get as high a profit as possible.  Meanwhile, a second team will enter the Figg and Associates Art House, bypass the secuity, and steal the gem as that is when the gem will be at its most vulnerable.  Finally, the team would have to arrange to steal the credits from the auction as well, effectively stealing the gem twice.  However, in order to enter and participate in the auction, the agents need to be recognized by the elite of Cloud City.  Arend proposes then that the agents enter the Cloud City Grand Prix that evening to earn both the prize winnings to help the entrance fee as well as to get their names out.  So the crew splits into two groups:  one team to retrieve a cloud car and one team to infiltrate the social strata and gain information on opposing bidders.  On their way out from Arend’s, Makren leaves a small suggestion that the agents are not necessarily bound to Arend and his desires.

Meanwhile, the cloud car team decides to head down to the lower sections of Cloud City, also known as Port Town,  in order to procure information on the fellow racers and perhaps even acquire a car of their own. Chim Chim and Kii’Vera slink about the streets for a period of time before overhearing some locals mentioning a bar where some of the...seedier population of Cloud City hang out.  Chim Chim comes up with the idea to win the cloud car in a game of sabacc against one of the locals, specifically a member of the Wing Guard, the local security agency on Cloud City.  Jokan suggests that while Chim Chim and R0C-K4 do that, he, Kii, and Alro will find the racer’s prefered watering hole and try to find out some information on their opposition..

Chim Chim  and Roc head deep into Port Town to find a secret bar between the 124th and 125th levels called 4 ½.  When they arrive though, they are greeted by a security guard smelling of Ryland’s Reserve.  The boys bribe him with a couple of bottles and make their way into the seedy bar.  When they enter though, Roc notices that one of his old boss’s from back when he was a security droid is in the bar, one Winston Church-ill.  After reminiscing a bit, they find out that Winston now works for the Wing Guard after having been fired for too much boozing at his last post.  Chim Chim, with Roc acting as his bodyguard, enter into a game of sabacc with some local gangsters and Winston.  However, Chim Chim, makes sure to wet Winston’s whistle quite a bit first, gaining an advantage over the inebriated man.  Chim Chim manages to lose the first two games to Winston, successfully raising the man’s confidence enough to get him to bet his cloud car on a 5,000 credit buy in from Chim Chim.  Little did he know that Chim Chim had a deck of cards hidden somewhere on his tiny person, managing to slip in the cards needed for winning, after a very tense game of betting and bluffing.  Collecting the keys to the vehicle and leaving the Winston to his woes, they head out to meet up with the others.

Jokan, Kii, and Alro head to the local mechanic’s watering hole, The Podracer’s Retirement.  After speaking to the bartender, they find out that the Cloud City Grand Prix goes through the gas fields of Bespin and that the race is not straightforward as it might seem.  There are many obstacles in the form of the fauna native to the planet.  It’s there that they also see the mechanics and even some of the pilots for the teams, specifically:

* Gerrold Hunn - Pilot of Team Stormhawks
* Reglar Carrae - Pilot of  Team Captain Carbine
* Chi Raga  - Pilot of Team Captain Tarryn
* Ja’Quin - Pilot of the Team Utinni!
* JC-285  - Pilot of Team Hard Bargain

Alro decides to attempt to take Ja’quinn’s place, as he is also a Xexto.  She heads over to team Utinni where the pilot and his Jawa mechs are drinking and begins an awkward flirtation session with the pilot before finally convincing him to follow her to a local inn.  Once there, she lures the man into a sense of false security and then attempts to stun him.  He manages to survive the first blast though and a struggle ensues in which she is ultimately victorious.  She then steals his outfit and keys and heads off to find his vehicle.

Meanwhile, Jokan and Kii head off to meet with JC-285 and begin flattering her droidness and probing her for information, specifically what it is that makes a good cloud car racer.  They find out that the most common and effective forms of modification are the removal of the armor in order to reduce the weight and lower drag and the increase of the systems in order that they might absorb more strain from the process of pushing the car to and keeping it at its top speed.  They also find out about the installation of repulsor lifts, which can drastically increase the speed of the car but make it much more difficult to handle.  Finally, they manage to trick the droid into believing that certain set of modifications had become popular off world, modifications that in fact reduce the viability of the car, thereby aiding their cause.

Jokan, Kii, Chim Chim,  and Roc all meet back up together and proceed to modify the Wing Guard cloud car to great success.  They even get as far as getting to paint their car a vivid red, with big black swooshes and two giant middle fingers.  With everything prepped, Jokan and Kii enter themselves in the race and Alro manages fool the Jawa’s, thereby also entering the race.  The rest of the Broker crew unites in the Jokan’s pit to cheer them on.  And so the race begins.

The Stormhawks (a heavy favorite) take the lead and all other racers fall behind, though Jokan and Kii, manage to stay near the head of the pack.  Throughout the race they encounter a whole slew of obstoacles including: small flying bugs that threaten to clog up the engines and damage the vehicle, which most drivers manage to narrowly avoid.  In the second leg, the racers find themselves in the middle of a pack of  Beldon’s, the huge balloon like creatures that actually secrete the tibanna gas that Bespin is famed for.  Several racers have close calls with the creatures, one team even smashing into one and exploding into flames, but Jokan and Kii manage to whittle themselves into second here, just behind the Stormhawks, but wht the Freeriders not far behind.  In the third leg, they encounter local pirates who take snap shots at all the of the racers.  There are a few that take damage, but most manage to pass through unharmed.  Jokan and Kii, however, manage to use this distraction to their advantage and push past the Stormhawks into first place.  Nearing the end of the race, huge clouds of green gas begin to appear across the track.  Flammable gas which Jokan and Kii set off, lighting the sky ablaze.  A few racers go down in the explosions and ensuing mayhem, giving Jokan and Kii a chance to really spread their lead.  And in the final leg of the race, the racers find themselves assaulted by more local fauna, birds that nip at and attack the cars but no one takes a huge amount of damage.  Finally, Jokan and Kii, with the Stormhawks very close behind manage to keep their lead and win the race.