SotB XXII: Cutting the Red Tape

*The world of Traxus is suddenly thrown into chaos as corporations and criminals alike vie for control over a rare find buried deep within the planet. In need of support, the Agents of the Broker find themselves thrown into the center of the struggle.*

## Agents

### Session 1

* Balken Oppen
* Fai Mei
* Floyd
* Jokan Benn
* R0C-K4
* Saber

### Session 2

* Erdo
* Gristle
* Hawk
* Kii'Vera
* Rogesh Vai
* Tenno Lyrand

## Mission Report

*Summary by Cail*

Balken assembles a team of Broker agents aboard the Sunflare. There, he shows a holovid recording of his ally, Vincent. Vincent has found himself stranded on Traxus, a planet on the Perlemian Trade Route. The corporations there are feuding and won’t permit anyone to leave the planet. Furthermore, all communications from and around the planet have been ended.

The crew navigates to Traxus, where they observe a Corellian Corvette owned by the Corporate Sector Authority being harassed by a group of snub fighters. The crew, unable to discern the reasons for the battle, decides to fly past, and land in the industrial area. Vincent approaches them on a speederbike, and takes the team to a cantina, to meet with his contact.

They enter the cantina, and meet the contact in a booth. Gristle, the Shistavanen doctor, was there, busily hitting on Vincent’s contact. She informs the crew that Heavie Engineering, Corncopia (the company with the largest investment in the planet), and the Corporate Sector Authority are fighting over something that Heavie Engineering found in the mines. The swoop gangs and disgruntled citizens have formed the Traxus syndicate, and the pirates have joined up with Lohtan the Hutt, that has come onto the scene. No people, information, or goods are getting off of Traxus, which is unfortunate, because Traxus supplies food to nearby planets in exchange for manufactured goods.

A heavily armored Trandoshan with some thugs in tow fire upon the booth, striking Vincent and his contact. Gristle manages to convince the thugs to turn on the Trandoshan. They blast the Trandoshan and leave. Balken and Gristle patch up Vincent and his contact, who reveals that she is Queen Ophilia of Traxus, hereditary ruler descended from the original colonists, and head of the former civilian government. Balken takes the queen and Vincent back to the Sunflare while the rest of the team starts questioning local miners for leads.
Their first line of questioning ends with a miner who appears to have been arrested by the Corporate Sector Authority and subsequently disappeared. However, they spot a drunk miner being led away by six CSA guards. Gristle asks them what they are doing with the prisoner, who they have apparently arrested for breaking curfew. Tenno, thinking quickly, suggests that the prisoner might have symptoms of the quarantine-related plague. Rogesh begins to mock-panic, and the guards leave their drunk prisoner in the team’s custody.

They take him back to Balken, who gives him drugs to sober him up. Balken says he will take about an hour to sober up, so the rest of the crew leaves to go shopping. Erdo finds a junk dealer willing to sell him parts for a customized hilt at an outrageous markup. Erdo almost makes a faux pas by insisting on a fair price and walking away from the trade, but Gristle patches it up and covers for him. Kii helps Rogesh find some neurotoxin and a disguise kit, but runs afoul of a black market drug dealer when he buys a crate of glitterstim. Hawk can’t seem to find a Nova Viper on this backwater, but he manages to get a lead that one might have passed down the Perlemian trade route.
The crew returns to the ship to question the miner. He reveals that Heavie Engineering discovered an ancient temple, and then sealed the mineshaft. Unfortunately, he is very distressed to hear about the news of the disappeared miner. The crew suggests he stays low, and then asks the queen if she can use any of her contacts to get them uniforms to infiltrate Heavie Engineering. Rogesh disguises the queen and the group heads to a public holoterminal. Erdo narrowly manages to escape the attention of a heavily armed bounty hunter, but the queen is not able to contact any of her noble allies. Instead, a mysterious figure says that the queen’s former allies have been bribed to turn her in, and to instead meet her at another location. The group splits up, and Erdo, Gristle, and Rogesh accompany the queen to the rendezvous while Hawk, Kii, and Tenno attempt to keep watch.

Unfortunately, the meeting is in a secret location, accessible only through a tunnel in the basement of a residence, so Hawk, Kii, and Tenno are unable to follow. The mysterious figure introduces herself as Phy’ria, a CSA agent, looking to betray the corrupt CSA forces patrolling the streets and end the corporate in-fighting. She has a data spike that will end the comm blackout, and wants the crew to help her place it in the main communications center. She says that this will bring in the main CSA forces and restore order to the planet. She discourages them from infiltrating Heavie Engineering. The crew agrees to upload her data spike, and retire to a hotel for the night.
The next day, they meet Phy’ria at the Communications tower. Phy’ria is able to easily make it past the droid receptionist with a security badge, but Gristle has to convince the receptionist that the rest of the team is here to pick up security badges within the building. The find a sleeping guard in the next room, and Kii is able to swipe his ID badge and wallet. The ID badge allows everyone else into a new room, but Kii stays behind with a syringe of neurotoxin in case the guard wakes up.
The next room contains a droid guard that attacks the crew, but Rogesh, Hawk, and Tenno are able to destroy it with their whip, blaster, and sword, respectively. Erdo and Gristle provide support. Phy’ria hides during this altercation, and the guard near Kii does not wake.

Proceeding to the final server room, Phy’ria plants her data spike while Erdo and Kii retrieve information regarding Heavie Industries. Apparently, the company has been supporting the Traxus Syndicate and trying to gain a foothold in the criminal underworld. Additionally, they seemed to think the temple they had uncovered had to do with the Jedi. Erdo and Kii were also able to retrieve schematics and details on the products Heavie hoped to manufacture out of the rare materials found in the artifacts in the temple (including cortosis).

After the data is uploaded, Phy’ria plants a thermal detonator and suggests the team leaves. Everyone exits, only to find TIE fighters attacking and the Imperials taking over the planet. Phy’ria flees toward a Lambda class shuttle, and the crew absconds back to the industrial district to board the Sunflare and leave. Queen Ophilia leaves with them, while Vincent manages to escape on his own ship, due to a timely warning from Balken. The crew manages to avoid any TIE fighters due to their unusual parking spot, and escapes.