Diplomatic Entanglements 7 - Car Chase City

*The plot thickens! As Katira commits repeated violent acts in the name of one Cantle Spiros, the team chases their best lead into a dark Coruscant alleyway to find that they might finally have some help in their efforts to rescue Bota Zi. After agreeing to set a meeting with Cal Omas, they are given the location of their bounty hunter turned ambassador but things aren’t looking to get easy any time soon.*

## **Previously**

*After narrowly avoiding responsibility for the ruin of a local bar, our heroes made their way into the illuminated twilight of a Coruscant night with hardly a care in the world. They were soon called to a nearby rooftop for a conversation with Lannik Rakto that descended quickly into the chaos of combat. As the dust settled, a Clawdite, flanked by a freakish shape shifting monstrosity calls for the group to drop their weapons and follow. In the complete refusal of the offer, the team found themselves trying their best to stop the duo’s retreat. With Blaine hanging aboard their vessel, Katira kicking their hostage, Sparky dangling from the rooftop, and the others narrowly avoiding exploding droids, what will happen next?!*

## **Recap**

### **Official “Police” Business**

As the Clawdite’s airspeeder finishes clearing the building platform and prepares to enter into the Coruscant traffic, Jawa Jimmy rushes ahead and fires a pulse of energy ahead. The bolt crackles directly into the vehicle, and a faint trail of smoke emits from its exhaust as Blaine yells out to Katira asking if she plans to use her rocket boots any time soon. All eyes turn to the Zeltron, who glances down at her feet and tries to mutter an excuse for avoiding their use before finally trying to fly across to an airspeeder across the way.

In an embarrassing display, Katira narrowly avoids crashing into several speeders passing by, then tumbles gracelessly to the walkway opposite the group. She climbs to her feet, hoping that nobody saw (they did), before pulling open the door on a waiting speeder and telling all passengers that they need to disembark due to “official police business” as she gestures to the figure of Blaine atop the speeder opposite. Unfazed, the passengers refuse and complaint that the Coruscant Police are always abusing their authority at the expense of the common citizenry. More than happy to expedite the process, Katira draws her pistol and knocks one rider unconscious before dragging him free of the speeder and telling the driver to pick up Jowkazza, Jimmy, and Rusty across the way.

As the commandeered airspeeder makes its way to the rest of the group, Katira doubles down and threatens to use the other end of her pistol if the passengers refuse again (con, she has no ammo), and they stammer that they would have happily left sooner if she had offered to pay their fare, obviously stunned at the violence the “police” jumped to so readily.

> "*Just remember, Cantle Spiros did this to you!*"
> ― Katira
>
>

Across the way, Rusty and Tek hang back on the roof to pick through assassin droid debris and ensure Lannik Rakto is brought safely into custody. Jimmy and Jowkazza climb onboard as Katira shouts at the driver to follow after Blaine.

Now in hot pursuit, the airspeeder pilot works desperately to keep his cool as blaster fire explodes from in and around his vehicle. Atop the Clawdite speeder Blaine dodges and ducks while keeping his boots magnetically locked to the hull, and from the trailing vehicle Jimmy lands another shot while Jowkazza quietly slips a business card into the pay box.

### **Armistice**

The Clawdite’s speeder turns a sharp corner and quickly descends to land. Jowkazza, Jimmy, and Katira emerge from their rental vehicle in a hurry, just in time to watch Blaine finish off the assassin droid, but too late to stop the Clawdite and his bodyguard from entering a nearby building.

As the rest of the team moves to the door, with Jimmy taking the lead on attempting to break through the security lock, Katira takes a moment to approach a woman and a droid huddling near a small heat sink nearby in hopes that they may have some useful information. Calling herself Cantle Spiros, and claiming to have been sent by Lannik Rakto, she asks if the pair has any useful intelligence on the building of its inhabitants, but receives only laughter in response from the pair who point out that if she really worked for Lannik she would already know the answers to her questions.

Meanwhile, Jimmy makes short work of the security for the door, accidentally shutting down the lock mechanism with the operator and needing to ask for Jowkazza to lend his strength to lift the door open. The Wookiee manages the task easily enough, but is forced to wait for Katira as she interrogates the nearby homeless population. He growls out his annoyance at having to keep the heavy door up, shaming Katira into action in much the same manner that Blaine did earlier. Already annoyed after being laughed at, Katira rolls her eyes at Jowkazza’s complaints, draws her blaster rifle on stun, and fires at both the droid and the woman. The droid is completely fried (damage beat by 17 on the roll), and the woman falls to her knees in confusion as Katira grabs her by the collar to whisper a final threat.

> "*Never… NEVER talk to Cantle Spiros like that again.*"
> ― Katira
>
>

Finally heading inside, Katira and Jowkazza have a short conversation regarding the potential exposure boost that Katira could bring to Jowkazza’s accounting business if she were to help by “exchanging” whatever people have in their pockets for a business card. Nodding in excited agreement with the idea, Jowkazza reaches into a pouch and passes off a small box of business cards to Katira as the pair hurries to catch up to Jimmy and Blaine.

The team walks confidently down the entryway and into a dimly lit space that appears to be a cargo delivery and receipt area when suddenly the lights blaze to life to fully reveal their surroundings. Standing 20 or so meters ahead, the same Clawdite and bodyguard are now flanked by several more guards, but the more surprising twist of events is the sudden appearance of Blaine’s wife, Elayne, being held hostage.

The masked Clawdite begins a new round of negotiation in much the same manner that he began the first, calling for the group to drop their weapons. Also repeating their previous meeting Blaine refuses to comply, expressing disbelief that his wife was taken without his knowledge.

> "*How’s the baby?*"
> ― Blaine
>
>

> "*The baby is fine… just do what they want and we can go home.*"
> ― Elayne
>
>

> "*I don’t believe you. You don’t sound like Elayne, you sound like a high pitched Bota Zi.*"
> ― Blaine
>
>

As Katira expresses the opinion that these Clawdites may be looking for help moving against Governor Parnot, the guard holding Elayne at gunpoint unleashes a spray of acid at her feet. Bending, Blaine throws his weapons to the ground and calls for a stop. Jimmy follows suit as Jowkazza slowly walks toward the aggressors with his bowcaster held out as if he wants someone to take it. The Wookiee crosses the room slowly, and is within a few meters of the nearest enemy when he is finally told to stop and drop it. Finally the room shifts its focus to Katira, who is visibly disappointed as she disarms - taking the opportunity to reload as well.

> "*So I see that we’re using guilt to make me do things today. Alright. I think that’s everything. I think… I mean… that’s everything… I think.*"
> ― Katira
>
>

### **Unexpected Allies**

To put it simply, the Clawdites want out. They state that they were forced to work with and for Parnot in the entire scheme now facing the New Republic, and they want to be done with the whole affair. The freely admit that they have been impersonating New Republic officials, have been tracking every strike team dispatched by Cal Omas, and that they know the current location of Bota Zi.

As to why they want out, they explain that they have been repeatedly cheated by Parnot. Agreements have been reneged upon, to be replaced with new deals that had much worse conditions for the Clawdites. While the Clawdites have been strong-armed into action repeatedly by the Eriadu Authority, whatever little was promised to them was never given. Now, they have finally reached their breaking point and are willing to take the risk to reach out to the New Republic.

As a final gesture of sincerity, the Clawdite offers his name. His real name. Nimshi Kano.

Blaine calls Jowkazza, Jimmy, and Katira over for a brief huddle to discuss the new turn of events. Though they agree that it is uncertain whether they can truly trust the Clawdites, they decide that this is the best chance they will have to find Bota. Being careful not to establish any official arrangement with the Clawdites, Blaine and company agree to set up a meeting with Cal Omas, and the Nimshi Kano agrees to send one of his shape changers with the team for this purpose, with the agreement to provide the current location of Bota Zi once the meeting has taken place.

With an agreement established, the group departs with their plus one in tow and is quickly admitted to an audience with the New Republic Senator.

> "*We brought someone that could act as a liaison.*"
> ― Blaine
>
>

> "*Did you agree to any terms?*"
> ― Cal Omas
>
>

> "*Well, none of us actually work for the New Republic, so… we didn’t think we could do that.*"
> ― Katira
>
>

> "*Thank goodness.*"
> ― Cal Omas
>
>

After a brief closed door meeting with the Clawdite representative, the group is invited to discuss the steps moving forward with Cal. Generally pleased with the progress made on planet, the Senator informs the team that a datapad provided by the Clawdite indicates that Bota is being held off Coruscant in an Imperial prison known as *The Crypt*.

A prison planet located in the Anoat Sector and operated by Imperial Governor Ubrik Adelhard, the prison moon may be one of the worst places that Bota could find himself held. The Imperial Remnant has managed to maintain an entire Imperial Battle Group over the location, with 1-2 Imperial Star Destroyers having a compliment of some 70 TIE Fighters each, and 8 support ships with 2-3 supporting TIE Squadrons. Even if the New Republic were to shatter the orbiting defenses, an entire battalion of stormtroopers is stationed on the moon’s surface. Broken into several different sections with independent control and operation in order to prevent any single point of failure or weakness, the prison itself spans vast swaths of the moon’s surface.

Put simply, if the group wants to rescue Bota they will need to infiltrate the moon silently, ascertain the ambassador’s location rapidly, and then pull him off planet before the prison’s compliment of purge troopers can be deployed. If they fail at any point, they invite the possibility of being trapped in a shootout with the purge troopers and the battalion of stormtroopers, with the orbiting battle group sealing any chance of escape.

Now knowing their path forward and the opposition that they are up against, the group is left to decide on their next course of action.

## **Featured Characters**

### **Our Heroes**

* Blaine Hansom
* Jawa Jimmy
	+ Sparky
* Jowkazza
* Katira Eve
* Roostan Steele

### **NPCs**

* Nimshi Kano
* Shi’ido bodyguard
* “Elayne Kuat”
* Cal Omas

### **Mentioned**

* Lannik Rakto
* Cantle Spiros

## **Inventory**

* +box of Jowkazza’s business cards (Katira)
* +Galactic ID of Coruscant vagabond (Katira)

## **Notes**

* It was revealed that the shapeshifter bodyguard of the Clawdite was a Shi’ido
* With a Clawdite accompanying the group, Katira looked to test her theory that spice usage will allow one to identify a shape changer. She pickpocketed the woman that she had previously stunned, taking her identification card and replacing it with Jowkazza’s business card but finding nothing else of real value.

## **Quotations**

> "*Did you post the bounty you were planning to fund? Did you locate Bota?*"
> ― Cal Omas
>
>

> "*No, but we do have these Clawdites that are ready to flip sides.*"
> ― Blaine
>
>

> "*Well that’s actually better. You should lead with that next time. Did you set up a meeting?*"
> ― Cal Omas
>
>

> "*What is the terrain and atmosphere on this planet? Is it perhaps a desert?*"
> ― Katira
>
>

> "*Yes, it’s a desert moon.*"
> ― Luke
>
>

> "*Would it be a place that a Krayt Dragon might be happy?*"
> ― Katira
>
>

> "*No. It’s arid, but it’s a lifeless moon.*"
> ― Luke
>
>

> "*Well… that rules out my Droomanji idea, then…*"
> ― Katira
>
>

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