II. Onto Bigger Things

On Bakura, a smuggling operation finds itself double-booked.

***The crew of the Redshift Runner sold a shipment of namana candies without knowing it belonged to up-and-coming crime lord Malto the Hutt. They decide to head to Nar Shaddaa in an attempt to find him and make amends.***

***A near-lawless place largely ignored by the Galactic Empire, Nar Shaddaa, also known as the Smuggler's Moon, is home to all manner of criminals.***

***One such criminal, desperate to gain passage off-moon, awaits her chance…***

The Redshift Runner gains docking clearance at Nar Shaddaa easily, but the traffic on their way to their destination is thick and slow. The crew discusses their plan before disembarking. They decide to contact a Hutt known to Rigel, a fancy club owner named Hanka. Small mechanical hiccups on the ship give them pause, but they move out with as strong and forceful a bearing as they can manage. They hop the line without any effort with a nod from the bouncer. Hanka lounges contentedly on a dais with his sycophants and personal protocol droid at the heart of the nightclub, the Searchlight. The group introduces themselves with some obsequious flattery, much to Hanka's delight. With starting pleasantries out of the way, Feena declares her intention to take some information to Malto. Hanka offers to act as a go-between, and when the group refuses, he offers to allow them direct access to Malto for a price: a simple courier task, taking a data crystal to the far side of Nar Shaddaa. The group accepts the task, and Hanka in his GREAT HUTTESE MAGNANIMITY allows them to see Malto before completing their assignment.

The third floor of the Searchlight is surprisingly like a spa, though with the underlying menace that all Nar Shaddaa has. An attendant directs the Runners to Malto, who is being bathed by a number of attendants in sludge. Feena describes the strange situation with Sente Pola with relative honesty, though Malto doesn't seem to buy it anyway. Malto is at least amused by their strange behaviour, and gives the Runners a chance to make up for their failure in brokering the initial deal: take the owed money out of Sente, in the form of the expected 40,000 creds or in blood.

The group returns to the bar. Everyone chills for a second with a sad rodian before heading out. Hanka's protocol droid delivers the group a polite reminder that failure to complete the delivery will be met with dire consequences. The Runners acknowledge the warning and go to board their ship, but they're met with a wookie angrily trying to gain access to the ship. The group tries to make a nice approach, but she threatens them at gunpoint (or…bowcaster-point), saying that she needs to leave Nar Shaddaa NOW. Rigel stands up VERY well to her intimidation and opens the gangplank for her doing exactly what she says. Despite her posturing, the wookiee is nice enough to pay for her passage, and the group hides her in a smuggling compartment after getting her to agree to allow them a detour to finish their delivery.

A quick flight sees them arrive at a dock occupied by a surly, gigantic human. He takes Hanka's crystal with a frustrated exclamation. Feena and Melba decide to go shopping while Rigel watches the ship to make sure the wookie doesn't fly off with it. Rigel and the wookiee, who introduces herself as Kitryyhn, hash out a little more of what's going on. Kit doesn't seem too happy about heading to Bakura, which Rigel does not pick up on at all. Meanwhile, at the space mall, Feena puts a bunch of the group's money into stimpacks, and buys herself some extra outfits. Melba buys Rigel a fuzzy hat with ear flaps. When they get back to the dock, the dockworker Tohn is crying because they're seizing his property. Feena offers him the generous gift of encouraging words, and the Redshift Runner is finally ready for departure.

Rigel, Feena, and Melba discuss the newest passenger aboard the ship. Rigel is all for bringing her on the team, because she's scary and tough. Melba is very passive-aggressive about not being considered scary and tough. After a little bit of sniping that's barely slowed by the ship's increasingly worrying mechanical failures, they agree to try and make friends with the wookiee. Feena engages her in a game of sabaac, and loses 50 credits. Encouraged by her victory (and secretly her incredible expertise at the game), Kit wagers the entire cost of her passage in a game against Rigel, which Rigel loses HORRIBLY because he barely knows how to play sabaac. At the very least, she seems a lot more comfortable with the Runners after some conversation. The group gets to know Kit a bit more, but she's definitely not impressed by them.

Arriving at Bakura, the group sees that the warehouse they met Sente at is already under attack from the Empire, which Kit is NOT okay with. Feena tries to get an in with the stormtrooper on guard, to no effect. Rigel and Melba head to the street exit of the warehouse. By this point, the violence is over, and Melba convinces Sente to open the door. He seems to have acquired a lot more cargo since they left. Sente is very suspicious of the crew, since he hasn't received a transfer of credits from Tina. Feena name-drops Malto, which makes Sente uneasy. The Runners try to pressure Sente into making up for the lost funds out of his pocket, but he has none of it. He reaches for his comlink, and frames the crew for the death of the Imperials, but before he can finish, Melba makes a perfect shot right into Sente's chest, killing him. His goons surrender and flee.

Feena attempts to ameliorate the Imperials' suspicion of them using the open comm channel, but the Imperial captain is having none of it. At the very least, they have enough time to take Sente's body back to the RR. Hoping to get him back to Malto before he starts to smell, the crew departs for Nar Shaddaa again. Feena tries to stall the Imperials as they fly away, and gets a juicy indication that Sente may have been on their payroll. Imperial ships close on the Redshift Runners before Rigel can calculate a safe jump to hyperspace, and a fight begins…