Hot Coruscant Nights 1 - Starships and Stun Grenades

Blaine's new capitol class dropship - The Roulette

*Our heroes finally start working together and acting like friends as they buy stolen ships and go out for a drink on a hot Coruscant night. Blaine and Katira help Tek get a nicely discounted YT-2000 transport while Blaine buys a Chi-class Heavy Dropship and Katira buys a tricked-out speeder. But it's not all fun and games as Droo and Katira soon run into a shapeshifter and a mercenary with assassin droids. Something dubious is going on. Blaine and Tek find out from Dander Main that they were all targeted by a secret group and a trap was set 150 floors up. We end the scene with Droo holding a stun grenade that was just thrown into the bar-trench where she and Katira are holed up.*

## **Previously**

*Having secured their territory on the planet Lok, the team headed to the ecumenopolis of Coruscant to collect their winnings from the Race on Denon. Arranging a meeting on the Praji compound, the team met with a family representative to discover that the man they had thought to be their competitor was in fact an imposter.*

*Now looking for answers, the group made contact with a Bounty Hunter cell through a contact made by Bota Zi on Lok. Tek discovered that all the knowledge cartridges in the world can’t teach you a secret handshake, a local street urchin turned out to be the contact they should have made to start with, and Shreky Rebo put Tek’s music to shame. Stepping outside after having made peace and an agreement with the Bounty Hunter Marquis Alsache and her group, the group finds a little time on their hands before they take their next step.*

## **Recap**

### **Deals in the Dark**

Emerging into the city streets on Coruscant, the group engages with Drexia, a stolen goods dealer that they met up with before entering into the Bounty Hunter headquarters previously.

> "*Do you guys have any… **Death Stars** for sale? Just a tiny one will do.*"
> ― Tek looking into merchandise
>
>

To begin, Draxia opens up about some stolen Corellian ships, but the group shows little enthusiasm at the potential. He then presents a Chi-Class Dropship that is more in the scale of capitol ships. After simply viewing the ship Blaine is sold, not even bothering to bargain below the 100,000cr price. After showing an initial interest in the YT-2000, Katira notices that Tek is interested as well. Rather than compete over a ship that she doesn’t actually need, Katira offers to bow out and aid Tek in purchasing “In the spirit of camaraderie”.

> "*Katira’s heart grew two sizes that day*"
> ― Tek
>
>

As Draxia notes that he may have more purchasers available than he thought, he presents a completely custom speeder bike that he has for sale at 25,000cr. Simply looking to burn some credits at this point, Katira states that she’ll take it. After setting delivery of the speeder to the *Jinxed Starhawk*, the group heads out to an orbital space station to take an in person look at Blaine’s ship before transferring credits.

Arriving in space, the group boards the Chi-Class Dropship the *Fractured Whip* and gives is a look over. While the shipyard foreman points out that there are a number of licensing and registration requirements for a ship of this size, Blaine shrugs them off and states that he isn’t too worried due to his position as Baron Administrator of Cloud City.

A tour of the ship is then commenced in earnest. In the cargo bay they find some scrap off to the side, pieces of a juggernaut transport that were being repurposed. Aside from the scrap, the bay is clear - roughly 40m tall - with a mezzanine that serves as the control area for the gantry crane equipment to service the bay. In the upper level is a storage space for spare parts, batteries, magazines, etc. with a machine room in the rear and crew quarters. At the top of the ship are several gun turret bays and a command oversight space for observation of the loading and unloading of the hangar/cargo bay. The bridge appears to require 2-3 pilots and 5+ crew for normal operations, with the astrogation area having been repurposed and turned into a meeting space with a blaster rack off to the side. Primary astrogation is performed by a droid brain - an astromech droid that has been modified and installed permanently.

While Blaine approaches the astromech, he requests Tek slice a new transponder to the ship, changing its name to *The Roulette’'. Tek agrees to change it as a personal favor for all that Blaine has done for him.*

> "*So much friendship tonight guys!*"
> ― Droo
>
>

> "*What?! Katira started it!!!*"
> ― Tek
>
>

Tek begins to download all previous ship logs as a backup before wiping the computers, noting that the last owner was non-Imperial. The ship also shows to have a hyperdrive successfully installed at the same time that the astromech was rigged to the ship. These modifications allowed the ship to transit in hyperspace successfully, but affected its maneuverability negatively in exchange. Blaine introduces himself to the astromech - an orange and silver R2 model designated C2-B9. After a brief conversation, Blaine gives the droid the name “Chipper” in honor of it’s upbeat personality, and the group heads back to the planets surface to look into Tek’s new ship.

Landing on planet, the docking bay supervisor approaches the group and asks what the agreed on price for the YT-2000 was. Blaine looks at Tek and offers to take care of this in exchange for Tek’s slicing work earlier, stepping in and claiming that the agreed on price was 50,000cr after a discount for helping Drexia earlier. The supervisor is stunned, claiming that they paid more when they bought this ship in the first place. He places a call over to Drexia, who quickly states that he quoted the group 70,000cr. Blaine attempts to gaslight Drexia, but the black market dealer isn’t convinced, having already reduced from his 75,000cr list price according to his records.

Tek and Blaine give Katira a pleading look, hoping that she will help in the bargain. Rolling her eyes, Katira takes the communicator and tears into the seller with a rant over the 125,000cr they have already spent, the cost of an illegal ship, requirements to register is legally, necessity to get it off Coruscant, etc. Flustered, and already content after selling such a large value of goods, Drexia relents and sells the freighter at 50,000cr.

> "*You want us to pay you 70,000cr?! You must be on spice, and not the kind I was trying to sell you!*"
> ― Katira
>
>

### **Let's Split Up, Guys**

As the group departs after concluding the sale of the YT-2000, they receive communication from Marquis Alsache or two separate bars that may have some of the leads that they’ve been looking for. Assessing that one bar appears to be more upper class, while the other is populated by the scum of the galaxy, they decide to break into two teams: Blaine and Tek will head to Bar 247 in the lower levels while Katira and Droo head to the Bar at Meteorite Towers to rub elbows with the more polished crowd.

> "*Don’t worry, we’re not actually going to look for intel. We’re **just** gonna drink*"
> ― Katira
>
>

As Katira and Droo exit the lift, they walk into an extremely lavish bar with well dressed clientele mingling amidst a view of Capitol City from on high. Droo surveys the area and immediately sees what appears to be Bota Zi sitting by himself at a table. Knowing that it couldn’t be Bota, Katira panics for a moment before noting that the man is *not* M-1. Ignoring the obvious bait, Katira leads Droo to the bar and says they need to get a drink after a long day. They easily signal the bartender amidst several Twi’Lek, humans, and apparent politicians.

Meanwhile, Tek and Blaine arrive at the seedy Bar 247 - 150 levels down. Feeling at home amidst the grunge of society, they approach the bartender looking for information. The bartender simply tells them that if they want an informant, he’s not the guy that they want to be talking to. A nearby patron turns to face the duo, asking what they’re looking to know. After a brief introduction - the man calls himself Dander Main - they move to a nearby booth to talk.

> "*What’s your name?*"
> ― Blaine
>
>

> "*Tek. You know that, Blaine!*"
> ― Tek
>
>

Upstairs, Droo orders a *Fuzzy Tauntaun* and Katira orders an *Alderaanian Aftermath*. When no garnish is available, Droo changes her order to a *Dewback Toejam*, with the added note to sand the rim. A man approaches, looking straight at Katira and asking:

> "*Are you Katira Eve?*"
> ― Lannik Rakto
>
>

> "*Yes, I am.*"
> ― Droo
>
>

Not taking his gaze from Katira, he tells the pair that they need to come with him. Katira refuses out of hand, departing the bar and heading in the direction of the Bota Zi look-alike. The mystery man then says that he can give them a reason. As he presses a few buttons on his datapad, 3 assassin battle droids approach from the far end of the bar to head off their escape and telling them that they are about to be apprehended for their recent activities. Katira walks away calmly, but then watches as Bota’s face transforms in front of her eyes. She throws the contents of her drink in the Clawdite's face and tries to make a scene. Droo then clears the sand from the rim of her drink and throws it into the eyes of the other man.

Sand in his eyes, their pursuer draws a stun baton and ignites it. Energy crackles around the weapon as he swings it in the direction of both Droo and Katira. Luckily, the sand in his eyes threw off his swing just enough, and both women manage to dodge and tumble (without much grace) over the nearby bar and into relative cover. As she looks for some form of weapon, Katira contacts Blaine and Tek, asking for aid.

> "*We’ve got 3 assassin droids, a Clawdite, and some other guy attacking up here. So if you guys would like to join us as soon as possible… Otherwise we might not see you for a while*"
> ― Katira
>
>

> "*It sounds serious, but it **is** 150 floors up, and we **did** just get these drinks…*"
> ― Tek
>
>

Receiving the call for assistance, Blaine and Tek look questioningly at their informant. Not putting up a front, he states that he knew what was going to occur upstairs and recommends that they don’t go up to join them. He also tells them that the entire group is being targeting by something that is much bigger than they realize. Blaine and Tek both attempt to glean more information, even offering to pay to flip the informant, but eventually have to make a run for it to help their allies.

Upstairs, the assassin droids begin to open fire over the bar, containing Katira and Droo. As the lights dim and the curtains begin to lower - controlled from some remote location - Katira peeks over the bar and fires her hold-out blaster at the Clawdite, wounding him. Droo then releases the bar security droid (mouse droid) and throws several bottles of liquor at the Clawdite - adding insult to injury - and tossing ice all around outside the bar in hopes of tripping the droids up.

Just as the main lights blink out, the assailant creeps to the bar and tosses in a stun grenade. A look of terror crosses Katira and Droo’s faces as Droo grabs the grenade in her hands.

## **Featured Characters**

### **Our Heroes**

* Blaine Hansom
* Droo Vos
* Katira Eve
* Tek Krodak

### **NPCs**

* Drexia Lunn
* Merrick Kleiner
* Lannik Rakto
* Al'Teese

### **Mentioned**

* Bota Zi
* M-1

## **Inventory**

* -100,000cr for Chi-Class Dropship (Blaine)
* +The Roulette (Blaine)
* -25,000cr for custom speeder (Katira)
* +Katira's Custom Speeder (Katira)
* -50,000cr for YT-2000 Freighter (Tek)
* +Tek's YT-2000 Freighter (Tek)

## **Notes**

* Blaine skill boost:
	+ -10CP: Persuasion to 6D
	+ -12CP: Streetwise to 5D
	+ -6CP: Business to 7D
	+ -18CP: Investigation to 7D

* Katira’s rolled for top rarity before engaging in conversations with Draxia. Other goods that were available:
	1. YT-1900 Freighter
	2. Correlian XS Light Freighter

* Chi-Class Dropship:
	1. Hyperdrive is still in good shape
	2. Hull is in good condition/spaceworthy
	3. Modifications to reduce crew size

* Custom Speeder:
	1. Itchy trigger on the lasers
	2. should make sure to keep the cells charged up
	3. previous owner named it the *Bandit*

* YT-2000 Freighter:
	1. Used more or less sparingly and little wear shown
	2. Hyperdrive is about 3 years from an overhaul
	3. No modifications have been performed

## **Quotations**

> "*Cloud City has hosted not **only** Darth Vader, but also: Princess Leia, Han Solo, and Luke Skywalker.*"
> ― Blaine
>
>

> "*Does Droo own clothes?!*"
> ― Laurel
>
>

> "*So what kind of force powers do you have?*"
> ― Blaine
>
>

> "*I’m pretty sure that I can put someone in a hibernation trance*"
> ― Droo
>
>

> "*Just find a Senator that has an auto-erotic asphyxiation kink…*"
> ― Blaine
>
>

> "*What do you wanna know?*"
> ― Kleiner
>
>

> "*I wanna know how much your jacket costs, ‘cuz I’m gonna buy it off you.*"
> ― Tek
>
>

> "*Have you seen this Ghtroc Freighter?*"
> ― Blaine
>
>

> "*And quit dodging my jacket question.*"
> ― Tek
>
>

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