S4, 03 The Search Continues (September 18, 2017)

In this freebuild for The Insurgency, the Search for Jakor squad is puzzled by a riddle left for them by Jakor.

April 27 2097

Jakor’s riddle

Divided, yet a whole, it is one of eight,

The origin of greatness, you will find it: paria.

Jera: "This is so annoying! Why is Jakor putting us through all this trouble to find him?"

Mark: "Just think of it as a larger challenge for a greater reward."

Kirin: "That still doesn’t make it any easier. There are so many different clues."

Jang: "And Jakor didn’t even spell ‘pariah’ right."

Erik: "I just thought of something!"

Erik: "What if “The origin of greatness” refers to Jakor?"

Rocket: "Seems a little egotistic, but it could work."

Jaze: "What if we looked in Jakor’s recordings of his missions? The recording device is on his helmet."

Kirin: "We don’t have a viewer for it, do we?"

Mark: "I don’t think so, but I think I know where we can get one."

Later at the Hey Now station…

Jaze: "Man, the viewers, not to mention everything else, are so expensive here. The inflation going on in the economy sure is bad."

Erik: "I think this place’s prices were inflated to begin with."

Jaze walks back into the electronics store.

Music from radio:

Hey now,heey nooow,

don’t dreaaam iit’s ooveer.

Hey now, heey nooow,

when the woorld coomes iin,

they come,theey cooome,

to build a wall between us,

we know they won’t wiin…

Jera: "This song’s kinda fitting for right now."

Erik: "How so?"

Jera: "It’s encouraging us to not give up our search."

Erik: "Hey, you’re right."

Jera: "I actually just came up with that to give a better reason than the fact that this is the Hey Now station."

Caleb: "Guys, we solved a part of the riddle!"

Mark: "Really? What is it?"

Rocket: "We think the “one of eight” might be the planets and sun of the system."

Caleb: "And “divided, yet a whole” is a direction to a specific planet, and the only one that could match that description is-"

Kirin: "I got part of the riddle!"

Jang: "And I got loot!"

Kirin: "I got to thinking that ‘paria’ is an anagram, and the only thing we could think of that matched with it is-"

All: "IAPRA!"

Jaze: "Are you kidding me?! You solved it already?? I just payed 50 credits\* for this!"

(\*I assume those viewers normally cost 20 credits without Hey Now and galactic inflation.)

Later, in a market on the warm side of Iapra.

Jera: "Well, now what do we do?"

Jaze: "I suppose we stick around at this market. He’s bound to come to one of these places sometime."

Caleb: "Assuming he actually buys things. You know, instead of stealing them like he usually does."

Jaze: "Let’s split up. Jera, you stay here."

Jera: "OK."

???: (far off voice) "You sheem fermiliar."

Jera turned toward the voice

Jera: "…What do you mean?"

Squid being: "Shomthing about you…"

The being walked slowly toward Jera.

Squid being: "I get the feeling I have seen you before, but I carn’t remember where…"

Then he stopped.

Squid being: "I…I remember!"

Then he lunged and grabbed Jera,his demeanor changing just as quickly.

Squid being: (angrily) "YOU! I remember now! You were responsible!"

Jera: "Woah man, I don’t know what you’re talking about!"

Squid being: "You doon’t know who I am? I’m not sheer I entirely know meeself now, but once I was a dreaded gang leader, known throughout the galaxy as..…Squidman!!"

Jera: "Wait, I think I remember now! You boarded a transport that I was on!"

Squidman: "Yesh, YEESH, and you were responsible for my arrest! The empire and reputation that I had beilt up, all taken away because of YOU!!"

Jera: "Um, I think it’s Jayko and the Galactic Imperium that you should be more concerned about."

Squidman: "You shee this here??"

Jera: "The metal arm? It’s sorta cool I guess?"

Squidman: "I lost this arm escaping from that, that…PLACE! It was a hard, yesh, yesh it was; heeheehee, but I made it!"

Jera: "Are you blaming me for that? That’s kinda your own stinkin fault!"

Squidman: "The crawling, on and on and on, wandering in a circle, or was it a spiral? Pain yesh, great pain, but the delishous freedom in sight, had to keep going, danger on every turn-"

Jera: "I’ve had ENOUGH!"

Jera: "You’re insane! I don’t have or want any part in this mad revenge trope you have going on!"

Squidman: "How can you say that wheen you were the one who called them over?"

Jera: "Maybe, but you’d have been better off doing the time, or not getting into crime."

Squidman: "Oh, that reminds me-"

Two thugs come in

Squidman: "I have begun to rebuild my glorious empire!"

Jera: (backing away) "Why are you two following this crazy dude?"

Squidman: "The time of your paying has come! Hee hee!"

Jera blocked a punch from the alien.

But then he was tackled by the armored thug.

WUMP

A backpack pushed the thug off Jera.

Jera: "Jaze!"

Jaze: "What’s going on?"

Squidman: "Who are you?? No matter, you wheel not interfere with my revenge!"

Jera: "This crazy guy blames me for his arrest. I guess I was kinda responsible for it, but not a whole lot."

The alien again launched a punch, only to be blocked once again.

The alien was tackled by Jaze as Jera was kicked in the leg by the armored thug.

Jera backed away…

…and was soon joined by Jaze as the armored thug started pulling out his gun.

Jera: "Do you have a gun?"

Jaze: "No. Do you?"

Jera: "Why do we not have guns?!"

Jaze: "I thought this was going to be a simple undercover mission!"

VRRRRRRRR!!

Jera: "What’s that noise?"

Suddenly, the armored thug was rammed by a hover bike!

Squidman ducked as the bike made a sharp turn that connected with the alien.

Stranger: (modulated voice) "Come with me if you want to live."

Jera: (whispering to Jaze) "Do we go with this guy? He kinda took care of the situation for us, so I think we’re good."

Jaze: (whispering) "I don’t think we have a choice. We wouldn’t have any chance of getting away if we did. (aloud to stranger) We’re coming. Just let me get my backpack."

The bike passed by Erik.

Erik: "Huh? Was that…?"

Stranger: "You behind me, I advise you put on the coat in the container. You’ll need it when we reach the other hemisphere.

Jera: "How come I don’t get the coat?"

Stranger: "You are currently better dressed for the change of climate then your friend here."

The group approached the prime meridian.

They crossed to the other hemisphere, feeling the abrupt change of temperature.

Jera: "That was weird."

They continued their journey.

Stranger: "We are approaching my place of residence."

As the bike stopped, Jera slumped from his spot on the back of the bike, relieved that he no longer needed to keep hanging on.

Stranger: "Stay here. I will be back soon."

Stranger: "I advise you do not touch anything here while I am gone."

Jaze: "Well, isn’t this great. We’re in a much better position now."

Jera: "At least this dude doesn’t want to kill us- as far as I know. And he was thoughtful enough to give you a coat."

Jaze: "Yeah, rescued then kidnapped… rescidnapped?"

Jera: "What’s with all the stuff in here? Is this guy a hoarder or something?"

Jaze: "Wow, I haven’t seen one of these in a while."

Jera: "Huh?"

Jaze: "This radar blocker here. I haven’t seen these used since early on in the war for some reason."

Jera: "Cool."

But the break in Jaze’s bad mood was short lived.

Jaze: "You know what, I’ve had enough of this."

Jaze: "I’m not taking any of this mysteriousness anymore!"

Jaze: "Alright, whoever you are, I want some answers! I do not appreciate being taken to this place, and I want to know who you are! I’ve had enough of-!"

Jera: "What’s going on?"

Jaze: "…I’m not quite sure."

In case you couldn’t tell by the parody of the ending of The Force Awakens, Jakor has finally been found! But it’s not over yet.

Hey Now station by Traykar.

The song Jera commented on is Don’t Dream It’s Over. I vaguely remember once hearing some song that had ‘hey now, hey now’ in it, and it amused me that such a song would be playing in a place called Hey Now.

The bit with Squidman was rather fun to write. I got inspiration for his inclusion in the story from rereading my entire series. You can find him mentioned here. Plus I needed someone to start a fight, originally with just Jaze, who would then be rescued by Jakor in disguise, but Jaze needed to be included in order to make a connection with Squidman, so now he’s a third wheel of sorts.

The inclusion of the radar blocker is also a result of looking at my old TI posts. #throwbackmonday