SotB LIV: Friendly Fire, Part II

*The Broker thinks she has located Tortie and is sending the agents in right away!*

## Agents

### Team Prison

* Gristle
* Rogesh Vai
* Sev-ak
* Erdogan Cael
* Hack

### Team Port

* Derra
* Aiden
* R0C-K4 "Rocky"
* Rhuk
* Zeevo the Hutt
* Wulf

## Mission Report (Session 2)

*Summary by Ben*

The Broker contacts the agents with news of her investigation into Tortie’s whereabouts. As it turns out, he’s been traced to the Imperial-controlled prison planet of Ord Vaxal. With Borga’s help, the Broker has identified a slave trade originating from the planet. One team of agents is to infiltrate the prison facilities as prisoners in order to track down and secure Tortie, and the other is to go to the Hutts and organize an exfiltration in the form of a slave trade. Borga him/herself calls in shortly afterward, informing the agents that a rival, Sassallo, has established a shadowport on Ord Vaxal using a gap in the Empire’s security, and is using it as her base of operations for the trafficking of captured prisoners as new slaves for trade.

Gristle, Rogesh, Sev-ak, Erdo and Hack decide to head down to the planet as prisoners while Zeevo, Rhuk, Aiden, Wulf and Derra go to meet with the hutts at Sassallo’s shadowport in order to secure the deal that will get the agents and Tortie off of Ord Vaxal.

After securing their spots aboard one of the Empire’s transports, and shedding all of their gear in exchange for prison uniforms, the infiltration team finds themselves waiting patiently for the ship to descend. After breaching atmosphere, the pilot calls into the cabin, announcing some incoming fire just before an explosion tears a hole in the side of the hull. At the same time, a compartment flies open, spilling gravchute packs into the cabin. Despite being tossed around a bit, most of the agents are able to grab and secure one of the chutes and bail out of the open ramp. On the way down, a pack of aiwha flies into their path. Sev-ak aims for one of their backs, landing briefly before being shrugged off and sent tumbling down onto another, which allows him to stay on, but swoops off in a different direction. Hack also latches onto one while the other agents just avoid the flying beasts, angling themselves between them. Erdo tosses the spare gravchute to Hack, who quickly straps it on and gets ready to continue the descent more safely. Sev-ak tries to wrangle the beast carrying him off and manages to gain control with some strenuous maneuvering. Realizing that it’s an amphibious beast, preferring the air and water over land, Sev-ak sadly ditches his beast, hopping off again to continue his descent.

The agents all land relatively close together in the jungle and take a few moments to form back up and catch their breath. Rogesh notices the tracks of a large beast nearby, and Gristle picks up its scent, keeping it in mind just in case. Together, the agents try to find their way toward a city they’d seen from the sky. Progress is smooth, but Rogesh looks little worse for wear due to the effects of his painkiller addiction. Yelling out in frustration, he quickly hears a response from nearby, and Gristle notices a familiar scent. The agents hunker down and begin to move away, but Sev-ak and Rogesh are noticed. The creature, some sort of large reptile, bellows and is met with another roaring response from nearby. Sev-ak attempts to distract the creature, which bounds after him and gnashes its fangs, giving the weequay a shallow wound. Erdo moves back to help while Gristle and Rogesh keep running in the direction of the city. Just then, Tortie emerges from the jungle ahead of them at full sprint with another of the large saurian creatures in tow. The duros turns to fire a slugthrower pistol at the beast, but his shot goes wide. Finally noticing the agents, he stops for a moment, baffled by their presence, unwittingly dodging a snap of the lizard’s huge jaws. Hack steps in to cover him, flicking his hidden vamblades into position and slashing at the creature’s leg. With one of them barring the direction they were heading to, Tortie points off between them and guides the others in a dash away, weaving through the forest to find a safe spot. However, coming into a new patch of jungle, the agents stumble upon a pack of smaller lizard-like animals drinking from a stream. They all look up, cocking their heads at the intruders. Rogesh attempts to calm them, and Erdo recalls that these sort of creatures have been domesticated in the past. Tortie suggests they just go around and leave the lizard-dogs alone. The agents agree and the group moves away toward the edge of the jungle and into a clearing ahead of the city.

Tortie leads the others to a hut in town, where they’re able to meet in safety and privacy. Tortie claims he’d been out in the forest looking for salvage, and appears to be telling the truth, but seems to have no knowledge at all of the hutt shadowport and the slaving operation based out of it. As far as he knows, there’s no way off of the planet. He shows the agents a rough map of the city, Tof Soren, which includes a section higher up on a mesa, called Old Soren. He claims that Old Soren is made up of the ruins of the old bombed-out spaceport, and that anyone who goes up there tends to disappear. He offers up a cache of old slugthrowers he’s procured. The agents take what supplies Tortie has gathered, at least to barter with, and head off toward one of the local dealers, which their sights on exploring Old Soren, thinking it may be the location of the hidden shadowport. Along the way, Tortie is sighted by some of the local thugs, who leap to attack. Rogesh seizes Tortie, pretending that the team is taking him in for owing them money. The ‘peacekeepers’ buy the story and let them off the hook, shooing them off to a nearby neighborhood. Tortie leads them on a roundabout route back toward the medical supply shop, where they begin bartering for some old stimpacks. They end up trading off one of their gravchutes, but aren’t able to get anything for Tortie’s slugthrowers, which appear to have been stolen recently. Rogesh asks after some painkillers, but Gristle refuses to entertain the idea and ushers everyone out of the store with their new stimpacks, satisfied with the transaction. From there, Tortie leads them up through another district toward Old Soren and is able to talk his way past a few more peacekeepers.

They find the ruins decrepit, heavily bombed and picked apart over many salvage expeditions. However, there are still a few large pieces of metal laying around, almost made to look attractive to your average scavenger. Rogesh moves forward to investigate, assuming it to be a trap, and accidentally springs the trap in the process. Several ambushers rise from the rubble near Rogesh and others begin to close in from nearby. Sev-ak charges in with a knife Tortie had given him and stabs into one of the leading attackers. Two of them step back, drawing bolas to throw at Sev-ak, entangling his legs. Another of them throws a bola at Rogesh, but the spy manages to jump over the swinging cord in time to avoid it. Hack closes in with one of the ambushers, flipping his vamblades out again to strike with both, ripping apart his opponent’s truncheon while inflicting a wound on their hands. Without a melee weapon, the supposed slaver retreats and follows the suit of his allies, pulling out a bola of his own to sling around Hack’s legs. Gristle moves in to assist Hack, striking a nerve on the attacker. Erdo uses the Force to leap across the pile of rubble, landing beside the one who’d entangled Sev-ak and knocking him to the ground as well.

Just then, one of the guards stops and announces that he has a call for them. The agents then hear Zeevo’s voice, asking them to stand down so that they can strike a deal for their freedom. Zeevo seems to have maneuvered himself into a position to secure their escape, but it’ll cost a hefty sum for each head, including Tortie’s. The team stops their fighting, waiting for Zeevo’s negotiations to pay off. After a few long moments, the guard announces that a deal has been made and offers to lead them to the shadowport proper, where they meet up with the other agents, who seem to have also purchased the lives of some bio-modified Alliance soldiers.