There are Still Shadows in Constant Light

[Tmoxin Temi]

There are not many things which can be considered shadowy on Hapes. A planet with seven moons and almost constant light even at night, the idyllic planet is nearly as bright as day during every waking hour. But like most planets, Hapes had its share of shadowy locations where illegal goods could still be transported without customs or local authorities knowing. For example, the rare and expensive rainbow gems from nearby Gallinore often made their way in and out of this particular shadowport which was nestled away in snow-peaked mountains away from Fountain Palace and anywhere the Royal Guards would be heavily patrolling. The only structures nearby were some administrative buildings for a game preserve where wealthy Hapan citizens tried their luck at shooting mountain lions.

[member="Orick T'ane"] had been given the following instructions through a secure encrypted network:

//incoming transmission...

To: Orick T'ain
From: Blood Monarch

The shipment I need is located in the Hapan mountains in a shadowport called HAP-730. Your arrival is expected and I've made arrangements for safe passage. If something does happen, however please contact me at this direct line. The shipment is to be delivered to the planet Lok in the Outer Rim.

Please send along rates and payment terms at your earliest convenience. Coordinates for both locations are attached.

//transmission ending...

 

[Orick T'ane]

Orick read the message several times before he finally decided to take the job. He was on his way to Nar Shaddaa to look for anew job, the last one had worked out worse than he had planned, but he had a stack of cash in his bank account now, and it wouldn't hurt for him to stash a bit more away. The ranger was in need of a major refit and credits always made it better. He sat back down in the pilots chair and plotted a course for Hapen. He wasn't far enough away to worry too much, a few hours and he would be close enough for a couple of micro jumps to get near the planet itself.

He picked up his datapad and typed out the reply. He wasn't always happy with the idea of getting random messages for jobs, but smuggling wasn't exactly something one did in a boardroom.

// Incoming transmission...

To : Blood Monarch
From: Orick T'ane

Accepted. Have 15k creds in untraceable cred chips waiting for me on Lok, as well as clearance for safe passage when the package is delivered.

//Transmission ending...

Orick turned off the autopilot and turned towards the hyperspace coordinates he had been working on. Once he was on his way and had time to relax he began looking into who this 'Blood Monarch ' was. He wanted to be prepared for anything that may happen to spring up.

 

[Tmoxin Temi]

// Incoming transmission...

To : Orick T'ane
From: Blood Monarch

Affirmative. Safe passage has been arranged both ways.

//Transmission ending...

Meanwhile in the HAP-730 Shadowport, nestled in the Hapan mountains, two male shadowport workers wheeled a large, unmarked crate into the port and stationed it in the corner. Neither of them knew who they were working for. The only instructions they were given were to stand and guard the mystery crate until a smuggler arrived to transport it. They were armed with blaster rifles but neither of them were on too high of alert as the mountain shadowport was not heavily populated. After awhile they sat down on a couple of chairs with a makeshift table and played a game of pazaak to pass the time.

Even if the smuggler were to come at night, no gloword would be needed. The seven moons which orbited Hapes would brilliantly light his way.

[member="Orick T'ane"]

 

[Orick T'ane]

Orick checked the last message from this ' Blood Monarch', payment was in place and passage was secured. He smiled as he put the data pad down, He had just dropped out of hyperspace in the Hapen system and he coasted through as many blind routes as he could. Stealth was the key to this entire mission going well. He was still weary of who had contracted him for this job, if the name 'Blood Monarch' had any connection to the Imperial stormtrooper unit that he might have bitten off more than he could chew with this delivery. He guided the ship towards one of the many waypoints he had plotted when he first dropped out of hyperspace and he readed himself for a micro jump closer to the planet.

The micro jump took only a few seconds to complete as he wasn't going far, the entire idea was to just get closer to the planet quicker than standard drives would take. The big problem was that if someone was paying attention for hyperspace activity, it would set off alarms. He hoped that his small freighter wouldn't cause too much of a ripple and that he could just slide past any prying eyes. The trip into the planet was fast and the only sound was the roaring flames that covered the ship briefly as he entered the planet's atmosphere. He wished he had invited Ana onto this run, he was beginning to feel that she was as much a part of his life as anyone ever had been, and she definitely made the Ranger feel less lonely.

The shadowport was exactly where the datapad said it would be, and he got clearance almost as soon as he asked for it. The port itself was small, it had maybe a dozen landing pads and only a couple hangers, one of which he guided the ranger into. As he set the ship down, more softly than the last couple of times, he could see that there were two attendants and a large crate in the corner. Neither man looked to attentive and they both seemed uninterested in the ship landing in the hanger. Orick strapped on his pistol belt as he powered down the ship. The walk to the cargo area was a quick and familiar one for him. He slapped the panel for the cargo doors and watched as they opened.

[member="Tmoxin Temi"]

 

[Orick T'ane]

Site double posted me, ignore this.

 

[Tmoxin Temi]

The sleepy Hapan mountain shadowport was just as safe and very much as uneventful as Blood Monarch had promised. Which would signal one of two things: either the cargo was insignificant, worth little to most, but perhaps a great deal to the person who contacted the smuggler. Or the smooth pick-up would signify that Blood Monarch was extremely well connected on Hapes and had just the right contacts to make sure her precious cargo would be delivered securely.

Either way, the two Hapan guards acknowledged Orick T’ane with a nod. One lowered his rifle and said, “Here’s your pick up.” The other guard still held his rifle but neither Hapans appeared even that interested in the smuggler. In fact, they looked more annoyed that their card game had been interrupted. The crate was larger than a human, perhaps ten feet across and six feet high. And it was already sitting on a gurney, ready to be loaded into Orick T’ane’s freighter.

[member="Orick T'ane"]

 

[Orick T'ane]

Orick nodded at the two guards as they approached, " Gents, how's tricks." He looked at the crate and then back to the two guards, " I'll handle this, don't let me interrupt your game. " He wanted to be annoyed at their attitude, but they were probably told nothing but to watch the crate, and they were either paid for chit, or they were terrified into watching it.

He pushed the gurney onto the ship and thought about just leaving the gurney like it was, but he didn't trust the mag lock systems to keep it locked in place until he had a chance to get a refit on the ship. He walked to the back of the ship and pulled out a small grav lift and wheeled it over to the gurney. He operated the small forkes to gently lift the crate off of the gurney and then he lowered it to the floor. He grabbed a couple of shiping straps as he placed the lift back into the locker. He gave the guards one final look and pushed the gurney back into the hanger. Slapping the panel to close the cargo doors he made his way back to the cockpit, he dropped the pistol belt back into the copilot's chair and he began to fire up the engines again.

The flight back out of the shadowport was eventless, which was odd for Orick. He hadn't had a run go this smooth in well... forever. Even the legal runs usually were complicated by one thing or the other, the fact that this run was smooth meant that there was a good chance that he was dealing with that 'Blood Monarch'. The idea of delivering whatever it was that was in the crate to an imperial commander make him a bit nervous. He hit space and turned the ship towards the coordinates he had pre programmed for Lok. He wondered again about what was so important that he had to do this kind of shadow drop for the Imps, but he wasn't really sure what he should do about it. Right now I'll just get paid and worry about it later.

[member="Tmoxin Temi"]

 

[Tmoxin Temi]

The crate which was now on Orick T'ane's ship had a tracking device inside along with its precious cargo, so Tmoxin knew where the smuggler was at all times once he had made the pick up. This way if he decides to run off with it, I can retrieve it, she thought. But let's hope that doesn't happen because that would be an unfortunate waste of her time and resources.

In order to get the Morpho laboratory ready, Tmoxin had brought in a bio-engineer from the Imperial Science Bureau. They were both inspecting the lab and preparing it for her cargo arrival. She would need a sterile room in which to install the machine which was en route, so her new toy would situated just across the hall from the main laboratory area. The bio-engineer was very interested to play around with the technology and the Hapan officer couldn't wait to show it off.

[member="Orick T'ane"]

 

[Orick T'ane]

The trip to Lok was nice and smooth, the Ranger hadn't given him any issues along the way, she was behaving better than usual considering how much damage there had been to her lately. He was approaching the planet and he typed in the coordinates for the landing zone. He noticed that it wasn't a spaceport, but a private facility, which made him nervous. It was almost certain confirmation of who this 'Blood Monarch' was, too much power for him to do anything but drop off his cargo and get the hell out of dodge.

The facility was plain and barely showed up as anything other than a landing pad and a small building next to it. Orick wondered if there was an underground facility attached to it and then stopped caring. Lets just get the cargo where it's supposed to go and get the hell our of dodge. He brought the ship down on the landing pad and left the engines humming lightly. He wasn't going to wait for things to go badly on this run, that only happened once before he changed his tactics. He strapped on his pistol belt and pulled the cut down shotgun he had stashed on the bridge.

He held the shotgun by it's grip loosely, he wanted to be sure they knew he wouldn't be a pushover, but he didn't want to seem a threat either. He slapped the cargo door open and he casually leaned against the crate. He wanted to let anyone that happened to see him know that while he was being casual, he was all business if things went wrong.

[member="Tmoxin Temi"]

 

[Tmoxin Temi]

No sooner than Orick T’ane had landed, he would see a large cargo speeder coming up to the facility. It was a military vehicle, covered and armored with tinted windows. The vehicle hovered up next to the landing pad and its repulsorlifts allowed it to touch down to the sandy, desert ground.
Five stormtroopers emerged from the speeder and as two of them opened up the back of the speeder so that the cargo could be loaded in, the other three approached the smuggler.

“Give us your weapon, Sir,” said one of the troopers. “You’ll get it back when we’re done here.”

Commander Temi watched and listened to all of this from the speeder interior through a visual screen that was hooked to a small holocamera on the exterior of the vehicle. She examined the smuggler who she had hired and summarized him as your garden-variety scoundrel. He didn’t look terribly dangerous but rugged enough to have been through a few scuffles she was sure of that. But the Commander would not come out of the speeder until he was first disarmed and his ship searched. She didn’t need a renegade mercenary or worse bounty hunter to come flying out of that ship blasters a’blazin’.

Tmoxin was feeling a little less infamous lately but her Red Raven bounty was still at a million credits after all.

[member="Orick T'ane"]

 

[Orick T'ane]

Orick saw the five stormtroopers and frowned. He didn't know what it was that required there to be that much security for one crate but it did kind of confirm that the 'Blood Monarch' was indeed the imperial commander he was worried it would be. He saw three of the stormtroopers break away from the group and he frowned. Two of the troopers approched him and one stopped a bit short, obviously to watch him in case he decided to do something stupid.

He sighed as the lead trooper asked for his gun, " Sure thing." He said as he flipped the shotgun around and handed it to the trooper grip first. Without pausing he flipped the catch off of the heavy pistol on his waist and handed it over as well. He shook his head as he stood and slipped the small hold out blaster from its holster at the small of his back. " that's everything I'm carrying. Do you need me to unlace my boots too, those strings might be dangerous."

Orick was trying to sound neutral when he spoke but it was obvious that he was being sarcastic. He wondered what was in the box that rated this type of security. More importantly with all of this trouble what were the chances of getting out without getting arrested again. He was hoping to avoid having that become a habit when he made deliveries.

[member="Tmoxin Temi"]

 

[Tmoxin Temi]

In silence the stormtroopers took the weapons from the smuggler nor did they show any emotional reaction to the joke. The two troopers which had opened the back now also stood in front of Orick T'ane.

"We'll need to search your ship as well. For security reasons."

Behind them in the speeder, the smuggler would see finally see Commander Temi emerge. She walked over to the troopers and took a brief glance at the confiscated weapons. She was thin and of average height with red hair which was pinned up in the back. She wore the greyish green uniform of an Imperial officer and not the white and blue armor of a Stormtrooper Commander.

"Do you want the credit chips wired to you?" she asked. "After your freighter is examined and any threats removed of course. Hopefully you have no stowaways on board. I hope you realize this is just a precaution." She almost looked apologetic as though she had nothing to do with the intrustion into his ship and business.

Then she turned to one of the stormtroopers and said, "Soldier, start loading up the cargo."

 

[Orick T'ane]

He shrugged as the stormtrooper mentioned searching the ship, " That's fine with me. There's no one else aboard, there's more weapons on the ship though, but I figure as long as I'm here I'm not using them." First his weapons and now a ship search, it was more than irregular, even by imperial standards. it was then that he saw the speeder door open again and [member="Tmoxin Temi"] stepped out, He whistled softly to himself. He had seen her only from the holonet data he sliced into but he knew who she was from his Republic briefings. Tmoxin Temi, Hapen, age 31, Commander in the Imperial inquisition. She was the complete package, pretty and deadly all at the same time.

He now knew why there was security at all, she had a price on her head and caution was one of the many reasons why her head was still on her shoulders. Even if he wanted to try to take the bounty, he wouldn't consider doing it on a run, he never mixed his jobs. " Commander." He said with a nod, he tried to remain cool and collected, but he knew that a word from this woman would complicate his life beyond all measure. " That works fine for me. I'm not worried about anyone watching my accounts." He stood slowly and let the stormtroopers " I sure hope there's no stowaways aboard. I didn't count the extra weight into my fuel costs." he smiled slightly.

" Commander, you should know, that five troopers as a security detail is a bit small. You may trust me enough to want to come pick this up yourself, but you could have sent anyone in your place. Why take the risk on the off chance that it's someone here to collect on your bounty? Honestly, five troopers may have stopped me, but they may not have. " He knew that he was only causing himself undue trouble, but he was always looking at the intangibles and his penchant for asking questions was what had gotten him into trouble in the Republic.

 

[Tmoxin Temi]

Tmoxin immediately furrowed her brow at the smuggler’s challenging statement. Why does my day have to be filled with impudent men? It seems that the entire male race – human, near-human, even aliens - would be more than happy to question her, tell her off, disobey her orders and generally cause her great annoyance today, she thought. Tmoxin would never get used to the equality afforded to men outside of Hapes where male beings were servants, second-class citizens and completely subjugated, unless they were of extremely high political stature or somehow had the ear of the Queen in an advisor capacity. Such a good way to go about things and how she missed it terribly right now!

“My security detail is none of your concern, smuggler,” she said her voice sharp with outrage. But needing to get the last word in on the matter she added, “Of course, I was in touch with my sources the minute you picked up the shipment and have been tracking your whereabouts since so I know for a fact you haven’t picked up any additional surprises.”

One of the stormtroopers beside her took it upon himself to get a little too close to Orick T’ane. “You think you can take all of us, eh?” he asked, flicking his two fingers at the smuggler’s chest, making contact with a thump. Not hard - more like an annoying gnat. “I’d like to see you try it.”

“Stand down, soldier. That’s an order!” shouted Tmoxin to the trooper. She had what she wanted right now – she didn’t want blood on her hands to go along with it.

But her eyes betrayed her overly confident demeanor, and she glanced over to make sure all of the stormtroopers were in her sights. “All clear, Commander,” said the squad leader as the troops exited Orick T’ane’s freighter. The cargo was now loaded into the back of the roomy cargo hold in the speeder.

[member="Orick T'ane"]

 

[Orick T'ane]

he smiled and held his hands up in defense, " I meant no disrespect, Commander. I have a bad habit of asking questions, I should have known better.." He sighed and tried to remain calm, he wasn't looking for a fight. He knew that he could take the stormtroopers with little issue, but she was a wildcard he wasn't willing to flip over. he just wanted to get out of this alive at this point. There was too much valuable information to be shared to end up getting a blaster bolt in the head.

" You offered me a job, and I took it. I've never gone against my word when it comes to a job. If I tell you I'm dropping something off, then until I'm done doing that, nothing else is going to happen. You don't survive in this business for long if you're not honest and trustworthy." He chuckled a bit at the thought of needing to honest to be a smuggler but you did. If you couldn't be trusted to get the job completed

" Again I apologize for any disrespect. I didn't mean anything by it." If she wanted to think of him as just a smuggler then he would let her. He looked the part for a reason. He was going to have to stop asking stupid questions in the future, he needed to just smuggle and be done with it. He adjusted his placement in the cargo hold to ensure that he was in the line of fire for the stormtrooper that was guarding him, he didn't want to seem like he was intentionally trying to fool him.

[member="Tmoxin Temi"]

 

[Tmoxin Temi]

With a nearly imperceptable nod of her head, the stormtroopers lined up in formation beside her. The smuggler would be able to tell that Tmoxin had relaxed somewhat after his apology, but the soldiers were still taut, poised and ready to fire at a moment's notice.

"There may be more jobs like this one, T'ane," said Tmoxin. "I'm glad you've proven yourself trustworthy. I will be in touch if I need you," she said. Seemingly the Commander had accepted his apology by offering more work. "Lok is a neutral planet," she continued. "But the Imperial Garrison is not far from here. You'd best be on your way lest you attract unwanted attention from my patrol units."

And with that statement, she climbed back into the speeder first,and then her security detail would follow, their blasters still trained on him. She would not reveal the cargo he had delivered. That would remain a mystery to the smuggler. But he would now have another contact in the Commander, and with the amount of supplies she would need delivered to the Morpho Center of Imperial Training - supplies not sanctioned by the Imperial Army - he would assuredly find himself the recipient of another message from Blood Monarch in the near future.

[member="Orick T'ane"]

 

[Orick T'ane]

" Anytime you need it, Commander." Those were the only words he said in reply as he watched [member="Tmoxin Temi"] and her stormtroopers walk back to the truck. The extra work wouldn't be too hard and the information he would gather from the different places he went would help as well. He would have to find out who was free to do some digging into this project. He knew that Lok was a neutral world and it held an Imperial garrison, but she mentioned that her patrols would arrest him, which made him wonder exactly what was going on. She was dealing from the bottom of the deck, of that he was sure, but why would she risk everything. he saw the last stormtrooper drop his weapons on the the landing pad as he got into the cargo speeder.

As quickly as they arrived they were gone, and he couldn't help but wonder just who, or what the hell was going on around here. He stepped out far enough to recover his weapons and stepped into the ship again. he had a lot to think about, much more than he had the day before. He slapped the panel and he heard the cargo door closing behind him. He didn't think he would be sleeping much tonight.