We Built This City on Rock and Roll (Outer Rim Coalition)

[Kingsley]

MESTRA SYSTEM​

MINOS CLUSTER​

​

"Rrrawk!" Kingsley cawed in amazement, "I've never seen anything like it."

News had spread throughout the Outer Rim like wildfire. A fresh pocket of durelium in the Javis Asteroid Field, so rich that even independent prospectors could make a fortune if they found the right rock. The hiitian smuggler had docked at Javis-12 briefly to refuel and stock up on equipment, but now he was taking the bulk freighter Eravana as deep as he could manage into the massive expanse.

"Gogowa!" his first mate and chief mechanic Iziz wailed nervously in jawaese.

"Would you relax?" the avian captain scowled, narrowly avoiding another collision, "There's no pirates out here!"

There were definitely pirates out here. But if Kingsley told his jawa crew that, they'd sabotage the ship until he agreed to cut their losses. It was worth the risk, in his mind. Even a modest node of durelium could be enough to get him out from the Hutt Cartel's death mark.


Objectives

1. It's an ore rush! Seek your fortune in the galaxy's largest asteroid field before greedy corporations can move in and capitalize on Mestra's newly discovered durelium rich cluster.
2. Javis-12 is the only asteroid with a spaceport, and it has never been busier. Patrol the docks and no fire zone on behalf of the Coalition.
3. An ore rush means desperate captains. Prey on the weak, hold a transport for cargo ransom but watch out for authorities.

 

[Kaia Starchaser]

A bit of mining never hurt anyone. Kaia Starchaser had heard that there was a pocket uncovered in the Jarvis Asteroid Field. The youngest Starchaser, clones aside, was making her way out there, a pair of the Gentes Freighters was entering the system while the backup Cutlass fighters were making their way towards the field. The Warden was hoping for the best outcome, but if the Coalition knew of this, that meant more would. But the fact was… there would be a lot of issues depending on the ships out there.

Hopefully the Alliance had something standing by, but the Underground was working its own network. That meant there would be someone out here to help protect the assets. And the Starchaser Enterprises mining division was only hopeful that they were going to make some money here.

Coalition and Alliance assets could use some of this ore, she felt. And if not? She could sell to the right people. The ships reverted, the pair of bulk freighters first, followed by the fighters. “Alright Enterprises, we’re going for the rocks, see if we can get a positive ID on the other ships nearby, and if we can work with them. Enough rocks here for a while!”

 

[Acaleus Thorn]

"Venus, refresh the position of the rocks in your scanners in my HUD" He hated the space suit, as being in a heavy armor diminished his movement, but he had a job to do. Venus linked the information taken from the scanners ship while the other workers came out of the hangar bay, floating to the asteroid and then started drilling the rocks of the asteroid. They needed to fill more than half of the crates in the ship to improve the new ships his company was going to create. He had some soldiers with the same suit patrolling the area, armed with simple rocket launcher. Simple guard duty.

"Ac, we have a ship...ships nearby. We werent able to hide our presence in time. Shall i open comms?" "Yeah, if there is a lot of pirates, the needles and workers must return to the ship ASAP" There were three unknown ships nearby, so everybody were starting to get nervous, knowing that they wouldnt reach in time if the other ships were pirates..."This is Acaleus Thorn, leader of this ship. Recent member of the Coalition and currently mining this asteroid. Who are you and what are your intention?"

[member='Kingsley'] [member='Kaia Starchaser']

 

[H3xle]

Javis-12 | Mestra System | Minos Cluster | Outer Rim Territories​

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Cole stepped out of the Sunskimmer, a heavily modified Loronar E-9 Explorer ship, and onto the deck plate of Javis-12. Behind him, his droid companion, R6-L3, rolled from the ramp and stopped next to him. The droid was dinged in several spots, but was otherwise clean with bright blue paint on it's angular dome. Cole, for his part, was dressed like a born Rimmer, with his nerf leather jacket open over a dark gray shirt. Black pants tucked into sturdy spacer boots, with a pistol holster strapped to his right thigh finished the ensemble.

"What do you think is going on?" The perpetually uninformed salvager asked his companion.

"Woooooph,vrooooo." Cole received as a response. Cole couldn't help but grin.

"Right, there are a lot of people here." He turned to the droid and raised an eyebrow to augment his grin. "I may have noticed that. Why, though, is the question I'd like answered."

"Vrooooovvv, whilooor." The droid seemed to respond happily, and Cole snorted a laugh.

"I could use a bit more time around people, thank you." He chuckled more, looking around. The platform was uncharacteristically busy, with people of various species moving to and from small ships landed on the platform. It was busy enough that Cole assumed he wouldn't have gotten a landing space if he hadn't had one reserved. "Alright, back to the ship with you. Lock it up and get to working on tuning the drive coils to see if we can clear that jitter on the down translation. I'll be looking to clear our credit form the last salvage run and get supplies loaded."

"Beep. Beep. Vroov."

"Yeah, and I'll find out what is going on and let you know. See you soon, buddy."

The droid rolled back up the ramp to the ship, which then closed up. Cole turned toward the dockmasters office and walked that way to see what could be seen about what was going on. Then it was off to the salvage yards to get his money.

 

[Kingsley]

"Ja'bo'ba!"

"I know, I know!" Kingsley croaked, swatting his jawa first mate away from the communications console, "Rrrawk! Just let me think!"

They were being hailed by an AT-120 freighter flashing Coalition telesponders. The hiitian smuggler had run afoul of their agents before, a complete misunderstanding of course, but as far as he knew he didn't have any outstanding warrants on him in this sector. Like all of his bulk freighter's bridge stations, the comm panel was half covered in datapads and crude jawa scrawlings. He scooped away leftovers from last night's dinner and opened a channel.

"We read you Thorn," he acknowledged, covering the mic with his talon briefly to think and unwittingly causing loud feedback, "This is the freetrader Eravana out of, uh...Gandle Ott. Rrrrawk! We sure are glad to see you. Me and the boys all feel safer knowing the Coalition is out here too."

Kingsley had never been to Gandle Ott before in his life, but it sounded like an upstanding place. Hopefully their presence would provoke no further scrutiny. He shooed Iziz off the bridge to go make sure the team of jawa mechanics he managed were suiting up for their own EVA operations. Eravana hadn't been designed with asteroid drilling in mind, but as with all things in the Outer Rim if you had a ship, there was a mod for that. The lads as Javis-12 had been more than accommodating, and although it looked unsightly the industrial sized laser drill now attached to his freighter's underbelly was the right tool for the job.

Unfortunately automated guidance systems had been extra, which meant that someone was going to have to go out there and aim the drill by hand. Kingsley's jawa crew had been 'volunteered' for the job by their enterprising captain.

"Check, check," the smuggler tapped his comm panel microphone, now on an internal line audible throughout the freighter and from inside the jawa's EV suits, "Don't worry fellas, this is gonna be a breeze. Remember what I said about the buddy system, and if you get separated just flail your arms as much as you can so we notice."

[member="Kaia Starchaser"] | [member="Acaleus Thorn"] | [member="Cole Nebula"]​

 

[Kaia Starchaser]

The Starchaser was actually pretty excited to be out here. She was hearing a few other communications coming through, and a familiar squawking from the bird man, what was his name again? Kingsley, right? Smuggler, and pilot? Maybe. She was debating getting down to her YT-2400, but was going to hang out on the bridge of the Corellian Star here. The dark haired Starchaser was looking out at the belt and the fighters that were popping into view.

“Squadron, keep close to the Gentes. And if anyone enters the field without an invite, you let me know and keep them at bay.” She wasn’t a Judge, not really even part of the Coalition, but with her last name, sometimes she could say a few things and people would turn their ships the other direction. Only sometimes, but with the Coalition nearby, it also helped keep some of the pirates at bay. The last thing anyone needed was that hodgepodge fleet coming around to bear on… well, anyone.

“Enterprise HQ, send in the listening ship. Want to keep an eye on the coming and goings here…” She sent a request for a pair of Forerunner class exploration ships to enter the area. They were using top of the line Silk equipment to keep aware of everything. She turned her comms to the other ships in the area while the pair of Gentes moved to the rocks, with scans being performed.

“This is Kaia Starchaser on the Corellian Star. Bringing a few ships in to watch ourselves. Anyone needs to refuel or empty out a hold, we can assist, and purchase.” Might as well do the Warden thing.

[member="Kingsley"]
[member="Acaleus Thorn"]
[member="Cole Nebula"]

 

[Rekha Kaarde]

There were things she could do, things that she needed and...well just things. Rekha was still recovering from Rhen Var she held her side once in a while and smirked through the discomfort. She was still breathing, and moving so she wasn't out of it yet.

Businesses were doing ok this this little things she was doing right now would help. The Captain of the Lucky Lady Transport was negotiating a deal with a few miners who wanted their cut before the companies moved in and negotiated them out of all the profit.

Benny Campo was standing with her right now explaining.."the sitcheashion is this Cap'n I got my portion all set to go. I need to get it out now."

Rekha nodded pursing her lips a bit as she thought about it all. "Well that's all fine. my situation is you pay half up front half when I deliver. Otherwise...your sitcheashion goes to someone else..understand?"

He nodded, "You a hard woman Cap'n I'll be back"

She watched him walk away she wanted to help she really did but she needed something out of this too. She looked aorund the flight deck making sure no one was getting out of hand either. She was doing a dual role right now ORC peacekeeper and transporter. It could work unless all hell broke lose.

She wasn't a hard woman she..well..just liked making her deals work.

[member="Kaia Starchaser"] | [member="Kingsley"] | [member="Cole Nebula"] | [member="Acaleus Thorn"] |

 

[Makai Dashiell]

Keen eyes caught the familiar insignia of The Lucky Lady as his vessel glided into the Minos Cluster. That meant only one thing - [member="Rekha Kaarde"] was somewhere nearby. Makai couldn't tell if the woman loved or hated him. She did name a signature drink after him...well...in away. That had to account for something. Maybe. Hopefully.


Thoughts of mining drifted by the wayside quickly as he pulled out his comm, looking through the contacts. Didn't he have Miss Kaarde's information? Or was that his father? Realistically she didn't wanted to be bothered by some teenaged kid. Seemed too late for that now. Eyebrows knit together as he was coming up empty handed. Could hail the ship. Couldn't hurt. Or he could be blown out of the sky. Fifty-fifty he figured his odds.


"Hailing any transport listening. Anyone know where I can reach Kaarde?"

 

[Rekha Kaarde]

There was a buzzing in her ear as Jarrod let her know someone was looking for her. Well she expected people to be looking for her she was afterall here for transporting people and their stuff out right.

The message was forwarded.

Rekha immediately began to laugh...you've got to be joking right. She shook her head, "Jarrod tell the squirt where to find me..tell me come in slow..don't scare the locals."

Geez...did this kid get around or what.

[member="Makai Dashiell"]

 

[Kingsley]

"Alright, everyone in position?" Kingsley's voice squawked over short range comms.

"Ashuna!"

A half dozen variations on the theme reported their readiness. Their captain ran through his check list one more time to make sure everything was operational, and then activated the mining laser's firing mechanism. Wails of terror forced him to yank off his comm set, the jawas were clinging onto dear life while the industrial cutter flared to life, roaring and shaking them to their bones. He counted down the seconds until impact, and when the bulk freighter's focused beam struck an asteroid and it began to shatter the sight struck Kingsley as glorious.

"Suck it up, ya babies," he grunted, wheeling his chair over to the bridge's tractor station and making sure the Eravana was ready to intercept drifting chunks of ore and guide them into his transport's massive cargo hold, "We're about to get rich! Stay out there and make sure there aren't any problems."

From what he understood, the radiation levels should be within acceptable tolerance level for a jawa.

"It's sure getting crowded out here," he muttered to no one in particular. Taking time away from the tractor station, Kingsley was glancing over the freighter's sensor readouts and noticed a few more telesponders on his auspex, "Hope everyone's friendly."

There was a shadow on the edge of his long range sensors. He tapped the sensor panel, and the reading flickered before fuzzing out. That was an ill omen, to many an experienced fringer sensor ghosts were a tell tale sign of pirate scouts. But they were just getting started, and it was probably his imagination playing tricks on him. Right?

[member="Kaia Starchaser"] | [member="Acaleus Thorn"] | [member="Cole Nebula"] | [member="Makai Dashiell"] | [member="Rekha Kaarde"]​

 

[Makai Dashiell]

[member="Rekha Kaarde"]


After an extremely terse message from Jarrod, Makai was starting to suspect the man didn't like him. It wasn't as if he was friends with the man anyways, Ms.Kaarde was always the one that seemed to gravitate towards him. By gravitate he meant tease and name unflattering drinks after but how many teenage boys could say a hot bar owner named a drink after them? Not many.


Vessel slowed to a crawl, not wanting to get blown out of the sky by cranky miners and a bar owners assistant. His mining vessel eased in quite well with the others, weaseling in a small space between two larger ones. It was only a matter of docking and attaching properly before wandering off into the ORC vessel to find Miss Kaarde.

 

[Kaia Starchaser]

She looked out at her ships and smiled. The equipment was good here, and it was giving her some ideas. She knew where most of the ore was around the Coalition space, but there were deeper pockets that people seldom ventured into. That was something she had spoken to the Starchaser Enterprise board about. A warship that was good at scanning down resources. Maybe something a bit more rare, something deeper in the Outback, or along the galactic rim.

Fortune favored the bold, right? It was worth a shot. Right now, it was a matter of watching her own mining vessels get out there, pulling rocks towards the Gentes which were going to break them down. For her, it was easy time to sit back, and collect a share of the profits. Her company had its goals, but keeping their people paid well was part of it.

“Keep to getting the rocks close. Even if we don’t break them up, we can rip some of them, take them with us. Don’t know how long before we start attracting attention.” She announced to her ships, and anyone else who was keyed in here.

[member="Makai Dashiell"] | [member="Rekha Kaarde"] | [member="Cole Nebula"] | [member="Kingsley"] | [member="Acaleus Thorn"]

 

[Acaleus Thorn]

"Umm Ac?" "Yes?" "We got an issue. The rock we are currently drilling doesn´t have enough minerals to be worthy. We could ask someone nearby if they need help" if Acaleus could, he would scratch his head about this problem. The cost would be greater than the earnings. Easy to say that the task force equipped with weaponry, strong enough to level a fortress..."Note to self. Bring less stuff to a simple mining operation" he went to the ship before dealing with the angry workers trying to get any mineral out and reach into the comms. There were lots of signatures around, some that already hail them, so he opened a channel to them ( [member='Kaia Starchaser'] [member='Kingsley'] )

"Hi, emmm we here got a sort of trouble. This part of the asteroid doens´t have enough mineral to extract. We wanted to ask you if we could work together. I personally would give as a token of gratitude 25% of what we dig and be on our merry way" said to the computer mic. Working together would mean share the security, and that was a good thing

 

[Rekha Kaarde]

[member="Makai Dashiell"]

Leaning against the wall she watched as Makai ship made its way around the hangar, how long had it been since she had seen him. Should she still be calling him squirt.........she laughed to herself, of course!

Another would be customer came up to her, "Captain Kaarde?"

"Yes" She stood up, "how can I help you?"

He looked around as if someone was watching him, "I have some product I need to move."

"Great how much product?"

He looked down, "I prefer not to say at the moment, but let's say I can fill you ship."

"oh....." She wasn't sure what to say it might be more than she could hold...but ahhh the kid now..."stick around for a few minutes someone will be joining us."