[Hoth SoS] Team Sodd’s Law

Suspicion on Solyiat Run-On: Team Sodd’s Law

Team Members:

Jasper Arlow https://www.darkjedibrotherhood.com/members/9933

Arcia Cortel https://www.darkjedibrotherhood.com/character_sheets/6814

Keiji Suoh https://www.darkjedibrotherhood.com/members/14101

Ka Tarvitz https://www.darkjedibrotherhood.com/members/14751

Droveth Kathera Vectivi https://www.darkjedibrotherhood.com/members/7377

Prompt:

(https://www.darkjedibrotherhood.com/competitions/12757)

As tensions arise between the two mining corporations on Solyiat, a confidential informant has brought forth evidence of an even more sinister plot…

In teams of 3-5 members, you are being tasked with gathering intelligence to support the claims of Dove, both on Solyiat itself and within the greater area of the Kiast System. Choose to have your team focus either on the planetary issues or outside of the planet.

Each team member must write 2 posts of at least 250 words per post (with no maximum word count) to qualify for placement at the end of the competition. No Back-to-back posting will be allowed — For example, if one member were to post, then immediately after place their second post, that team will be disqualified.
Entries must be posted in the Run-On section of discourse with a thread heading of [Hoth SoS], followed by a creative but appropriate team name. The opening post of the thread must list the members of your team by name and PIN.
Editing of posts will be allowed until someone after you has made their post. Once a following post has been made, you are no longer allowed to edit posts.
If you have an Alternate character with an approved CS and loadout, then you will be able to use them in your Run-On. Same deal for NPCs.
The Voice Run-On Rubric will be used to grade the entries and Clusters of Ice will be awarded as per the Voice Guidelines.

Trepus Mining Facility
Solyiat
Kiast System

Arcia Cortel leaned back in her chair and pulled at the base of her jacket, smoothing the creases that had formed in her uniform. Her eyes darted back and forth between the screens in front of her, displaying shipping logs and transaction records. The information flew by in a blur, but she took careful note of any discrepancies. After all, Arcia had been through these files half a dozen times already. If there were any trace of Hoth on this ship, it was very well hidden.

The ship itself was something of a marvel, a rusted out corpse of an old G9 freighter that didn’t even look like it could fly. When Arcia had taken it up for a test run within the atmosphere, she could hear the wind whistling through the holes in the hull. Onboard Navigations cut out within ten minutes in the air; Luckily she knew her way around Solyiat. That was two weeks ago, and the overall appearance of the freighter hadn’t changed much.

‘Good,’ the former JTF Commander thought to herself as she reached down and retrieved her datapad. ‘I don’t want anyone looking twice at this ship.’ Arcia swiped through the dossiers nonchalantly, having already poured over the information available. She stopped at the two Jedi; one she had worked with before, but the other was little more than a con man. While she valued their skills in the moment, Arcia still felt they would be better off without them. Using the Force would attract unwanted attention and would draw eyes back to Hoth, exactly what she was trying to avoid.

The entire purpose of this mission was to get in and out quickly and quietly, two things in her experience rarely happened when the Force was involved. A team of trained soldiers under her command would do a much more efficient job, but unfortunately it wasn’t her call to make anymore.

Dove hadn’t given much information, but she did know something very suspicious had been happening in the Kiast System, and it all lead back to Governor Kopchak and the Thratch Mining Corporation. Arcia had been tasked with leading a team to find out what was really happening, but without knowing what situation they were getting into, it would be hard to prepare them. The sound of metal clanging together drew her back to the moment and she yelled down into the lower compartments of the ship.

“What are you doing down there, Arlow?” A muffled, but cheerful voice echoed back up into the cockpit.

“…and yer just gonna hav’ta see this fer yerself, ‘cause I ain’t never seen nothin’ EVER like this…” The young woman’s rambling abruptly stopped, as she likely caught interest in something else and moved on. Arcia heard footsteps coming up the loading ramp, and turned to see the Jensaarai, Tarvitz, standing there to greet her with a warm smile.

“Hello, Commander. It is a pleasure to work with you again.” The Alderaanian extended his hand as he spoke. Arcia looked him up and down, taking note of his trooper armor. His cybernetic eye followed her movements closely as he waited. After a few tense moments for the Jedi, she nodded a sign of approval.

“What took you so long? You will find Arlow below in the wing compartments, doing some last minute repairs. I believe you two are already acquainted, for one reason or another.” The Jensaarai nodded and hurried away from that uncomfortable conversation to a more pleasant one.

As he climbed down the ladder and out of sight, a hulking figure in shadow trooper armor stomped up the ramp, montrals poking out the sides of his helmet. She recognized him as Keiji Suoh, the Togruta Mercenary. He loomed over Arcia, but she stood straight and looked him in the face with the same icy stare. Keiji removed his helmet and bowed slightly, being the first to avert his gaze. A voice called out from outside the ship.

“Hey Keiji! You big lug, you were … supposed to … wait for me!” A bald robed man came sprinting up the ramp, panting as he spoke. He reached the top and bent down to catch his breath, removing his robes and throwing them to the side. “You know, you walk at a very brisk pace. And you don’t look like you would.” He wiped the sweat from his brow and turned to Arcia, bowing low and extending his arms.

“ Hello there, I’m Drove-”

“I know who you are, and I know what you do. We do not have any room for your jokes and tricks on this mission. If you plan on doing anything remotely prank-like, turn around and walk back down that ramp,” Arcia spoke coolly and firmly, but Droveth just smiled and stood at attention.

“I would never dream of compromising our mission, Sir!” He threw his hand up in a mock salute. “You can count o-”

“Sarcasm will not be tolerated either. You are now part of the crew and the safety of my crew is of utmost importance. If you risk your life or any of your teammates, I will not hesitate to drop you off on the nearest rock. You have been warned.” Arcia turned on her heel and directed her attention to the rest of the team, who had gathered in the loading bay. If the she was going to last the length of the mission, she would have to keep her conversations with Droveth short, lest she make good on the rumors and throw him out the airlock. The bald Jedi slunk down into a seat beside Keiji and crossed his arms, disheartened.

“She doesn’t like you already,” Keiji leaned over and whispered into the Knight’s ear. “That didn’t take very long.” Droveth shook his head and scoffed.

“She just needs to warm up to me. You’ll see.” Tarvitz, who was now positioned on the opposite side of the Togruta, chuckled softly and leaned towards the Jedi.

“You don’t know Colonel Cortel, do you?” Their conversation was interrupted as Arcia spoke to the crew.

“You have all already been briefed, but I would like to reiterate that this is a reconnaissance mission. I do not expect for us to have any engagement with either Thratch or PMC operatives. However, if the situation is truly as ridiculous as our informant has implied, we may face heavy resistance.” Arcia paused as Jasper raised her hand, letting out an audible sigh. “Yes, Arlow?”

“Ya think Rex can come sit up’ere with us, or does he hav’ta sit down there tha whole time?”

A silent stare was the only reply Arcia afforded Jasper. The young girl folded her arms across her chest and slumped down into her seat, pouting. Beside Jasper, a brightly painted BB-unit rolled in a circle, chirping angrily at Arcia. The woman directed her icy olive stare to the droid, promptly quieting him.

Arica carried on with a flick across her datapad and a few more choice words delivered to Droveth and Keiji. Meanwhile, Jasper flopped against the purple armored Peacekeeper beside her, pulling a small silver bag of Snack-Its from her cargo shorts. The girl, still soured by Arcia’s stare, noisily opened the bag, crunching loudly on the small orange crackers within.

Tarvitz looked down at the mechanic leaning on him, brow raised quizzically. He began to say something to Jasper, but was instead met with the bag of Snack-Its held up. She shook the bag. The man began to object, raising a hand to dismiss the offer. Instead, he was won over by the single most pitiful look Jasper could muster. Tarvitz chuckled, shrugging as he accepted her offering. It was usually more of a hassle to turn down the girl than it was to just indulge her.

“Arlow, the holes that you recorded in the hull earlier this week. Have you seen that they were taken care of?” If Jasper’s noisy snacking was irritating Arcia, the woman’s tone hardly let on.

The small mechanic patted the Jensaarai’s arm and hopped out of her seat, stretching. “Yep yep. All fixed up an’ not a lick uh purty flowers ta see, as ya requeser’ed… uh… ma’am. Sir? Mir.”

“Have a droid double check. I do not want the ship to decompress as soon as we leave the planet.” Arcia swiped the blade of her finger across her screen and made a note.

“Yessir,” Jasper frowned, unwilling to admit her injured pride. Double check her work? Arcia was clearly in ‘work mode’ and Jasper found it daunting.

As Cortel began to discuss team assignments, Jasper leaned down propped her elbows on Spot’s head. The coppertop studied the hulking Togruta Mercenary and the shiny-headed Jedi. Jasper mentally filed away several questions for Keiji, having only met a handful of his kind in her lifetime. The bald man would need some interrogation as well. She gave Droveth a gap-tooth grin when he caught her staring and waved. He looked as though he was about to laugh, but all the joy evaporated as Arcia snapped her fingers his direction. Jasper nearly snorted, shaking her head and she carefully balanced on her droid. The young girl’s attention suddenly fell on the pile of Droveth’s discarded robes on the floor across the hangar bay.

Copper buns wobbled atop her head as she bounced over to the garment and easily slipped the robes over her own brown denim jacket. Jasper whirled around. Brown Jedi robes billowed behind her as she turned on her heels. She produced a screwdriver from the tool pouch on her hip and assumed a defensive stance she learned from one of the holocartoons she saw on Saturday mornings.

“Eat lightsword, Sithbrains! Snap-hiss!” Jasper waved her screwdriver around like some sort of baton, as she pretended to wield one of the Jedi’s famous lightsabers.

“If you have any concerns now is the time to–” Arcia’s lips pulled taught; a tight, disapproving line as she watched one of the few people she favored pretend to be one of the things she hated most in the entire galaxy.

Wide emerald eyes met Arcia’s olive gaze as Jasper’s screwdriver clattered to the deck. The mechanic sucked in her breath, caught in her game. Sheepishly, she slipped out of the Jedi robes and bounced back to her seat beside Tarvitz. Arcia cleared her throat and tucked her datapad under her arm. Finished with her debriefing or inwardly furious and ready to take a moment alone–Jasper was not entirely sure which– Arcia excused herself to the cockpit. Durasteel doors hissed closed behind the woman just as the three men and Jasper all released a collective sigh of relief.

“If I didn’t know any better, I’d say Cortel is some kind of joy-eating rancor in disguise,” Droveth chuckled, rubbing the back of his bare head.

“She is just… pragmatic?” Tarvitz offered.

Keiji smirked and nodded slightly, “She certainly has a way about her.” The towering Togruta began to adjusted his armor when the tiny mechanic popped up beside him, emerald eyes gleaming up at him. “Uh…”

“Do ya ever git ta stab peoples wit yer horns? Like a nerf? My nana had a grumpy ol nerf on her farm an’ she always said ta be min’ful of tha horns,” she took a breath and continued. “Also’s, can ya wiggle yer thingermabobs like a Twi-lick? Or they jus’ some kinda decer’ation? Have ya ever killed somebody? Wait. No. Dun answer that jus’ yet.”

“Go on, wiggle 'em for us Keiji!” Droveth blurted out before the Togruta could respond, stifling a snicker with his hands.

The Togruta merely stared for a moment at the questioner before smirking and chuckling. “Although I probably could stab with my Montrals,” Keiji answered slowly, keeping an eye on Jasper’s expressions,”it would probably hurt me more than them. These are mainly used for Echolocation, which-”

“Echo-lo-what-chion?” She cocked her head to the side.

“Echolocation. It’s when–”

“An’ what about yer thingies,” she held her hands beside her ears and wiggled them in a poor imitation of lekku. “I want ‘em too!”

Droveth burst into laughter and slapped the Mercenary on the back. “Looks like you’ve got a fan!”

Unamused, Keiji shot a glance at the bald-headed human as he continued his explanation, “These are Lekku. They house part of my brain. It would please me if you didn’t play with them. Any other questions? Otherwise I have one for you,” Keiji said unwavering in tone of voice, staring into Jasper’s eyes.

If excitement was explosive, Keiji had unknowingly set off a time bomb inside Jasper. He watched as she nearly started to glow; her joy bubbling over as she twirled around on her toes.

“A questi’n? Fer me? Go go go! Ask!”

“Why did you ask if I’ve killed people?”

“That’s an easy peasy one! Cause the last two Toe-groot-as I ever met tried to kill me dead. So I figured it’d be sumthin’ y’all jus’ like ta do. Plus yer big like a tree an’ I bet ya give a good wallopin’ an’ I like havin’ peoples on my side fer a change.” She gave him a gap-tooth grin and blew a giant bubble with her chewing gum. It popped, covering her entire face in pink sticky goop. Jasper laughed and stumbled around while trying to pull the gum away from her cheeks and nose. Soon, she stumbled into Tarvitz, who had quietly been observing the entire conversation.

The Jensaarai steadied her and helped her gently pull away the last of the gum, “Careful there, Miss Arlow.”

“Oh thankies, Tarvy!” Jasper mushed all of the gum back into her mouth and hopped closer to the dark haired man and grabbed his hand, swinging it back and forth. “Ya promised me a tea party. Can we have it when we git back?” The copper haired girl glanced over at the other two men. The bald Jedi stifled a laugh while Keiji allowed himself a small smirk. She grinned slyly, “An’ I got ta thinkin’. We need ta have Keijers here and Dronut come along. An’ we need cake or it ain’t a party, it’s jus’ a meetin’.”

“First off, I can promise you, young lady, that I won’t attempt to kill you, and yes, I have killed people before. Second you want to what? Throw a tea party?” Keiji asked, raising an eyebrow.

Tarvitz nodded patiently at Jasper, not at all bothered by her zealous antics, “I did promise as much. Though, might I ask what blend you’ll be serv–”

“Tarvitz,” Arcia’s voice echoed through the hangar bay, causing everyone gathered to the side to turn their gazes to the cockpit entryway. “Report to the bridge.”

The cheer seemed to evaporate as Tarvitz sighed quietly ran a hand through his long, dark hair. “So much for fun,” he rolled his shoulder back and patted Jasper’s hand before pulling away and reporting for duty.

“Well, I’m still up for tea,” Droveth smiled at the mechanic, trying to ease the disappointment of her ruined fun.

“Ah! Mister Dronut,” Jasper’s sadness melted away as she clapped her hands together, a smile tugging at the corners of her lips. “Can I call ya that? Imma call ya that. Tea’s great but I got a BIG idear! We kin buff up yer head so it’s nice ‘n’ shiny an’ then I can rig up summa these hal’o lights and we can blind tha bad guys with yer baldness! Yer gonna be a hero. Yuppers.”

“I’ve always wanted to be a hero!” the Jedi replied and rubbed the top of his head, giggling all the while. “It’s a dream come true! You’ll have to play some music and we’ll make a party of it.” He shot a sly wink at the young Mechanic, who squealed with delight.

“This is going to be a long mission,” Keiji chuckled and folded his arms across his chest.

“Oh don’tcha worry Keijers! It’ll be fun!”

“And at least we won’t be stuck up there with the Queen of Grump,” Droveth gestured over his shoulder.

The intercom boomed back to life, almost as if on queue, “All hands report to the bridge.”
The three remaining teammates heaved a collective sigh and, one by one made their way to the front of the ship.

5367 Asteria - Orbit
Palioxis Cloud Asteroid Field
Kiast System

Some time later, the group arrived on the very edge of the Kiast System’s asteroid belt. Tarvitz diligently worked at his controls, maneuvering the ship, with the help of Spot, through the field of space debris.

The loud hum of the vessel’s aging hyperdrive slowly lessened until it was little more than a background hum. As it did, Spot shunted the excess power into the forwards sensors, allowing the spiralling network of rubble and broken metal to blink into life across the forward display. The closest among them were little more than indications of valuable metals, even the odd anomaly, but further off there was no disguising the bright signatures of active power cores from multiple craft. They were in the right place.

They slowed upon approach, carefully taking the ship to the least conspicuous vantage point available while they discussed the updated plan of attack. The facility itself appeared to be modular in construction, clearly meant for multiple reuses and short-lived expeditions. The structure cradled the largest of the nearby asteroids–an unassuming swath of black against the silvery grey of the asteroid’s rockface.

Arica observed the mining facility through the front viewplate, grim determination finding its way across her visage. Tarvitz glanced up from his computer schematics and noted that Cortel looked as though gears were turning in her head. The woman was quickly piecing things together.

“Odd. It appears that this facility has minimal security,” Arcia did not move from her position. She gave a sidelong look to the Peacekeeper beside her, sensing he wanted to speak.

“Perhaps it is a ploy to give the appearance they have nothing to protect?” Tarvitz said, the pale green glow oh his cybernetic eye seemed to gleam brighter for a brief moment.

“I’ve heard that ploy before and used it a few times myself back on Nar Shaddaa. It has its flaws and upsides. Question is, what is it they don’t want found?” Keiji asked allowed staring through the cockpit windows.

“Awful lot of traffic though, more than the shipping records implied.” The Jedi mulled over a few documents on his datapad. “I can only assume they are making an unrecorded stop after they leave here.”

Arcia nodded in agreement. If one thing was for certain, it was that a closer inspection was necessary, regardless of the consequences.