After finishing up their deal with Marnal at the point of a frag grenade, Tekk and Krussk made their way toward their delivery destination located in a very seedy and unpleasant part of the Kuat Drive Yards and entered Luxury Landspeeders owned and operated by Mephistopholes, a very jovial and large of stature bearded man with a very unusual accent. He was very excited to see the two of them with his shipment and immediately began entering the codes on the heavily secured crates full of “speeder parts”. Once opened, he “massaged” the inside of the crates which were filled with nothing more than simple parts, including struts, gaskets and a few fuel injectors, and found and opened a well hidden secret compartment in which was stored something quite large. As he struggled to drag the heavy metal object out of the crate, Tekk started to get a really bad feeling and unsnapped his blaster just in case. To his terror, he pulled out a large metallic box that immediately upon setting it down on the deck, transformed into an IG-88 Assassin Droid. Tekk drew his blaster but Mephistopholes jumped in front of the droid, threw his arms up and shouted “Wait! I mean you no harm”. He then explained that he needed the droid for security as his main competitor in the area was causing him great difficulty and had hired thugs to enter his shop and damage property in an effort to get him to leave. He said that this man’s name was Janus who was a Neimodian who owned Janus Jets, an upper scale speeder bike retailer located in the vicinity. Tekk listened with great interest and after asking how much he would be compensated, agreed to visit this Janus and get him to stop bothering Mephistopholes and the other merchants in the area.
Tekk and Krussk traveled down the street toward the competitor and were amazed by the riffraff in this area. Tekk asked himself how could an upscale speeder shop make any money here as no one in this area could afford his prices. Tekk felt that this high class joint in a low rent district was simply a cover for some other operation and he was determined to find out what. As they entered Janus Jets, they were immediately them a very fancy and expensive speeder bike. Tekk suddenly formulated a plan on how to get the message to Janus about leaving everyone alone. He asked the salesman if he had any customized speeder haulers in the back. He eagerly said that he did and led them back to the store room.
Tekk told Krussk to wait outside and would contact him when hsi needed his help as Krussk was never any use in a finesse situation. Once in the back room, the salesman showed Tekk a model that would haul 8-10 crates and carry up to 3 passengers and said it would cost about 10,000 credits. Tekk asked him if he could test drive it and was told yes. As he got on the bike and fired it up, Tekk reached for his frag grenade, armed it and lobbed it into a pile of power cells near several bikes. As he did this, he yelled that Janus better leave the other merchants alone or this would happen to him again and sped out the raised exit overhead door in the back. As he sped away, he heard the lovely sound of power cells and speeder bikes exploding and saw billowing black smoke come out of the shop. Tekk stopped only to pick up Krussk and took the long route back to Mephistopholes place via alleyways and dark corridors making sure that we wasn’t tailed. Upon arriving, they told Mephistopholes that the problem with Janus was taken care of and that he would no longer be a bother. To Tekk’s surprise, Mephistopholes thanked them and made them a deal. He asked if Tekk was willing to trade the “fancy” speeder hauler from Janus for a more reliable but modified speeder hauler that would more fit his “character” and needs better than this unit. Tekk saw the benefit in this deal and agreed and was provided with a serviceable unit that had been modified with smuggling compartments and an upgraded engine for greater speed and had some additional blasters mounted on the side to deter ne’erdowells. Mephistopholes also paid them 10,000 credits for the delivery and agreed to send some techs to the Cutter to install upgraded smuggling compartments at no charge, a value of about 1,250 credits. What a great deal for about 30 minutes worth of work!
Tekk then went upstairs to pay some of his debt to Mr. Marnal as agreed, giving him 6,000 credits and promising that they would get back on a regular payment schedule at which time he reluctantly removed the tracking device. Tekk now only owed 74,000 credits on The Cutter and would be able to relax and not always be worried about bounty hunters on his tail, well at least bounty hunters hired by the Kerzek Mining Guild! After the payment, Tekk and Krussk went back downstairs and to their great surprise, from the back store room walked out the beautiful Captain Carren Talon and Razor squadron. They appeared to be excited to see them and they spent the next 30 minutes exchanging war stories. At that moment, Mephistopholes approached and looked very confused that the two groups seemed to know each other. He asked how they knew each other and Tekk explained that they had initially met on Ryloth in a deal for weapons. He then looked at Tekk, laughed out loud and said, “I am Lieutenant Dannek”! All of a sudden, this all seemed to make sense!
Both Lt. Dannek and Captain Talon were surprised that Tekk had the capability to get into this highly secured area of the Kuat Drive Yards. Tekk simply explained that he had powerful associates and had made several deals through various adventures to get current Imperial clearance codes to make this delivery. They then agreed to accompany Razor squadron to a secret base in the underbelly of the Kuat Drive Yards using the Imperial clearance codes to gain access. The mission included setting explosives to destroy a Research and Development lab that was designing a new and improved vessel for the Empire. They were to also hack the computer system and steal any data that could be examined or used by the Rebellion. Tekk and Krussk heartily agreed to the job as they had nothing better to do and Tekk wanted to spend a little more time with Captain Talon.
Where is this taking Tekk and Krussk? Are they going into a trap or are they about to embark on a journey of great consequence? Find out next time in their continuing adventures.
-Grant
The Players' Aid 