Medusa Diplomacy

Take off from Chalcedon with Hicks following in an ARC170. We head towards Spacer's Tears on the gas giant Monorik with a short hyperspace jump. I know I have heard of this place from somewhere - or several different someone's, but I can't ever remember someone actually being here. As we go in for a landing, we can see the green ring around the planet, but I am distracted by the fact that I can see through the moon. It appears to be a consolidation of the larger land masses that were the moon circling an orange glowing core. There is still movement as the land masses circle the core and the moon orbits the planet and there is a very thin atmosphere. I have arrived at Spacer's Tears.
 
After a scan, I can see there are a few choices to land at: Fortuna station is the largest and the most popular, but Magog Station, Pandrys Station, and Zod Station seem to be geared toward mining guild interests. Magog is under a continent pointing at the core. Pandrys is a skyhook and is the most artificial, and Zod is on what would be the North Pole and is nicknamed the Ice Station. Hicks and I have a quick discussion about where to land, but I decide to land at Fortuna. We are contacted by the Bureu of Ships and Services and while I hesitate for a moment. I give them my name and Hicks gives them his and we head in.
 
We are given landing coordinates for docking bay 37 and head in. We can see some shielding, atmospheric generators, and growing things! There are more ships here than I expected, but no ties to anyone that we would expected from Chalcedon. We land and the pit droids get busy doing refueling and decontamination. We head towards the station and then deviate towards Spacer's Row to see what we can find out as official channels are not the most forthcoming. As we leave the docking area, we cross the freight area with a set of generators handy to assist with charging equipment. Northish of us is some blast door. To the NE and west are several smaller doors and alleys leading into the station. to the NW is the pedestrian pathway to spacer's row.
 
We head NW and I see a familiar face, Jerrod Quantas the head of the Ragnar syndicate who waves. We walk over and open conversation. He puts a data stick casually in his vest pocket and suggests that I might be able to help with an unusual situation on Spacer's Tears. He begins to talk and then is hit by blaster fire from both sides and is knocked a meter away. Blaster fire continues from both sides and I look around wildly to see if there is any cover for Spook. I see some barrels to the east and I send her that way. I drop to the ground and begin a belly crawl to Jerrod to check his vitals, attempt to drag him back south out of the range of fire, and grab that data stick. He was way too casual about that so I want to make sure that it doesn't get lost. Hicks gets behind cover to the west and provides cover fire for my operation. I can't tell why this is happening: gang war, pirates, debt collection, or something specific to this moon's climate.
 
The ones to the east look like a swoop gang with a hodgepodge of tech and maybe a gang patch - maybe a gear in a circle? The ones to the west are more lethal looking in outfits resembling blood smith raiders. The raiders begin to run for cover as Hicks puts down suppressing fire. The shot that hit Jerrod was too good to be part of this craziness. He is unconscious and badly hurt so I pull out my bacta spray and apply a medicinal patch and hope for the best. Suddenly a blaster shot hits the ground between me and Jerrod - way too close for comfort, but I can't tell for sure which direction it is coming from - maybe the raiders? I can see that one raider gets hit and is a bit stunned. To the north another pilot takes a shot at a swoop gang guy and takes him out of the fight before he gets through the blast doors. I can hear him shouting for security.
 
I snap off two shots at one of the raiders, but he is able to dodge the first blast by moving entirely too fast. The second one manages to hit and stun him. Hicks behind me shoots at one shot at each gang as he is still trying to provide cover fire. I yell at Spook to hack into the station comms and see if she can get us any intel. She tells us that station security is on the way, but the blast doors have been locked. She will try to get them unlocked quickly. There are two more blaster shots that hit close to Jerrod and I. I am finally able to figure out who is playing sniper and while I am looking around to see what I can do about that, I see another one aim at me. I roll quickly to the left and the shot misses, but it ricochets and hits the generator behind me which explodes. Hicks and a couple of bystanders are knocked around a bit, but no serious damage that I can see.
 
I make a quick decision to fire at the barrel first to hopefully distract or stun my target and then fire center mass at him. I see him fall to the ground as four fuel cells roll out of the barrel. Hicks fires at two raiders and makes the other sniper drop his blaster. Hicks is fired at, but between the cover and his armor all that shows is a small blaster mark on his armor. Then another blaster bolt comes at me! It does hit, but my armor absorbs it. I can see the different players on the field moving around to either hide or get into better positions to take aim. I want to distract the swoop guy, so I shoot the crate in front of him and out falls a shiny ore. The guy is shocked and backpedals and runs to the east after his compatriots. Hicks looks around and then fires at a spot on the ceiling. The entire area is then filled with a grayish mist that obscures the view, but I can see that a blast directly hits the two raiders in the corner. Spook then yells excitedly that the ore is talarite!! I run over and grab two handfuls in the confusion, and we hide it in her case for later retrieval and selling.
 
Security enters and they grab the raiders and medics run over to the various wounded. A BSS security chief follows. I quickly find my manners and grab Spook and Hicks to be polite. He introduces himself as Kamor Ratil. He indicates the gang wars have gotten out of hand the last two weeks. He had reviewed the footage and it does look like it was an attempt on Jerrod's life. I share that he had just asked for my help and the Boss says that he is trying to get to the bottom of the sudden upswing in gang activity on the surface which escalated two weeks ago. There are two primary gangs: Gear Grinders and Bloodsmith Raiders - the each tend to keep a section down below as their territory and keep all of hte fighting down below - as Specer's Tears refer to the area underground. He then asks me to do some detective work to find out why things are getting more active and more widespread. I am hesitant as this is usually a way to get rid of unwanted pirates, but he agrees to give us a code that will get security to us on the double and provides us the names of the two cantinas on spacers row where each gang hangs out.
 
I ask if there is a good place to get cleaned up and catch a bit of sleep as it has been a while and he recommends the Radiant Deadapult as a good place on spacers row. He also mentions more than once that our group is referred to as "The Explorers" and I am not sure why. I ask him why Jerrod was by himself as he usually has at least a few of his guys with him. Ratil says that he had been talking to minors, scanning ships and down below as he was following a lead about scans from Port Nevermore that had a sensor feed abnormality. He finishes by saying BSS keeps an eye on this moon and its core to make sure that it does not just fly apart. Port Magog with its drilling of that area might either hurt the stability of the moon or may be helping.
 
After he leaves, Hicks and I agree that this investigation will provide the perfect cover for our search for Jem Vandoss.
 
We head towards the glowing neon monstrosity. Inside is a lot of activity, but we do manage to get rooms and find that it is surprisingly quiet. We do back downstairs for food and to just listen. There is a lot of conversation about how the gang war has disrupted the distribution network. Since Fortuna is the hub of movement, the constant fighting has been making it challenging to live and work. They mention asking for help from Chalcedon or Sector Rangers as they don't want to tackle it themselves but do want it to stop. We enjoy the mean and then we go up and crash. I sleep the night away and wake up refreshed and ready to tackle our two investigations.
We head down to get breakfast and discuss our plans for the day. I decide that going in as a Medusa might be helpful and want to get something flowy and revealing, but good enough to hide my two blaster bolts. We check with Spook to see if the BSS chief had sent the info. Bloodsmiths claim Level 21 and the old factory quarter in the Down-Below with the Ember Whelp cantina as their gathering spot. Gear Grinders claim Level 22 and the old mining shafts in the Down-Below with the Fusion Bolt cantina as their gathering spot. She also confirms she has received the security code.
 
I get what I need and head to meet Hicks outside the Fusion Bolt cantina. Level 22 is lower underground than I was anticipating. It is a large cavern - big enough to hold a star ship!- with lighting and homes. I see the cantina and it has a light patina of rust which seems to be the decorating theme. I see Hicks and we walk towards the cantina without making it obvious that we know each other. He gets inside first and then I go through the double doors to see a human at a desk keeping a tally of who comes and goes - any might be weapon scanning. I go up a small flight of steps into the cantina proper. The south and east walls have booths with tables. The west wall has open tables made of barrels. The u-shaped bar comes out of the west wall with benches and around. There is a stage on the SW wall, but right now there is some swoop racing playing. Not very high class, but not a place that screams enter and die.
 
There are some locals around and some of the Gear Grinders as well. Mostly human, but some Bothans as well. I don't see anyone looking to cause trouble, so I walk up to the bar and order a Corellian Sunset. I spot Hicks in one of the booths that gives him a good overall viewpoint. I take a sip and turn to see who is watching me. No one is paying that much attention, so I ask, "Anyone here heard of Jem Vandoss?" One of the locals asks why I want to know, but the swoop gang stands to attention. They deny knowledge so I push a bit and claim that Jem is the cause of tension between the Raiders and the Swoop gang. A pocket door opens and a Bothan pops out to suggest we take the conversation private. Siar Votoon is the leader of the group. I am in the middle of the action, but Hicks is closer to the action. I pass by and spill my drink on him to tell him to stay close and listen in if I need help.
 
Hicks goes to the bar to get the drink I buy as an apology and positions himself close to the door. I follow the Bothan through a hallway into an office with a desk and table. I sit and we open discussion on the rumors on Jem. He indicates that the bounties are up to eight figures, but that is not the reason for the upswing in violence. He says that the raiders took something of the swoop gangs. They had found a derelict ship and the raiders hijacked it. When the swoop gang went to ask for it back, the raiders retaliated by trying to kill the messengers. He shares the specs of the ship they had found and his frustrations with the raiders. We make a deal for me to play negotiator between the swoop gang and the raiders. He can do one week of truce to give me time to get to the bottom of the issue. While I am doing that, he will look for Jem. I offer to get Spook involved to work with hie tech, Riada Butell, to find the leak in their gang that is working to keep the war active.
 
As I walk out, I see Spook and Hicks in a heated discussion. I check to see that Spook has sold that ore and then ask what they were arguing about. Hicks says we need to go outside first. So we head out and the Spook pulls up a holovid with sound and we watch and listen to a conversation between some raiders and a guy in a black coat: "is the beacon working?" The guy in coat says it should work as expected and they won't see it coming. If the beacon idea works, then it will settle it all. The raider suggests that it has better and a bone knife with blue gemstones pops out of hiding to make sure that he is not threatening him. I can see red energy dripping off the blade and the raider says there are no threats, this just has to work. If beacon thing works, then Chalcedon will be permanently crippled. "Trust me, the bait is fool proof." Great, just great.
 
Agent Ratil comms me and asks if I saw anything fall out of his pockets while I was dragging Jerrod to safety. I remember the data disc but admit nothing and he further informs me that the room that Jerrod had was ransacked overnight. I tell him I will think about it and try to remember and we close communications. I pull the data disk out and hand it over to Spook who runs it and shows a hologram of the same ship the swoop gang claimed as theirs flying in, landing on an asteroid close to the moon core, and then vanishing. Speculation is that the ship arrived from the outer rim. We run over plans and whether it would be better to head to level 21 and see what we can see or head to the asteroid. I suggest that we borrow a shuttle from BSS and head that way.