Log:Sith Empire: Balosar Customs
Inspections should be short. The shorter, the better. Let's make that happen.
OOC Date: November 6, 2015 (Optional)
Location: Balosar
Participants: Alys Zapal, Kol Goren, as GM Netep Muri, Qar'duur, Tamsin Cas, Sith Empire
[ Kol Goren (K)]
The Brayl-class bulk freighter isn't an exceptional ship, but it is a mediocre ship. When you're attempting to smuggle a number of personnel, equipment, and a few other noteworthy elements of cargo onto a neutral - or even hostile - planet? Mediocre and inconspicuous go a long way toward a successful mission completion. The ships transponder and registration have been scrubbed and reforged by Imperial slicers. Which means it's impressive work. The ship could even fool Imperial patrols if the need arose and those same patrols weren't in-the-know.
Upon departing hyperspace and beginning its slow approach toward the Balosar customs zone, a pair of ships approach. One a simple customs shuttle. The other a gunship tasked with providing overwatch for the shuttle and if things were to turn sour: engage the inspected vessel.
No doubt the ship registered to a subsidiary of BlasTech out of Druckenwell has credits to spare and it's represented by the number of crew that the Brayl-class possesses. Where normally a pilot and seven crew are capable of keeping a ship like the Freedom's Screech; this one possesses at least a group of twelve and two pilots! Naturally the crew manifest would end up under review by someone in personnel back home and surely there'll be a reorganization upon return to Druckenwell.
For now the Balosar customs inspector with a small team of two others step through the docking port from their shuttle and onto the Brayl-class bulk freighter. There a group of incognito crewmembers stand ready to deter further inspection and somehow - somehow - convince the team to board their shuttles and fill out their inspection as satisfactory. The head of the inspection team is a tall, lean Balosar with a smug look about him and who smells vaguely of deathsticks. Despite his pressed and neatly tailored uniform; it's clear this is the sort of officer who is as greasy as a Hutt's backend and with palms just as slick.
[ Tamsin Cas (Cas)]
"Yes, of course." The ean pilot who had been requested to show the ship's mission logs stepped forward, brilliantly cobalt blue hair a pleasing contrast to the sandy, shimmering golden tan of her skin. "We left spacedock on schedule, and we've been fortunate with the jumps to offload cargo." They have, according to the manifests, been maing excellent time. And the workload of deliveries might be a good indication of why the excess in crew was necessary. Many hands made light work. "It has been a breeze of a cruise so far."
[ Alys Zapal (Zapal)]
Alys Zapal, Sith Acolyte, is playing Cargo Ship Guard today. Dressed vastly down in simple black trousers, boots and a red shirt with the sleeves rolled up, she leans against a bulkhead as the customs agents board.
Despite her size, she somehow exudes menace. Like a predator, her violet eyes scan across the boarding team, sizing them up. Like she's guessing which one would be the easiest to hurt. Given the abilities she isn't using, the answer is probably 'all of them', but she's just doing her best to give off the same vibes as an angry snake. Do Not Approach.
[ Qar-duun (Qar)]
Qar-duun impersonates his best 'thoroughly bored technician,' reserving his attention for the scopes and feedback from his slimline headset-comm. If approached, he makes the universal pantomime for 'I'm on a call, I'm busy!' and moves a few astronomical beacons as real-time updates happen. He, too, wears something seldom-washed and nondescript!
[ Netep Muri (Muri)]
Barvy Balosar...
The drek-hole conditions of the basin alone can make any outsider wonder how the Balosar people - those who aren't represented by a minority in the upper levels - survive. It is a testament to their hardiness. It's for more than one reason Netep Muri feels some deranged sense of kinship with the planet. Sure, she was romantically entangled /with/ a Balosar for a couple years. Evidence of their love still litters the Hermi, some 16 years later. But she, like the native Balosar, has survived a hostile environment for a surpisingly long time, against all odds. Has the fact that she's also been 'entangled' with with one Darth Revant, aka Xavier, and done his bidding for these past 15+ years contributed to that survival? You bet your ass.
There's something extra borked about the nature of her return to this planet after all these years. Is it possible to offend the ghost of a dead man? Maybe he oughtn't have died and then she wouldn't be in this position. Or would she? Practicing a few native phrases and bits of Basin slang under breath as the inspection team links up with their docking port, Muri loosens up her little linguist tongue and is /there/ to mill around the fringes while the pilot shows off the ship logs. She sidles up to one of customs inspector's entourage members and utters a soft "Tsst" under breath, followed by a little pantomime. Her nose would recognize that braincell-slaying smell anywhere. No doubt she's her own personal stash on board her freighter somewheres. "You got hook up for a lil pash-pash on surface, hey? Yezzo?" Green brows wag with a shameless smile creeping onto her face. "Big boss gon' give leave pass...2 hour. Notta much, so shepe oooooof?"
[ Kol Goren (K)]
The inspection teams lurks near the docking port and the presence of a few of the crew seems to put them on edge. The pair of accompanying security officers look warily toward Alys, giving her a brief once-over with a rake of their gaze. The presence of an occupied technician in the form of Qar-duun doesn't seem to garner much of their attention because who wants to interrupt a technician at work?
The lead inspector steps forward to meet with one of the crew's representatives and when the cobalt-haired Tamsin delivers the documentation that he needs, he accepts it with a loose grip and a downward glance. The glance up seems to cause his eyes to flutter for a moment and then he repeats, as though thoughtful of his own words. He speaks them with certainty, yet as though he's pondering them in the same moment, "You've been fortunate with the jumps to offload cargo". He pauses for a moment and his gaze slips away from Tamsin and then back, as though searching for the answers to the question that he never truly speaks, "It's been a breeze of a cruise so far."
He coughs softly and clears his throat, adjusting the collar of his customs uniform jacket. Then it's off to Muri and her bit of Balosaran jive. This actually seems to draw a little smile out of the inspector before his chin lifts, tossing a little up-nod toward Muri as he answers, "I got all sorts of friendos around the Basin and beyond. You going into the Basin and need to find a well for succor? Klibb's Fun Den is where you should go. Tell'em that inbound sniffer Belado-sent-you". He speaks the last part as though a well-rehearsed jingle. No doubt he gets a kickback for those who drop his name.
[ Tamsin Cas (Cas)]
Having handed off the required paperwork, the pilot allowed the inspector to continue his rounds, moving away herself, to check the backup monitors for the ships systems. Certainly ships idled, but no pilot worth their salt would allow a ship to idle unmonitored. Especially under inspection. Any errors in the engines would cause everyone trouble. As she passed the inspection crew, there was a slight tilt of her head, "Been having trouble with the movements on and off planet?" There was the slightest inflection to the question, before she continued, "Seems as though there's quite a bit of that going around."
[ Alys Zapal (Zapal)]
Alys is not a friendly young woman. She is not skilled at glad handing or deceiving. She is good at Murder of Various Kinds. Skills that are not appropriate for this mission. Not yet, anyway. Thusly, she keeps her ears open, her head on a swivel, and just seems to exude menace.
When the guards look at her, she looks right back, meeting their eyes. Her eyes, violet, gemlike and cold share her opinions of this little inspection, which aren't high at all. Almost like she wishes they were bandits or something.
[ Qar-duun (Qar)]
Qar-duun continues his charade of tending to-- the reports. Vital, real-time updates to-- 'one's situation.' Which are absolutely happening. He may, in his haste or distraction, check the wrong output-meter? Like Alys, the real endurance test here is pretending "cunning, poison and/or telekinetic violence" isn't the outcome he's trained his entire life for? He mostly pulls it off. Mostly.
[ Netep Muri (Muri)]
"Haha, rozah..." Muri claps her hands once, sucking lower lip between teeth to give the inspector a small upnod of gratitude. "Belado," a conspiratorial glance around, like she's keeping an eye out for a superior before offering a mock salute "Fixin' me some chee kut-ta..." Another pantomime is graciously over as quickly as she's made it with a lil thrusting of hips. "Let's speed it up, hey? Acceleroz..."
Spoken like a true spacer on a dry spell. Half of which is true. Unlike some of her undercover 'crewmen' here, Muri is not a master of the lethal arts, nor can she warp the Force to do her bidding. She is, however, cunning and eeked out a living among the stars for eons before signing her soul to the guy who's signed his 'soul' to the Empire. She knows the ins and outs of the lanes, on the books...but largely OFF the books. And that Belado fellow? He likes to party...she can smell it. Needn't be a Lorrdian to suss that out. Just a fellow degenerate. Which she sorta is.
[ Kol Goren (K)]
The inspection team seems to waver before the cobalt-haired pilot. As they begin to turn a watchful eye toward the Zabrak that is Qar-duun, Alys is there in her black trousers and red spacer shirt with the sleeves rolled up. She offers enough deterrence from looking toward the Zabrak further. Then Muri's there, sweeping in and sweeping the Balosar off his feet. Not literally, but at least in terms of speaking his language. The inspector offers a little chuff of laughter before he begins to shift on his feet, further illustrating the wavering resolve of the man in doing his job. The fastest way to a Balosar's good sense is often their sense of personal gain. Belado no doubt wants these spacers on Balosar, because that means he just might get a kickback from Klibb along the way.
"Aaahh-yah, chubba, plenty of that to be found, too," the Balosar inspector offers a little laugh at the antics of the spacer. Then it's back to the pilot, whom he actively snaps his fingers at to distract her from her inspection of the sublight engine diagnostics. "You're cleared for eight hours. You're cleared for cargo offload at Port B-9 and for leisure pursuits with local businesses," the Balosar's smile like a greedy little ferret. Soon enough he and his team are withdrawing back to their shuttle.
The shuttle takes off and the Freedom's Screech begins to move again after being given the all-clear. Unfortunately for Balosar the cargo that the Brayl-class bulk freighter carries is hardly what it should be. Unfortunately for Balosar, its rampant corruption from the floor to the ceiling will invite tremendous heartache for it in the days to come.
