Iron Stars - arana-noble-hunt

@Deleted User and @Steven both arrive on Arana after seven days of space travel (we can work out downtime for this in your own threads ) Both shuttles set down in the Northern Duchy Alliance, the largest and most troublesome of the island kingdoms here. The starport is a closed off area at the edge of the largest settlement here and almost no one but Greystar personnel come in or leave, adding to the “world apart” feeling here that is keeping Arana from truly joining the mighty union. A local cultural officer is waiting for you here, as you were both told someone would be waiting.

6:45 PM

https://www.worldanvil.com/w/iron-stars-nekosmash/a/arana-article

Arana

(Lothar is an average sized man that looks to be in his late twenties, he wears plain tan clothing and has a laser pistol on one hip and a modern looking semi-auto pistol on the other. He is also accompanied by a very tall Taros man dressed similarly named Hugo.) Lothar exits his shuttle and into the open with a grin on his face. He and Hugo begin walking toward the obviously waiting cultural officer and the passenger from another shuttle. He waves one hand as he addresses them both “Names Lothar and the lanky one is Hugo. It's a pleasure to meet you.” Looking between the two he focuses on the other shuttles occupant “I’m guessing your the agent I’ll be working with in the field?”

(What I’ll do is we will knock out three targets and i think that’s plenty for this mission)

6:58 PM

(Between the two of you I think the pace should be pretty good without keeping you here forever )

(Sounds good to me)

(Sounds good)

(Lena is a shorter, average built woman looking to be mid twenties, She's dressed in a navy blue jumpsuit with her armored under suit beneath it. She has long blond hair and blue eyes. her laser pistol is on her left hip) Lena is almost disappointed to leave the shuttle. The familiarity of spacecraft and the void being replaced with the sense of unknown being planet side. She knew this was coming, but she was never quite used to being dirtside after spending most of her working life in space. She heads towards the cultural office and meets Lothar in the middle. After listening to his introduction, she nodded and began her own "Yes i am. I'm Lena, pleasure to meet you."

“Well Lena I don't know about you but I spent the last week sitting in a tiny metal box and i’m a bit eager to start this mission properly.” Turning to walk to the cultural office he continues “So what brings you to this noble wetworks job?”

"Well i personally enjoyed that metal box ride. But a job is a job, so yes. Lets begin." She followed with him to walk to the cultural officer "Hm? It's the agencys request, so i do it. Nothing special really." When they reached the cultural officer she would hold her hand out for a handshake "Thank you for meeting with us, So whats the important points to know about arana?"

“As you know our uplift efforts are being blocked and held back by the nobles. Labor riots got them to agree to let aid and education through but it’s been a trickle , and essentially extended jsut to their staffs , house guard, and the very upper echelons of guilds they want favors from. Their patronage is ten times more sought after than before now, all on the back of Greystar aid, and that needs to end. Advancements are to be shared by all.

9:43 PM

“We can’t blame the clients or those who have sought the uplift in exchange for favors. Theyre a symptom of the problem of selfish nobility here”

"Well. It's a problem we are here to solve... and will solve. On average how well protected are these nobles and how large are their gaurd compliments? Any resentnent to oddworlders among the general population or will we have a easier time slipping away?" She asked as she looked away for a moment. Looking beyond the spaceport as best should could and into the distance, taking in the sights from their landing pad. Before she turned her attention back to the officer. "Beautiful planet... quite the change from the empty void. Sad that the nobles here wish to squander what they are given."

Pulling out a pack of cigarettes he takes one and lights it “We can always play dressup. Only things I need are my guns and undersuit and those are easy enough to hide.” Looking over to Hugo “Well tall, white, and augmented will have a harder time at it but he can manage.” Looking out over the landscape following Lena’s gaze “I’m sure we can get through whatever they have but knowing beforehand will mean less pain on our end.” (edited)

"I'm more concerned about excessive exposure than our ability to do the job. To many guards and servants makes to many eyes." She turned and looked to hugo "Yeah... that might be... a bit harder to hide. But a extra set of eyes outside and around never hurt anyone. Keeps us safer."

"If we want to pretend this wasn't assassination by Greystar we will need a lot more than avoiding a few extra eyes," Lothar motions to he laser pistol while continuing to speak "but I agree the less they know about us the better. It's going to be impossible to get to all three targets before they find out about us taking them out unless we get lucky and all three gather in one spot for our convenience, so the less anyone knows before we extract the better."

"There was talk by a former agent of putting on some kind of play or public entertainment to get them all to come out, but that has its own risks, and its harder to hide official Greystar involvement. The Confederation will support your efforts here as best we can" The local officer says

"I say we take em out one at a time. Big crowds mean higher likelihood of collateral damage. If you are offering assistance it might be worth it to loan us some night vision or thermals. Easier to kill a man if we can see them and they can't see us. Other than that I'm not sure what you could do to aid us other than giving us what info you have on the targets."

(your ride has a locker so you can get a pair of low light goggles to borrow, Lena has done so already)

(

)

(Great minds think alike)

Your targets are as follows: "The Baron of Baubles" : patron of the local guilds, has spent most of the Greystar aid on selectively elevation various guild masters in exchange for forgiveness of his family debt or future favors owed. He commonly 'holds court' in the marketplace here so he can keep an eye on his guild and merchant patrons. He is usually in the company of a few guards though the exact number changes slightly. "The Old Hand" : the provincial under-ruler. He is in charge of most of the labor unions or other local groups. He came to the negotiating table with the leadership here during the strikes and riots, and so far has extracted concessions only for himself. He is not technically nobility but he is stifling the trickle of aid to the common people. "The King of Coin" : currently oversees the exchange of this worlds' gold and silver backed currency to the Exchange of Light credit. He has been doing interesting accounting and the majority of public assets surrendered to him for ' conversion' often come back to the public severely undervalued or not at all. It is an open secret he is deeply skimming off public funds once converted, and using creative accounting to ensure his own pockets are filled.

Lena took some notes with whatever she could find that could and committed the rest to memory as best she could. She spent a moment thinking of which target she felt would be the best to lead with. Who to deal with first? She flipped between the old hand and the king of coin. The baron might be in the most easy to access area... but that also gave it the most risk. After a bit more consideration she opened her mouth to speak "I believe we should start with the "Old hand" He is not nobility, killing him first is less likely to raise a alarm in the other two targets than if we started dealing with nobles first." She looked to lothar "Your thoughts?"

Nekosmash pinned a message to this channel. 10/12/2021 12:36 PM

Looking over the target information Lothar begins pacing while smoking. After a few moments he speaks up “Old Hand isn’t a bad pick. He might draw less attention from the other nobles but he’ll have more of the common folk tricked into believing he’s on their side. That means more idiots willing to take a bullet for him. If we go after The King of Coin we might be able to spin it as locals doing it for payback or robbery so long as we use local weapons.” Taking another long drag he looks up from his compad toward Lena “He is also the one most likely to have advanced tech and with the most liquid assets to hire extra guards and better security measures if he catches on before we go after him.” Putting away the compad he crushes the cigarette butt under his boot “I’ll leave the final choice up to you though. Whichever one you want to go after.” (edited)

"Hm. I wanted to avoid going straight for a noble. But you have a good point. I agree, let's go after the king of coin first. Perhaps we can even use it to our advantage. Freeing up the people's money to actual credits and back to them might give us some supporters that can get us closer to the others." She looked to the cultural officer "Is it fine for us to use this facility as a base? I would prefer to keep separated from the local population as much as possible. So the other nobles can't try and hit back as easy."

"We had expected you would. We cannot be seen protecting you out on the street lest we tip our hand, but if you make it here you will be given sanctuary"

“The only other thing I can think of is borrowing a bow and some arrows off you fine folks. Other than that we can start recon on the targets.”

"If you access to a local fire arm, I'd be happy to borrow it. If not than I'm ready to set out as well."

((Didn't realize a rifle was tl2. I'd have asked for that instead of the bow but I don't know if you want me editing the post.))

(Rifle is fine too)

4:27 PM

(So is a revolver. )

(Yeah I think i'd stock up with local guns and leave mine with the base. Say 2 revolvers. I'm not a rifle guy but Hugo should pick one up) (edited)

(Think of them like civil war cavalry pistols on this world )

4:34 PM

The weapons are taken from local stocks and supplied to you for the duration of the mission

Lena spins the chamber of the Revolver as she inspects it. Looking over the older style weapon before nodding. It was going to take a moment to get used to ballistic firearms. But she could do it... probably. She replaced the laser pistol on her hip with revolver. Reading the handgun and stowing the laser weapon "I believe that's everything."

Adjusting the two revolvers on his hips Lothar tugs at the hem of his new shirt trying to get used to the feel of the rougher clothing. He only wished this could be over as soon as possible so he could get his actual guns back. Hugo finishes putting his new rifle back together after a quick inspection and slings it over his shoulder. Both give a nod to Lena’s words and Lothar speaks up “Right enough.” Lothar turns toward the exit and begins walking out with Hugo trailing behind. (edited)

Exiting the small Greystar complex, you have a kilometer walk down the road toward the settlement. The King of Coin had some general information about him given (the pinned post) and anywhere that money changes hands regularly seems to be a good place to start looking. Greystar does operate a banking service on this world, as it does with all in the Confederation. This settlement also has a large market place, and a merchants row where more specialized craftsman ply their trades.

(if you need more detail let me know)

Once they come near the settlement Lothar has a hushed conversation with Hugo “Split here and you go scouting around outside and find us a good spot or two to hide in if we need it. Me and the agent will go into town and try to find out a bit more on the target.” Hugo simply nods, grimacing at the fact he has to walk around the woods all day. Turning to Lena Lothar speaks up again “Hugo is going to stay out and find us a bolt hole. What do you think our first move inside should be?” Scratching at his nose Lothar's other hand fiddles with his revolver. “I say we move in toward the market and talk around to find out where the target spends most of his time and then we can scope out wherever that is.”

Lena thinks it over for a moment. Looking around a bit as they enter the settlement. It was probably the best option to ask around. "well considering that the king of coin likely deals with whatever counts as a bank transaction on this planet. We should see where they do the exchanges for local currency to credits. So a bank of some kind"

Lothar nods and follows behind Lena “You got it boss.” Tilting his head toward the main road “No better place to start than the market. I’m sure we can find someone there that knows where the bank is.” (edited)

The market is a bustling place consisting of a wide town square, and stalls and store fronts spreading down the three streets around it in every direction. Warehouses are nearby and porters, merchants, financers, and the locals all mix here in a chaotic spread of shouting. All manner of goods can be found here from food, cheap consumer goods, housewares, and so on, and almost everyone is doing brisk business in some manner or another. You can see on a local level, the exchanges of money are still being done with locally minted coins, almost no one is using actual Exchange of Light credit chits, despite their also being legal currency here

Lothar looks around the marketplace trying to spot the telltale jostling of pickpockets the universe over in the crowd. He’ll also keep his eyes toward the alleys and backs of stalls for ‘discrete’ merchants not selling their wares to the crowd. (edited)

(Notice/wis)

(10)

There are not many pickpockets in the crowd right now. You see one or two going about their work but their victims are random and distracted. Three men meet on a corner ahead of you and quietly vanish down the adjacent alley about 30m away down the crowd choked street

They look around furtively for a few seconds before you lose sight of them, but it is clear some sort of business they do not want done in public sight is happening.

Lothar taps Lena’s arm and says “Back me up. Got a few not so sanctioned traders up ahead that we can squeeze some info out of.” Having said his piece he lights a cigarette and walks into the alley with his hands under his coat resting on his revolvers. He looks around hoping to spot the trio.

You see the three of them at the back of the alley. It is open on the other side and they're focused more on their business, not noticing your casual approach. There are local coins and credits changing hands here in exchange for what looks to be a pair of modern looking handguns.

Lothar clears his throat and tightens his grip on the two revolvers still hidden beneath his coat “After your done I want to talk to whichever one of you is the entrepreneur selling the imports. I have a deal or two for you.” Watching the three he smiles but keeps his gaze on their hands as he slowly backs up enough to give them the illusion of privacy.

Lena would follow behind Lothar and kept a close eye on everything that was going on. She also occasionally checked over her shoulders into the back marketplace crowd. She stays back a couple of meters to try and give them some privacy while they talk.

A late comer to the meeting sees Lena and seems to weigh out if he really needs to be here , before taking a step back into the crowd with a sheepish “isn’t this embarrassing” look on his face. The deal continues because it seems like they’re dead to rights here either way, and the two buyers who have come into the alley are trying to assess if they’re allowed to leave if not

Lothar smiles while stepping to the side of the alley “Don’t worry lads, we're not lawmen. Feel free to finish your business and go.” Taking a hand from under his coat Lothar points to the one selling the guns “All I want is to do some business with him. Nothing to be worried about.”

Not needing any extra prompting to get out of dodge and not deal with whatever is about to happen here, the two buyers scurry away out into the crowded market again leaving just their dealer behind

Lothar nods at the backs of the buyers as they flee before turning to the dealer. Looking him up and down Lothar seems to nod to himself “Listen friend, I didn't mean to give off the wrong impression. I’ve just rode into town and was looking to offload some goods I took from a couple of unobservant folk. You were just the first man with an eye for business I saw.” Lothar slowly reaches into his bag and pulls out 2 Type A power cells showing the man before putting them back. As he shows him the gear he watches his face closely hoping to gage the man's level of interest.

You can see he is interested and is hooked on your words but you’ve offered little and he seems to think it better to just stay quiet and let you finish talking. You’re going somewhere with this and he wants to know where

“I know you deal in offworld goods and I know these cells are important for a lot of their tech. Worth a premium to anyone you sell that tech to since we can’t recharge them here once they're spent. I just want to sell them and some of the space creds for real coin as well as some information about the town and local big shots. Sound like a deal?” (edited)

“Alright. I might be interested. What do you want to know? I’m a little foggy. Might need some convincing to really get talking”

Lothar smiles as he walks closer “Well I’m always happy to pay a man for his work. I need some info on the man that calls himself the King of Coin. Want to know where he does business and what sort of men he hires with all that coin.” Pulling out one of the cells he tosses it to the man “I’m a man with skill but no employer. I need to know how to make that connection.”

Out in the main streen,Lena sees the two buyers who have recently been let go bending the ear of one of the market security. It's hard to tell if they've been stopped, or if they sought out the attention of the authorities, either way, time is going to be short, and Lothar being in the alley, is unaware of the problem

(Sorry. Super busy with work. hope i didnt hold things up to much. Im back now

(All good! Right now you’re the only one who has seen the danger , Lothar is unaware )

(Could i try a notice roll to see if the security gaurd is checking our way?

(Sure / notice wis

The guards aren’t looking your way yet but you can tell by the language of the buyers you’re being ratted out. They probably don’t know you’re off worlders or your true mission , but it looks like you’re engaged in sketchy enough business and they’ll say anything to try to plead their way out. The guards will be over soon.

Thankfully lena managed to pick out what was happening, or rather a indication of what was happening. She rather not get into a shoot out or arrested on day 1 of her operation. She broke line of sight with the guard and went to lothar. Grabbing his shoulder and whispering to him "The other 2 are trying to rat us out. We should probably head for the hills"

Lothar stays focused on the man in front of him while nodding to acknowledge Lena "Times up so answer the question." Lothar sweeps open his coat and rests either hand on a revolver "Now."

“Survival goods store in the marketplace. Tell the clerk you know about the fishing spot”

Slipping a hand off one revolver Lothar pulls out a cred chit with 20 creds on it and tosses it to the man while walking to the end of the alley away from the guards "Thanks. Sorry bout the harsh words, but your other friends went for guards. Probably don't want to be here much longer yourself."

He looks around and decides to bolt down the alley before you have a change of heart and decide to put one in his back

Looking around as well, it seems the guards have let the two buyers off due to the tip, and are beginning to make their way over to the alleyway. You have a lead now, and something to follow, it does not seem there is any reason to stick around,.

Lena pushes the issue now after looking over her shoulder and spitting the two inbound gaurds. "Lothar. Nows the time to go" She said as she started to head deeper into the alley

((I already said I was headed that way to be fair)) Following Lena Lothar begins running down the alley.

(LOL. I'm a idiot

12:30 AM

(Sorry about that

((No you are good i just didn't want you to think Lothar was straight ignoring you before))

You manage to put a few streets between you and the market security and they did not see where you went, so have no way to follow. From where you are now the survival goods store with the “premium” selection for picked clients you had been tipped off about is at the end of this block. You can see Butkus Bait and Tackle at the end of the road , the wooden hook and fish sign gently sways as the wind pushes on it and it’s creaking chains

Lena took a moment to double check they were being followed by the guards before looking to Lothar. She had overheard almost none of the conversation, being to busy watching their backs, so she wanted to check up "Alright... so did we get a lead on the king?"

Lothar nods as he and Lena begin walking normally. He points to the Butkus and Baits sign “Yeah, I tried to get some info on the king but we didn't manage to get that far. The guy said go there and mention we know about the fishing spot. Hopefully they'll have something.”

You see two people leave the store as you watch, they look like normal folks just going about their business-but the shop looks a bit small, you will probably be alone in there with the owner if you make your move now. (edited)

"Guy running the shop should have info. Although I was pretending to be looking to get hired on by the King so keep that in mind when you talk to the owner." Lothar motions for Lena to take the lead and walks behind her into the shop.

Inside you are alone with the purveyor. You can see several shelves and displays of local survival goods such as rods, nets, reels, and ropes. Most of the goods look to have been hand crafted or hand woven here and the man's arthritic hands show years of fine work with a lathe, with a loom, and with the careful process of twisting materials together so the locals here can continue feeding themselves. A large back room behind him with a weather tarped divider is where he keeps the live bait and you see nothing back there but large barrels full of worms, grubs, and other things fish find delicious

“Welcome to Butkus baits! How can I help you today?!” The purveyor asks happily. He is a rotund and jolly human male

Lothar steps toward the counter with a smile on his face and says “Hey, a friend of mine told me about the fishing spot. I wanted to see if I could check out the goods in the back and speak with a fellow fisher.”

"A fisherman knows a fisherman from far away. Have your friend there lock the door" he says, as he takes a step to the right of the counter.

Lothar nods as he motions for Lena to lock the door and waits for her to join him as he follows the man. When the man disappears Lothar rests a hand on his revolver as he goes around the counter just in case.

You hear him going through something below the counter but it sounds like digging through junk rather than trying to ready a weapon. Your pass phrase was correct, and the false wall behind the counter begins to slide to the right, revealing a well lit armory space, and a more appointed locker with all the modern trappings needed for a truly productive time in the wild.

Lothar nods as he looks around the room and begins categorizing everything. ((Just want a short description of whats actually in here.))

(It would be equivalent to a ship locked and armory , so a handful of most TL4 staples. I’d be listing dozens of items here, but . Clearly siphoned from the uplift project ) (edited)

"Thats quite the collection, but i'm new in toen and less in the market for buying gear and more interested in some info. A mutual friend said you might have some details on the King. I need to know what sort of men he's been looking to hire recently and what business he's up to with all this gear he's been milking form outside."

(just gonna see if lena has anything)

"I might have some details, need something from you in exchange though, as well as something additional to your silence"

"Well I happen to have come across some of the off world tech myself, but I have much use for it. How much could a few power cells buy me?"

"For those, I'll give you whatever you want to know"

"First I need to know where the King of Coin hangs around, and the kinds of men he's been hiring lately." As Lothar says this he pulls out a power cell and places it on whatever flat surface is nearby.

"People who are in debt to him make the best employees. There's a card den in town, and he gangs out on some of the corner dice games too. Anyone who's losing quite a bit ends up getting a "loan" or their debts "forgiven" in exchange for doing a job or two. If you're good, he'll go a step further and hire you, but if you say no he tends to leave you be, a fair man, in as much he can be in his trade"

Lothar pulls out two more cells and puts it on the table "Well I'd love to get the name of that card den and some coin. And it should go without saying but me and my friend never talked to you." ((I'm not going to be able to post for a few days. So @Deleted User feel free to take over.))

“I can bring you some local credits. The name of the card den is the Salty Shark, on the western side of the settlement by the docks”

(We haven’t heard from Lena so it looks like it’s up to you here to finish this up. We will abbreviate the mission since we don’t have another person here now from the sounds of it. I don’t want to keep you here forever )

Lothar mods and takes the credits before leaving. He plans to head toward the card den.

The Salty Shark is named such because of a large calcified shark outside, hung up above the door with very strong industrial hooks. No one is sure why it ended up this way but the creature is immaculately preserved and watches over all entering the restaurant and card den. There is no security immediately outside, since this is a semi-public place. Inside the floors are rough wood and the furniture does not look much better. You get the feeling it is broken often. a back room does have security, one man is standing outside while a card game is happening within, there are three others at the table, plus a 4th, your target.

Lothar will join one of the card games in the front that will give him a line of sight to the King so that he can watch him.

(If you don't want to actually gamble, I can just give you some info that you;'d get over a few rounds of the game. I'm good with whatever)

(the plan was to just lightly gamble while gathering info so I don't need to actually rp the gambling. And then making the decision to either wait and follow the king elsewhere or to gamble away my money and get into some debt that needs to be forgiven.)

(Nope that makes sense )

6:42 PM

It seems that the king is staying here for a while and you’re getting to the point where you’re losing money. He is becoming comfortable and his security frequently is sent away from the door to fetch wine or something to eat or new cards after a hand is lost and some are inevitably thrown or ruined. This being an amateur operation , security complied , acting more like an armed servant

Lothar looks around the room he is in and what he can see in the guarded room for windows with line of sight to the King. Preferably a window that leads somewhere other than the main street.

There is a window but it looks like trash or scrap metal have been piled against it in the alley.

7:50 AM

If cleared quietly it would allow you line of sight

Lothar is sure to lose a decent portion of the localcreds he got from the fence in his next hand before leaving the card house in a pretend foul mood. When he leaves he tells Lena (I know the player isn't around) "Go warn Hugo I'll be leaving the town with possible combatants on my tail. Have him set up with line of sight on where we entered town." Lothar then makes his way behind the building and begins to clear enough of the trash to spot the target as quietly as he can.

(Sneak/dex)

(9)

You'[re able to quietly clear away the wreckage of whatever this building material was for away from the window, ever so slightly so he is not tipped off by a large amount of light suddenly coming in.

Lothar slowly draws both revolvers and pressing them near the glass shoots at the King.

(since its an execution, it would be a shoot/dex vs 8)

(8 on the dot)

The gunshot is a concussive blast in the small space of the alley. The window breaks, and a local power broker falls dead on the table inside. People begin to shout in alarm

Holstering the revolvers Lothar runs down the alley and begins winding his way through back streets toward the side of town we entered through.

Pursuit comes but the attack was so sudden and your movement away from the scene so quick it’s impossible for them to find you. This loss will destabilize the house of cards and you and Lena make your way out of town to the safety of the Greystar compound. In a few days the new layout of the political landscape will be clear

8:02 PM

(3xp, 5000 credits to you both)

(just post your level ups in your channels. This will speed things along here, if we want to do other missions we can, I realize this would be a long assignment as originally given to you)

(I'm fine calling the mission early. I also need to take the next week off so I wouldn't be on it anyway.)

(sounds good, lets level up and we can move into other things, plenty going on around the confederation )

(We shaved a year off the uplift process with what we did, so good job you guys)