The convoy makes it past the gas bags with no difficulty.  Which is, perhaps just as well.  As they start their descent from the top of the pass, the lower ground ahead of them looks to be some sort of meeting ground for the huge floating organisms...

And so the journey goes on, a series of low ranges divided by broad valleys, and the road winding its way across them, but generally maintaining the same overall direction.  Gradually the sun swings across the sky, and at about mid-afternoon they encounter a cargo skiff travelling in the opposite direction, loaded down with containers.

A brief exchange of messages as the skiff passes, a question about the weather and road conditions, and then they are gone...

Eventually, after climbing another range, they cross the pass to see the familiar forested lowlands below them.  But this time there is a city down there, protected by an energy field.

Ker Aldas.

"Well, there it is.  Now, if we can just find our contact, load the converters, and make it back through...with no complications...we should have a really good day."  There was an edge to his tone that indicated he was NOT expecting things to go that smoothly.

He called into his commlink, "So, Jalt...does your droid know where we're going?"

"Let's do the obvious things while we're here." Mark replied as Rhijan called to Jalt over the comlink.

"I hope that whoever planned this mission would have the other droid where ours would meet it. They tried to hide the fact by masking it between two droids."

Jihon smiled as the city came into his view. After the rush of the ambush had faded, he had quickly discovered that swoops were not designed with comfort in mind. He had found himself envious of Shard tucked inside the transport with him stuck on the swoop with a tiny pistil for defense. It hadn't been the farest of arrangements, he decided, but he also knew that he had chosen the arrangement, so he had no one to blame. He would remember next time to consider the length of the journey in such decisions.

Though, in thinking about it, the inside of the transport didn't seem to offer much more comfort.

Sometimes, one couldn't avoid misery. The thought made him smile.

"I believe the contact will be hanging round at the port." Reldan replies over the comm, as he shifts his position in the saddle of his swoop.  "They'd be expecting us to come in there, so it makes sense."

"We need to remember, though, that just because we got here safely doesn't mean we're safe.  The place might be swarming with stormtroopers, or something, so we need to be careful."

Rhijans gave a soft snort and rolled his eyes before keying the commlink open.  "Right.  Nobody does anything stupid.  We're just free traders coming in to pick up a cargo."

They should probably not go directly to the starport, Rhijans reasoned.  Two swoops and an empty transport full of people--several of whom are well-armed--would attract all kinds of attention if the Empire had the port blockaded for the security of some VIP.

"There's got to be some kind of cargo transfer center near the starport," he said aloud, raising his voice so that everyone in the transport could hear him and hopefully realize he was addressing them, as well as keeping the commlink open.  "Anyone have any leads on where that would be?  That'd be the most natural place for us to be arriving, in terms of looking innocuous to the Imperials."

"Hang on a moment."  Shard reaches past the two men, popping open the small storage compartment and pulling out a soft-plas map.  "Rental vehicle," she mutters, waving it before opening it.

"Don't know if this thing has it listed, but it's a good start...yeah, place will be lousy with security.  I guess we just have to make do." She chuckles. "Despite all the massive blasters everyone is carting about.  One time, we were out with a guy who insisted on lugging around a repeator - a light one, but still.  Massive fellow, from Twix three.  Poor Garan.  He came to a bad end, but at least he got a chance to use that monstrosity...."

As she rambles, Shard searches the port for any sign of a common loading dock.

As with Ker Zaineer, the space port at Ker Aldas lays close to the edge of the city, about a third of the way around the perimeter from where the road enters the city, and is covered by an energy barrier which keeps out the vast majority of the local seeds and spores, while allowing ships to pass through with a minimum of inconvenience.

As if to confirm that latter point, a ship takes off as they watch, climbing rapidly into the sky.  A quick check with the macrobinoculars reveals it to be an Lambda class shuttle.  A sure sign, if one were needed, that Imperials are about.

Shard studies the map carefully as the vehicle starts the descent towards the city.

"Yeah, I got one," Shard mutters, spreading the soft-plas map over the dash.  "See here -"  Her index finger indicates a spot on the edge of the port.  "That's a customs area.  So we're golden if we find that." She scratches her head for a moment, and the finger wavers over the map before steadying.  "Near as I can tell, we're about here."

Leaning back, she peers out the windows. "Assuming I have the map right-side up with regards to us, of course."

Rhijans boosted the speeder's altitude to its maximum and dropped the speed just a little bit before glancing at the map.  If something goes wrong, I want the most time possible to react to it, he told himself.

He checked around the perimeter of the map, for an indication of the road they were currently travelling.  With only two starports on the planet, there couldn't be that many major thoroughfares running around, especially with such a hostile atmosphere.

"Looks right to me," he ventured.  "How's your navigation?  Once we get into the city, I'm not exactly going to have time to look at the map."

The little convoy enters the city.  Everybody experiences a brief tingling and a scratchiness across their whole body as they pass through the energy barrier, and then they are inside, and the air is clear again.

The streets, however, are crowded.  Traffic forces them to slow down considerably, as they wend their way through the city towards the space port.  There are a few stormtroopers about, but they don't seem to be stopping traffic or pedestrians, though the latter do seem to be going out of their way to avoid the troopers, where possible.

A tall structure is ahead of them, holodisplays indicating that it is a medical facility.  A quick check of the map indicates that there is such a building close to their destination, so it looks like they're heading in the right direction...

Unfortunately there seem to be a lot more 'troopers near the medical structure, and they seem to be directing traffic away from it.

This message was deleted by the player at 01:14, Thu 04 Nov 2010.

As the three vehicles get close to the medical centre, on their way to the cargo terminal, a squad of stormtroopers step out into the road and flags them down.  Though the Imperial troops are all obviously armed, their blasters aren't actually pointed at anybody, or anything.

The one who had signalled them to stop approaches the transport...

The Trandoshan made a noise, a hissing-spitting grumble that felt more agitated than it sounded. It sounded murderous.

He blinked once as he heard the all-too-familiar sound of a muffled Imperial voice over a helmeted commlink. "Nngh. Hope we have a good cover story."

Rhijans shrugged.  "Of course we do.  We were supposed to pick up a shipment and had to divert due to the spaceport closure.  They don't need to know who we were shipping for..."

He was curious to see what the reaction to him would be.  Depending on just where in the Empire various individuals originated, he'd noticed that he either got standard treatment (being humanoid), or disdain (being gray-skinned, and therefore not 'truly' human).  But he slowed the speeder to a halt.  Last he checked, his IPKC license was still valid, so he had little to lose.

Following the transport on his swoop, Jihon paused behind it and waited, curious to see what the storm troopers wanted with them. He smiled at the irony if they were to need a ride to the port.

Mark stayed in his seat. He tried to look uninterested in this security checkpoint. But he was wound up tight inside.

The trooper approaches the transport, and signals for somebody to open a window.  Behind him the rest of the squad simply waits.

"You can't come through this way.  You'll have to go around."  He indicates that Rhijans should take a left turn, "Go that way for two grids, then continue to your destination."

A quick check of the map indicates that it might be just possible to follow the directions they have just been given, and still get to their intended destination, provided the exclusion zone does not include the gate to the cargo terminal.

Rhijans nodded to the stormtrooper.  "Left two grids and on around...got it."  Without further comment, he moved the transport off in the indicated direction.  As far as he was concerned, part of their mission was to avoid Imperial attention...though it might not hurt to look for a little information.  Once he was on a straight course again, he grabbed his commlink.

"Hey, Jalt...Mogg...how do you guys feel about doing a little hot-shotting on those swoops?  Get enough altitude to maybe see what's going on that we're supposed to miss?"  He figured odds were good that someone would come investigate right away...but two swoops playing tag with each other would get a much less hostile response than a lone craft.  Might even just be overlooked in the chaos, if they were lucky...

Jihon sits upright and cranes his neck to see where the Stormtrooper is gesturing. From the look of it, they're being diverted, but he isn't sure how far off course they're to go. All he can do is try to stay close to the transport. The others will probably update him as soon as they can.

"You might let a few of us out. We can ask a few questions and meet up with you later." Mark smiled and looked around the transport.

"Who is interested?"

"I'm game, Jacobs," Shard notes.  The trip has been rather stressful, and she's tired of sitting on her rear.  Shooting a gun out the window hadn't helped that, not at all.  "They sure don't need everyone to hunt for the droid, and it'd be a good idea to get the lay of the land."

Definitely a good idea.  Too many ops had been spoiled in the past due to assumptions.

"Afraid my ride won't go over about ten metres off the ground." Reldan Jalt rplies over the comms, "So I don't think it'll be much use for that sort of recon."

Privately, he isn't so sure they should be talking on an open channel about recon missions and the like in a city that's swarming with Impies.  He pulls the swoop around to follow the transport, giving the stormtrooper a wave and a cheerful grin as he swings past.  Anything to look like he has nothing to hide.

Rhijans waited until his detour had taken him out of line-of-sight from the stormtrooper who'd given them the instructions, and eased the speeder to one side of the street.  "Have fun window-shopping," he commented drily, but a hint of a smile was on his face.  "If you decide to pick anything up, make sure it isn't going to take up too much space...or time.  I don't want to get saddled with another day's rental on this thing."

Shiss turned his eyes to Mark. "Sounds like my type of work."

He prepared himself accordingly and moved to follow Shard and Mark on their way into the city.