Gunlodd vomits ineffectively, unable to get all the emetus out of his mouth. He twitches and spasms on the sandy road. The thugs nearest to him rush over to his side. Three of them attempt chest compressions. The other two fire their slugthrowers at Seku.

The bullets all miss, either striking the dirt or bouncing off the rubbish bin. They are also hesitating slightly, their morale shaken. Miraculously, they do seem to get a positive result with their leader. The one trying to blow into Gunlodd's mouth withdraws screaming as he is headbutted. Gunlodd sits up, his eyes wild and confused.

12:35, Today: The Force rolled 1 failure, 1 triumph using the Star Wars Edge of the Empire with a dice pool of 2p 2a 2S 3D.  Docking bay thugs RL.

The thugs that Jess confronts have a poor opinion of her after being forced to fight for her amusement. They look at her savagely. "This is your droid?" One says, and aims his gun at her. Then F3-3T fires his pistol into one of their legs, causing him to scream. They whirl and fire at F3-3T, who currently looks about as threatening as an R2-unit ever will.

The droid dodges, spins, and weaves to narrowly avoid the hail of fire. Puffs of sand pop up next to his wheels as he desperately evades the shots. His vector-probability calculations are tied up in predicting where the next shot will be, preventing him from aiming properly.

13:34, Today: The Force rolled 1 failure, 4 advantages using the Star Wars Edge of the Empire with a dice pool of 2p 2a 2S 2D.  street thugs RL.
Impose 2S on F3-3T's next attack action

When Gunlodd sits up, Seku curses under her breath. "Kriff... won't you just die already?"

Since talking the thugs into giving up doesn't appear to be working, Seku decides to take a different approach. She raises her voice again so that she can be heard from cover. "Yeah, that's what I said. I want you to drive that big speeder with the blaster turret on the back straight up to the spaceport and waste everyone you see who looks like one of Jabba's goons."

Seku Bondara rolled 2 successes, 2 advantages using the Star Wars Edge of the Empire with a dice pool of 1a 2p 2d. Deception.

I'd like to have the advantages be that some of them panic.

Jess jerked her pistol free of its holster, leveled the barrel at the one who pointed his gun at her and squeezed the trigger.

19:55, Today: Jess (Jessica) Swanhill rolled 4 successes using the Star Wars Edge of the Empire with a dice pool of 2a 1p.  shoot.

F3-3T rolls away quickly B-Lining it straight toward an old pre-clone war sedan speeder with huge tail-fins and an sleek low profile, beat up but a classic. Hoping to use the chaos of the fire-fight and thug death as a distraction and his advantage.

The astromech does not see anyone in it and proceeds to prepare to steal it first by lifting his optic unit up to get a better look at the inside, which he believed to be empty. By the time he can re-act he realizes the Jawas four of them are already hard at work hot-wiring the speeder. "Whoooooop" Declares F3-3T hoping they didm't recognize him as the droid they were looking for. Quickly beginning to run away for the third time today…


14:46, Today: F3-3T rolled 1 failure, 4 threats using the Star Wars Edge of the Empire with a dice pool of 1a 1p 3d 1s ((6(A), 2(P), 7(D), 7(D), 3(D), 6(S))).  Used a setback but could be an advantage from the distractions? Probably not….

The thugs nearest Seku, the ones who were patrolling the docking bay, hear her stage-whisper. They hurriedly rush back into the docking bay, away from the battle. Gunlodd has just regained his senses enough to curse them for cowardice. He coughs and places his claw on his chest, then looks down at it.

The thugs farther away cannot hear Seku, due to the distance and the sound of gunfire. Now flanked by Jess and F3-3T, they begin searching for cover. The street provides little, unfortunately. Nearby motorists have zoomed away, and five of them cannot fit behind one garbage bin. When Jess shoots one of them dead, they rush her.

They raise their vibroblades and scream ferociously. They try to surround her and throw wild, slicing strikes. One catches her across the arm as she raises it defensively. The blade creates a cut under her forearm, which blossoms in pain and begins to bleed profusely. Still, better than the neck. She is able to keep ahead of them briefly, and has a moment to act.

10 Damage pre-soak.
+1 maneuver next round.

F3-3T can't tell if these are the same jawas or not. They look similar, but it's hard to tell in their robes. They attempt to shoo him away with flapping guestures. One brandishes a hydrospanner in a manner possibly intended to be threatening. Suddenly the speeder lurches to life. The jawas appear surprised, shouting 'untinii!' and 'waheeee!' The speeder's oscillation knocks F3-3T on his back.

Prone, again.

F3-3T sees Jess take heavy hits as his own cranial unit bashes against the burnt and cracked sand roads of blighted Anchorhead. The little Astromech lets out a dismayed scream. "AAyyeeee", buoyed by his custom scum bravery circuits over-ridding his virus plagued rational software the droid blasts his small void boosters in attempt to stand upright and head toward Jess as fast as he possibly can.

Instead the thrusters only skid him across the dirt road for a meter and he has to lift himself up with lift arm slowly dirt covered and dented rolling toward his comrade.  Dangerously risking his own chassis by cutting through the speeder traffic.

O.O.C: Spending maximum stress (X1) in attempt to get to Jess as quickly as possible. 09:58, Today: F3-3T rolled no successes, 1 threat using the Star Wars Edge of the Empire with a dice pool of 1a 2d.  Rocket Up. GO FASTA!

Seeing Jess surrounded and being attacked, Seku stands up from behind the trash cans and moves closer to the thugs; leveling her blaster at them as she approaches, but in the confused brawl, it's hard to get a clear shot.

Maneuver: Move from Medium to Short range with the thugs around Jess.
Action: Attack does 7 damage to a random  target (GM's choice) due to the despair.

Seku Bondara rolled 1 success, 1 despair using the Star Wars Edge of the Empire with a dice pool of 2a 1c.  Ranged (Light) at Short range upgraded for target being engaged with ally.

Seku's blast catches Drac in the leg as he barrels forward into the melee. He howls in pain and stumbles, though the thugs are startled and spread out.

As one sentient, you hear a noise. It sounds like a siren, and it is getting closer. It seems that the local security force is on its way.

The thugs still on the street scatter. Gunlodd curses and threatens them as they run. He is swaying on his feet.

The police response to a street gunfight in broad daylight turns out to be a single land speeder with two uniformed officers in it. The flashing lights highlight the blue and yellow paint job and official seal. One officer uses the PA system to demand all belligerents immediately surrender, while the other sends the landspeeder into a skewed orbit around the fight.

The Rebels, already more exposed than desirable, beat a hasty retreat into the town's allyways. Gunlodd and Drac are the only ones left. Gunlodd raises a handgun and aims it at the speeder.

The speeder turns out to be armed. A broad-beamed stun blast catches both remaining sentiments and knocks them unconscious. The landspeeder comes in for a landing next to them.

***

Some hours later, the suns are finally setting and the team has reassembled. At the request of your host, you have gathered at the edge of town. It wasn't a long walk, given how small Anchorhead is, but you have felt dangerously exposed.

Eventually Boho Shayed arrives in his landspeeder. He is bringing a trio of people along with him. After he Parks, all four get out.

" these are some reinforcements the Rebel Alliance sent you," he reports.

Seku had stashed her blaster and run off at the first sign of trouble while advising the rest of the team to do the same. For the time being, there wasn't anything to be done about Drac, but at least Gunlod had been captured with him and would hopefully die from the toxins before too long. After regrouping with Jess and F3, Seku breathed a sigh of relief when Boho reached out requesting a meet up.

After carefully checking the area, Seku walked out to meet Boho and the people he had brought with him. She put a hand on her hip and studied the new arrivals. "Reinforcements are appreciated. First day did not go strictly to plan, but we're used to improvising. Nice to meet you all. I'm Seku."

Not so much 'getting out' of the speeder as unfurling his wings and hovering up out of the back seat one of the most unusual creatures in the galaxy stands out as rather unlike everyone else in the already diverse gathering.

Unable to truly fly, neither does he stand on the ground, instead continuing to hover in an upright position several feet off the ground.

Dressed today in a sort of low intensity outlaw leather jacket and durable canvas pants that disguise the dust easily enough as their natural color he accepts the introduction as an excuse to follow suit.

"A pleasure to meet you Seku.  You may call me Zabuunko, as I know most folks like shortened names in the field, we will see what we can do about updating any plans so we don't have to improvise quite so much.  Perhaps you can tell us what didn't work out and we will see if we can get it back in line."

Her wound now covered in synthetic skin, accompanied by a dose of pain killer, Jess was feeling better but it seemed their operation had destructed on the street of Anchorhead. The Hutt's men knew they were around and would likely be waiting for them. After greeting the trio, she resisted the urge to fold her arms across her chest and explained what had happened prior to their arrival. "Plan A and plan B have fallen apart, we'll need to be creative if we're going to get what we came for and get out in one piece." 

F3-3T disgruntled at his failures in the field and display of poor battle skills not to mention being humiliated by Jawas not once but twice hardly acknowledged the new recruits simply let out a string of mumbled profanities in binary while kicking his way into his slot on the speeder.

"Zeet Boot Grankee Clang Zeep Zeep….[Private to group Droidspeak: Try not to get yourself shot rookies.]"

F3-3T turns to the group bleeping the fact they may need a plan C as well or at least some cover story to back up a fire fight in Anchorhead. Might as well become real thieves and try to sell off hot goods to Jabba now is what the droid puts forth as his last bright idea.

A tall, hooded figure clambers out of the landspeeder and surveys the ragged group.  While the figure's face is obscured now that both suns were down, his voice is anything but.  "Probability of success: now greater than zero?" he queries by way of greeting, with just a hint of irony peeking through raspy Basic.

A slight basso chuckle emanates from the hood as his hands come together with steepled fingers, revealing four-fingered hands with heavy, spidery scarring across their bone-like exoskeleton.  "Drelas.  Let's hear the short version of what went wrong."

Seku frowns a little at her companions. She didn't feel quite as discouraged as they did. "In the interest of getting information on Jabba's thugs, Jess chatted them up. It became pretty clear that their leader, Gunlodd, was a brutish type, but maybe not the sharpest hydrospanner." She grinned a little. "We made contact with a friendly local, the bartender, but shortly after that the fourth member of our squad, Drac, got himself spotted and surrounded by the thugs. In the effort to save him, we got into a firefight in the middle of town, but we also managed to poison Gunlodd with a Neurotoxin. Drac and Gunlodd were arrested. No idea what the status of either is unfortunately. We made a pretty big mess, but I think there were a couple positives. We may have managed to plant the idea that we represent the Hutt Cartel in the minds of some of the thugs."

Rather than continue to talk about more detailed aspects of the mission out in the open Zabuunko cuts things short before to many ears have a chance to overhear anything important.

"I think we need to be somewhere more private than the middle of the street to finish this conversation.  Have you at least located a secure base of operations in or near town?"

Boho, still in his speeder, speaks up. "Do you want me to rent you all some rooms at the hostelry? You'll be able to use it for meetings, although I can't guarantee you won't attract attention. Anchorhead is quite a small town, and colourful visitors tend to draw gossip."

"If Jabba is as wealthy as most hutts, he probably owns this planet. Can we even trust the hostel's owner? We might be safest back in Mos Eisely on the ship." Jess gestured with her good hand.

"The Human Infiltrator has a valid point. We could be disposed of quite easily if we huddle in the common rooms of this blighted baked rock...." F3-3T beeps lowly as if to whisper his "Clicks and Whizzes". "We could use it to our teams advantage and use or new recruits as a group and our original team as bait for Jabba and his quarry men."


F3-3T is low on power and spends the rest of the time taking holo-pics of the new members feet, he has never recorded a Givens pedibus. An exciting day all around.

Seku, also concerned about attracting attention, tried to think of alternatives. "There's also the abandoned warehouse where we hid earlier. It won't be comfortable, but we'd be able to keep a lower profile. I don't think Mos Eisley is viable. It's too far and there's no guarantee Jabba won't be watching for us there too. Plus we have to avoiding blowing Captain Fields' cover."

She had one other suggestion now that the reinforcements had arrived. "We could also discuss specifics on our way to scout out the farm. We still haven't had a chance to actually look into the operation."

Drelas nods to Seku's suggestion, slightly disturbed by the droid's apparent foot fetish.  Perhaps it was jealous of his ability to walk up stairs.

"Agreed.  Any details on exactly what you know would be helpful.  It will be difficult to 'disrupt' an operation if you don't know what it is...short of wholesale destruction, that is.  The locals would probably be grateful if we didn't leave a smoking crater in the ground regardless of their feelings on Jabba."

Boho winces at the thought of his farm being destroyed, and especially at talk of smoking craters.

"I could bring you up to the farm's southern outskirts, if you wanted. There are perimeter sensors set up in a ring about two kilometers out, but I set them and I know where the gaps are. Otherwise we'll have to go through the canyon, and there is no way past those alarm sensors."

"Well, why didn't you say so?" Jess' eyes twinkled. "Lead on!"

Seku approaches Boho and puts a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "Boho, I promise we'll do our best to turn your farm back over to you in pristine condition."

Zabuunko lets those with the local knowledge hash out some of the options but seems inclined to agree with, rather than just accepting, the decision they come to.

"Taking time to at least investigate the farm will also take us out of town until the dust settles, such as it ever does on this planet, from the disturbance caused tonight.  We may want to prepare desert survival gear for a few days as well."

None of the locals are willing to part with what few pieces of survival gear they have on the promise of a stranger. Seku, unsure who to trust, doesn't want to spread the group's true identity and thus refrains from appealing to the rebel cause. She is however charming enough to get the group a bit of a discount from a local who is willing to part with some things in exchange for some of Boho's credits.

She convinces him to part with four pairs of protective goggles, one for everyone in the group who will need them, and a pair of very nice electrobinoculars. He also agrees to sell her a wilderness survival kit and a tent.

Total book cost: 1100
I would like to apply the advantages for a 5% discount each to bring the price to 990 credits.

Seku Bondara rolled no successes, 2 advantages using the Star Wars Edge of the Empire with a dice pool of 2A 2P 2D. Charm to get desert gear (with spaces).