Zyra pulled back and sighed.  "I'm afraid it's worse than that.  Better I show you."

She led them through a door at the back of the room into a hall.  As soon as they entered that room an overpowering smell of decay hit them, despite the fragrant incense being burned.  They moved down the corridor to another room and Zyra led them inside.

Mark lay on a bed.  He lay flacid on the bed.  Whilst no doctor, one look at him told Heigren he was desperately ill.  His face was pallid, his skin a mottled gray.  He perspired perfusely and did not respond to the door opening.  A Sullustan sat mopping his brow.  Troggog recognised her from the camp as someone who kept to herself mostly.  She'd been a political prisoner and did not speak Basic.  Troggog familiar with her native tongue had made him at the least an acquaintance.

Zyra gestured.  "Naal here has some small skill with herbs.  She was a healer in her village and has been doing what she can.  But his injuries are beyond her."

She lifted the blankets and the smell was incredible.  .  His upper left leg was blackened and gangrenous.  The entire lower limb was clearly dead and necrosis had already set in.

She lowered the blanket.  "Damn fool had to be the hero and come for me.  He took a blade to the leg, which normally would be no problem.  But out here with no bacta or antibiotics the wound has festered and nothing has worked.  If he dies the whole alliance will crumble and chaos will reign.  This is why I had Troggog working on defences."

She turned to Heigren.  "We need medical personnel and supplies urgently.  Better still we need to get him to a bacta tank."
This message was last edited by the player at 23:11, Mon 06 Feb 2017.

Heigren stomach rebelled and he ran from the room in a most undignified manner.  He made it outside before emptying the contents of his stomach and then continuing to retch until he felt he had turned himself inside out.  After a minute or two he thought he had his stomach under control but the mere remembrance of that sight and smell had him dry retching for another few minutes.

He finally dragged himself back into the room he'd first met Zyra and he collapsed on the floor exhausted and panting.

"We have. . .to get. . .him. . .help."  Finally he got his breathing in check.

"We should get word to the others.  Troggog, you can move about freely.  Can you go back to Six and get her to send us a datapad or maybe her droid?  We need to record a message for the rescue force."



Fort: 5 (big time fail!!!!)
This message was last edited by the player at 22:10, Tue 07 Feb 2017.

Zyra brought Heigren a cup of what passed for water and held it out to him.  "I'll inform the guards that both of you have my authority to come and go as you please.  I don't really have much of an inner circle here so I can't even trust them to stay quiet if they knew about Mark and you."
This message was last edited by the player at 00:02, Tue 07 Feb 2017.

Troggog struggled to breathe at the sight of it and had a drizzle of the ithorian equivalent of vomit at the side of his face. He had to clean himself off before speaking again, though with difficulty, "Alright, I'll speak to Six, see what we can do."

Troggog would've been more excited to know that there were others out there if it weren't for the Admiral's condition. Instead, he felt a sense of urgency as he left the shelter to meet with Six.

OOC: I put +2 into the system instead of +4, woops, was a 13 in the end.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:21, Tue 07 Feb 2017.

Troggog makes it to Six's position without difficulty.  The Bothan had hidden herself well using local dirt and rubbish.  Even knowing she was there it was still difficult.

Fiarr remained in concealment but kept spoke quietly as Troggog approached.  "Back already?  Is there trouble?"

Troggog spoke quietly back, "The Admiral, Sheppard, he needs medical attention, very badly. He, ugh, he doesn't look good. We don't have the resources in here to help him, it's ugly."

Fiarr grunted.  "All I've got is a basic medpac.  You can have it.  The rescue force has a medical team with more gear.  Perhaps I could ask them to send some medical gear through the tunnel."

Troggog tried his best to calm down and think clearly. "I think he's beyond that. Your friend, Heigren, said to bring in a datapad or something to record a message for the 'rescue force'."
This message was last edited by the player at 22:24, Tue 07 Feb 2017.

"Got it."  She wasn't overly surprised Heigren had shared his name.  He was never big on operational security.

Fiarr rummaged through her kit and came up with a small datapad.

"Tell them to record their message on there.  Then get the chip back to me and I'll see it's delivered.  Oh and if you think it's safe to smuggle undetected, could you give Heigren this?"  She handed Troggog a small lock box, about 50cm x 30cm x 30cm.

"Tell him the code is the number of women he slept with at the party of the century multiplied by the number of them who were married."  She added with a wry grin.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:05, Wed 08 Feb 2017.

Troggog was slightly appalled by the method of developing the code, but he took the datapad and lock box.

"I understand."

Troggog headed back and, when he got there, gave the items to Heigren and told him, "This is the datapad and Six said the code for that box is 'the number of women you slept with at the party of the century multiplied by the number of them who were married'. You know, I want to help, but running all these errands isn't exactly my specialty."

Heigren looked confused.  "I didn't sleep with anyone at the party.  I was busy all night hosting.  She had to know that."

Having no other idea he typed in 0 as the code (or as many zeroes as the box needed).

"Sorry about making you play errand boy Troggog.  At the moment it's merely being a case of you're the only one who could do it.  The more I'm out the more chance someone sees me.  I'm also sure Zyra walking around camp will draw major attention.  You're just the wrong Ithorian in the wrong place at the wrong time."

Upon entering the code 0-0-0 the box game a resounding 'click' and unlocked.

Zyra gave a small chuckle at the code.  "Really Heigren, you're losing your touch."  Without waiting she took the datapad and moved off into another room to formulate her message.
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:53, Wed 08 Feb 2017.

"I was busy!!! he called after Zyra.

He sighed then looked in the box.  The contents made him sigh again.  He pulled out the blaster pistol, inserted the power pack then lay it on the table with the vibrodagger.  The comm he looked at but didn't turn it on at this point.  When Zyra returned he'd give it to her and let her decide the risks of using it.

Zyra returned about fifteen minutes later.  She held out the data chip to Troggog.

"I have to impose this on you but I need one more favour.  Could you return this to Heigren's friend outside?  After that if you want nothing more to do with this all I ask is you don't speak of any of this in the interests of security.  We'll get our people home but not if people do something silly."

"Otherwise return and help us plan this rescue.  You helped make this happen so only fair we include you in the decision making."

"I don't mean to gripe, captain. I'll do whatever it takes to help everyone I can and that includes getting these people out of here. I'll bring this to Six."

Troggog returned to Fiarr again and gave the data chip back to her.

"It's done, here's the message."

Troggog offered the data chip.

Fiarr took the chip and inserted it into the droid's small cargo hatch.  "Forty five, engage as instructed.  Report variations immediately."

Once the droid left through the hole, she spoke quietly to Troggog.  "So any particular threats I should worry about?  You said there's no Imps but the guards are usually the lowest threat in prison."

"Well, for one, not everyone in this prison is working together. The majority is still against Sheppard, but they'd cooperate if they had the chance to get off this planet. Then you've got the beasts in the jungle, nasty things. The Empire usually stays out of our business, but I'll bet if they found out what you guys were up to, they'd be all over us," answered Troggog.

"The captain advised I return back to discuss this rescue, I guess I'll see you when the action starts," he said and headed back to the shelter again. He hoped this was the last time.

"Tell them Tac Channel Four is set up for low powered directional comms if they want to speak with me.  Should save your feet from more 'trips!'"

Once Troggog headed off to deliver the chip to Fiarr, Zyra turned to Heigren.

"So what's been happening since we left you guys on Det Akari?  Last I knew you were all hungover and partied out then next I know, you're apparently part of an Alliance rescue force.  The Black Talons had no Alliance affiliations then, in fact the Alliance didn't even exist!  How did you get here and who took charge?  I'm assuming either Cor or that Imperial fellow. . .Branden as I recall.  That's assuming Flash didn't shoot him.  Is Mark's favourite Duros here too?"

Heigren snorted.  "Arin?"  He quickly sobered as he recalled the man's fate.  "No he was killed when we had to escape Det Akari.  Whole place went up in civil war a few days after you left.  Picked up a few new recruits but Arin didn't make it."

"As for Cor she's been helping lead from behind the scenes.  Well she was.  Her, Sheila and Flash all have taken other roles with the Alliance.  They're not officially with us anymore."

He paused for a few moments for dramatic effect.  "No.  The Talons are now led by none other than the mighty shipjacker extraordinaire!"

Zyra snorted.  "Devon?  Devon is leading the Talons?  Stop pulling my leg.  The man couldn't organise a group of repair droids to refit a capital ship pod!"
This message was last edited by the player at 22:16, Thu 09 Feb 2017.

Heigren shrugged.  "Think it caught everyone by surprise, especially him.  But things went bad on Det Akari quickly and it was Devon who stepped up.  Even when some of the others grumbled about it he still got us out and led us to find you guys.  Cor was doing a lot behind the scenes but Devon's led the way.  Even got half the guys calling him Commander!"

"Gotta give the guy credit.  He's been stressed out half the time and I don't think he believes in himself enough but he's pulled us through.  Of course, he'll probably drop the top job on you like a hot tuber if he can."

Zyra nodded.  "I suppose we never really know ourselves until we are put to the test.  So, while we wait, why don't your bring me up to speed on the Talons and also on the rescue force you've brought.  The lack of activity suggests to me you came in quietly.  Any attack on the space forces here would have generated a lot of activity.  This planet serves as more than just a convenient prison.  They've got a massive shipyard up there.  They're building something enormous."

Heigren thought carefully.  So much had changed since Det Akari a few months back.  It took a while to remember who was around.

"Teamwise, as I mentioned Arin was killed on Det Akari.  A few recruits came and went but we retained the Bothan, Cathar and Kel Dor you told us to look up.  In fact the Bothan is outside on guard duty and the Kel Dor is leading the rescue medical team.

Mika, Devon and I are still with the Talons.  Sheila, Flash and Cor are alive but not with us.  We're also trialling two new recruits, a bounty hunter and a soldier but Devon says they're still on probation.

As for the rescue team, the Talons are known as Delta squad.  There's an Alpha and Beta Squad too.  There was about thirty of us but we took some casualties so there's about two dozen people not far outside the shield.  Some Captain is leading but Devon is getting to lead Delta Team.  Didn't really pay much attention to the command stuff.  I know Alpha is all the toughs and Beta is full of engineer types though they're soldiers too.  We have a walker and a couple of speeder bikes, and lots of big guns.  We snuck onplanet in a stealthed cargo container and that's our way off too.  Long way off though.  Took us a day to travel here in the walker, getting attacked by beasties and hungry plants the whole way!"