Upon arriving at Gashidda, Drake took the opportunity to refuel before
docking at the downport.

Bert finished up the cooking he had been doing, brewing up their spec
lot of pharmaceuticals into something with a little more ... kick. 
Nothing had exploded... yet.

El Capitane went a few more rounds with paperwork.

Nikki had collared Lily to get some work done on the jump drive.

Badass-Moustache, being the one tasked by Derryn Dodgie, headed into
startown to meet who he was supposed to meet.  Rosa tagged along to
watch his back and assist in delivering any needed violence.

Despite Jim's general LARGEness (since Terrans average approx 5cm taller
than Vilani - he had more than some difficulty wedging into drop pods
back in the day ) and their obviously barbarian features,
Badass-Moustache and Rosa managed to make it into startown without
getting caught on too much surveillance footage.  Not being complete
blithering idiots, they took their time and a long, indirect route to
the low-end dive that was their destination.  Upon arrival, they cased
the joint for a bit, then lobbed inside.

Long story short, Rosa's previous
"stuck-on-the-wrong-side-of-the-border" term in the UNNF Scouts turned
up an unexpected benefit - their contact (in-game) was also one of
Rosa's Contacts (in game-mechanics), one Miiraama Amii (this time
recycled from a previous game, not an attempt at fiction).  After
Miiraama flirted with the both of them (the word "boytoy" came up a
couple of times, much to Eddles' bemusement - Badass-Moustache and the
word "androgynous" don't fit together), she not only gave the right
challenges and responses but, causing this little gem:

"Oh yeah, THIS certainly ain't prearranged or anything..." - Eddles

produced the matching half of the card that Derryn had given
Badass-Moustache earlier (much like hawala systems function now, IIUC).

Fides bona established, it turned out the boodle to be transported was
four dissident types that had a burning need to depart the Ziru Sirka
all quiet-like.  Running afoul of the AZS en route would _not_ be
beneficial.

To minimise opportunity for inadvertent disclosures, the dissidents
would be travelling switchoff in portable low berths (thank you Jeff
Zeitlin for the idea) that would need to be discreetly moved through the
port and into the Paradise's hold.

After arranging pickup time (three nights' hence, at a warehouse closer
to the port), Badass-Moustache started scheming up a way to get the low
berths aboard in a way that would likely evade customs notice as he and
Rosa headed back to the Paradise's berth, again taking a different long,
indirect route back.


Bert was running some quality checks on the um...enhanced
pharmaceuticals when El Capitane chatted him about them.

"They don't react well to gunpowder or laser fire." - Bert

"We won't put 'em in our weapons, then." - El Capitane

I can't remember who decided to palm the um...enhanced pharmaceuticals
off somewhere in startown.  So we'll blame El Capitane.

"Don't do it unarmed - that would be dumb and suicidal" - El Capitane

Moustache managed to find an um... legitimate buyer for the
um...enhanced pharmaceuticals while they were waiting to pick up the boodle.

I'd actually managed to forget that Badass-Moustache was also a
lowish-grade psyker - Eddles took glee in reminding me of that - and he
proceeded to read the buyer, a local ... legitimate ... businesscritter
who planned to offload some at the naval base.  1176k in precious metals
later, the um...pharmaceuticals were no longer the PCs' problem.

It was only _after_ this that El Capitane found out exactly why they had
trooped 7 parsecs into Vilani space, while Nikki was palming off the
machine tooling they'd picked up earlier for another hundred grand.

After this, (for reasons I'm still not clear about), Bert decided that
he needed a local to experiment on, so he and El Capitane headed out to
startown to snatch some poor sod, while Rosa and Jim made ready for
their pickup.

"While the captain and doctor head out to commit crimes under local law,
Rosa and Jim head out to commit crimes under Imperial law." - Me

Da Plan was to smuggle the boodle disguised as "common stuffs",
accompanied by an epic work of fiction otherwise known as "the
paperwork".  Nikki succeeding by 5 on the forgery roll (picked up during
her time as a guest of the German state) produced such a work. 
Transport was to be via the amazingly high-tech piece of kit known as "a
truck".

Bert and Drake eventually found an appropriate poor sod in startown and
jumped him.  As Bert hit him with the sedatives he had prepared earlier,
the poor sod started convulsing.  Beating penalties for poor kit and
disadvantage on his roll, Bert figures out it was a sedation overdose
interacting poorly with drugs he couldn't easily identify.


Jim and Rosa lobbed at their pickup - after a couple of tense moments,
they made their pickup and again took a (different) scenic route back. 
The paperwork held up and the boodle was duly loaded with the
cargomaster's (Jim) connivance.

Bert and El Capitane lobbed back with poor sod - manure spreaders chain
detonated in the background as they got him into their berth.

Further diagnosis revealed an unfavourable reaction between the
administered overdose, cardiac drugs and antiepileptics.  "Hell with it"
- poor sod got chucked into a low berth.

El Capitane borrowed some knockout drugs and headed back into startown
on his own.  May not have been the best timing, as at least two groups
of ... legitimate ... operators decided to settle a grievance
violently.  Chemical and magnetic slugthrowers were in use as Drake
ended up getting shot - 5 points of damage after his armour.

He found poor sod #2 and tried to jump him, only to run afoul of Mr
Sweep's famous dice karma.  However, it had rubbed off on me, resulting
in a mutual crap-off.  Snake eyes all round.

"Excuse me sir, does this cloth smell like chloroform" matched up with
dodging _into_ the attack.  El Capitane "helped" him back to the berth,
further aggravating his injuries (2 more points of injury).

Bert froze down poor sod #2, as Drake gives the order to lift to
Shulgiili before collapsing.

"That firefight had nothing to do with us.  The kidnappings, on the
other hand..." - Mr Sweep.

Bert does what he was originally trained to do back in the day - trauma
surgery - pointing and laughing at a -7 penalty.  With El Capitane being
operated on, Badass-Moustache takes over to get Das Boot underway and
into jump.

"You finally have an excuse to say the captain can't captain" - Mr Sweep

"According to Bert, the captain's going to be laid up for 7 days" - Me.

"Stop celebrating, dammit!" - Mr Sweep

--

 
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