HQD Report 5: Luck Runs Out
Port Ol’val
Kas Tunnels
43 ABY
Grix’s palms sweat as he drummed them against the controls of GR-75 transport ship. He could hear the services of the corkscrew-like tunnel sensors sweeping over the ship. He knew that security was high, and swallowed the lump in his throat. No one said anything, as if moving or speaking would somehow ruin their subterfuge.
“Scan complete,” the static-voice of the Dock operator said over the ship's radios. “Moonstone, please proceed to docking bay 06.”
Grix gingerly relaxed his hands off the controls. The credentials cleared! Holy sithspit, it worked! L’ex really wasn’t lying when she said she had an “in” on the shadow port. Sparing a glance over his shoulder, he watched as Shiwum'or'aklo —Mora—pumped her fist and whispered a yes to herself. “Go time,” she whispered once more before she flashed a wide grin and moved to stand in the center of the gathered mercenaries and bounty hunters.
“Friends!” the female Chiss decreed as the attention shifted towards her. Her slicked back ponytail trailed as she spoke and moved. “Thanks to our dear friend L’ex, we not only have access to Port Ol’val, but exclusive bounties on these so-called ‘Qel-Droman’s’. Their vile cult apparently did enough to warrant the Hutts putting a premium on these hits.”
There were grunts of agreement and nods all around. She met eyes with each of the gathered hunters. “You each have your marks,” she explained as a few dossiers with headshots flashed by.
The first was a Shistavanen with white fur. The second was a Miraluka with dark hair. A Verpine. A zeltron woman with a pixie cut.
The last image that appeared was of a man with slicked back white hair, a black shirt, purple tie and purple-tinted sunglasses. “And of course, the elusive Blindman.”
“Talk about poor ssstyle,” a Trandoshan Hunter hissed, shaking their scaled head.
“Garrish,” another Hunter chimed in. More agreements around the room, until one voice cut through the din.
“I don’t know, I think the purple suit is pretty suave,” a hunter towards the back drawled, leaning casually against the bulkhead. The older looking Human’s voice was accented, a start contrast to the imperious delivery of the Chiss leader. He wore a wide brimmed hat and was dressed like a backwater planet's only marshal. His face was leathery and wrinkled and he had a bushy, handlebar mustache.
Mora narrowed her crimson eyes as each of the hunters turned their heads to regard the man.
“...who is that?” one hunter queried.
“I don’t know, do you?” another asked.
“Nope,” a third added.
Mora tilted her head, and then slowly waved her hand. The illusion of the older human faded to reveal a clean shaven man with slicked back black hair and emerald eyes. The man blinked, seemingly caught off guard at his disguise being dismissed with but a wave of the hand.
“Ruh-oh,” Wyn said as he slowly raised his hands over his head.
So much for his grand infiltration plan.
-=X=-
Port Ol’val
Phantom Complex
“Why do I have a bad feeling all of a sudden?” the Aedile of House Qel-Droma said as he studied the holographic video feed that floated before him.
Standing off the the side, Zig Kaliska sighed and handed the Revs a datapad version of the video with raised haptic bumps for the transcription that the Miraluka could actually read.
“The boss’ tracker went dark. So either he’s gone super deep cover, like that one time, but...” she frowned as she studied the holoscreen and watched footage of the ‘trader’ ship that had unloaded a squad of decked out mercenaries and then . “He didn’t send the codeword we agreed upon for deep-cover, though, so I think he got captured...”
“Well, they’re coming for us, so we’ll need to push back,” Revs said, his voice even and calm. The typical levity he carried seemed to have melted away, leaning on the lessons of his mentor. “I’ll stay here to coordinate.”
Zig nodded, already grabbing her armored helmet and sliding it over her head. “I’ll rally the Voidbreaker and go save the boss,” she gave a half salute before jogging out of the briefing room of Phantom Complex.
Introduction
Hello yes, this is Wally. As you see above, we’re kicking off a new story event for House Qel-Droma. The exciting part is that we’ll also be including our Galerian clannmates to join in the fun and chaos as well!
But what does it all mean, Wally? Well, I’m so glad you asked.
NEW QUEST
NEW QUEST!
Welcome to...The Hunting Grounds!
Two simultaneous RPs will be run to continue this story. Revs will be DM’ing one, and I will be DM’ing the other.
Please use this form to select which RP you are interested in, and you’ll be assigned/added appropriately. You can use 1 character per RP, and we prefer you to pick only one of them.
To help fill in some of the lore of these RPs, we have 3 competitions that are now live! Read on to find out more!
spams airhorn
What kind of shadow port doesn’t have its share of local gangs? You guys wanted to expand Ol’val, and this is just another way to do that! Who are the locals, are they friends, enemies, frenemies!? Now's your chance to add your creativity in!
-# Gang signs welcome but not required
This one is pretty straight forward. Create the Big Bad Guy Person for the event. The winning entry will be integrated into the fictional story and revealed in the final week of the connected RPs.
Everyone knows that if you don’t have secret code-speak to baffle and dazzle your enemies and friends alike, what kind of shadow-branch of a Shadow Clan are you really a part of!? Secrets are at the cornerstone of House Qel-Droma’s history and have many uses!
Create a series of code words or phrases that only Qel-Droman’s and our Clanmates would know. This could be having a secret word to initiate an ambush,
Examples:
“The code word is Rochambau! (you have your orders now go man go!)” —When this word is shouted, everyone knows to rush in and ambush the enemy to catch them off guard.
“The red lothcat stalks at night,” — A secret passphrase to gain entrance to a club.
““Purple Twister!” — Spin Tali—a purple Twi’lek—around like a lekku-copter while she cuts through her opponents.
These competitions will run for 2 weeks, giving us time to incorporate your entries into the last part/finale of the story.
AED Hype
Gooooddddd morning ladies, gentlemen and everything in between! This hype is coming from stress induced rage and fueled by caffeine and nicotine so let's get it going!!! We did great slugging through the Bowl Games and this last cycle of seasons but now it's time to focus on the house.
We ran the polls and you have all spoken. We are going to be working on building up the Port! So jump into these comps and get your ideas out there so we can beef it up. Not only do we have these comps going, we are getting two different RPs going to drive forth some development in which we will be getting to play with the cool household toys. And if you enjoy that it means we will get to buy more cool household toys to play with. I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone comes up with, and for those celebrating happy holidays!
In Closing…
You heard the man, Crawlers Qel-Droman’s (and our friends in Gal). Now get out there and kill, kill, kill!
Arcona Invicta,
-Wally / Revs
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First comment!!!!!
Great report!!