[Game Thread] Part One: I Don't Believe in Coincidence

[GrandCommander13]

The five of you stand backed up against a wall in Dillas spaceport, one of the many spaceports which accomodates Jerron's booming trade. None of you has been around the planet long enough – while actually paying enough attention to know the difference – to know from firsthand experience, but everyone has heard local citizens complaining that the Empire has kept the planet on a tight leash ever since its liberation from the Separatists at the end of the war; as long as the Empire keeps trade open, however, most citizens are content to let the Empire run things with only the occassional grumble. Of course, most citizens have never been detained by an agent of the Imperial Security Bureau.

"So," the ISB man says. "What do you have to say for yourselves?" He spits on the ground in disgust before continuing. "Aliens and riff-raff the lot of you," he says as he waves his hand dismissively. He points at Pelon Kai. "Transportation out of a cordon zone," he says. He turns to Larria. "Issuing a false report." He next levels a finger at Zatrel. "Arranging a fugitive's escape off-world, on a ship crewed by aliens." He turns to Ursmal. "Witnessed by two citizens accepting a payment from the fugitive not two hours before his escape." He finally turns to Malcolm. "And you. I intend to find out everything about why you were so eager to flee the planet with your compatriot." He smirks. "I hadn't even blown your cover yet."

One of the six police officers with him steps forward. "Sir," he says. "We can hold them at the police station, and you can make full use of our interview rooms there."

"Yes, yes," the ISB man says, sounding almost bored to be dragged away from his own pleasant thoughts. He turns back to the group. "I'm still trying to figure out who will make it that far." The police officer nods, but involuntarily shivers as he steps back. "Now," the ISB man addresses the group. "Who wants to be one of the lucky ones?"

[Jocularity]

The Kel Dor remained quiet for the moment. his shoulders hunched, he watched the ISB officer with a heart swimming with a heart of dejection for him. He spoke of aliens as though they were second class. Yes, perhaps humans were the most populated species in the galaxy, but countless alien races combined outnumbered them, and had been members of the republic for millenia. How could it be that bigots such as this existed, let alone come into power?

He forced his mind from the despondent indignation and brought his senses back into the now. Behind the soulless looking goggles he wore to be able to see, he closed his eyes and pondered on his options right now. Almost meditatively, he asked himself if enduring the questioning and remaining compliant would be a wiser path or if it would simply lead to more suffering...

Actions Using the Will playing along be bad? Two rolls for Kel Dor. Dice Search your feelings: 1d20+8 (10)+8 Total = 18 1d20+8 (3)+8 Total = 11 Search your Feelings application of Use the Force. Asking if complying with the officers and going to the station will be a remarkably bad thing. Which it probably will.

[GrandCommander13]

Pelon Kai reaches out to the Force and seeks guidance on his circumstances. He senses that despite the honesty of the officers, surrendering will cause darkness to plunge upon the group – especially Pelon Kai and the human boy – before they get anywhere near the station.

[Connor]

Omemo simply allowed the words of the ISB officer to fall away from him as water off a vonnivi's back. He cared little for empirical bigots who only stood to gain any measure of respect for themselves when they target non-humans. Omemo pitied men like that, as they were often closed from reason. Omemo chose to speak in High Galactic, simply to set himself apart from any other 'alien' who this particular ISB agent might harass in the future. Deception +9, taking 10, moderate difficulty +0 = 19"Officer, I think you'll find that while I may have accepted creds from this 'fugitive', I was simply plying may wares as any one of my peoples would when coming to a new world." Omemo hoped that his fine clothing and clearly advanced basis for empirical respect would aid to reinforce his claims.

[ReggaeMortis]

Larria feels her fists clench. She just can't help herself. Kors's last shriek still echoes in her mind, leaving almost no room for constructive thinking. She barely has enough willpower left to constrain herself and not to leap at the officer. Instead, she bows her head, hiding her fierce gaze, and starts Perception (if applicable): Taking 10, 18 totalobserving the room, looking for anything that could possibly serve as a weapon, preferably next to where she's standing. "No way they'll be getting me behind the bars!"

[Jocularity]

Pelon looked at the officer uneasily. He had a bad feeling, a feeling something bad was about to happen if the ISB agent took them to the police station. He wasn't clear on exactly what that was, but he knew that they had to somehow get away from this imperial right here and now, or there would a great darkness to face. For him and the human particularly, that feeling puzzled him. What was so special about the boy?

"There is something you could try." A voice inside his head told him. He knew what it meant. He could draw upon the age-old consular's mind trick, to warp another's perceptions and opinions into his own favor. But he knew that use of the force in these recent times always carried inherent danger, even with such subtlest of manipulations. For now, he decided he would wait and watch. Perhaps one of the others saw a key to freedom for them all that he did not. The Ithorian spoke in High Galactic; a language he had been planning to learn before the republic was usurped, but had no real understanding of it now and so had no ability to "Back him up". Whatever he said, he said it with confidence and assurance. Kai didn't know what it meant, but he hoped it might work in all of their benefits.

[Melchior]

Zatrel was not in a good mood. This had been supposed to be just a simple job for him and the Cosmic Whale. A simple, and completely legitimate, stop to unload some basic supplies before Captain Chepps turned the ship coreward. Zatrel had been looking foreward to that. He hadn't been to Coruscant in years. Or Imperial Center as was it's official name now a days though few actually called it that outside earshot of Imperial officials. Then that damnable man had shown up. Why Ferle thought it had been a blasted good idea to bring his new best friend to see the captain, Zatrel didn't know, but if he ever saw the Rodian ever again he'd punch the green idiot right in that stupid snout of his. And he'd shoot Chepps for abandoning him on this accursed planet at the first sign of trouble.

Zatrel felt a stirring of resentment come churning to the surface at the thought of the Duros. He had worked with Chepps for nearly four years and this was the thanks he got? Well Chepps would get what was coming to him next time he tried to make the Kessel Run. Ferle would probably send the ship right into a black hole without him there to keep the fool in line. Zatrel's mouth twisted up into a cold smile but that fell when the ISB officer pointed a finger in his direction. Chapps may end up crushed into a singularity, but at least he wouldn't spend the rest of his life as a prisoner in one of the empires prisons. Or as a slave. The coward hadn't even had the decency to tell him where they were supposed to take the stranger. Maybe if he knew that he could have traded the information for his release. As it was now, the Imperials were not satisfied with 'Somewhere in the Outer Rim'.

As he listens to the Imperial list off his accusations Zatrel unconsciously pats at his upper left chest. He sighs dejectedly as he remembers, for the fifth time in ten minutes, that the Imperials confiscated his cigarras when they took his blaster. He puts his hands inside his pants pockets' to keep them occupied, and leans back against the wall the group of them had been pushed up against.

He takes a moment to examine the other unlucky sods that the Imperials had rounded up. The Ithorian was unusual, what could one of the peaceful hammer-heads done to piss off the Imperials? Though simply being non-human might have been enough, considering the way things were going these days. And it was getting worse and worse every year. He had not seen a Kel Dor since the war; he wondered what this one was doing here. The woman upset him. He did not like seeing another of his people being persecuted; especially if it was a woman. His thoughts flashed to the young woman he had known on Feldrona, before he pushed them away. He had heard unpleasant stories of the Imperial occupations of the Zabrak worlds. His people were resilient, and strong-willed enough to not break under Imperial tyrany, but that did not mean he had to like what was happening to them. The final suspect was a human man. There was nothing imediatly noteworthy about the man, aside from the ISD officers coments, but Zatrel had met enough humans to know that this one could have done anything to get himself thrown in with them. For all the Empire hated the aliens, it didn't treat it's own kind much better.

Zatrel keeps his mouth shut for now, listening as the Ithorian stepped forward to say something to the officer Zatrel didn't understand. Though he keeps an eye open for an opportune moment. With any luck an opening might arise, or one of the other suspects might do something stupid, and give him the chance to get away from this situation. Though he didn't really know where he would go even if he did escape from the ISB. It wasn't like he knew anyone on this planet. 'Whatever. I can worry about that when I'm not about to be dragged off to become a slave.'

[GrandCommander13]

The ISB man nods slightly as he is addressed by Omemo in High Galactic. He responds in the same. "Maybe so," he muses in perfectly accented Coruscanti High Galactic. "We'll have time to check everything out and make sure that no improprieties took place."

While the ISB agent and the Ithorian babble in a language the others do not understand, some are surveying the room. The group is backed against the eastern wall, where some of the maintenance equipment and a loading droid currently shut down are kept. Opposite them, about fifty meters away, is the control room – currently empty – and the exit. The room itself is shaped like a hexagon, and the ceiling is currently closed. The police are standing in a semicircle about six meters away from you, standing about three meters away from the officer to either side. The ISB man is much closer, about three meters away from you in front of the center of the group.

You can see your weapons and bags – unopened for the moment – sitting on the ground by a work terminal on the southern edge of the room. The police officers and ISB man all have blasters at their hips. Any way out would be through them.

"What of the rest of you?" the ISB agent asks in Basic. "Any stories for me, or do I get to have fun today?"

[Jocularity]

Kai watched the two converse. Whatever the Ithorian said, the officer seemed to have bought it. This indicated that the man might not be very strong willed. He considered the others in the lineup. Two Zabrak, spacers by the look of them, demeanours marked with resentment and bitterness. The female had her fists clenched. He feared anything they may try might be violent and incriminating. His unconscious suggestion was looking better and better an option.

He made his choice. He couldn't be afraid, be inactive as he had been the last few years. He had to try. The Agent looked at him. "It is clear that we are naught but pawns in this clever scoundrel's game. We know nothing that can help you, and he has tricked you into wasting time with us. To better serve the emperor, you should turn your search elsewhere." He chose his words carefully, trying not to sound suspicious if the powers didn't work, or to the other six officers.

Actions Blue text for Mind Trick. Can i also Take 10 like the others? That would score me an 18.

[DoubleL1987]

If the ISB man had hoped his smirk unnerved the teenager, all he got for his troubles was a grim stare in return. Malcolm had been completely silent since he had been picked up, his only reaction coming when his bag had been taken away, and even that had just been a half-hearted protest. Memah's death was still too fresh, the wound in his mind too raw to think about anything else at the moment.

However, he did look up when Kai started talking to the ISB agent, and his eyes narrowed a little. That way of phrasing, sounding reasonable while asking something rather out of place. It sounded almost like the Mind Trick he'd been taught by his master. Could there be another Jedi on Jerron?

Closing his eyes for a moment, Malcolm reached out to the Force, trying to sense if Kai was doing the same...

Info Taking 10 on UTF to sense Force Users for a result of 17

[GrandCommander13]

"I should turn my search elsewhere," the ISB man says after Kai finishes; Malcolm reaches out and senses the well-known influence of the Force coming from the Kel Dor. Apparently oblivious to what just happened, the ISB man shakes his head and turns to the police. "Get these lowlives out of here," he orders them. "Give them a couple of months in a detention camp and take note of anyone who comes in asking about them." He leans in to the police sergeant and whispers, but even with his back to them the keen-eared members of the group can hear him well enough. "Then put them under surveillance once they are released."

The ISB agent pulls his comlink out of his breast pocket. "Nothing on the suspects," he says into it as he begins a brisk walk towards the exit. "Continue your sweep of the spaceport—I'm heading to the central office to check their surveillance and transponder records."

"Alright," the police sergeant says. "You heard the man. Face against the wall, hands behind your backs," he orders. He readies a pair of binder cuffs and moves towards Pelon Kai. One of the officers reaches for his blaster while the others reach for their binder cuffs as well.

[Melchior]

'Well it beats interrogations and slavery I suppose,' Zatrel thinks to himself. He wasn't sure why the ISB officer had a sudden change of heart, but he wasn't about to push it. With a sigh, he moves to comply to the police officers orders, turning around to face against the wall and clasping his hands behind his back.

It would hardly be the first time he had been arrested, though he hoped the food was better this time. He glances to either side to see if the others were going to also comply. With six armed police officers between them and the exit, they would be hard pressed to escape even if he was prone to suicide. He wasn't sure how well he could rely on his fellow captives either. The human man looked the type who might seize the opportunity to escape and at least distract some of the guards but he couldn't be sure about the Kel Dor or the woman. The Ithorian would almost certainly be useless in a fight.

[Jocularity]

One threat dealt with, six to go. Things were getting far more tricky. Now that there was a blaster pointed in his direction, he was much more on edge. In apparent compliance, Kai turned around and presented his hands for the binder cuffs. "I can see it in you too sergeant... You want to rough us up as much as the ISB agent did. Too bad it would be recorded, eh? You'd be reprimanded. Of course, you could Disable the Cameras, then you would have your opportunity..." It was one hell of a gamble, and he was endangering more lives than his own by doing this. But he couldn't shake the feeling that compliance would lead to a greater darkness. Hopefully he wasn't too on edge for the power to work...

Actions Mind Trick again! A 21 should be enough to make this muscle-head do something stupid.

[ReggaeMortis]

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Warning: rolls have been deleted from this post.

[Connor]

Omemo simply stood there. He had heard and seen a lot in his life time, and nothing he did now would likely alter the events that were unfolding. He wouldn't, couldn't be responsible for the deaths of anyone currently within the small spaceport. He would simply wait, watch the others and if needed, try to help where he could. He wasn't useless when it come to self defense... no Ithorian ever truly was, but he preferred the 'combat' of delegation to physical confrontation.