STAR WARS: RETROSPECTION- Respite

Yep, let's do it. A clear landing area where we have cover, preferably. Xeth will ask Navir if there are any forests on Respite that they can hide in.

Sounds good to me.

Navir doesn't know.

G8 and R3 alert you both when the Nexu's Grin is about to drop out of hyperspace, allowing Xeth to man the helm when it does. Before you, against a background of the black void of space and its pinprick stars, is the planet Respite. It is an uninviting sickly orange color, with poisonous-looking storm clouds concealing much of the surface.

R3 plugs in the coordinates that Navir gives for Tarne's fortress and locates it on the northern hemisphere, far side of the planet.

"Let's open a comm. Get this show on the road. The quicker we get this over with, the sooner we get back to a planet that won't suck. And I doubt there's anything else we can do that'll help our chances with these guys."

I look to Vera, awaiting her acceptance. "Master? You ready to put your diplomat hat on?"

"Certainly," Vera-Kin says as the ship draws closer to the unpleasant world in front of it. "See if we can't find anything in the airwaves that indicates that one of them belongs to Wazo Kell."

"Gator, see if you can find a channel where we can talk to Kell."

Can we video chat, or just via radio?

Vera-Kin waits patiently while Tilulla's astromech goes hunting for comm channels.

Xeth will start piloting his ship closer to the planet to help out G8's scan.

(Any day now Rex...)

I would forget to update this one...

G8 reports that there is a decent amount of comms traffic moving about the airwaves, but he regrets to inform you that all of it is encrypted. He can try to work on it but he is worried that they will detect someone breaking into their frequencies.

After pondering for a good long while, Tilulla laughs for a second, then looks seriously around the room for a moment, then to her companions. "Nothing sends a good ol' "how do you do" like a computer hack. What if we make it really obvious that we're hacking the frequency. Ya know, that we want to be detected. Make it easier to convince them we're not hostile."

"Or that we are hostile. In which case, we act like Tarne sent us. HA! Just worked that one out!" I'm pacing deliberately and quickly around the ship now, my face oscillating between serious and bemusement. "Because slogging around the planet waiting for a better plan doesn't sound like much fun to me."

"Gator, get us the most heavily encrypted channel you can find. That would be the tech clan I'm thinking. Don't hack it just yet. Just isolate it."

"Well?" I ask excitedly, my eyes and arms scanning the room.

G8 can get to work on hacking a random signal and hoping for the best if that is what you tell him to do.

Random? Hm. He can't differentiate by encryption complexity?

But hell, there's only 3 factions that control most of the planet. Chances are we'll be talking to one of them.

Between G8 and R3 they might be able to determine such things. If any of our players have Fix-It would help.

Hm, I do not. That's kinda what I have G8 for. Vera and Xeth might be able to help.

If not, I'm a bit out of ideas. I'm up for picking a random signal, but I'd rather go with my slightly more specific inquiry if possible.

I don't believe they have the skill either...

At best, the astromechs are able to determine that two of the channels are more encrypted than the third. The third is comparatively less encoded.

Well, my intent was to find the techies by finding the most encrypted. But the least encrypted should be the other clan we're looking to befriend, the cult-ish one (the name escapes me atm). Not our first choice, but better than letting Tarne know we're here. I'd be happy with that, especially since I still feel like we can spin it to our advantage regardless of how they receive us.

How do you want to proceed with making contact, then?

I'd be okay with contacting the lesser encrypted group if we think it is going to be Malteen. At least we can be sure of who we are dealing with instead of accidentally giving Tarne a call.

Right, at least I hope.

And Vera, since you'll be doing the talking, be ready to take either stance: that we're friends who have a mutual enemy, or if they turn on us, insinuate that we're working for Tarne. Either way, we may be able to get them to help us.

Of course, it may not work at all, or you may have your own designs. Just something to think about. Otheriwse, I think we all agreed upon this general course of action earlier, so...

"Least encrypted one then, Gator. Go ahead and make the call."

I think convincing them that we are friendly is best. We'll see how it goes.

Vera waits as the astromech breaks into the channel.