"Our 'contact' wishes to remain anonymous at this time, they are a very private person," Wentar replies. "Comms are not considered very secure in any case. Grant us a landing and we can discuss it more in person."
(I'm trying to keep it so if pressed we can fall back on "Oh you meant on planet? I thought you meant who hired us!"
Very hard to get a sure footing when we have no idea who these people are. Pirates? Colonists? Impossible to tell right now I think.)
"Thank you."
Wentar will begin the descent with, hopefully, the rest of the group. He will look over the landing details being given to them. Is the outer city inside or outside the energy shield? Are there a lot of ships coming to and from where we're going?
(That felt like it went a little too smoothly. What does Wentar's force sense tell him about this landing? Does he sense danger?)
As you descend through the atmosphere, you finally see the White Fortress itself- and why it has the name. The planet is a cool climate; not icy but sparse and snow is not uncommon, and the high-radiation sun shines brightly, making everything strained and gleaming. The city beneath you, then, shines strong and white, almost painful to the eyes.
As you were told, it is clearly not planned. It seems to be a mis-mash of different buildings, different types, different purposes. Half have fallen over; others have been rebuilt many times, others have been built on top of others. It's like a giant junkheap of architecture. it seems to have a broad bottom and works its way up to an equally messy set of architecture at the top, forming a vague conical pyramid shape, except you doubt the bottom you see is the bottom; it is probably built upon other buildings underneath what you can see. A mess.
But an active mess. There's been recent building work here. The shield generator, near the top, is new, and the guns that train on you as you have to lower you shields to pass slowly through the defence screen are new as well. You can see people on walkways and plazas throughout the city, though the most are at the open areas near its bottom, where many of the buildings have been levelled by time to form an open yet urban plain. It is in one of these open areas you are landing.
Wentar tenses up as the guns follow his ship after he lowers the shields. He keeps his danger senses open and stays ready to perform evasive manoeuvres if the need arises. He doesn't want a repeat of Thalos.
Are there any emblems or logos on any of the buildings that we can see on the fly in that we could perform a Savoir Faire check on to identify?
Gallagher shields his eyes for a moment until they adjust to the glaring whiteness.
"The defenses look newly installed," Gallagher says. "It's just as Wentar's contact described. Eons of failed efforts stacked on top of failed efforts. Except someone just moved in to pick up where history left off."
Gallagher knows that the Dark Side clouds much of this, but he continues to explore the Force and their new surroundings as Roan, Xeth, and Wentar all bring them in for a landing at the White Fortress. He still isn't sure that a charade is the best approach, but he knows not who they have found here and isn't sure what would happen if their cover gets blown or if they had just said who they were up front.
Nothing is certain, and Gallagher is used to certainty.
"D'an, be ready for anything," Gallagher says. "As you saw with the Red Lance, pirates are the unsavory sort. However, I don't think this will be any simple pirating operation. They're too well supplied."
What is going on here, Wentar wonders when he fails to spot any obvious emblems.
He opens a secure channel to the other Jedi ships. "This feels too wrong to simply be pirates," he says. "It is too organised and pirates don't just strange ships land in their base, especially ships claiming to be from the Republic, they are often too paranoid for that. Traffic control mentioned a 'contact'... Smugglers perhaps, with type of black market being established or maybe a colony being formed?"
-
Can we see the landing area properly yet? Is there anyone there to greet us? Are there other ships in the area or are we being given our own 'bay'?
Gallagher- there's something powerful at work here. Something you have not sensed before... and at the same time all part of things you [i]have[/] sensed. This is a nexus point of many things- this must be destiny.
Your ships set down in the wide open area, with some of the lower buildings nearby; a mix of ruins, intact relics and newly thrown up pre-fabs. There's not a massive amount of organisation; ships are landed all around in an arbitrary way. You are noticeably a long way from anything important.
There is inddee a welcoming committee approaching- about fifteen people. Some of them are noticeably armed.
(Urgh, there should be a 'let' between 'just' and 'strange' in my last post. Stupid phone, makes it so hard to proofread posts.)
-
"Shall we go meet them or wait for them to call us out?" Wentar asks as he finishes The Free Fliers landing procedure.
Do we want to make any preparations before we go out to meet them? Cover stories and the like?
Out we go then!
Wentar will disembark The Free Flier to greet the approaching party, he keeps his lightsaber on him, concealed under his robes.
"Hail friends!" he calls out with a wave.
-
Is there an obvious leader of the group? I would like to scan him if there is and scan one of the armed fellows. No force points being spent.