Surha: Prince of Thieves (Part 3)

The crew decide to take on another job on Surha from Xuro Security. The Deathwish crew meet up with Xuro Security agent, Karim Al Hawat who is looking for a crew for a shipment protection job. As Amirah meets with Karim, Karim gives details about the job. The job seems like a routine protection job; drive a shipment of survival gear to some colonists living in the outskirts of Hope's End and make sure nothing goes amiss. After about an hour or two of negotiations, the Deathwish crew and Karim come to an agreement. Karim thanks them for their help and both parties sign the contact on Karim's datapad. Karim forwards them the details as well as the shipment coordinates. Because of the incoming ice storm, the crew can't take the Deathwish as the storm could ground it and cause irreparable damage. Instead, Xuro Security supplies them with a new snow crawler, supplies, and the shipment and send them on their way to their given coordinates.

Cliffside Peril

As the crew make their way to the coordinates given by Xuro Security, Jabbar and Hassan share a moment with each other. Jabbar retells of his story of the Darkbound he encountered on Titan-161 and how it has traumatized him. Seeing the second Darkbound here on Surha makes him believe that its a foreshadowing of his death, and grimly tells Hassan of his deep depression. Ever since the episode in the Kuan temple, he feels as if the curse of the djinn will catch up to them and everyone will die terrible deaths. Hassan tries to assuade his fears saying that having faith in the icons will protect them. At that point, Jabbar and Hassan develop a close friendship through sharing of their thoughts and feelings.

Suddenly, the controls in the snowcrawler stop working. Jabbar tries to move his controls, but nothing works. Izzaldin and Amirah notice that they are speeding up and are quickly heading towards a snowy cliff. If they don't change direction in time, they may fall to their untimely deaths. The crew spring into action trying to find the source of the problem. Wahil notices that in a control panel above the driver's seat are sensors that are out of place for the crawler. He realizes that the sensors have hijacked the vehicle's electronics and someone is remotely controlling their vehicle. Wahil and Jabbar try to hack into the crawler's systems, but it doesn't work. Jabbar decides to take apart the sensors, and it works. The crawler comes to a screeching halt and the crawler stops less than a few feet away from the edge of the cliff. The crew slumps into their seats relieved that they've prevented another disaster to themselves. The crew concur that someone is out there that doesn't want them to deliver the goods to the colonists, so they must stay vigilant from here on out for anything that seems amiss.

The Hand Off

The crew end up at their given coordinates from Xuro Security; a large frozen lake with ice canyons all around them. The Deathwish crew stop the vehicle near a snow covered beach by the frozen lake and wait for the receivers of the shipment. The crew wait for almost five hours at the location almost freezing themselves to death. After some time, they notice a glint of light on top of one of the ice canyons. Using their binoculars, they make out a person using some viewfinder looking at them. Thinking it may be their shipment's reciever, they wave at him. They see that the watcher on the canyon suddenly stands up and moves away to not be seen again.

Shortly after, they see a snow crawler approaching them from a distance on the far side of the lake. The Deathwish crew assume that it is the colonists coming to pick up the shipment. The crew wonder why they would rather pick up their shipment in such an isolated area, and not at the colonist's colony instead. Surely it would've been much more convenient instead of driving out in the extreme cold to pick up their supplies. They stop a few metres away from the Deathwish's snow crawler, and four colonists disembark with accelerator rifles slung on their backs. They don't think any of it as the colonists might be using it for hunting or for protection. The Deathwish crew asks them if they are the colonists that hired Xuro Security to bring them their survival gear, and the colonists say yes. However, Amirah notices that the colonists don't seem to be wearing their exo suits right for the climate and in the way the denizens of Surha wear their exosuits culturally. The colonists demand that they be paid 100,000 birr more for the late delivery. However, according to Xuro Security documentation, the Deathwish crew arrived on time, and the colonists arrived late. The colonists still don't accept the accusation and ask for the Deathwish crew for compensation.

Meanwhile, after a few minutes of tense conversation, another snow crawler arrives and another group of colonists disembark and ask for the shipment. The crew are now faced with a predicament; who are the real colonists and who is the other group trying to take the colonists' survival gear? Upon further observation, it seems that the colonists who arrived later are wearing their exosuits correctly and are unarmed. Their best bet is that they are the real colonists and the first group are imposters. Unfortunately, as Amirah comes to this conclusion, the first group of colonists raise their accelerator rifles at the new group of colonists and forcefully demand that the Deathwish crew give them their shipment and that if they don't comply, the colonists will be shot. The Deathwish crew try to find a peaceful solution to avoid getting their payday killed. However, the crew take too long and a second vehicle arrives; a gravcraft.

The Smuggler Prince of Surha

As the gravcraft arrives, four more people disembark dressed in heavy winter clothing and their faces covered in the distinctive Surhan winter tagelmust. The four people are armed with accelerator rifles. The lead person of the four new arrivals is wearing expensive gold jewelry with rings on all his fingers. He introduces himself as Hakim Shey, the infamous smuggler prince of Surha, son of the deceased legendary smuggler king, Abdul Shey. The Deathwish crew know who this is as he is one of the most infamous smugglers in the Third Horizon, and particularly in the Rimward Reach. He is well known for his villainy and ruthlessness in getting what he wants and powerful enough to move the various factions of the Third Horizon to his whims. Hakim Shey politely asks for the shipment that the crew is carrying or else he may have to collect on his insurance policy, eliminating the colonists held at gunpoint. With nothing to do, without risking the deaths of their pay day, they let the smuggler prince and his crew of thieves unload the Deathwish crew's cargo and take it into their vehicles. Wahil thinks to try to ask Hakim Shey if there's any jobs his crew could do for him to see if he can become an ally in this part of the Kuan system. Hakim replies that he does not work with anyone he doesn't know unless they can prove loyal and can follow through with business. He further explains that, from the looks of it, they look like a second-rate security team for letting them take their cargo without a fight. After they've finished, Hakim gives them a polite goodbye, and both vehicles go back to the ice canyon where they came from.

Cannonball Run

The Deathwish crew decide to give chase in their snow crawler and to see if they can catch Hakim Shey's crew and take back the cargo since the danger to the colonists have passed. The colonists are convinced to loan them their accelerator rifles, and the crew give chase through the canyon. Hassan decides to stay behind near the colonists to shoot at long-range just in case Hakim Shey decides to ambush them if the Deathwish crew tries to follow them. They approach cautiously to the canyon entrance that Hakim Shey went through, and they decide to look for any loose snow near the entrance to see if they can collapse it just in case they're hiding in the canyon. They call Hassan to shoot a weak area of ice near the entrance to start an avalanche. Hassan manages to hit it, and just when it happens, Hakim's gravcraft comes barrelling out of the canyon and towards the snow crawler with guns blazing. The gravcraft goes past them and into another canyon entrance on the other side of the snow lake. The snow crawler gives chase as some of the crew hang outside of ports of the crawler to shoot at the smugglers also hanging outside of the side doors shooting at them back. A firefight and chase ensue, and suddenly after a few minutes, Jabbar is shot through the heart and is instantaneously killed. He falls out of the snow crawler with his face in the snow. Hassan yells out in horror and rage as he sees his friend die. He starts shooting until his clips run out of ammo, taking down the two smugglers hanging out the side of the gravcraft. They too, fall out and one of them dies from their wounds. Jabbar sees one of the smugglers that was thrown out on the snow. He notices that it was one of the smugglers that killed his friend. He runs up to him and kills him while unarmed. Meanwhile, on the gravcraft, Wahil jury rigs a hyper rope to the snow crawler and himself and decides to jump on the gravcraft. He succeeds and find himself hanging onto one of the wings of the gravcraft. He decides to throw a grenade into one of the exposed thrusters of the craft and succeeds, taking it out and slowing down the craft enough for the rest of the crew to jump on. The crew start fighting with the remaining smugglers onboard. Wahil gets shot through the lungs and manages to supplex the last crew member off the wing of the ship into a deep canyon while remaining tied down to the wing. They shortly take them all out and are now in control of the gravcraft. Unfortunately, as they are piloting the craft, they come towards an avalanche and a huge rock is hurtling towards them from above. One of the Deathwish crew members piloting the gravcraft decides to flip the craft sideways and tell the other crew to hold on. Wahil decides to harness himself onto the right side of the open bay doors of the craft and shoot upwards to see if he could destroy the huge rock before it hits them. He succeeds and obliterates the giant rock into pieces and they escape the canyon unscathed. The cargo was found in the gravcraft safe and sound.

They come back eventually to pick up Hassan, but not before, they mourn the loss of Jabbar. They decide to bury him right where he died and create a grave marker with his gun. Hassan gives him his last rites according to his icon, and they leave. They inspect the avalanche they caused previously to see if they caught the smuggler's snow crawler and find it destroyed, but with Hakim Shey missing. As expected, the gravcraft stayed behind to run interference for Hakim Shey to escape. They bring back the cargo to the colonists who confirm their shipment. One of the colonists, impressed and awed by the foreigners who risked their lives to deliver their cargo, makes the snap decision to join them on their adventures. His name is Yaqub. Amirah is hesitant in letting him join, but decides to take him in. They decide to go back to Hope's End to collect on their contract with Xuro Security.

Dangerous Opportunities

As they enter Hope's End Bar and Provisions to collect their reward. They meet their agent who gave them 100,000 birr for the job. Amirah tries to renegotiate to to get 200,000 birr because of the bugged snow crawler and for risking their lives. He agrees, but wouldn't give them a new snow crawler to keep. After they finish negotiations, the crew celebrate their reward, and drink to the death of Jabbar. However, they soon notice that the bar is deserted. No one, not even the bartender is around. Sensing a trap, the Deathwish crew scan the area, and ready their weapons. On the far side of the bar, sitting in a booth in the darkness, they see Hakim Shey clap slowly and congratulate them for taking out some of his most skilled protection detail. He asks the crew ask about the whereabouts of the cargo. The crew tells him that they've already delivered and collected. Hakim says they can leave in one piece if they do a job for him. He tells them that the same company they're currently working for, Xuro Security, has a fulfillment centre for their shipments at the outskirts of Hope's End. He wants a crew to infiltrate the centre and steal data of their current shipments they've taken contracts for. This information will enable him to coordinate attacks and steal everything that Xuro Security is running security for their clients in and around the Rimward Reach. All shipments Xuro Security makes will be compromised and it will possibly bankrupt the company. The catch, he says, is that failure to infiltrate the centre will expose the Deathwish crew to the reprisals of the Consortium again and they would be deemed terrorists to be hunted down. As well, for their failure, Hakim Shey will have no choice but to also send out his assassins across the Third Horizon to eliminate them to remove all traces of his involvement for the botched infiltration job. If they succeed, they will earn a sizeable monetary reward, and further lucrative contracts with him in the future. Hakim tells the crew they have no choice in the matter. They do the job, or they die now. The Deathwish crew negotiate with Hakim Shey, and after a while, they decide to take on the job.