Terenganu Valley: Part 2 of 3

Terenganu Excavation Site

Our story begins with Wahil, Izzaldin, and Salah deciding to survey the area of the excavation site currently in possession of the Zenethian Hegemony. The excavation site is at a jungle cavern with its entrance at the side of a large plateau. The site is currently being excavated by Zenethian xeno-archaeologists and protected by the Asturban, the Hegemony's feared secret police. The crew decides to scout the area and get more information about the area such as the excavation camp's infrastructure, any other entrances and exits, and troop strength. Izzaldin and Wahil decide to scout around the camp's perimeter fencing to see if there are any weak points for a quick escape or a hidden way into the camp. Meanwhile, Salah decides to disguise himself as an excavation investor as she has a fake ID that shows her to be one of the Zenethian elite on the Monolith. His plan is to manipulate the guard at the gate to let him in as a so that he can survey the inside of the camp and to gather information.

Jungle Patrol

Izzaldin and Wahil scout the perimeter fence to see if there is another entrance or exit into the site. However, they're movements have alerted a nearby Asturban patrol. Wahil thinks quickly and tells Izzaldin to purposefully get captured to get into the site and to be able to be a point of contact for Salah since Wahil doesn't carry a comlink implant. Izzaldin agrees and comes up with a quick backstory saying that she got lost in the jungles and ended up here. Wahil backtracks back to the ship and acts as a base of operations to coordinate contact between Izzaldin and Salah.

The Asturban patrol asks Izzaldin to put his hands up and questions him about why he is here as the excavation site is a restricted military site. Izzaldin calmly replies that he got lost trekking the jungles after the firefight in the nearby trading outpost earlier in the week and found himself here. The patrol pats down Izzaldin and discovers he is packing a lot of weaponry. Izzaldin says that he grabbed what weapons he could during the firefight as the jungles are dangerous in Kua. Suspicious, Izzaldin is taken into the excavation site for interrogation to determine if his story checks out.

The Tour

Salah, using his modulation mask, along with the exquisite clothing he borrows from Izzaldin disguises himself as an investor for the site. He shows a ID card saying that he works for the Hegemony government and is quickly let in. He meets the excavation site's head, Asturban Colonel Nastia Din Hrama. She greets Salah and issues him a blue pass meaning she has the freedom to inspect the site, but is restricted from entering the main excavation in the deeper parts of the cavern. Colonel Nastia thanks Salah for his interest in investing in the site and gives him a quick and general tour of the site. Colonel Nastia, during the tour, stresses the importance of securing Portal Builder artifacts for the Hegemony as it is part of Zenethian historical record. She also stresses the fact that by securing the artifacts, it would strengthen the Hegemony as the true rulers of the system based on historical record. As the tour concludes, Colonel Nastia explains that Salah is free to stay and inspect the site for as long as he likes as its pertinent for the archaeologists to secure more funding from the government overseers. Salah thanks the colonel and continues to gather more information.

He ends up in a science tent where a dozen or so scientists are working on tables of computers, charts, and uncovered artifacts. He approaches one of the occupied scientists and strikes a conversation with him about the purpose of the main excavation below. The scientist informs him that the team has discovered a land portal on the planet. The find is significant as it is the first time that any one faction has discovered a land portal in all of Horizon. Control of such a thing would make the planet Kua a major trade hub and would compete with Coriolis Station in orbit. The scientists and archaeologists have been studying and excavating it in order to bring it online, but have had little success. The scientist himself is a part of many groups of scientists that are studying other smaller sites around the portal site and have been excavating smaller, but priceless items that inform of Portal Builder life, customs, and politics. He is a xeno-linguist tasked with deciphering the written language used by the Builders. He thanks the scientist for the information and continues exploring the rest of the site. He finds an excavation tent filled with artifacts that are currently boxed and ready for shipment out of the site, and or are in the process of being recorded. Salah takes the opportunity to steal a few artifacts and promptly leaves the tent.

The New Deal

He then goes toward the camp's communications array to see if he can establish contact with Izzaldin and Wahil. As he enters, he sees two Asturban grunts manning the communications equipment, but they seem disinterested in their job. They sit around talking, smoking arrash, and listening to the Hegemony's only radio station, Zenethian Prime. They see Salah and ask him what he wants. Seeing that he is a blue pass holder, they are already ready to give him whatever he wants. Salah asks the two grunts if its possible to use the communications array to talk to his superiors in government to let them know of their investments at the site. The grunts reluctantly agree and say to him that he's got 5 minutes before they need to man their stations again. Salah contacts Wahil and Izzaldin and finds out that Izzaldin is being held for interrogation in a tent behind the colonel's office and needs Salah to get him out. Salah concocts a plan to negotiate a deal with the colonel about their problems with the Sogoi raids and then happen to bring up the interrogation tent.

Salah leaves and meets the colonel again and makes a deal with him about the Sogoi attacks. The problem that the Hegemony has with the Sogoi attacks is that they cannot ultimately wipe them out for fear of inciting a rebellion at the Monolith. Politcal discontent has led Firstcome peoples including the Sogoi to build a fledgling resistance against the Hegemony led by an aptly named, "Queen Slummer." If Salah can hire a non-aligned crew or team to "quietly" wipe out the Sogoi without Hegemony involvement to prevent an uprising at home, then all the better for them.

They make a deal with birr and Salah casually asks about the interrogation tent in the back. The colonel explains its their interrogation tent when they capture trespassers in the area for fear they may be Consortium spies, Sogoi scouts, or resistance fighters. He explains that right now they are interrogating a trespasser who seems suspicious because of the weapons that the person was carrying. Salah asks if he could watch the interrogation as it would interest the Hegemony government. The colonel, not wanting to lose face or investment with the government, lets Salah into the tent as he wants to show that the Asturban do things by the book and are not as fearsome as they are made out to be by the populace and members of the government. As Salah enters the tent, he sees Izzaldin sitting in a chair waiting for his interrogators. Salah immediately tells the colonel to release the man as he is a friend and a trader that escaped from the attack at the spaceport earlier during the week. Salah explains that during the firefight, many of the citizens grabbed what they can including weapons and escaped into the jungle. The colonel is convinced as the stories match from what the reports from the interrogators have told him about Izzaldin. He lets Izzaldin go, and apologizes for the ordeal. The colonel lets them know that they can't be too lax with security especially with the current political climate and the Sogoi attacks. He bids them farewell, and lets them know they are free to stay for as long as they like.

The Monolith

The crew meet back aboard the Deathwish and decide to head to the Monolith to find the "Queen Slummer" to see what help they can get from the resistance to help the Sogoi push the Hegemony out, and to fulfill their contract with the Consortium. As they land at the spaceport on the monolith, they head to Sheva Plaza to see if they can find the information they seek from the denizens there. However, before doing so, they head to a ship's parts shop to see if they can upgrade their ship. They successfully upgrade their weapon systems and add in a service module in their ship. They also head to a survival gear shop and purchase survival gear for themselves.

Marhabtain, Wahib!

They then end up at one of the bars on Sheva Plaza looking for information of "Queen Slummer." By chance, they meet their Coriolis Station fixer Wahib of Wahib's Cantina. They find out Wahib is visiting some of his cousins on the Monolith and has taken a bit of a break here at the bar. Feeling a bit pissed off by the predicament they're in, they angrily tell off Wahib about their troubles with Merez. He apologizes profusely for the mess they were in, and he assures them he takes really good care of vouching for the contacts he makes. Unfortunately, Merez was a bad seed, and Wahib had no idea he was connected with the Syndicate nor was he going to try to kill them. He tells the crew that next time he will assure them that the contact he gives them for a job will not be a crazy criminal psychopath. The crew then asks him that they need a crew of mercs for a job and if Wahib can get them in contact with a crew to do that. Wahib says yes he can supply them with another merc crew to help them with their job, but it'll cost them. The Deathwish crew negotiate a deal with Wahib and successfully gained a squad of mercs for their future fight with the Hegemony.   Meanwhile, other crew members talk to the bartender and realize he is a colleague of theirs in the mercenary community on the Horizon. The bartender moonlights as a trained assassin on Kua. He welcomes them and asks what they want. The crew tell him they're looking for information about where to find the "Queen Slummer." The bartender says not to openly talk about her as the Asturban have eyes all over the place. However, for a long gun and some birr, he can direct the crew to a contact that may know where she is. They accept, and the bartender tells them to head to the slums beneath the plaza and look for a certain "retired" street doctor named Saqqat in a certain bar. Unfortunately, the bar is a Syndicate-run bar so it may be extremely dangerous. The team thank him and head to the slums.

The Den of Thieves

The crew decides to play this cautiously and instruct Salah to enter the bar alone because she can disguise herself. Izzaldin and Wahil remain outside for support in case things go south. As Salah enters the bar, all eyes turn to him. Apparently, its not often the Syndicate sees just anyone walk into their bar. Salah confidently talks to the bartender who actually is one of the lieutenants of the Syndicate in charge of this patch of land in the slums. The bartender, with great intuition, understands that the person walking into his bar is a mercenary; probably looking for a job to do. Salah asks for information about Saqqat, but the bartender doesn't give it lightly. For that kind of information, Salah would need to do a job for them. The bartender shows a datapad and Salah sees his crew on it. Apparently, there is a bounty on all their heads for their capture or death from the Syndicate. The bartender says if Salah accepts the job, the bartender can tell Salah the location of Saqqat. Salah agrees to do the job (understanding that he will obviously never finish it), and gets the information he needs. The street doctor is actually using one of the rooms in the bar as a makeshift operating room/doctor's office for on-the-run mercenaries, fugitives, and Syndicate mafioso.

As Salah meets Saqqat, the street doctor, Salah asks in veiled language where he could find a certain rebellious leader. Saqqat gives out a loud snort and directly says, "You mean the Slum Queen? Yjala Baktou? the one who blew up the trader outpost in the jungles?" Salah, taken aback by the doctor's directness, says yes. Salah then tells Saqqat that he wants to join up with the resistance with some people. Saqqat then says that Yjala is very difficult to find, but he knows of one person that could tell the crew exactly where she is. The contact is a man named Mahdi, a weapons dealer. Unfortunately for the crew, the weapons dealer is a Zenethian elite that lives at the The Esplanade Of Thousands; a restricted compound that only the elite few can enter. To enter the Esplanade, they must have an identification card that identifies them as one of the ruling classes, and then go through a biometric facial scan at the elevator guarded by the most elite of the Asturban. Saqqat further informs them that flying or climbing into the Esplanade is out of the question as the skies around the Esplanade is teeming with Asturban security drones that are programmed to shoot to kill anyone trying to reach it.

Saqqat then tells them that if they need to get up there, they need to start making fast friends with the Zenethian elite. Salah thanks Saqqat and exits the bar.

Fast Friends in High Places

Salah informs the crew of the new situation, and the crew is slightly dismayed that this job is a lot more complicated than it looks. They decide to hit the bars and nightclubs along Sheva Plaza to find an easy Zenethian elite to manipulate into taking them up into the esplanade. The head into a trendy nightclub filled with Zenethian elites and find their mark; a tipsy elite named Rega having a great time. The crew waste no time in wining and dining Rega, telling them they're Coriolis Station Zenethian businessmen looking to make new friends and relax down on Kua. They give her more Fire Kohol and arrash smokes until she is almost wasted. Because of the crew's friendliness, she invites them up to the Esplanade, and explains they would need visitors passes to come with her. In order to do that, they would need to provide a DNA sample and a facial scan at the automated customs office. This greatly worries the crew as a DNA sample would immediately bring them up at the customs office as wanted criminals and would put them into a load of trouble.

Quick Identities

The crew find themselves at the line up to get visitors passes to the Esplanade at the automated customs office. Rega tells them she'll wait for them near the elevator until they're done. At the line up, Salah hatches a plan to sneakily grab DNA samples from the people in front of them and then somehow cutting in line before them so that they can process their DNA first before the people they stole DNA samples from. Salah picks a few people and manages to gently poke them with her fan and swab them with the DNA sampler they were given to place in the customs terminals. After doing so, they manipulate their way to the front of the line by clever social engineering and manage to be first to the customs terminals.

At the terminals, Salah hacks into her terminal to make it so that the DNA they place into the terminals would be linked to their face and not their real selves. She successfully does this and also manages to remotely do this to Izzaldin and Wahil's terminals. They eventually leave with visitors passes and meet Rega. they hold their breath as they go through the facial scanners and nothing happens. They take the elevators up onto the esplanade.

The Esplanade of Thousands

The crew finds themselves at the Esplanade of Thousands; a lavish boulevard that circles Sky City, protected from the thin atmosphere by decompression fields. Lush parks, monuments to the ancestors, villas, and palaces beyond counting for the ruling classes can be found here. Rega then tells them to come with her to her villa on the esplanade where they can continue getting wasted and high off of arrash. However, the crew can finally ditch her and so they tell her that they're going to look for an arrash dealer to bring more back to the party. She becomes excited from this and handsomely gives them 10,000 birr to get her some. The crew, with smiles all around, take her money only to never see her again. They make their way into the esplanade and find Mahdi's villa.

Mahdi, The Arms Dealer

The crew reaches the front gates of Mahdi's villa. Izzaldin tells Mahdi that they're businessmen looking to buy weapons for a good cause. Mahdi tells them he doesn't usually do business in his place of residence, but he can make an exception in this case. He lets them into his villa and show them through to his holo-beachfront at the back of his house. They tell Mahdi that they're mercenaries acting as middlemen to arm the Sogoi village in the Terenganu Valley. Mahdi tells them that all money is good money for him. He suggests a standard issue rifle and armour for the villagers and asks for an order amount. The crew reply that its for 200 people. He suggests a price of 500,000 birr. The crew manages to successfully negotiate this down to 100,000 birr, and Mahdi tells them the shipment will be in their ship by end of day and thanks them for their business. Sensing an opportunity, Izzaldin asks that they are also wanting to join the resistance against the Hegemony. Seeing that arming the Sogoi was the good cause that they were talking about, he agrees to let the crew meet with the "Slum Queen." He informs them he must blindfold them before he leads them to the resistance HQ in order to prevent intelligence leaks. The crew agree, and they're whisked away to the resistance HQ.

The Queen Slummer

The crew finally meet the famed Queen Slummer, Yjala Baktou. She tells them she's heard about the trader outpost destruction and asks if it was them that did that. The crew reply that they were. She also is impressed that they were able to find Mahdi and are arming the Sogoi against the Hegemony in the Terenganu Valley. The crew asks if its possible for the resistance to help the Sogoi in the valley. Yjala reluctantly declines, saying that if she could she would send her people to help, but as of right now, her fighters are stretched thin across the planet and she can't spare any. Izzaldin and Salah reply that if they help them against the Hegemony in the Valley, they will be indebted to the resistance and will do a job for them. The crew notes how well they've been able to make it this far as well as being able to arm a potential group of fighters for Yjala's cause. Yjala realizes the usefulness of Deathwish crew and gives them 600 resistance fighters to join their cause against the Hegemony in the Terenganu Valley. In return, the crew will have to do a job for them in the near future.

With a small army and weapons, the Sogoi villagers in the Terenganu Valley have a chance to rout the Hegemony out of the excavation site and out of the valley. With the help of a mercenary crew, Yjala's resistance fighters, and with Consortium support, Hakam hatches a plan of attack which will take place in a week's time after training the Sogoi on the weapons they have. Only time will tell if the attack will be successful and the Deathwish crew will finally be paid.