The Compromise

In the last episode of the Flying Circus, the crew fails to save Ithar and unfortunately Wahil sends him back to Titan 161 - Consortium High Security Prison. The crew leave with their lives, but with the grim fact that they’re indentured to the whims of Wahil Sayyid the III and his Baklava company. The hopelessness of working for “the man” so to speak sits in deep within the crew. Fame, fortune, and freedom was what they wanted, but all they got was a dead-end job as food smugglers for a mercenary psychopath who loves baklava. As they are to deliver a shipment of baklava to Kua, which is now being blockaded by the Zenethian Hegemony due to insurrections by the locals on the planet, the crew need to get past the military blockade and numerous checkpoints on planet to deliver the food safely.   Wahil gives the Flying Circus landing coordinates to an area outside of the Monolith, in a clearing in the Sultra Marshes to avoid the Hegemony authorities.   The Sultra is located northeast of the Monolith in what used to be one of the planet’s most fertile regions. However, it is now a desolate place with dark waters, strange algae and patches of high reeds. Nauseating puffs of toxic smoke belch from chimneys from sunken factories. The mud and sludge around the trees is home to strange thorns and pale, razor-sharp weeds.   They are to meet a man named Toriah Hexan, their contact, who will help the crew out of the marsh and into the city past the Nestera Defense Force patrols. According to their contract with Wahil, Yjala expects the delivery in about 6 hours time, so the Flying Circus crew waste no time to find Torian.   The crew find Torian in a clearing in the Sultra Marsh near their landing zone. He leads them to a boat that will bring them through the marsh and to Little Algol where supposedly Yjala Bakou is. The crew load the cargo of baklava on the boat and set off.  

The Dark Waters

On the water, Abeer, the Flying Circus' negotiator, is curious about why the waters of the Sultra Marshes were so dark. At first glance, it looks as if a web of thick roots and seaweed grow just below the surface of the water, but she notices that the waters are much deeper; she spots ruins from an bygone civilization. She sees the tops of towers and high buildings underwater. Suddenly, she sees movement down below.   She quietly asks Sultan if she should push Torian overboard to see what kind of reaction the things underwater might have. Sultan, taken aback, says that she should just talk to Torian about it instead. Sultan explains that if those things underwater are dangerous, they would lose their guide and it would be a lot harder for them to get out of the winding maze of canals and heavy jungle.   She sees Sultan's logic in this and asks Torian what school of fish are those below them.  

"Don't move! Everyone stay still!"

  Everyone complies with Torian's sudden order. He looks at everyone, and when the school of creatures underwater pass, he breathes a sigh of relief.  

"It was a good thing you asked right when those things were nearby. Those were Thu'ban locally, but their known as Darkworms. Nasty little things. They travel in schools of hundreds. They're attracted to physical movement, and when they lock on to you, they'll jump out of the water and eat you alive."

  Abeer swallows hard. Sultan looks at her and gives her an "I told you so" sort of face.   The journey takes a few hours, but they arrive on a river beach and wade across the water to land where they see a waiting hover truck camouflaged in the underbrush. Torian tells the crew to load up the cargo and then get in the truck. They feel ragged from the journey, but do as they're told.   As the last boxes are loaded in the truck, Quickshot, Abeer, and Torian spot something big and huge trampling through the trees towards them. It was coming in fast.  

Azalean! Get in the the truck now! Move! Move! Move!

  A battering ram of fur, muscle and teeth comes charging out of the forest. Azaleans have several ring-shaped mouths with rotating rows of teeth, surrounded by watchful eyes and venomous salivary glands. Unfortunately, Sultan notices this a little too late and is caught by the beast with his rotating teeth.   Quickshot and Abeer take potshots at the Azalean, but many of their shots can't seem to dent the beast's armored carapace. Sultan manages to free himself and run to the truck. The Azalean follows behind him and Quickshot manages to pull him into the cab of the truck before the beast snaps his jaws on him. Abeer accelerates the truck and they go off on the the jungle road at top speed. The Azalean pursues right behind them.   During the chase, Quickshot fires her gun out of the cab at the Azalean, but it only makes it angrier and faster. The Azalean manages to get close enough to swipe the front of the truck with its claws damaging a power inverter in the truck. The truck starts to slow down. Abeer prays to her icon for a miracle and her prayers are answered. Suddenly, the engine of the truck starts to rev to life and a surge of energy powers the truck. It seems that the Azalean managed to swipe the power inverter in a way that the leakage from the inverter fed into the truck's turbo and managed to give it more power. They eventually leave the chasing Azalean in the distance, and everyone slumps onto their seats.  

"I don't know why I do this. I really hate the jungle.

 

The Souk Habra

The crew finally arrive at Little Algol, a district outside of the Monolith. Torian then tells the crew that this is where he leaves them. The crew ask if he is willing to introduce them to Yjala Bakou. He replies that he doesn't even know where she is, and that this is only a contract job for him from Yjala. The crew understand and they exchange thanks and goodbyes. They head into the Souk Habra where Wahil tells them Yjala or people that work for her could be found.   As the crew enter the souk, they notice the marketplace to be busy and chaotic. The local vendors live in, or close to, their shacks or stalls as they see laundry and angry old wives yelling at their husband merchants below. The souk is a water market; Slippery pontoons and rotting jetties connect the different platforms, but gondoliers are a plenty to take you where you need to go. Going by gondola is usually quicker as the markets are crowded around the clock. Slow-moving mass of merchants, customers, hands, and palanquin carriers fill every street and alley and the sounds of the marketplace is almost deafening. Beggars sing hymns to passersby while shaking their cups in the hopes of a few birr.   As they look around, they notice the streets are lined with propaganda posters to join the Nestera Defense forces and to protect the Hegemony. However, they also see graffiti on the walls from the Kuan Insurrection.   Sultan tells the crew that they need to find individuals who look like they know where Yjala is. They meet a spice seller named Wahina Tamim.  

"Yjala? The queen? Oh, you won’t find her here. She’s slummer royalty I tell ya. She’s got maidens that take care of her and the like. I’ll tell you this though, she’s got a reputation mind you. Some people say she’s the saviour of Algol, setting up makeshift medical clinics to take care of the wounded. Food stations everywhere in Little Algol. Sounds like a saint ainnit? However, there’s also some people that say she secretly with the Nestera and her goodwill is to find slummer spies so that the Nestera can take them out. To be honest I don’t know what to think!   If you’re looking for her, Talk to Janus the gondolier, he’s met a few folk in his travels around the city. He might know something."

Wahina points to a gondolier smoking arrash under a streetlamp near an open canal. The crew go over to the man. He starts laughing when the crew ask about Yjala.  

"You're trying to find Yjala? Hah! that's a laugh. That's like trying to find a needle in a haystack. She's the one organizing supplies and food to everyone here. With the fighting going on between the rebels and the Hegemony, she's making sure the people's needs are met since the blockade from space is preventing much needed supplies coming in. She's a hero I say!"   "Look. if you're trying to find her, your best bet is Sylesh Tam at the Luhal Cantina a few blocks down. She hears things and she might be able to point you to the right direction."

The Luhal Cantina

As the crew enters the cantina, it is filled with locals and travellers of all shapes and sizes eating, talking, laughing, and drinking their sorrows away. It is a mud brick hovel on the ground, but cozy in atmosphere. Some of the clientele have their eyes glued on the cantina's small holo-screen listening to The Bulletin as the reporter goes on to give updates on the current rebellion on Kua. Hundreds dead. Dozens missing. Many people shake their heads.  

"Hello, welcome to my bar. What's your vice?"   "Miran brandy. No ice," replies Quickshot.

  As the crew settles in, the crew start to ask Sylesh about the whereabouts of Yjala Bakou. He tells them he only knows what everyone knows. That she's an upstanding citizen that's helping her community by gathering supplies and setting up triage centres for the injured. The crew press on by saying that they have an important shipment from Coriolis that needs to get to her, a shipment of food products from the Three Wisemen Baklava Corp.  

"You need information? Well, I don't readily give it to anyone. And certainly not from someone off-world. Don't you see we're in the middle of an insurrection? Prove to me that you aren't a Nestera spy trying to do one in on what good we have here in our community, or I'll have my men throw you out of my bar."

  As things are starting to heat up between the crew and Sylesh, a Nestera Defense Force patrol squad walks into the cantina.  

"Papers please! Failure to comply, and you will be taken in for immediate questioning!"

Everyone nervously rushes to get their papers out for inspection, and the patrol goes through everyone table by table, seat by seat. They happen upon a mother and daughter sitting at a booth. They talk briefly with the mother, and suddenly a soldier grabs the child and starts pulling her away from her mother. The child starts screaming. The mother starts crying.  

"Mom! Help me please! I didn't do anything!"   "Please! let my child go! She doesn't need to go with you! She just forgot her papers at home! I can take you there! Please"

  Sylesh gathers his courage and pipes up.  

"She hasn't done anything wrong, just let her go. If you need the girl's papers, let her take you to her home. You're already scaring my customers."

  The soldiers start pointing their weapons at everyone. People are getting riled up. The situation is escalating. As the crew sit and watch this unfold, suddenly, several people stand up -- scattered at different tables. All of them holding accelerator carbines. A man from a table in front with a carbine pointed at the captain of the Nestera patrol speaks up.  

"Let the woman and child go, and you can leave unharmed. Courtesy of the Freedom Fighters."

  Sultan takes this opportunity to slip away from his seat at the bar and go to the woman and child and quietly usher them away from the Nestera soldiers. As soon as this happens, talks between the freedom fighters and the Nestera soldiers break down and a hail of accelerator fire starts whizzing over the heads of everyone at the cantina.   The Flying Circus crew spring into action. Sultan runs with the child to a nearby room with a holo-pool table and quickly tells the child to hide under the table. He takes out his sword to protect the child under the table.   Meanwhile, Quickshot vaults over the bar and uses it as makeshift cover and starts shooting at the Nestera Defense Forces. Some shots hit with the help of the freedom fighters. Abeer tries to vault over the bar, but fails spectacularly. She spills some glasses of beer all over the bar causing it to be slick. As she vaults over, she slips and manages to get herself in an uncontrollable spin on top of the bar. Using this as an advantage, she starts shooting while spinning like a top on the table. She manages to take out some of the Nestera soldiers, but gets fatally hurt from a piece of shrapnel rupturing an artery in her leg. With only a few minutes to live, her situation is dire. Quickshot manages to drag Abeer over to her side of the bar and administers first aid to stop the bleeding. She manages to do so, but Abeer is unconscious. She's lost a lot of blood.   At that moment, Sultan is shot at badly and also goes unconscious from sustained close combat with a highly trained soldier. He manages to take out one of the soldiers before going down. The firefight leaves Quickshot the only remaining stable person available to continue the fight with the freedom fighters and the Nestera soldiers. She manages to kill the last soldier, and runs over to Sultan to bandage him up. Both he and Abeer gain consciousness after a while. The freedom fighters thank them for their help. Sylesh comes up to them.  

"Alright. Looks like you can be trusted. My men will lead you to Yjala Bakou. If that's the shipment that she needs, we'll make sure it reaches her with you. Now, quickly load it onto the truck outside. My men will dispose the bodies in here and I'll send everyone home."

This is shortly done, and the crew pile into the truck with the freedom fighters and they zip through the streets of Little Algol. As they drive, they see a Nestera Defense patrol car speeding by them. They've probably heard of the attack at the cantina and are on their way to respond.  

Hamam Tamina

Sultan looks at his tabula. It has been about 3 hours since their journey began. They've made good time since the Azalean boosted the engine of their truck from the Sultra Marsh, and they managed to make contact with people that could take them directly to their client. After about half an hour travelling, the crew start to notice that the buildings are looking a lot more dilapidated and shot up. It looks like they're moving into the hot zone of the conflict. They start seeing destitute looking people huddled over grim fires in abandoned buildings, and children in tattered clothing playing on the street.   They arrive at what looks like a hamam, a bath house. With a sign above it that reads Hammam Tamina.   As they enter, they notice an atrium with a mosaic skylight in the middle depicting the constellations in the night sky above the Icon City on Mira. The soft light from above makes the shallow pools below shine like silver, illuminating a beautiful Deckhand statue in the middle. The statue is of a small child with short hair hunched over a stone bowl with a rag in its hand, as if just about to polish the surface of the water. Both the statue and the walls of the atrium are covered in lush, green vines. A woman in an engineer's jumpsuit walks in with several men with large accelerator rifles.      

“Welcome! My name is Yjala, I hope your travels weren’t too inconvenient. I’m going to have to apologize on behalf of the Hegemony for the situation going on."   "First, I’d like to thank you for the shipment of baklavas. I think everyone in the Arta-Kurta district will be most pleased for the delicacy."

  The crew looking pleased with themselves, start talking about payment for their services and a way out of the planet. Yjala crumples her face, and looks down at her feet. She sighs and starts speaking.  

"Well, you see, there's a slight problem. I need to get these to the Arta-Kurta district. It's a poorer section of the city. I can't deliver them because I don't have any couriers to do it. All of them left when the fighting started, and no one is willing enough to do it. Arta-Kurta is also cut off by the Nestera Defense Forces and their checkpoints are not letting people in or out of the district."   "I need you to deliver the baklava shipment to the Arta-Kurta district safely with other food and medical supplies. If the people don't get the supplies by tomorrow, I don't know how long they'll last."   "I've asked Wahil to extend your contract and use you for my job. You will be paid of course, and given the situation, I'll be paying you all 5,000 birr each for the trouble on top of what Wahil is paying you. I will supply you with an escort to the area."

  The crew mull this over, and they all agree that the reward is fair. Yjala thanks them and offer them to rest in one of the rooms in the hammam that's been reconverted as a sleeping station for the medics. Tomorrow, they set off on their journey to the Arta-Kurta district.