Episode 2

Howtro Highport
061-221 through 064-221

Shortly after the holovid producer - Joshua Wallace – left, another man sat at the table. Marquis Harim Samadr introduced himself to Captain Ross and offered his apologies for not being able to attend the reception. After a brief conversation where they brought him up to speed, Harim led the group out of the pub in search of a party at which he could extend the celebrations. Despite his efforts and those of Thiel, they were unable to find anything suitable and they retired to their rooms for the night. Concerned that his friends were caught up in some sort of conspiracy against the Imperium, Harim spent some time trolling local databases for more information about Shariish and their anonymous benefactor.

The next morning, Jordan contacted Shariish and asked her to find him a media agent. Meanwhile, Harim persuaded the hotel desk clerk to tell him who had booked the rooms for his friends. The rooms had been paid for by a corporate account from Sentinel Express Lines – the same passenger line that Henri and Thiel had travelled on. After asking a few questions around the docks, Thiel determined that Sentinel Express Lines was a fairly new company running small passenger ships along the high-volume route connecting Sentinel and Howotro.

In the afternoon, Ross met with Sanford Marman – the media agent that Shariish had found. He soon learned that Marman would be too expensive to hire given the small amount of money he would reasonably expect to receive from the holovid deal. Harim quickly volunteered to act as Ross’ representative when they met with Wallace in the afternoon. As it turned out, Harim, Henri, and Thiel all contributed to the negotiations with Wallace. The deal they brokered was reasonably good, but they realized after the fact that - despite their attempts to rework the contract - Ross was unlikely to ever see any royalties. They did however walk out the office 20 thousand credits richer.

The next day, the group considered Mr. Chen’s business proposal. They did a few computer searches, and eventually found some references to him in a Law Enforcement database, but determined that his business was mostly legitimate. They arranged to meet with Mr. Chen the following day at his groundside offices. The rest of the day was spent in further investigation of Sentinel Express Lines and Shariish. Harim had apparently developed a bit of fascination for the woman, and arranged to have dinner with her. Applying his considerable charm to her, he not only convinced her to join him in his room, but also draw a few new pieces of information out of her. He even attempted to acquire her phone so that his friends could dig through her records, but he was unable to get it away from her without arouse suspicion.

The next morning, the men checked out of their nice – but very expensive – rooms, and took a shuttle to the Densun Downport. They spent a few hours on the surface exploring the spaceport and finding new hotels before Mr. Chen’s driver arrived to take them to their meeting. The aristocrats became increasingly uncomfortable as the neighborhoods they traveled through became progressively more run down, and were looking forward to the lunch Mr. Chen was buying them with some trepidation.

Lunch was provided in a dingy pastry shop in the same building as Mr. Chen’s office, but the food was surprisingly tasty. He refused to talk business until they had finished lunch and had gone to his new, fourth floor conference room. He was presenting some information about the ship he was looking to buy when the meeting was interrupted by an urgent call: “Mr. Chen! It’s Thomas Sun! He’s here looking for you…”

The call was cut off with the sound of gunfire and screaming. Chen turned to the group and said, “I’ll give you ten thousand credits, if you can get me to the starport safely.”

He explained that Thomas Sun was an enforcer for the Minlo family, and the family must be “upset” with him for trying to sell off his business. Harim quickly agreed, and readied his blade. Jordan and Thiel also began readying their weapons while Henri tried to determine the best place to hide. They determined that since the elevators were all on the third floor, where they supposed the thugs must be searching for Chen. Attempting to sneak down to the parking garage, they heard movement on stairs below them. Chen told them there were a couple of old grav cars on the roof that they might be able to use, and the party charged up the stairs. Thiel lingered behind as a rear guard. He fired his stunner at the first thug up the stairs knocking the man out, but the second one returned fire with a machine pistol of some sort and showered Thiel with chunks of concrete. Meanwhile Ross pulled a fire extinguisher off of the wall and placed it on a landing. Thiel ran from the thugs’ superior firepower, and they pursued. Ross waited with his laser pistol until the enemies reached the fire extinguisher. One well placed shot detonated the canister, and stunned the pursuers. Racing up a few more flights, Ross placed another extinguisher on the steps which caused the thugs to pause for a moment, giving the group even more of a lead.

Busting out of the door at the top of the stairs, they saw a garage-like building across the roof. Someone would have to hold that top of the stairs long enough for the others to get the grav cars up and running…