Episode 12 - Coup

Howotro Highport
155-221 through 163-221
Following smuggling incident, the four men found themselves with some downtime. They had no contracts to fulfill and no pressing leads to investigate. Harim and Henri took this time to relax and enjoy their luxurious hotel suites and the Highport's extensive entertainment options. Meanwhile, Jordan studied and worked on his robotic projects. Thiel had heard a rumor - from the free trader, Elena Voegeli - that a man had been asking around about him. He spent his free time drifting through spacer bars and the seedy parts of the highport trying to find out what was going on. He discovered that an old enemy, Gorgi Tonis, had come and gone from Howotro while Thiel was way.

A couple of days later, Henri received an invitation from Alexander Moya. The chef had a business proposition and wanted to discuss it after a dinner at his restaurant. Moya explained that Dhamras, a city in the largest nation on Howotro, was hosting its annual Feast of Dhamras at the end of the week. This festival was a long standing tradition that celebrated everything and anything related to food. He had discovered that because of the troubles elsewhere on the planet there was an opportunity to rent a booth in the city's convention center for the three days of the Feast. Moya was looking for a partner in the venture, he would provide the culinary expertise and half of the capital, and proposed that Henri would provide some Iskendu beef and the other half of the costs. After briefly discussing the proposal with the others, Henri accepted the deal. He and Harim immediately started preparations including hiring a PR firm and coordinating with the Feast organizers. They learned during the week that Marquis Sringasa - the Imperial Governor of Howotro - was going to attend the Feast and Henri sent him a formal invitation to visit the booth. They also learned that MacKenzie was also going to be in a nearby city negotiating a contract, and invited him to come visit the booth as well.

Dhamras, Howotro
164-221 through 165-221

By the end of the week, all four of the men were eager for the Feast to begin and took a shuttle down to Dhamras early on the first day to oversee the final preparations. During the first day, the four men took turns watching the booth and talking to potential customers, although when Henri overheard Thiel's unique sales pitch, he volunteered to take his shifts as well. With his additional free time Thiel, acting on an inspiration from Jordan, rigged the kitchen vents to gently waft the delicious smell of the cooking beef towards the hallways with the highest traffic. While he was wandering through the convention center, Jordan noticed a particularly high concentration of heavily armed soldiers walking around. When he asked locals about this, they explained that it was unusual, but that the festival had it's roots in a historic victory and was very popular with the military.

During one of his shifts that Henri met a local named Masuman. Masuman was selling artisan cheeses from a tiny stall near the Iskendu booth. After tasting the Zhugean beef, he told Henri, "This is wonderful! You'll put my boss out of business!" He explained that he had been forced to sell his family's farm to an offworld corporation - Malcolm Foods - and to add insult to injury the only work he could find was tending the cattle for Malcolm Foods on the land he used to own. Jordan later visited the Malcolm booth and found their beef to be tough and bland - no competition for Iskendu at all - and that their cheeses were far inferior to the homemade ones Masuman was selling.

After the kitchens closed down, the party continued long into the night. While wandering from bar to bar, they noticed that the military presence was still unusually high. Following a hunch, Henri lead them to a higher class bar where he expected to find some politicos. He managed to locate and start a conversation with a local Senator. Senator Kapila seemed a little shocked after hearing about the number of soldiers patrolling the streets. He claimed that the military presence wasn't an issue, but the fact that he left as quickly as possible made his arguments unconvincing at best. Walking back to the hotel, Henri called Marquis Sringasa and explained what he had learned and what he suspected. Sringasa thanked him for the warning and said that he was scheduled to arrive in Dhamras the next afternoon, but that he would start an investigation as soon as possible.

The next morning, the group was tense and anxious as they helped setup the booth, but relaxed slightly as the day progressed and nothing bad happened. Jordan and Masuman, working with Iskendu beef, Masuman's cheese, and some fresh baked bread from local bakery, concocted what they declared to be "the best sandwich ever." Thiel, still worried about the situation, worked out the quickest routes out of the convention center and to their hotel suite. Later that afternoon, shortly after he was supposed to arrive in the city, Marquis Sringasa called from the highport. He began warning Henri that something was happening, but he was cut off in mid-sentence. They soon discovered that there was some kind of jammer blocking communications out of the city and even interfering with calls within the convention center. The crowd didn't immediately realize that anything was wrong, but began slowly building towards a panic. While Harim and Henri started securing the booth, Thiel and Jordan scouted the area.

They discovered that the military had cordoned off the whole campus surrounding the convention center. The crowd had begun to panic in earnest now, so Jordan collected Masuman and his son Prashad and quickly returned to the booth. Thiel tried scouting around outside the building, but realized that the soldiers were now herding the crowds back into the convention center. Rather than get caught up in the press, he forced the lock of a service door and found himself in the utility tunnels under the convention center. Feeling safe for the moment, Thiel hacked his communicator so that he was able to intercept a few of the military conversations. He picked up a message indicating that the troops were to start "gathering the Imperials." Realizing that meant him and his friends he contacted the group and warned them that they needed to get out as soon as possible. He found another door somewhat close to the booth and called the group, which now included Moya as well his assistants Wilhelmina and Maura.

Once the group was relatively safe in the utility tunnels, they searched and eventually found a small duct which seemed to lead away from the building. They began crawling through the duct and soon heard troops searching the tunnels they had just left, but felt somewhat confident that the duct they entered would be missed by a casual search.

The duct led to the basement of a nearby building. Thiel scouted around and realized that they were in a mixed use building just outside of the military cordon. Safe for the moment, they began to discuss their options.