Holy Icons Run!
General Summary
Aladdin's Club, Mulukhad District
In the last episode, the Flying Circus crew decide to free Ithar without incurring the wrath of their patron, Wahil Sayidd the III. The crew feel uneasy about this as Wahil has brought them here to a new life. A new opportunity to start without the old baggage of their past selves. However, upon learning Wahil's true identity, it has undoubtedly given the crew a sense of unease. What dark secrets does Wahil hold? What is truly his purpose with this man named Ithar? Will it be worth the trouble? Can they really trust Ithar to hold up his part of the bargain? Whatever the crew's course of action may be, it all leads down to this very moment. A wise old sage once said “If a window of opportunity appears, don't pull down the shade.” The crew find out from Wahib that Ithar was moved to a hideout in the Mulukhad inside a place called Aladdin's; a nightclub visited by thrillseekers, proxy trippers, and other unsavoury types. As the holo-night falls, they find themselves face to face with the Aladdin's tall and wide bouncer; an ex-legionnaire judging from his tattooed arms indicating so."Oi, no entry if you don't have no tickets." "What would it take for us to get in?" Sultan replies, smiling slyly. "Well, if you've got coin to grease my palms, I might look the other way."Sultan smiles and starts talking about his books again and trying to convince the bouncer of his status as a famed author. The bouncer doesn't recognize him at first, but then he does. Sultan briefly chats with him that he can pay with books and a free subscription to his book drop. The bouncer stops smiling and flatly tells the crew that there is no chance for them to get in without at least 1000 birr. Alpha-69 notices the bouncer's arm tattoos. The tattoos show that the bouncer is an ex-legionnaire lieutenant with several confirmed kills on his arm. Alpha decides to let the bouncer knows he knows this.
"So... you're a Legionnaire eh? Lieutenant?" "Yeah, how'd you know?" the bouncer replies. "Your tattoos. I recognize them when I see them." "You used to be a legionnaire?" "Well, no, I've worked with some. Nice people," says Alpha-69.At this point, Alpha starts to have a candid conversation of his past, and eventually, convinces the bouncer to let them in because of official business. As they enter, they hear the low din of the club music from behind the red curtains before you. Streams of dim light hit their face from the large fanous lamps above you, as they walk through several heavy silk curtains. The music get louder and louder and they find themselves standing in the inner atrium of the club as hundreds of bodies writhe to the music from the unseen holo-DJ waving his arms in the back. A man in a white tunic approaches them.
"Marhabtain welcome to Aladdins! we were expecting you! I'm the promoter for the night. The Flying Circus troupe I persume?"The crew exuding confidence, reply with a resounding "yes" and are led to a reserved table for them. A bottle of Lubau Special Reserve is waiting for them in a bucket with glasses laid out. A note is present.
The Woman in Red
As Sultan happily twirls around taking out a few Coriolisians with his swinging arms, he notices a beautiful woman in expensive silks eyeing them on the other side of the nightclub. She's holding a fan. She's stares at Sultan intently then walks away to a back room guarded by two men. Sultan stops dancing, takes a bow, and nods in the direction of Alpha and the others. Alpha nods back and starts moving towards the doors of the backroom, and stops in front of the guard. He feigns being drunk in front of the guard."Hey hey, you're not allowed in there. This is for staff only. Go back to the dance floor," says the guard. "Excuse me dear sir (hic), could you tell me where the bathroom is?" "It's to your left, the other doors" "Thank you good sir"To the surprise of the guard, Alpha starts unravelling his loincloth and starts peeing to his left. The guard starts shouting.
"What in the name of the Deckhand are you doing?! I said the doors on the left! This isn't the bathroom!" "Oh? Sorry sir (hic), you said left so I thought you meant over here (hic)." "You know what, you're done. You're too drunk. I'm taking you out of here"With that the guard starts manhandling the preacher and dragging him towards the entrance of the nightclub. He winks at Sultan giving him the signal that the backdoors are clear. Meanwhile, Quickshot, who during this time, was sitting by the bar, decides to step in front of the guard right before Alpha is thrown out. She convinces the guard to let the preacher stay, and that she'll take care of him for the night at their table. The guard nods and sees them off to their table. The rest of the crew watch Sultan slip through the back doors.
The Queen of Blades
As Sultan enters the room, he sees that the room is empty except Ithar in a corner with a gag in his mouth. He screams. The lights go out. The lights flicker back on giving the room an insipid yellow glow. He notices the presence of two guards flanking Ithar. A soft cackle is heard in stereo around him. She appears before him, but in the borders of the lights in the room. Between the darkness and light."Well, well, what have we got here? Good job slipping past the guard. Very creative, but rather primitive. I just want to say we find you quite interesting, but not very smart. At least, not yet. My kid at Wahib's tipped us off and we knew you were coming. You want Ithar? let's make a deal, or let's fight it out I could care less. I'm just curious how you're gonna do it." "What are you offering?" Sultan asks. "Let's see... Ithar for your ship? Granted, you won't be able to make if off station without one, so you'll need to find a way out before Wahil gets you, but hey, your debt'll be paid off and I'll give you a few minutes head start before I sick my dogs on you!" "Uh. Excuse me.. ma'am, so why do you want the ship? Wahil gave it to us to do the job for him. I don't get it. Do you work for him or no?" "I kind of work with Wahil, but not really in this case. Well, you see, the Flying Circus was a tax write off. We brought you here so we could get a deal on that ship; you guys were kind of included in that. So, we need that ship to find our lost original ship because of complications with pirates. We get about 90% our money back, aaand we have a ship to find our other ship" "Now, the strange thing here is, you kind of work for us through Wahil, so that puts me in an awkward position. So, I have to steal your ship, but really Wahil is in on it too. You'll need to find another one to do Wahil's job. You'll be stuck here unless you find yourselves another ship, but you don't have money, so I guess you're all stuck here baking baklavas for the rest of your lives?" "The other thing is, Wahil wants Ithar, but I see that you're trying to free him. That's between Wahil and you, but he's paying me to let him know if anything happens to him. So if you steal him, I let Wahil know. I get paid. And Wahil will probably sick his mercs on you from this end of the station to the other end."Sultan takes a while to process the weird and confusing scheme. He finally gets it and tells the woman.
"Ohh! I get it now! Money laundering!" "That's right you smart bedraggled wrinkled old boy! I guess Wahil did hire some smart people!" the woman says. "Wait. What about the baklavas? says Sultan "Well, you'll need to be fast don't you? If I give you Ithar, you have but an hour to figure out how to make the most of it before Wahil comes running."Sultan thinks for a few minutes, weighing his options in his head. Then, he speaks.
"Okay, how about this. We keep the ship, and we go find your lost ship, and we deliver the baklavas. You won't get your tax right off, buuuut you don't waste your own lives dealing with pirates now. We're itinerant workers see? We probably aren't worth much if we die eh? You and Ithar in your fancy clothes probably worth more!" See? nobody dies, nobody gets hurt. Well, we might if we keep Ithar, but hey, who doesn't like a little run on the station? Think of it this way, Wahil is giving us a bit of exercise running after Ithar. He has his fun, we try to get a bit of money. What's not to like?" "How do we know you're not going to run away in the ship and not do your job?" "Hey! you all rich guys right? You probably have people with guns and knives and we know that if we run, you'll come looking for us. Frankly speaking, I'm old and my backs going to give out any time soon. I got books to sell. We got a preacher who's kind of a nudist. I don't think we're cut out being fugitives. What do you say ha? Sounds good right?"The woman in red thinks about it for a few seconds and nods. She agrees that the Flying Circus can take Ithar and keep their ship, but to do the job that they're supposed to do plus find their missing ship. However, Ithar is a personal venture for Wahil, so she'll have to call him if the crew leave with him. She informs them that she'll give them an hour headstart before she calls in Wahil. So in that time, they better get their landing codes to get down to Kua. Sultan thanks the woman profusely as he backs his way towards the doors. He runs out with Ithar in tow and starts telling the crew to get a move on because they don't have a lot of time.
The Souk Alesh
The crew take the tube transport system to Souk Alesh where they find themselves in the crowded marketplace of The Souk Alesh, the station’s official free trader market. The Souk Alesh, is located just off the Spice Plaza, in the outer blocks of the Ring. The Souk’s warehouses and docks cover several floors, but the public face of the operation looks roughly like a large bazaar, full of brokers, so-called khabara, loudly yelling out their cargos and missions. They only have an hour before Wahil comes down on the crew to take Ithar back. Time is of the essence. They need to find the Intissar family, The Syndicate clan that runs the area, make a deal with their head-boss to get Kuan landing codes, and then get out of there with a deal that includes getting off station. In the busy market, they spot two people that could help lead them to the Intissar clan. They spot a boy in a ragged cloak whiling away on the sidewalk, and they spot a street vendor selling chai tea and fresh manakeesh bread. From the looks of the both of them, they look like they know some things on the street. The crew decides to question the street vendor first. They find out his name is Ahmed Verdun, and he offers the crew tea and some manakeesh. After a few minutes of small talk, Alpha asks the vendor if he knew of anyone that could help them get to Kua. The vendor says that it's impossible to go down to Kua at the moment because of the military blockade around the planet doing checks on all ships going up and down planet from Coriolis. Alpha says its quite important and is willing to pay for "sensitive information." The vendor smiles and says for the information they seek, he needs to see at least 1000 birr in his hands. The crew give a unified sigh. They're poor and have no money. So Zalua and Sultan head over to the child sitting on the street. Sultan and Zalua ask the child if he would know where the Intissar family is. The child holds out his hand and asks for something in return. Sultan begrudgingly gives him his tea and bread that he got from the vendor. The boy says that the Intissar family can be found in Block 17, Section B in this sector. Sultan thanks the boy, but notices something shiny and metal under his cloak. He starts to get a bit suspicious. The Flying Circus start to crowd around the boy and they start badgering him with questions about the location he told them, and to lead them to the Intissar family. He refuses, and when he does, Sultan tries to grab the metal object under the boy's cloak. Sultan fails, and the boy eventually slips away and starts running down a side street. The crew decide not to pursue. They go back to the vendor and Sultan begs Quickshot, who happens to have the money to pay the vendor for information, to give the vendor his asking price. Quickshot hands over 1,000 birr. The vendor smiles and tells them that the Intissar family can be located at Block 17, Section B. As Sultan hears this, he starts walking very quickly down the street towards Block 17. Quickshot is heard behind him yelling to pay her back.The Intissar Family
The crew arrive at Block 17. It is a slum filled with garbage and dilapidated buildings. They see a motley group of gangers hanging outside the block smoking and drinking. Many of them have gang tattoo markings on their arms, and each of them looks like they could be armed. They see the crew coming."I think you wandered into the wrong block off-worlder."The crew notices the sacrification marks on their backs. The scars that tattoo their backs is intricate and astonishing. Zalua points out that they're culturally Zalosian. The crew hatch a plan to pretend they are acolytes to a fake sex cult that Alpha runs and that they'll negotiate access for the Syndicate to fill their brothels. In return, they get the landing codes and, if things go south, they'll tell Wahil to blast them till the Icons come.
Alpha pipes up, "Friends! Have no fear! I come bearing the good news!" "Whats up preacher? Get your crazy ass outta here before we beat yo' ass up," says one of the gangers. "Do you not know? Who I am? I am the Alpha of the Omega. And I come with a proposition with your boss." "You what now?" a ganger says quizzically. "Brothers, do you not know the word of Alpha? I have a commune with beautiful women, men, and everything in between. We practice free love! Given and received! We do the things that the icons would smile on us for!" "Whaat? You mean like a sex cult kind of thing? a ganger says. "Yes, he means that. He's got like 1,000 followers and all," Sultan adds. "Oh shoot buddy, that sounds pretty good. So, so.. like if we bring you to the boss, you gonna negotiate a deal for us to go there?" the lead ganger says. "Yes, my brother. All I want, is to shine a light where the sun don't shine," Alpha replies. "Okay, we're sold. We bringing you up to the boss."The gangers lead them inside the Intissar family headquarters, an old abandoned house, but lavishly furnished and armed to the teeth with tough looking gangers. They are led into the boss's room. They are introduced to Walid Quarbesh, the head-boss of the Intissar family. 2 gangers are present in the room.
"Abdulelah, this better be good or else your fingers are on the chopping block tonight!" "They good boss. They got some nutty proposition for you, go on preacher Tom, tell im' "Alpha tells Walid what he told the gangers outside. After he finishes, Walid speaks up again.
"So you're granting us access to your little commune, and your followers are willing to sell themselves at our brothels and we don't have to pay them?" "Yes, that is correct. We do it out of love. The more we do it. The more it pleases the icons."A ganger giggles in excitement in the back. The lead ganger that introduced the crew to the boss slaps the giggling ganger upside the head. Walid asks the crew what they want in return. The crew tells him that they need landing codes to break through Zenethian Hegemony blockade over the planet Kua. Walid nods and tells them they can do it. They make a deal and Walid takes out his tabula to send the landing codes to the crew.
The Assassin
Suddenly, as the Walid types in the last number and sends the code to the Flying Circus crew, a loud zip is heard in the room. The windows shatter and they see the boss on the floor with a wound to his head. Dead. A sniper. Everyone hits the floor as gunfire erupts around them. The gangers, confused, start shooting at the Flying Circus crew thinking they killed their boss. Sultan grabs Ithar and jumps out of the 2nd storey building to make a quick escape. However, the unseen sniper shoots him and he sprains his ankle trying to avoid the shot. He decides to leave Ithar behind as he books it down the street. The slapping sounds of his sandals on the metallic sidewalk echo and bounce along the walls and buildings. Meanwhile, back up at the Intissar boss's office, the rest of the Flying Circus crew trade shots with vulcan pistols at short range. Quickshot and Alpha make it outside and escape by jumping out from a window on the other side of the room. As this happens, Zalua is caught fending for herself against a squad of ganger reinforcements. She decides to jump out of the same window that Sultan did and tries to grab Ithar. However, she's wounded and decides that it's too dangerous and leaves the horrified Ithar behind.The Baklava Brigade
The Flying Circus crew eventually meet up outside the district. As they catch their breath, they hear a whirring sound in the distance. Zalua and Alpha squint their eyes in the holo-sunlight and see three individuals on hoverbikes wearing Three Wise Men uniforms, Wahil's Baklava company. One of them holds something in his hand and points it at them. They see the ground erupt around them in concrete shrapnel. The crew start yelling and run into the nearest hovercar they see. Zalua manages to hotwire the car and everyone piles inside. Zalua pushes the throttle of the joystick and zips her way through the crowded levels of the Souk Alesh. Pedestrians jump and scramble out of her way with the Three Wisemen close behind. A parade celebrating the first day of the Cyclade is happening in front of them and Zalua puts on the brakes and veers the hover car to narrowly miss the incoming parade. The hoverbikes miss and they jump into another level of the Souk putting some distance between the hovercar and them. As Zalua drives on the highway, Quickshot opens the side window, aims, and shoots the engine of a hoverbike behind them. The hoverbike crashes into a highway divider, and the wiseman careens over the side of the highway down a dozen levels of the core. It was certain death. Sultan, wide-eyed, and shocked, witnesses his first death in his life."You... you... killed him"Quickshot glances over at Sultan, gives him a look, and then holsters her gun at her side. At this point, the crew loses the men on hoverbikes and manage to make it to Neoptra Spaceport.
Deal or No Deal
The crew arrive exhausted, but with little time. They make their way through the crowds. Panic and adrenaline running through their veins. It's either do or die right here and right now. However, as they make it up the steps of the Neoptra Spaceport, they see Wahil in front of them with Ithar and a boy."Good job Circus freaks! I really didn't expect you to survive for this long! That deserves some commendation from all of us here don't you think boys? By the way, you didn't think I knew about the billion birr stash and the cool experimental weapons? This kid gave me the scoop."He holds up a small datatab in his hands. The crew recognize the boy. It was the boy in the Souk Alesh that gave them directions to the Intessar family. The boy opens his cloak and reveals a cyber deck computer. He filched Ithar's datatab from Sultan at the souk, hacked into it, and revealed the information to Wahil. Wahil explains that they need to hand over the ship, so he can go out and get his other ship. Sultan explained the deal he made with the woman at Aladdin's who is working for Wahil. The Flying Circus finding his ship would be the best way for him to save money and get all the things he wants done all at the same time. Wahil nods and realizes that he got everything for free. Sultan then asks out of curiosity:
"So.... Ithar's going back to jail?" Sultan asks. "Yup," says Wahil "Huuh. Okay." "Well, have a nice trip Ithar...?Ithar gives a bloodied grunt. Wahil laughs.
"Don't worry buddy. You'll escape again in no time. Then we can do this all over again."Sultan asks for one thing that he could do for him to keep him and his crew safe. Wahil asks what would Sultan do that would convince Wahil of not killing off his crew. Sultan asks for autobiographical rights for Wahil's life. Wahil thinks about it and agrees that would be something for him. Sultan waves his hand and his men let the Flying Circus board their ship. The crew shiver in fear as they feel Wahil's watchful eyes on them as they descend to the planet of Kua.
Rewards Granted
- The crew's lives
- Keeping the Flying Circus ship
- Zenethian Hegemony landing codes
Report Date
04 Jun 2020
Primary Location
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