I've drifted from ship to ship for a while now. With the start of the invasion, most of the reputable sorts made a bee-line for safer territories. I guess one upside of a Sith invasion is that they become much easier to find. Unfortunately, answers about the Sith aren't going to be found running away from them, so my choice as clear.
I'm not even sure what planet I hopped off of. Regardless, I needed to find a ship that, at the very least, wasn't going to run from trouble. Luckily, I found one that looks to be seeking trouble.
They seemed to scream trouble. She had the air of adventure crossed with money. He… well, he looks like a psychopath. After a quick bit of discussion, it became evident that she was the captain/owner of the tempest and he was the body guard. That was unfortunate as my usual job of security was qualified by a brute squad of a man. They had a cook, but I convinced them that I was decent at it. Most of the time I just let the cooking droid do the heavy lifting, but I can boil water as well as anybody.
Anyway, we ended up in Hutt Space… progress, as they deal with everybody. Deep Indigo eventually found the asteroid we were looking for, and we went ahead and docked. We were given good accomodations, and effectively free reign of the place. The mandatory dinner was about as could be expected… supposedly the Tempest was hired to seek out some tracking beacon on Coruscant. That came like a hammer blow, as that was the last place I'd expect to find an invading army. However, the force may be with us… There was also some mention of a spy being on the station, but as we weren't sticking around, I paid it no mind.
Upon returning back to the ship, I sensed a dark presence. Everybody else seemed blind to it, but it is common that those with eyes are blinded by what they do see. Lyndee didn't believe me and ordered me back to the ship. I guess I don't follow orders too well, as I snuck off while they were investigating. I made a lot of friends in the station, but made little progress on finding the interloper. Upon returning to the ship, I got a dressing down and an apology. They'd found a tracking device, though they couldn't tell how long it had been there. I took a quick peek, and from the scoring on the wires and the lack of oxidation on the exposed surfaces, it was pretty obvious that it was fresh.
With this new information we approached security. They seemed fairly uninterested, which made me suspect a cover up. Perhaps the spy comment was a ruse to draw us into their confidence? Regardless, after all I've been through I didn't want to play the patsy for the Hutts, so I felt compelled to investigate on my own. Alas, my efforts were for not. Aside from attracting a bit more attention than I wanted, I didn't really accomplish much. From there I decided I'd just keep a low profile; supposedly the customer that commissioned the job was arriving. If things were going to go down badly, I could always jump off at Coruscant.
The customer arrived in style, in a ship of a completely unfamiliar design, though I confess I'm not the expert on such things. I can ask questions, and as such made for the control room to talk with one of my new friends. I had him trace the ship's origin, and after a bit of effort, we traced the vector back to recently conquered Sith space. Well, perhaps there was something interesting here.
The “Baron” got off the ship in a style that clearly indicated he thought highly of himself. However, he seems to have a pet idiot, which makes me suspect he has low self-esteem. While my less curious colleagues watched, I figured it would be worth striking up a conversation with the pet idiot.
This did not go over well, as the baron was very protective of his property. This lends further credence to my belief that he has low self-esteem, as normal people aren't so protective or jumpy. I followed at a distance as they were escorted to their rooms. I was amused to see that they were the same quality as ours; the baron was not treated any better than we were. As they disappeared behind closed doors, the baron made it clear he knew I was watching. I guess we can add “not-blind” to his list of assets, as I wasn't exactly being subtle.
Upon arriving back at the Tempest I was informed that I wasn't allowed to go to the dinner to meet with the Baron. Evidently they are afraid I'll make a bad impression or something. That is fine, I'll see if the pet idiot is roaming around, he probably needs a friendly ear to talk to…