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Underworld Lower City
Maze of the Pit
Allied Team Claim
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"So why are the doors so expensive?" Naruto asks Nameless
Bo chatting to friends with the mazeboss to have the claim door repaired also
as the party watches from the side, as the bodies of the jokerz get removed by the miners
finally the emergency teams exit and the damaged door is closed, a fast sweep of the area removes the risk of hidden surprises
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"First of all the management of the mines do not want people to have valid claims often because a claim can cover a large area, limiting the mining." Mack calls out
as he and Leeds take point heading deeper into the mine, guns unholstered
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Naruto speeds up to join the conversation, Mack comments to Naruto
"Unless we get lucky and find more than we have, then we lose the claim and new miners move in and start doing tunnels off the sides as the corperations were planning to do."
"If we find enough then we own the claim and we can rent space on our claim to other miners"
"We can also charge any 'tax' we choose on what they find."
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when Mack grabs a drink, Bo adds his two credits,
"Trouble is we cannot enforce the tax as corperations do, not enough muscle."
"The fact is, the maze authorities will claim all the crystals mined as we come out."
"The only ones who ever profit from mining are corperations who 'smuggle out' crystals by paying bribes, to the republic officials to have them look the other way."
"They will probably offer to buy the claim from us and pay us off, if we don't sell, then they would probably kill us by assassination and take the claim,"
"saying we had written them into our wills, all it would take is one of us losing our claim for them to take over."
"The amount of manpower a corperation could gather, would just push the rest of us to the side."
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marching past layers of different rock strata
the team marking different areas when sensors give reading of possible interest
Naruto often marking areas based on feelings of not wanting to be left out
the team carefully scouting its way through the new claim
"Could we form a corperation to defend ourselves against the others?"
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Nameless starts hissing like a leaky steam-pipe, holding himself up with a hand on the wall, laughter also coming from the others, to Naruto's puzzlement
Leeds picks up the conversation seeing the others are too breathless from laughing
"On this world corperations are the lowest of the low, scavengers that exist only to try to rise to the top of the pile,"
"Czerka is a good example, its been around forever, but sees only numbers and how it relates to its profits."
"The members are always backstabbing each others to advance, sooner or later someone we would hire"
"would kill us and take over control for themslves or sell out the rest for a profit to another company."
"Here on O'maki, a hostile takeover leaves no survivors."
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looking disgusted at the level of thievery allowed, Naruto grumbles
"Is there any way to prevent them from stealing the claim for a pittance or becoming as bad as they are?"
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Nameless grunts, shoving off from leaning against the wall, waving to Leeds that he was taking point
Leeds drifts back to Naruto as the others move up and past.
ruffling Naruto's hair in passing, "Let me think on it, we may have some options."
Naruto looks hopeful, then spots the chamber where the fight happened "Ah my tags."
darting to the sides as the team watches him peel paper tags off stalagmites and search under the gravel for others
Bo watching Naruto pointing asks "whats with the paper?"
looking up from the floor as he pulls a tag out of the gravel "explosive seals and flare tags."
"Out of paper!?" Mack asks with a poleaxed look "How does that work?"
pulling out some paper, a small cup, a vial of ink and a brush Naruto starts setting up an demonstration
"Nameless said there was no paper so he got me some material flimsies are made from, insulation plastic he called it."
"The pens are engineer's scribes he provided said they would mark all materials."
cutting his palm and pooling the blood in his hand "I mix my blood charged with chakra with the ink." pouring the blood into the cup
opening the ink vial, he pours in the ink and mixes it with the brush as the four watch
"Then with care I create the flare or explosive seal on the paper." painting a design with care
ten minutes pass before he finishes, he then goes over the work carefully
sitting back "This one passes inspection, I will then charge it up, storing more chakra as the ink dries,"
"and now its ready to use against any jokerz or others that think we are easy."
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wetting dried lips, "How much effect does it have?" asks Mack
Naruto looks to Mack, enjoying the gobsmacked looks on his friends faces
grabbing a pack hidden in the shadows filled with gear looted from the jokerz
rummaging in it, lifts a recognizable can "The jokerz paint grenades were comparable." holding up one as an example for a moment
returning the can to the pack, he hands the pack to Mack, he carefully pours the cup into the vial and seals it, packing up.
"They are great for pranks."
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after demonstrating a flare tag for the party
rubbing the spots from his eyes, Mack grins to the kid "That's rather amazing Naruto," Naruto's grin matching his
"now my next question is, what is chakra?"
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moving on, the party reaches the new magmalocks a few minutes later
while listening to Naruto's version of chakra
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Leeds interrupts Naruto's descriptions "Hold the rest for a moment pup,"
"Keep guard while we check over the new work, the doors have to be inspected to see if anything was missed by the droids."
opening the two main airlocks, the group begins the inspection, ending a few minutes later as Bo's cursing catches everyones attention quickly.
"The signal relays on the doors to the mine network have been left turned off, so they are not on the official claims till activated. if activated it will link in but..."
"But what?" asks Leeds, Bo points to the access panel of the lava chambers door "The controls have been left on remote access, someone wanted to kill us by opening the lock to the lava chamber."
"With us in between the others, the mine stays useable, but dead we are no longer a valid claim."
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Mack sputters "That's acting fast."
Nameless "Someone's already moving, do we want to rig it to make them think it was successful?"
Mack grins "False signals to match the orders, but the doors on manual for local control only."
Bo strokes his chin thinking looks to Leeds "How fast would they act, what would they use?"
"Claim takeover paperwork takes ten hours at best to process" Leeds responds
"Interrupting the paperwork can happen anytime as long as we show up alive."
Bo grins "If they try to take over, they have to pay for the doors minimum, if we show up, after they pay..."
"We keep the doors and claim." states Nameless "We gain an enemy, they gain a jumpers rep.."
"Shootout," states Mack
"last man standing shootout for the claim vs unknown numbers."
Leeds calculating "60 cycles mining then head up, rest then show up fresh 2 hours before."
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the party starts rigging the doors, Naruto sent to storage for parts twice
when the party activates the relays nothing happens.
"Maybe their planning to get us on the return trip or a supply run?" inquires Mack
the party starts to think their paranoia is getting unreasonable till
their gear is gathered and they go through the locks to the deep mine
and the chambers lights go out as rigged.
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"Someone was watching," "Fracking camera or droid," "Handle it later, follow the plan, off to mining."
five fumble in the dark leaving the chamber
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almost a mile past their last stop the tunnel slows its desent and levels off, further on
Leeds motions everyone to a stop, "Hey guys I'm seeing droids"
"There is no movement"
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moving forward the group sees dozens of still forms, "Blitz, looks like something took them apart."
poking at the still forms, "Whatever it is it chewed the small bits off."
"Nothing living inside the frames." whispers Leeds
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with Nameless and Bo on watch, Leeds and Mack start salvaging the cores to slice for info
"After you get done with each one we will salvage it for parts."
"Even Naruto will get a crash course in droid salvage and repair."
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salvaging small bits vital to droids the party loots the machines
Naruto collects the bulkier parts into an empty backpack
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seeing the empty sack being filled, "Naruto what did you do with the crystals you collected back at the vertical shaft?" Nameless asks
'Please don't let him have lost what crystals we have found so far.' hoping to himself
giving Nameless a huge grin, Naruto pulls out a scroll, Nameless remembers Naruto working on in the past fortnight
"It's in here." and opens the scroll showing twisty designs of ink
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putting his hand on the edge of the pattern, a puff of smoke catches everyones attention
"Huh", "What", {Vards, what's dropping}
Nameless's jaw hits the floor as a different backpack sits on top of the first scroll pattern
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winching his jaw back up from its dislocation
"How, what?"
grinning "Sealing scroll." says Naruto from where he's seated on the gravel floor, the center of attention again.
"Huh?"
"It's called a sealing scroll, its for storage where I'm from." says Naruto
"When you asked me for more paper weeks ago," Nameless comments, "I thought you were drawing religious symbols."
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tapping Narutos shoulder Leeds asks
"How much can be stored in each?"
"And what is stored currently?"
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"Empty packs in 9 of the 10, I had the prior crystals from the shaft in the 10th"
flipping his hands around a foot box cube, "they can store about a 1/2 full pack"
Naruto takes some of his droid parts and sets them with the semi-full pack
touching the pattern, the pack slides into the paper taking most of the parts
"Yep, the first ones totaly full.", the few parts remaining Naruto sets aside
unsealing the second seal Naruto stores the spares with the second pack
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stunned by what they saw, Leeds asks
"Why didn't you tells us about this!"
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"Didn't think it mattered."
"Nameless helped with the paper and saw me making them,"
"is it important?"
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watching all the adults and elders facepalm, Naruto starts getting the impression it could be important
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"Is it bad?" Naruto asks in a small voice
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"No, Naruto," patting him on his shoulder with a claw, "but it may be very important for us."
"People have been trying to smuggle out crystals for years,"
"the only ones who can, are corperations who spend fortunes to bribe the replublic representitive"
"for a few crystals to be slipped by ignored."
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"We are in a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation,"
"if we do not find enough crystals, then they will take the claim from us."
"If we bring out enough crystals to get rich, they will devalue the crystals and leave us a pittance,"
"because they set the value of the crystals, as only they can evaluate the value."
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"How can they get away with it?"
"This world is based on the rule: might makes right."
"Nothing is true, everything is allowed."
"Others perform senseless acts of cruelty for any profit to survive."
"When others would draw attention to themselves, we hide in plain sight."
"Loyalty is in short supply, some others blindly follow the truth, and get ground up by the system."
"It is always changing and remember that everything is permitted."
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"Now lets see if the scroll has any effects,"
attaching one of the undamaged scanners salvaged from the droids to his sensor staff
waving the major probes across the scroll, he grins
"Perfect, no resonance signal from the crystals, gentlemen we are in business." laughing
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"Lets find more crystals."
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echos closer to hand
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"She does not suspect?" questions a rippling blue form
"No, she thinks the jedi abandoned him."
"Simple to take the message when the map was altered."
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"Currently she is killing the warlords, thinking their alliance was the cause of his death."
"She will hold the planet soon."
"Fan her rage, drown her in her fear, have her fall to the dark side."
"She is a tool for our use, shaped by your suggestion to that warlord."
"When she falls,"
"we will step in, she will have handed us the planet."
"She is the means to the goal, though just a step on our path."
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omake
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years later
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a female dressed as Boba Fett ruining his rep
"Ooh, I'm afraid of spiders."
Boba comes by
catches the poser in a coil whip
"Who's posing today?" winching the form into a nearby tree
pops the top (removing the helmet)
"Ah, my grandaughter."
"Here's more spiders for you."
scoops up several into the helmet
he then puts the helmet back on and seals it
the thrashing form hanging from her heels in the tree
is entertaiment for hours for the elder fetts
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