Procurement

[Antiquities Galatic Ltd.]

Dust wafted into the air, and a mix of beings coughed and waved hand and claw. Baab Falem wurfed out a quiet cough, and uncovered her ears.. She always found explosives crude and daunting, but as her shipmate Rosskass always said “resssultssss.” Rosskass put the remote detonator one of the many pockets of his jumpsuit. Talay coughed softly, and pulled up the infared goggles to her face. She was agile, but not omniscient, and certainly not a future-seer.

“I see nothing aside from dust and rock. The door is down” Talay stated from a crouch, her head peered around the corner.

“Fuckin’ dust.” was all Erika said between coughs. “Fuckin’ Sith tombs ‘n temples.” She pulled up her pad as she wiped the dust off it.

“That should be the main entrance.” Erika announced in her twang. No one knew which colony world she was from, but most assumed from her demeanor she was of Corellian descent. This was not true. 10 generations back she was related to minor Kuati nobility.

The group had learned that for whatever reason, Sith Temples did Not Like Repulsor Technology inside them, and seemed to use the field as an energy source to power all manner of unfriendly traps. The cart rested on four spheres, held using fluid surface tension and a primitive magnetic drivetrain that the group only used when needed. Satisfied nothing was going to remove her head, Talay stepped forward.

Outside, the pissing rain drummed against the transparisteel cockpit, Xaran placed his hands behind his head and listened to the previous recording from The Temple of Winds, with Opera Singer Kinna Wuffle’s voice dubbed in. It was a cheap trick, but Wuffle remixes was one of Xaran’s dirty pleasures. Aside from CL1F being it’s worry-wort self in the cargo bay, the only other person on the ship was Lagi. Lagi was in the crew quarters, either napping or browsing the last cached copy of the markets. Either that or Lagi was rolling around in a fresh blanket, getting her damnable orange, black and white fur everywhere.

Lagi was rolling around in a fresh blanket, excitedly going over the day-old market cache. She found the small space of the converted storage closet comforting. It hugged the hull of the ship, so the back of the small room was lower than the front. 4 or 5 blankets were piled across the floor, along with an organic arrangement of datapads along the wall. Hirri had long given up trying to explain it to Baab, and Xaran always was annoyed with the blankets, so Lagi had given up on him too. Erika didn’t care, she had said typically loudly, and Talay simply did not have the head for numbers. So only Lagi and Hirri had an appreciation for the clever system. CL1F sounded interested but he didn’t fit in the “den.”

These were only the public auction listings, and did not include the black market contacts. The trends were exciting, though! She couldn’t wait to go over it with Hirri. Erika, too, would be excited, especially if this find panned out.

[Antiquities Galatic Ltd.]

The entire group was on edge, simply because nothing had tried to kill them yet. Did the Sith leave this location in too much of a hurry to make it into a trap laden tomb? Was it built in too much of a hurry to make it a peril to walk through? Talay and Baab tossed small rocks and pebbles ahead of them as they went deeper into the massive structure. The Sith always had an overblown sense of importance and scale. Their buildings reflected that. The winding, somewhat narrow entrance corridor was both built as a method of generating anticipation and as a defensive advantage. Rosskass had noted several times that the corridor changed direction in a favorable way as someone trying to eliminate attackers, both as a marksman and as a swordsman, and several of the “ornamental” flourishes of sudden stone bulk at chest height (for a human or sith) would be an advantageous place to set up a blast emplacement. It was quite clever. If you were coming in, it was a nightmare. If you were pushing out, it was a cakewalk.

Harri was distracted, as usual. He was flipping through the existing inventory and a cached copy of the market information. While he wasn’t a beast charmer, he’d sometimes wonder at the opportunity to tame some of the creatures depicted in Sith scripts and illustrations. He’d become knowledgeable enough where he could read most of the scripts now along with Baab. Truthfully, Lagi was the better market player. He still kept up with it, mostly because it was a good idea, and a little bit to please her. He flipped through the tables and figures in Erika’s shadow.

The group stopped abruptly, and the distracted Amaran ran into Erika’s substantial bottom. Ericka had been paying attention, though. She almost managed to fart in his face.

“Hmmf. Always stickin’ your nose where it don’t belong Harri.” Erika said, and looked overly exasperated.

“Apologies Pagin I did not mean to.” Harri said rapidly.

“Course you didn’, ya furbucket.” Erika glared, and then instantly softened. “Just givin’ ya a hard time, market nerd.” The merely stoney echo had gained distance.

“Shhhh.” Rosskass waved a clawed hand for silence.

Talay had stopped, and so had Baab. The darkness had become greater somehow. The small bioluminescent lights they carried were swallowed. The floor had stopped and fell off into an inky depth.

“Main chamber.” Baab pulled two tripods from the cart, and set them near the edge.

“Eyes.” She warned, and flipped the switch on each. Light exploded into the room. Each being slowly let more light filter in. Nearly 150 meters below was the reason the path had stopped so abruptly: the wide winding ramp that connected the entrance to the other levels had collapsed.

This was not entirely unexpected. The ramps were seldom part of the main structure and seemed to be added as afterthoughts. Fortunately on the other side of the 100 meter long room was an intact ramp. Not perfect, but it looked safe enough for this lot.

Talay tossed a pebble as the crew worked their way around the square room to the other side. The balcony they were walking on was 10 meters wide on it’s own, so there was quite a bit of air between the ramp and them. She gingerly took a step and heard a click.

“Stop!” She raised a single hand and held her pose absolutely still. Baab backed away slowly, as did the rest of the group, except for Rosskass, who systematically swung his light across the balcony and wall.

“Ssseee anything?” He asked.

“No.” Talay said quietly. She took a deep breath and jumped backwards. There was another click and nothing else happened. Everyone stood perfectly still and silent.

[Antiquities Galatic Ltd.]

There would be no dramatic collapse, no decade, impotent gas, no failed droids. Satisfied after a minute of stillness, Talay took one step sideways, paused for five eternal seconds, and then walked forward. The rest of the group followed.

Rosskass hissed, his version of a laugh.

“Even the deadsss triesss to kill usssss.”

Harri nervously ran his fingers through his bushy tail-fur. He wished they would just call for him later. Once the danger had surely passed...

“Harri, you need to scamper your furry lil’ butt down the stairs first.” Erika twanged. Harri’s whiskers twitched.

“I will follow right after.” Talay bent down and gave his head a gentle rub between the ears.

“It is because I have less mass. The least mass.” Hari stated. Talay nodded. They didn’t need her instincts and agility.

“Well, it sure as shit ain’t me!” Erika said with a laugh. Baab placed a hand over her face. Erika could be forward to the point of obnoxious.

Harri let go of his tail, and drew as much determination as possible. He took one step, and then another. The stones held fast. Talay followed, half a floor behind on the spiral. No loose stones. No collapses. No drama. Rosskass and his smart rope went next. His bulk would be the test before bringing the cart down. They had left a climbing leader near the entrance, just in case. Paranoia ran rife with the Sith, and those who sought their tombs.

Harri paused two floors down. He saw the glint of metal.

“Baab, look!” He said, and carefully rubbed the tarnished gold helmet. He picked it up, and a skull slid out.

“Oh oh oh.” Normally the artifacts didn’t contain humanoid artifacts. Talay paused, swallowed and continued.

“Lightsssaberssss.” Rosskass explained, and everyone noticed that the vibrosword was two meters from the body, along with the finely burned associated armor.

“Battle artifacts?” Harri’s spirits perked. Once authenticity was proven, these would fetch a small fortune.

“It would explain the lack of active traps.” Baab spoke. and collected an otherwise undamaged bone fragment. “Eyes.”

The large glowglobe illuminated the entire floor, and there was a collective gasp.

Bodies were strewn about.

“This is Old Republic, Jedi Civil War Era.” Baab explained. Although much of the precise history had been lost, the design of the equipment was a giveaway, as were the insignia.

They were going to be very rich indeed.