Ian:

Ian mulls over what Dex has to say and agrees with Coozer. "Despite drinking, Coozer has a good point. We cannot fly around this hostile planet in a tin bucket that is half-blind. Last thing we need is to crash in the middle of nowhere again and have we flip out for good. Let's get a plan down about dealing just enough halos to get some money and wet Joko's appetite.

I say only Dex and I initially approach Joko's brother in the bar again and try to set up a meeting. The reason I think we keep you, Jarren, out of it for now is that our Ace in the hole is that hopefully nobody but Coozer knows about you and hopefully not the ship. We can keep a comm link open during the conversation for you to ear's drop and maybe offer suggestions. I think we can pass off being poor farmers who came upon five to ten halos through shear luck. Maybe we sell them and try to get in with Joko a bit.

In any event, we can go over to the restaurant soon and try to use the barkeep as a mean to work up a meeting instead of just showing up at Joko's door step. Then we can meet back later and work on the next step depending on how the meeting goes."

Dex:

"I think this is a good plan. We will not even need new clothes for this, making it ideal," Dex adds with a grin. "I agree about keeping Jarren out of the deal, but we may want to keep him close by with the comm link in case something goes really wrong.

"The barkeep seemed to take a liking to me. I think talking to him to set up the meeting is the way to go. You might want to let me do the talking, though. I got the impression he didn't like you very much, though I am sure he'll find you more appealing now that you've got your head together."

I know I do, Dex thinks to himself.

Jarren:

"I agree lets do it." states Jarren

Dex:

[OOC: This is mainly to give Greg an 'official' coarse of action so that he can contemplate our destruction, rather than introduce anything new, though I have thrown in some details that we had not really discussed. If you have any disagreements, please speak up as soon as possible, so that Greg can accommodate for them. Greg, you can assume that unless I reply to the contrary immediately after any revisions Travis or Rick might make, I agree with any changes to the below plan that they may offer.]

"OK, let's go over the plan one more time. Me and Ian will go to the Cantina were Joko's brother works, posing as moister farmers from outside of town. I think you (looking at Ian) ought to hang back a little, and just look like you are there to watch my back. Since I get the impression he didn't take a shine to you, he might prefer to deal only with me. It might look good if you try to look like your new to this kind of thing. We might have some advantage if he thinks we are really a bunch of bumpkins. I will try to get friendly with him, and after developing as good a relationship as I can, will tell him that we found about 10 holos, and were told that Joko might be interested or know some people that might be interested in buying them. I will ask him if he might be able to set up a meeting for us with Joko. I will have only one of the holos on me, and we will leave the rest on the ship. If he wants one as a sample, I will give him it for review, acting as if I were reluctant to do so, of course.

"Jarren, you should be close by, like next door to the cantina, with the comm link. I think Ian should have the other one so that if there is any trouble, you can let Jarren know. I would have it on me so that Jarren can hear everything, but I would be afraid that if they searched me, they may think we are using it as a bug.

"I will try to get as much useful information out of him as I can with out seeming too suspicious. All the while, me and Ian will try to case the place to see who hangs out there, and see if we notice anything that could be useful. Ian, I might represent you as kind of a oaf, so don't be offended. It's kind of like the good stormtrooper/bad stormtrooper routine. I am hoping that if I present you as somewhat of a half-wit, it will explain your behavior yesterday. And, just to let you know up front, I am also going to try to appeal to his villainous side, so I may present myself as less than loyal to you. I definitely want to give him the impression that I would screw you over to get in better with him. If for some reason, this should come back to you, I want to make sure that you understand this is just to get close to him, and not that I am really putting one over on you guys. I get the impression that scumbags are the kind of people this guy will like, so I want him to think I am a scumbag.

"I think we both go in armed, just in case, but if there is any trouble, we should definitely try to talk our way out of it. If we screw up, we could have some very bad people on our backs.

"Does this sound about right?" Dex asks looking around at his companions.

If no one has anything to change or add, we proceed…

Ian

[OOC (Added 8/15/02): I like the ideas and let me expand on it a bit. The idea of me being aloof and an idiot are fine. It just means, hopefully, that they are unlikely to take me seriously and won't pay much attention to me. As I am supposed to be holding the commo link (unless it is too late Greg), they are unlikely to notice me holding it or what have you.

The reason that I think Jarren is best out of sight and sound is that we have a huge advantage if they enemy thinks we are two simple farmers rather than three smugglers with a ship. If all else fails, two of us can be "seen" while the third knocks off Joko. Built in alibi for our team even if the two eventually includes Jarren dressed as Ian or Dex. The eventual composition does not matter as much as that we are perceived as being two people located away from the hit. Of course, Coozer knows there are three of us and once word flies around town I think he will figure it out. Personally, I don't care.

But, I think our best course of action is to get Dex a bit on the "in" with Joko and his brother. Dex can be our intell specialist to gather info while Jarren and I plan initially to be the ops team. I would rather collect as much intel on Joko to catch him double-crossing the huts or the federation. Either way, I would rather have someone else do our dirty work. Once we kill Joko, the consequences are too numerous to predict: we get caught, we get hunted, Cal gets killed, Cal gets hunted, Coozer get dragged into it, we kill more people to keep ourselves from being caught, the federation is after us, we get double-crossed, we fail the hit, etc.

If we do the hit, we should at least do it quietly and make his body disappear. That way, we should at least buy extra time to sell the remaining cargo and fly as far away as possible for the foreseeable future while people try to figure out what happened to Joko. Then Cal can try and get the girl and let his chips fall where they may.]

Dex

[OOC: I agree with everything you've got here. Hopefully, Dex can get close enough to actually coax them into going behind Gardulla's back, but we'll have to see what happens. Once we have talked to Joko's brother, we should have some options in front of us.]