Smeyator

"'It is about time. What is the plan?' - Episode 12"Archaprince Smeyator is a member of an unknown species that is a legend among the denizens of the underworld. According to Mesekae and the tribunal of the Serpent's Coil, he was one of the best smugglers around, and a close friend of many leaders within the Coil. He apparently found something of great worth in the Deep Core, only to be taken prisoners shortly afterwards and never delivering it.

He has since been shifted from prison to prison in an attempt to keep him hidden by the Imperial authorities, eventually being transferred to an unknown prison that members of the Last Resort infiltrated under the pretence of breaking him out.

On the day of his arrival however, something happened that led to the release of untold numbers of vicious abominations from the depths of the prison. Caught in the aftermath, alongside a figure called "King Cat", he fought off a few of his attackers before being reunited with the Party.

As the quintet made their way deeper into the facility, they were ambushed by a group of these mutations while without weapons, with Smeyator resorting to punching his way through his foes.

The group managed to escape successfully from the prison with barely moments to spare, rescued by Wex and Orpa Vio just before an unknown beast carved its way through the last of their defences.

Enlisting the group's aid once more to recover his ship, they travelled to the gas giant Syukar IV. The empty facility made him feel uncomfortable, though he was calmed briefly as he saw his ship, the Greh-lak, was still roughly intact. His prized item was nowhere to be seen however, so the group pushed further in, before finding one of his old crew members locked in stasis since the day of the battle. He cheered up for the rest of this mission, though he suffered multiple wounds when the facility's droids fiercely defended the control room. Healed by Dabrir Vesh and his old crew member, the trio discovered this prized item was a simply vial of liquid, though the exact nature of it was something he refused to disclose. As the group departed Syukar following their victory, he thanked them sincerely, joyed to be reunited with his old vessel, his prize, and determined to find any other survivors of his crew.

Background
Very little is known about him, except that he was a close friend of Mesekae R'sath and was a popular legend amongst smugglers and thieves. He allegedly helped to found the Serpent's Coil alongside Mesekae, funding it's creation.

He has allegedly spent the majority of his recent years in pursuit of a certain object, revealed to be a vial of mysterious liquid, acquired during his journeys into the Deep Core.

Nearly eight months before the group encountered him, he was captured by the Imperials and shifted around prisons to prevent his rescue ever since.

His name is a source of great confusion to the Party, who began to call him "Princey Prince" during their escape from the prison, much to his chagrin.

The Prison Massacre
His involvement occurred mostly during the Prison Massacre, having briefly been met by Hikaru prior to the outbreak of mutations.

While the Party members freed each other from their cells and eventually decided to head to the Prison Yard, he and King Cat had become embroiled in the chaos. While neither had weapons, they used each other's great size and power, fighting back to back to stave off the hordes. KC's sharp claws and raw power were matched by Smeyator's skillful punches and brawling capabilities, obviously aided by his additional limbs.

When the party was ambushed, he took on roughly one third of their attackers, punching them non-stop until they collapsed into oozing masses of broken bones. He saw little action or activity after that, covering the group's rear as they headed towards the Communications Room and then the Landing Pad. He and KC took up defensive positions when the colossal beast first broke through, and quickly fled to their saviours once the doors were temporarily re-sealed.

No Rest For The Rescued
Once the group returned to the Serpent's Coil, Smeyator quickly departed alongside Delgo, presumably to debrief the Tribunal or some other activity.

He was later seen within the Smuggler's Paradise, in agitated conversation with staff members. He seemed to adamantly be pushing for a course of action but kept getting refused. Frustrated that we was being stymied by bureaucracy, he grabbed a drink. Hikaru then offered him some food and asked what that whole exchange had been about.

Taking a moment to compose himself, he apologised for his previous behaviour, saying his people didn't trust or appreciate others almost by nature. He then said that he was desperately trying to go after his ship, as any chance to recover it would prove invaluable, but was met with refusal each time. His last trip saw him acquire something he had been searching several years for, only to be put at risk when he was captured and his ship possibly destroyed. The Xextonian offered his sympathies, but due to their situation he could be of little help. He then inquired as to Smeyator's relationship with Mesekae, with the otherwise reserved Prince revealing quite a bit about his past, saying he had been in the business for decades, and friends with the serpentine individual for much of that time. He even claimed to help found the Serpent's Coil itself alongside his friend long ago. Before he left, he asked if the prince could speak on their behalf to Mesekae if he met up with him, as his backing would likely help fast-track them into the Star Serpent's good graces once more. He agreed to do what he could.

The Wreck Of Syukar
"'No...no. It has to be here. I've gone over it in my head a thousand times.'"His influence appeared to pay off, as when the group was brought before the Tribunal once again they were given the mission of helping the Prince to find his lost vessel. However, due to their failure to improvise and prove their worth outside of combat on the prison venture, they would be required to find their own method of getting there. They would need advanced sensors or a heftily upgraded ship to be able to root through debris, let alone scavenge the wreckage if there was any.

He was then grabbed by Hikaru and Nox once the group had found their avenue - Master Skiotis of the Dakre Sky, a band of scavengers that presumably held significant sway within the Coil, many individuals refusing to speak of them, and Skiotis himself occupying a seat on the Tribunal. In the negotiation that followed, "Two-Tubes" and "Princey Prince" spoke using the cypher commonly used by high-ranking members of the Coil.

This resulted in Skiotis granting them one of his scavenging vessels, provided he be allowed to place one of his own, named Milaech, amongst them to analyze any finds and bring them back to him. This had all happened within a minute, and it struck the group as odd, until they noticed how intimidated Skiotis seemed to be of this figure.

He accompanied them aboard this ship, appearing happier than he had done so far. This quickly changed when the arrived at his coordinates, only to find kilometres of wreckage and no signs of his own ship. Describing it as looking like a standard freighter, he said it had to be here. Nox and Milaech used the scanners to produce a 3D map of the area, and this served to confirm his fears - his ship was gone. When Hikaru asked him if there was any chance they could be in the wrong place, he vehemently denied it. He remembered killing some of these ships himself, this was definitely where he had been captured.

He then grew more erratic, all his work having seemingly been for nothing, pressuring the group to follow the very faint hyperspace trail they picked up using the ships advanced sensors. Pulled out of hyperspace unexpectedly, they emerged into the orbit of a gas giant, which Milaech said is where the trail ended. Lighting up the scanners once more, the storm-filled atmosphere wreaked havoc on their range, but still managed to pick up the outline of what looked like a shipyard a few miles inward. As their handler stepped away from the controls, saying he was not capable of guiding them through the storms, Smeyator urged them onward once again.

As they dove through the layers of cloud cover and lightning bolts tried to strike them out of the sky, he slowly began to calm down. He breathed a sigh of relief as they quickly came upon the shipyard, and was pleased when the facility seemed to be unmanned. The group even approached the situation stealthily, even though the atmospheric conditions threatened to tear them free from the platforms at any time. After they managed to gain entry through the shield that protected the hangar bay, they only just avoided detection by a wandering patrol of Imperial droids.

The Joyous Prince
"'Now, let's try and find the others!' - To the unnamed Twi'lek"Upon sighting his vessel, the Greh-lak, within the shipyard's hangar, he began to smile widely. He approached it with Dabrir, but after searching intensely for a few minutes he emerged despondent. His prize was nowhere to be seen, and the entire plan hinged on recovering it. After the group continued on through the facility, with Milaech documenting everything he was seeing, they came upon a Stasis Room - something quite out of place in such a low-level facility as this. Within they found the desiccated remains of a Nikto prisoner, named Devash (dubbed 'Frank' by Whitefang), and one of his old crew members, an unnamed Twi'lek. She seemed to recognise the Xextonian Hikaru as well, though the young Bounty Hunter immediately moved on to other matters with uncharacteristic lack of emotion. Prince and her exchanged a knowing smile and nod, knowing that other matters were important here. After Whitefang placed 'Frank' in a nearby Kolto tank, they moved on to the other floors.

They accessed the databanks, uncovering vital information as to where items were kept and logged, discovering that whoever crewed this facility were meticulous in keeping track of every decision ever made about anything. A lot of catalogued items from the Greh-lak were seen, though Smeyator immediately pressed for more information on a vial of liquid. Upon discovering it was held further up, in the Command Room, he urged them onwards. He was met with agreement from nearly everyone when Hikaru also discovered that a Sith named Lord Kahn was due to arrive for that very item within the next few days, with all present eager to never meet this figure.

The fourth floor was just like the rest, entirely deserted, though Hikaru made a disturbing discovery. Within the Command Room itself, the body of an Imperial officer lay dead, sprawled across a terminal. Droids patrolled back and forth, making it a hideous kill box for any that approached from the door. As the young one informed his friends, Whitefang recovered the Twi'lek's weapon, a compact bowcaster/rifle hybrid, and they made a plan to breach the door after Hikaru ambushed the droids. His plan seemed to fail at first, his entrance triggering presumably a sensor alarm, but the quick actions of his friends prevented him being trapped within. When eight more droids approached from behind them, Hikaru's quick thinking shut down three of them, while Smeyator distracted the rest. Even though he took down nearly half of them himself, he suffered heavy wounds and barely made it through the encounter. All of this was worth it however when they found the vial in a secure compartment, hidden by the Commander. They also discovered that the dead Imperial was in fact the facility's commander, killed by a blaster shot from an unknown source days before they had even arrived. This, paired with the lack of any living personnel, deeply unnerved the entire group.

They all agreed to make haste, not wanting to risk encountering the Sith as they left. At this point Milaech, who had been quiet most of the trip, piped up and asked Smeyator if he could take some of the ships back to Master Skiotis. Receiving a curt nod in response, the small and bumbling Mirialan clambered up to the walkways and entered one of the starfighters still docked up above. As the rest entered the Greh-lak to pass through the hangar's barrier; Smeyator taking an unusual amount of time to just enjoy being back in the ship, they witnessed a full squadron of these fighters detach and take off into the sky, Dabrir assuming Milaech had somehow rigged them together with a slave circuit.

Once the group made it through the shield, they all asked to be dropped near their ride here. Hovering just above it, Smeyator bid them a hearfelt farewell for now, offering a sincere thanks for their aid in this matter. Because of them, his struggles hadn't been in vain, and he had even learned his crew yet lived. Reinvigorated for the first time since his imprisonment, he turned to his companion and stated his desire to find the rest, before departing for the Serpent's Coil.