[Solved] [Episode 1 - Category A] The Miners of Montitia

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The Miners of Montitia

Two figures trudged up a steep path, bracing as wind whipped up coarse grit. The slim one called out, “He better be up here, Dracos. We’re a long way from Chandrila…”

“A long way from your double caf with trim Mirial milk and Frill syrup, is what you really mean. The chief said he’d be here; he’ll be here.” The second speaker was easily twice the size of the first, bundled up in a thick, hooded cloak with only a green snout and scaled tail protruding. “If it’s to be strong, the Free Colonies need as broad representation as possible – and you know it, Bindi.”

“As if broke Montitia can add much,” Bindi retorted. Before continuing, the Miralian woman cocked her head. “Do you hear that?” Spluttering engine noises quickly got louder until a rusting – and swerving – hoverbike came into view. It was an old STAP model, likely a Clone Wars vintage, piloted by a green Rodian. The vehicle towed two laden wagons with a Rodian youngling handing off the back.

“Hey, hey there!” called Bindi. The Rodian gave a hard stare with its black, glassy eyes, and kept on right past. “More friendly locals… Why did you choose this assignment anyway?”

”I knew a woman from Montitia once. Incredibly brave, so I thought I’d come see what made her so.”

After another hour of climbing, Bindi and Dracos finally reached their destination: a small mining sub-station nestled among volcanic rock. Hexagonal basalt columns, flecked with blue nova-crystals, framed the station. Parked to the side was the STAP with no sign of the Rodians. Bindi gave Dracos a stare of her own.

“Hello! We’re looking for Numed Sinoos,” she called out.

After a moment, the door to the station hissed open and a Corellian hound bounded out. “Who’s asking?” called a burly Weequay following after. He was kitted out in thick mining gear with a red bandana around his neck. Sinoos was a Duros so this definitely wasn’t him.

Dracos took over: “We represent the Free Colonies. The mining clans in the valley have chosen Sinoos to represent Montitia at the Republic summit at Chandrila.”

The Weequay’s face twitched in apparent dislike. “The Republic has no meaning here. Hasn’t since the Extraction back in the Clone Wars.”

“Stand down, Klaatu,” came a voice from atop the station. “We don’t have time for a fight. And I don’t have time to listen to you either. We’ve got fifty bodies down in the mines and if we don’t get these pumps fixed soon they’ll never emerge. So unless you’re good with a spanner, kriff off!”

The Duros turned back to the large engine he had been working on and wacked it with the largest wrench Dracos had ever seen.

“What’s the issue?” asked Dracos, flicking his red tongue.

Sinoos explained that the machine pumped breathable air into the mines, but a key pipe was clogged with no replacement part available. The repair crew were trying to jury-rig a workaround but with little success. 

“Show me the blocked dissipator,” directed the hulking lizard. 

“You won’t even be able to reach the part with that fat arm,” snorted Sinoos.

“Show me,” repeated Dracos. The pipe was right around the back of the machinery inside the station, a gap surely too small and too deep to reach, let alone unscrew and clear. Sinoos wandered off with a mix of disappointment and smugness.

When he’d gone Dracos reached in, straining as far as he could. Then he closed his eyes, breathed deep and paused. Despite the chill air, a bead of sweat ran down his snout. 

Almost like a cough, the pump roared back into life. 

Dracos barely had time to make it back to the door before Sinoos ran up. “What did you do? There’s no way you could reach that!”

“Where there’s a will, there is a way.” He raised his arm from within his cloak. “And you’d be surprised what you can do with a cyborg arm,” he said, breaking into a grin. His right arm was a dull silver from the shoulder down.

“Maybe you Republic folks aren’t so useless after all”, exclaimed the Duros.

“We’re the Free Colonies - not the Republic,” corrected Bindi. “Let us explain the difference, and why we need you on Chandrila.” 

After freeing the fifty trapped miners with barely a scratch between them, the Free Colonies agents finally had a chance to speak at length to the taciturn Duros. Despite extenstive protests that he was no diplomat and no politician, Bindi and Dracos eventually persuaded Sinoos to represent Montitia on the Free Colonies delegation to the capital planet of the New Republic. It would be a chance for the Duros to represent all the miners of Montitia, to stand up for those being swindled and oppressed by the Mining Guild, and to be a voice for all the victims taken by Imperials for mining slave labour. 

Some days later, after the Duros was briefed and collected by a Colonies freighter, Bindi and Dracos took a moment in a local cantina to relax before their next assignment. “There’s one thing that I don’t get from up there,” mused the Miralian woman. “Even with your tin arm, I don’t see how you could have fixed that pipe. It’s not like your arm is taken from a stretch droid or anything. How did you lose your arm anyway?” 

“Some mysteries are better left unsolved,” evaded Dracos, “but keep buying these wines and I might tell you one day”.

Dramatis personae

Some build notes:

• The STAP is largely this model from you tube: link.
• The cloak for Dracos is driven from the fact I don't have arms for that minifigure but really wanted to use it.
• I picked up the two large pink pieces from a bulk lot - they're from an Belville set from 1994: Pretty Playland.