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Episode II: A New Beginning
ACT I, Scene ii
A wretched hive of scum and villainy
After the accidental rescue from the Imperial prison transport (a converted
troop landing craft),
the party got to know their rescuers a bit. The ship they were on was called the Remembrance,
although they were currently flying under a false transponder that identified them as the Mynock's Delight.
The Captain was Dran Megrev, a former mercenary and a survivor of Alderaan. The gunner was a Rhodian hunter
named Hqunlx, who often was called "The Bug" by the Com Operator Kristyn (who Dran called "The Princess").
They were a classic misfit smuggling crew, but were also Rebel Sympathizers.
By this point, our band of heroes had grown a bit. In addition to Kir, Chuni, Kit, Sera and Yanna, the crew
had managed to pick up a strange lifeform that called itself Haselvlat.
Kir was not convinced that it was, in fact, sentient--despite it being locked up alongside everyone else in the
Imperial prisoner transport. The blue furry guy did get along well with Kit and Yanna though, as a ship's mascot
if nothing else. Lim Res, a free-lance astrogator and pilot of the small scoutship, also joined up.
After accommodations were arranged to convert the empty cargo hold into makeshift barracks, Dran offered to take them all to an
out of the way station that he knew about. They could unload the Rebel pilots more or less unnoticed and might
even be able to contact the local Rebel cell if there were one. The crew of the Excessive Debt were understandably
worried about the condition and location of their ship. Dran had heard of the disastrous Rebel escape from Ord Mantell,
but hadn't heard anything about a YT ship. He said that his contact on the station might know more.
This drew a vile remark from the Rhodian, which Dran agreed to. Apparently, this contact was a fairly
untrustworthy Twi'lek named Bah'Ger Fenn, the same sentient that had
sold them the information on the prison ship's flight route. The crew of the Remembrance, it seemed,
had been told that it was an Imperial priority parts shipment. Dran and crew had taken the risk, since
they were in need of a replacement hyperdrive. They had not expected to find the holds full of Rebel prisoners, however.
Still, if anyone in the sector knew about the missing ship, it was Bah'Ger. Kir and Chuni were not so convinced,
and planned to do their own hunting as well. They owed several thousand credits on the ship to the crimelord
Ploovo Two-For-One and didn't like the idea of explaining that they'd lost the ship to the Imperials.
A couple of days later the Remembrance, now with a transponder calling her the Fizzyglug 1, decanted
from hyperspace at the Ghambeezi Drift Station. The station was at the
most rimward tip of the Yarith Sector in the Greater Javin, just coreward of the relatively unexplored Evaritt Imperial Exploration
and Colonization Sector--more commonly known among spacers as the Evaritt Expanse.
The station itself was ancient, predating the Republic-Mugaarti War and easily several thousand years old. Dran
docked his ship alongside one of the middle tiers, just under the living areas in the petal arrays. He was strong to point out
that the station had an Imperial presence and that they had to be careful here. Also, he informed them that the party had three
hours to figure out what to do with themselves and the Rebel pilots before he cut lines and left the system. Dran and
Hqunlx quickly bribed a customs official who was approaching the vessel and then disappeared deeper into the station.
Our heroes, on the other hand, didn't fare as well. They were quickly tagged as easy marks by some of the local thugs
and were just as quickly mugged. The fight ended quickly in the party's favor, but drew some unwanted attention.
They made their way deeper into the station, where they all promptly split up. In all, they went to the local Spacer's Guild
to see if anyone had reported their ship, got into a tussle with Ploovo's thugs at the Laserbait Cantina, got harassed by several dozen
Squibs, and eventually ended up at a water-themed restaurant run by otter-like Tynnan called the Skiptracer.
After a decent meal, the party was approached by an older Tynnan named Spray.
Tynnan can't see very well, but they have excellent hearing. Spray had overheard their discussion about going to go see Bah'Ger and had
a counteroffer for them. he had spent years working as a skiptracer, someone who hunted down stolen spacecraft. He still had
several underworld contacts that could be useful to the party to help find their ship if they did a favor for him. He
wanted Bah'Ger off the station, and told them how to find him.
Meanwhile, Sara had finally arrived to the station aboard Lim's Aethersprite scoutship.
After being in a cramped cockpit and having no one else to talk to besides Lim's cranky astromech droid for several
days, Sera was a little worse for wear. Although she had never been to the station before, the ship had. She was granted clearance to land in
an internal docking bay and proceeded through a shortened customs search. On her way deeper into the station, she ended up
riding a turbolift with an Imperial technician. The white-haired techie activated some sort of device and asked Sera who she was.
After some discussion it turned out that the technician, code named Targeter, had recognized her as a Rebel pilot with red Squadron--she even knew Sera's
full name. Happy to have finally made contact with the Rebellion, Sera followed the technician back to the Imperial part of the station in Petal 3.
Once there, Targeter outfitted Sera with one of her spare Imperial uniforms and a stolen rank badge that would get her into most
sections of the station unquestioned. Targeter had places to hide the Rebel pilots once Sera snuck them off
of Dran's ship. Feeling relaxed by Targeter's icy self-confidence and regal bearing, Sera spent some time in the Imperial section
cleaning up and eating in the mess hall before returning to the core of the station.
Once the party were all rejoined together, getting the Rebel pilots off the ship with Targeter's help was relatively easy.
From there, they traveled to Petal 2 to track down Bah'Ger. After making their way to the bad part of the colony, they
managed to break into the subsurface magtrain tunnels and sneak into the maintenance tunnels with a well-timed sprint.
Our heroes were able to approach Bah'Ger's hideout undetected, just in time to hear the Twi'lek getting a grilling from Dran.
The party figured that it was safe and made their presence known. After getting hauled into the hideout, Dran made
introductions. After hearing that his ship was once again free of passengers and that one of Spray's bodyguards was gunning for him,
Dran and Hqunlx said their goodbyes and headed back for the Remembrance.
After they had left, Bah'Ger continued business as usual as he talked with the party. Unfortunately, business as usual
included slave trading. When a beautiful white Twi'lek girl was lead past the party in chains Lim couldn't let that one slide.
The resulting firefight was short but brutal and ended up with Bah'Ger surrendering the girl to the party. The team leaned heavily on
him for Spray and got a bit of info about their ship as well. Bah'Ger had heard that some Imperial Captain at Ord Mantell
had captured a rare YT-1300L and was planning on having it refurbished into his personal yacht. The work was being done at the same
place that the repairs to the Emperor's Fist were bring carried out, but he didn't know where that was.
As it turned out, the Twi'lek girl's name was Seela'fenn--Bah'ger's own cousin. She elected to stay with Bah'Ger, once the party had
threatened him sufficiently so that he wouldn't ever think about harming her in any way.
To wrap up loose ends, the party returned to Spray to report on Bah'Ger. Again the Tynnan had some useful news,
his network had learned that the Emperor's Fist was being repaired at the Imperial Sluis-Van Shipyards. It
was the biggest Imp shipyard this side of Kuat, and the party had no way of getting in there. With a bit of brainstorming
well away from Spray's prying ears, Sera decided to go see Targeter while Lim, Yanna, Kit and Haselvlat checked in
on Lim's ship. Once there, they got into a confrontation with several ISB officers and Imperial troops who were curious
about Lim's unique little ship. Talking turned into questioning which turned into accusing which turned into fighting.
During the fight, Kit jumped into the scout ship to start blasting away with its laser cannons and Lim used his telekinetic
Force power for the first time in public to retrieve his lost forcepike. Yanna, seeing this, was delighted. She too had been able
to call on the Force from time to time. Grabbing a nearby toolbox with the Force, she lifted it up and crushed it into the nearest ISB officer.
Yanna was elated to show Lim that she could do it to, but Lim was horrified by what she had done.
It wasn't long before several fuel lines were hit and the bay was threatening to explode. The party managed to vac the
bay to space, putting out the fires but ejecting Kit in the Aethersprite as well. She managed to dock it in a different bay
and the entire group retreated back to the relative safety of the inner station. Lim gave Yanna a stern talking to about the proper
use of the Force, which confused an angered her--it didn't help that she had a bit of a crush on Lim. Worried for a variety
of reasons, the party all met up and went to see Targeter.
The Rebel spy had a plan for them, she will get the party to Sluis-Van if they would help her strike team get onto
the base unnoticed. From there they would split ways for their own separate missions. It sounded reasonable, and
our heroes agreed. She asked to borrow Lim's ship to go make the arrangements, meanwhile she called on a contact of
hers to provide the party's transportation to the rendezvous point. The group boarded a
Duros
owned Ghtrok 720 light freighter and headed out into the stars.
View the optional Director's Commentary for this scene
(caution, possible spoilers)
Back to Act I Scene i
On to Act I Scene iii
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