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Episode II: A New Beginning
ACT I, Scene v
Quicker, easier, more seductive
As it turned out, Vader's arrival to the station was a blessing in disguise for the party.
While the thousands of crewmembers assembling in the main docking hall were visually stunning,
it did have the benefit of draining the rest of the station of personnel. This allowed the party
to make it to the Excessive Debt almost unhindered. They were only stopped by two low-level security
guards at the hangar door, which let them pass after a little bit of small talk.
The ship was in decent condition, even though Kir lamented the new white paint job.
the ship was being gutted and made into a Captain's Yacht. Which, in the Empire,
meant no hyperdrive. The crew took a quick stock of what needed fixed and were about
to set out looking for parts when the Sluusi made themselves known. The party avoided
a firefight with the half-snakes and managed to communicate with them. Apparently, Haselvlat
had learned their language at some point along his travels.
Officer Soe took control of the tech teams and whipped them into shape with repairs.
Lim and Squawky set off to access a security terminal, and the rest of the crew either hid out
in the ship or set off to scrounge up parts. Lim managed to alter the repair manifest, and even got Squawky to have
it flip flop back to the original if Tyderra ever checked it. This caused terrible confusion
when Tyderra showed up for a surprise inspection (during which Kit managed to keep herself from
killing him), but Zeryn kept the techies from reporting the inconsistencies.
The party managed to locate a hyperdrive that would work as a replacement for the
one the Imps removed from their ship. they made their way to a reclamation and salvage area and proceeded
to wreak great holy havoc when they took over the worker-droid network with Squawky. Lim
was almost killed while trying to ride one of the things up to the control booth and Yanna was barely
able to stop his plummet into the sharp scrap metal below. Sadly, this would turn out to be a fateful thing,
as Lord Vader felt the tug of the Force while on the Executor and returned to the station to
investigate.
The group was forced to split up to keep the repair schedule maintained and left Yanna, Haselvlat,
and Bebo in the salvage area to finish prepping the hyperdrive. the rest of the group rushed to get the ship
flight ready as Vader made is way to Yanna--drawn to her instead of Lim due to her existing brushes
with the Dark Side. She and Haselvlat barely made it out of the salvage room as Vader and his Stormtroopers
busted in. The then played a multi-level game of cat and mouse against the Sith Lord to buy as much time
as they could. After fighting off a couple of squads of troopers, time was running out. The party called in Targeter
to help them escape the area, which Targeter managed to barely pull off. While they made it
out of the area there was no way they could of known that Bebo, with his faulty memory wipe and Imperial loyalties, had already
filled in Vader on what was happening.
By the time that Yanna and Haselvlat were on the home stretch to the ship, Vader had already set up the trap.
Troopers and security pounced on the two of them as they sprinted for the Excessive Debt. Kir got the ship airborne
as the outer blast doors were closing. Chuni laid down suppressive fire with his light repeating blaster while
Sara and Kit sniped at the Imperial officers. Kit scored a very satisfying hit on Tyderra, the man responsible
for the destruction of her homeworld, but it wasn't enough to kill him. The fighting raged as Vader continued to
stalk forward. Haselvlat refused to leave her side, but she knew what the dread lord was after. She picked the
Stitchian up telekinetically hurled him at Chunara. Lim and Kir were frantically loading their pro-plotted
escape route into the navicomputer while Sara and Kit leapt up into the ship. Yanna began to draw a massive
amount of dark power around her as Haselvlat looked on helplessly
The Stormtroopers closed around her as Vader
looked on from a short distance. She was about to release the power in a devastating assault when she suddenly
stopped, remembering Lim. The dark tendril faded out as if they were never there and Yanna brought her arms
up in a fighting stance that Lim taught her. The engineer began swinging just as the excessive Debt cleared the
outer doors and began lining up on the tunnel of somewhat clear space between the asteroids. Yanna didn't last more than
a few seconds before the Stormtroopers beat her to the ground. Back on the ship, a hundred different
alarms were sounding as Kir reached up across a smoking control board to activate the hyperdrive. In one
of the most impressive hyperspace jumps in history, the Excessive Debt leapt from along side the station, over the
Executor, past the patrol ships, and out the asteroid tunnel into empty space.
The last image that flashed through Lim's mind before they broke lightspeed was the vision of Lord
Vader leaning over a beaten and bloody Yanna. In his rasping bass voice he was congratulating her,
"Most impressive, my Master will be very interested in this one." At that, Lim's blood ran cold and the vision faded.
He could see Haselvlat standing alone amongst the chaos, pitifully pawing at the airlock and quietly mourning the
loss of his friend.
View the optional Director's Commentary for this scene
(caution, possible spoilers)
 Back to Act I Scene iv
On to Act II Scene i 
Engage the hyperdrive and return to the Campaign page
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