The End?!??!

There are walls inside these caverns that look older and made of different material - maybe a capitol ship? There are stylized designs around the edges that might be A'Wakeen in design. I have a lot of maybes and supposes here. We have one more area in this base to clear, but we have this tunnel to the west. I volunteer to go check out the room to the south, while Hicks hangs out at the junction to keep an eye out for anything coming our way. We have not been all that quiet!
 
I slip quietly down to the last chamber and it is either empty or someone is playing possum. I ease my way down and crouch down to look into the area. There are some crates at the entrance and I hear a slight scrap of rock to the north. If someone is hear, they are using the wall for cover. The crates in front of me are plasteel with faded lettering and stacked high enough to form a barrier. I look closer to see if I can determine what might be inside. Pressurized crates that are probably food - and I remember I have not seen any galley. I decide the best course of action would be to crouch down and look around the corner to see what can be seen. I peer to the north and don't see crates. Have they been cleared on purpose? I duck walk over to the crate wall so I can keep it as cover while I look into the next area of the room. There is a single glow rod providing emergency lighting and it glints off metal - claws?!!??
 
It moves. I decide the only thing I can do it to knock over the crates. I plop my butt on the floor and brace myself and push. The crates wobble, but don't fall. I slid down a bit more and bend at my knees to push again - harder. The crates fall loudly, I hear a yell, and dust billows. I hear a metallic crash as something is crushed and I see in front of me a pirate and TWO METAL WOLVES. I call for Hicks and fire one shot at each wolf as they are standing beside/in front of the pirate. I skim past the won of the right and it ricochets against the metal wall and comes back towards me and hits the wall in the tunnel behind me. I can see a blue cloud oozing out of the rock where the blaster bolt hit. The other shot hits the wolf and manages to cause some damage.
 
The wolf I missed jumps at me and I, while I lay on my back, get my feet under it and push back hard. It rebounds and flies through the air to fly through that blue cloud. The cloud interacts and freezes part of the metal and I can see little bits of things floating inside the cloud. Note to self - avoid that!! The other wolf does something to its tail and turns into a scorpion like appendage and it strikes at me. I roll to the south so I can avoid Hicks coming in hot. My jacket is struck by the edge and gets a slight tear. Someone had better be buying me drinks later for that! The pirate in the back pulls out a little ball and clicks a button. It turns into a droid that flies and has tools!! and is now fixing the one wolf I had hurt. Damn drones and no way in hell am I keeping that to give to So'Zen!
 
I roll into a crouch and fire two shots at the repairo drone. It dodges in a flurry of movement, but my shots hit the wolf again. One shot ricochets off the armor and hits that wall which results in another cascade of blue cloud matter. The second shot hits something inside and ionization rolls over the drone and dims one eye. It should be down to half power at least. Hicks finally comes around the corner and fires at the wolves while I yell at him to avoid the blue clouds. He fires at each wolf and it hits the partially frozen one and causes some damage, the other hit causes even more damage to the half powered one.
 
The metal ice wolf shoots it's whip cord tail at me and I roll forward and it just misses me, though it does manage to grab some of the floor for a prize. The other wolf starts a staggering, limping run at me while the repairo drone holds on. It slams into me as I slam into it and it tries to bite me, but my shield is on so it can't get through and it is a really pretty ion show. I can see the drone start working to repair the wolf again and it looks like the shoulder joint is already better than it was. The pirate pulls a blaster and fires at Hicks who suddenly has a blue mist in front of him.
 
The wolf gnawing on me raises one claw to swipe at me and I make a split-second decision to turn off my shield and roll under the body to get out of the way and slide underneath and then behind the combat drone. The paw hits a crate behind me and slices it open to have plasma drill bits, power cells, and cleaning oil tumbles out. Out of the corner of my eye, I see the frozen droid shoot the whip cord tail at Hicks who has to dodge both the cloud and the tail. It takes a chunk out of the armor, but doesn't hit Hicks himself. The repairo drone keeps fixing the damaged wolf while keeping all sensors on me. The pirate fires at me and I dodge to the north to hopefully give him an opportunity to hit the wolf.
 
I pull my plasma blaster to fire at the wolf and repairo drone with the hopes of taking both of them out of this fight. Since I am point blank, I hit and I manage to melt open the armor of the wolf. The repairo drone jumps int eh air and somersaults in the air to land on the haunches of the wolf, and then runs back to continue doing repairs. Hicks fires at the joints and explodes the shoulder which starts to smoke. The wolf steps back and the nearest blue cloud flows into the wound. The cloud seems to glow and ooze through the wolf until is covered in ice and then the blue cloud oozes out and snakes away in the air - as if it has a mind and is alive.
 
I am mesmerized by the flowing cloud but snap out of it when Hicks fires at the pirate who dives behind a crate. He is hit by one of the shots and is knocked down. I turn back to my fight and pull out my vibroblade to hack and slash at the innards until it finally goes down. The repairo drone is a bit upset and I contemplate hurling it into one of the blue clouds. Then I see the pirate take aim and fire at me. Stupid pirate! I throw up my shield to block and it does. Then I see one cloud head towards the pirate and one is coming for me.
 
We have one more combatant in the room, so I pick up a crate and toss it at the pirate. It misses him and hits the wall releases another one of those blue clouds which surrounds the pirate and freezes him solid. I swear to Hicks I did not intend to do that and we need to RUN! We head out in a dead run and get back to the corridor to the west. While we are running, I am trying to devise a method to contain the blue ether and I suddenly think of a cryo tube. Perhaps we can corral the mist into one of those and it will hold and maybe even neutralize the mist to allow us to leave without fearing it coming after us.
 
Hicks and I run to grab a cryo tube and race back to the corridor to the south. Hicks and I rotate the cryo tube and wait for the mist to approach - which does seem to be rushing faster as it gets closer. It makes a sneak attack to come over the top to get at us, but we manipulate the cryo tube and capture the mist. It starts rolling around like it is looking for an escape. We discuss whether turning on the tube would help us or the mist and decide to go for Wampa cold to see how it reacts. The mist gets slower and begins to solidify. It turns into a long piece of what looks like cloth and settles to the bottom of the tube. It is kind of glittery look to the wraith like form.
 
That is a whole lot of NOPE! We slid the tube down the corridor and wait to see if another one comes towards us. As we stand in silence, all we can hear is the cracking of ice. I keep thinking and I know what we have to do, not that I like it. Hicks and I walk back down the corridor, pushing the cryo tube into the room, and see that the three we had left behind have combined into a giant swirling ball of gas that is bigger than it should have been. We fire at the fuel cells and turn and run!! The fire ball follows us down the corridor and we keep hauling ass down the corridor to the west until the heat dissipates. Everything is quiet until we hear a quiet clink as the droid sighs mechanically.
 
We try to determine our next move. I still don't want to leave anything behind us, but I am not interested in shooting the last two pirates in cold blood. They went into hiding and have not come after us yet. Hicks suggests diplomacy - like So'Zen! Why in the world he expects me to talk like that lily livered son of a biscuit eater I have no idea. Sadly, I have no better idea. We get to the area and can hear them talking and it is not plotting to take us out. I suggest they swear to not harm us or our mission and I can set them up for a regular paycheck. They take some time to think about it and agree. We then discuss how to get them off this piece of rock. They share the information about where the Starrise Falcon is. They claim it is locked, but I know I already have the key so I get them to help with distraction in the cave where it is located. I promise if they help, I will get them off this rock and give them an introduction to someone who can provide a regular paycheck.
 
They lead the way to the cave and tell us that the Ebon Veil guy is probably not human and I think he has a parasite. They get the techs distracted and we check out the cavern. It looks like it has a opening in the ceiling to let the ship out. The controls look ancient, but they also look like secondary bridge controls. Suddenly I wonder if this entire rock is actually a ship! The Ebon Veil guy is between me and the ship, but now that I am in the same room with the crystal key, I see some lights on the access panel light up - in anticipation? We try to figure out how to take out the big, bad first and Hicks suggests his reverse polarity grenades again. Then he sees the droid at our feet and comes up with a twist. He suggests we send the droid over to sabotage the welder trying to access the hatch and then toss the grenade to be able to take out the guy. He bends down to talk to the repairo droid and the driod apparently has issues. Hicks tells me that RD-9 (Roddy) wants an apology. I manage to do it - at least good enough to make him happy. He heads out while Hicks reprograms the grenade.
 
The welder powers down and everyone looks over in shock. Hicks tosses the grenade at the same time and it explodes and then implodes. We run quickly and stun the big, bad guy and the two techs and then get onto the ship. I walk quickly and almost instinctively to the bridge. It has normal pilot and co-pilot stations and also has a dedicated sensor/science station, defense screen with full weapons control, engineering, and comms. I sit in the pilot's chair and it molds around me. I input the crystal and all of the stations light up around me and it begins to power up. Hicks asks how we are getting out of here and I send him over to the science station to see if he can hack the bridge controls outside and open the door above us. Hicks sits down and then points at the screen. It has an image of the ship's cargo hold and an enormouse sphere with 12 planes calling it a Spherion Codex. I tell him that we will deal with that later, but right now he needs to open the door so we can leave.
 
Hicks tell me he can actually turn on the engines for the planetoid and we could fly it! I think about it, but decide we can do that later if we want to as we have the ship. He opens the door and I check out the controls. I manage to get it started and we fly out. I contact the gear grinder to tell him to follow us as we fly back to the top layer of this moon. As we get up closer to the patrol ships, I have one of our new buddies open a comm channel to get us past the blockade. I have the gear grinder pilot get the shuttle close to the Starrise Falcon and then Hicks activates the tractor beam and we go under the patrol while we tow the shuttle.
 
Hicks then brings up the Ghost Ships. I suggest we contact the Freedworld Republic to let them know of the trap. Then we can suggest that they need to exercise caution in approaching any ships in distress to not set off the engine shutdown that will release the reavers. Hicks doesn't think an all call would work, but I think if we call Kantor direct everyone would pay attention and then we can also provide the tracking information on the ships. We head to the Gear Grinder docks to let the civilians free. I request a thorough search of the area in order to see if Jem Vandoss is still there. We hear back from the Navy that they will take care of the Ghost Ships.
 
I remember asking Rico to help me in case we did run into the need to bring back passengers. When we arrive back at Fortuna Station, the clones are waiting and we share that we have video of Jem Vandoss being taken by Ravenguard. We all load up - after I give the pirates the name of So'Zen al Saba to share with the hutt to ensure that they get a job. Before we split up, we offer Roddy the chance to pick who he wants to hang with and he decided to stay with Hicks. The Gear Grinders are happy with the cessation of violence and say that I can call on them anytime I need help. Might be the start of a great relationship.
 
We finally pick up and leave Spacer's Tears. But when we enter hyperspace there is a weird vibration. Then Hicks tells me that the sphere in the cargo hold has turned on. My console starts going crazy and then the nav computer starts spinning between several locations that repeat: Chalcedon, Yavin 4, and Byss. Looks like we are going to Byss - at least I hope we are.