Viridian File 061322: Stardate 16124.2123.03231437
Reveal Flashback
Stardate 16124.2123.01051013 (over 2 months ago)
On the outskirts of Republic Space, in a village that has been rebuilt at least three times, we see a Blue Draconian wrapping the leg of a wounded man and applying herbs and medicine.
It has been years since the last raid and the village has finally gained a sense of stability. As he wraps up his duties for the day, Kar'jan suddenly feels a strange feeling as though a pulse rippled through the galaxy and a nagging feeling of concern lingers in his mind.
Concerned, he looks out to the mountains. It's been almost 14 years now since he had been there, but there is so much he still does not know. He packs up supplies for the 3 day trek. As he once again enters the ancient temple, he can feel a presence nearby gain strength. The feeling of foreboding intensifies as the aftershocks of whatever happened still travels through the quadrant. Sadly his visit does not grant him any new insight than what he already had.
Kar'jan "Elsewhere then... I guess that's all there is to find here."
On the last day of his journey, the first signal of something wrong is the smell of smoke. Then he can hear the ships of the Kreskan Pirates flying overhead. As he finally exits the forest road to the village a blaze of orange roars where the village would be. More concerning, only the sound of the crackling flames can be heard. No screams, no figures running. Just the sound of flames and the buildings collapsing.
Kar'jan a shadow darts out of sight from the corner of his eye, "Well, old friend, I suppose its time we start the search off-world."
In the ashes of Ordvas, Kar'jan is able to salvage the last remnants of supplies before making the week long trek to the neighboring village hoping they were sparred. He is able to book passage off-world, finally resolved to learning what is happening to him as he watches the planet Scarro grow ever smaller behind him.
Moon of Dua - Morriga System
After their fight witht the Battle Droids, the party enters the security office. Thankfully, there are no other droids. The party notices a blinking red light on the far console. Zs and Zukrom go to the consoles while Kar'jan keeps watch outside. Suddenly, Amelia recieves a transmission which she links the crew's comlinks into.
Garcia: "This is your fairy godmother come to prepare you for the ball. And trust me you're going to need it. This 'She' is more like a scary godmother. I had to get special access to space corpse intelligence and based on your description you just missed the Dark Mage known by two aliases: Shade Spinner is an older alias but she seems to be answering to Time's Shadow now. A little on the nose if you ask me. She arrived on the scene a few months ago and acts as Kronos' top assassin and intelligence operative. Not much else is known about her. Even this information is second hand.
I've also taken the liberty of alerting Consul Satesh to our unexpected guests. So far only you, me, the Consul, Officer Ka'ral, Warden Fyro, and Vosaara know about our unexpected guests. Warden Fyro and a few AES members are on their way to assist. ... Just... be careful. It will take them time to get there."
Back at the consoles, Zs and Zukrom see that a silent alarm has gone off in the upper levels and the current floor alerting the base to intruders. One of the commands sent out is to find out how the party entered considering they came from above and would have needed an access code.
Together they manage to get Zs into the system with enhanced credentials. While he manages to disable the alarm, Zs knows it will not be so easy to stop their position from being swarmed. He starts sealing off turbolifts and access ways to their position. In doing so, he stumbled upon an encrypted partition of the network with maps, diagrams, and communication and video feeds.
Zs uses his new access to scout the floor they are on and finds a room ahead with 5 droids and the Sensor Array Cell currently being set up. The party stealths its way up the hall and when the doors open, gunfire breaks out towards the droids. Zukrom gets inside and conjures a dark orb of writhing Shadow and sends it speeding out rebounding on the wall. Amelia follows and throws a ball of light at one of the droids damaging and blinding it.
As a last ditch effort, one of the droids jumps toward the center consoles, seals the door, and begins accessing the encrypted system. Amelia jumps the center console and blasts a cone of fire at two other droids. Kar'jan does an aerial flip over the console attacking one of the other melee droids. Zs decapitates the droid accessing the console and unseals the door to the room.
With the droids taken care of, Zukrom and Amelia begin investigating the Sensor Cell while Kar'jan guards the door again. Amelia and Zukrom find a beam of light under the floor to the dias that holds the hovering machine as diagnostic readouts begin spitting out information about the Sensor Array. Zs continues searching through the System Lord encryption. He learns that this enitre operation was the idea of Time's Shadow and they have been entrenched here for a long time. Not only does it appear she wants this for their purpose to protect their forces from detection, but reading between the lines, Zs believes through all of the political language Shade Spinner wants this technology to detect... something else. Something she is careful not to make any mention of.
Zs and Amelia turn their attention to the other central console where the light from the floor rises up the console into a small circular housing with a glowing, polished, saphire blue orb that is locked in place. As Zs attempts to access the system the language switches from Gol'urahn, the language of the Empire, to Eldari, which Amelia translates for him. The data is complex and it's not entirely straightforward, but the summary is that the orb can encode the physical makeup of an object, store it's pattern in a cybernetic framework within the crystal orb and can re-materialize the object again in another place. Amelia remembers her parents talking of something like this in hushed tones; a rumor of Na'Shiar technology.
Amelia: "You guys. This was like... the subject of bed time stories. But real talk: how do we keep it secret so we can keep this but return the sensor array."
Zukrom: "When we get out we just put it on a cart and keep the orb."
They find the encoding sequence and the platform flows and the Cell begins to glow in white light, vanishes, and a small blip of light passes through the light conduit in the floor into the console's housing, and into the orb. At this point, the light channel from the housing to the platform goes dim. The orb's housing unlocks and they pick up the sphere which has a dim glow in its center and when held aloft, a digital menu appears: Emergency Release, Emergency Contain, Purge.
As the crew is both excited and concerned by this information, Zs detects an incoming transmission. Tapping into it and the cameras of the lower levels Zs finds the transmission and the recipient and throws the view up on the large screen.
In this room, several commando droid stand at the ready along the walls by the door. In the center with 3 more commando droids, a human male stands somewhat casually but definitely somewhat on edge. An Advanced Tactical Droid stands before a lage monitor which bears the image of an imposing cloaked figure in dark blue and silver robes. A mask of deep blue, black, and grey with white eye shapes stoically staring back.
Shadow of Time: "You have done well, Tyrin. Lord Kronos will be most pleased to hear of your success."
Tyrin: "What about Tamar? or Ail'enna? I haven't heard from them since last week. You said we would all be rewarded and safely taken away from here."
Shadow of Time: "Your friends have already been extracted to protect them and the success of the mission. T4-R15 will handle your rendezvous with them. T4-R15, please begin proceedures for Extraction Protocol 47."
T4-R15: "By your command."
The screen fades.
B2-145: "Commander, we are registering intruders on level 3. We believe they landed on the surface and entered through the main access hatch."
T4-R15: "See to it that their vessel is destroyed and jam all outgoing communications. Transfer the Sensor Cell to the working prototype for immediate transport and activate the self-destruct sequence. They will not leave this moon alive."
The T4 takes Tyrin and the 3 commando droids out of the room somewhere else. B2 approaches the console and activates a silent 15 minutes countdown as 4 sqauds of droids exit to make their way to the lab to get the Sensor Array and take it to the hangar.
Zs sets the camera on the hangar deeper in the complex. When he pulls up the camera's on screen, Amelia notices and recognizes the ships that seem to be under construction. She remembers long ago from her parent's first duty posting on a Val'daan Class Escort for the Space Corps. Somehow, Kronos is building Val'Daan class vessels, advanced vessels built by the Eldari.
Kar'jan: "I think we might not make it back to our ship in time."
Amelia: "That's alright. I think we just found a better one!"
Sadly, there is not enough time to download the N'Shiar files so they can just hope for coming back later. Time of the essense, Zs abandons an attempt to copy all of the data around the orb and returns to the other console and begins to construct an algorithm that will open and seal a route to the lower hangar. As a final act, he disables the self-destruct and replaces it with a fake countdown, hoping that subsequent trips would be possibel. The crew leaves the lab. Along the way, a shudder rocks the moon, followed by several more in close sequence. A vessel has begun to bombard the sruface, starting with the crew's parked shuttle.
Running through the halls, the party hits a cross junction when another door unseals and droids pour through blasting at the party who manage to just barely make it through another doorway that begins to seal. Finally reaching the hangar, Zs goes to the console to open the 5 launch doors down the launch passage. Amelia directs the party to the vessel that looks complete as the other 2 are in various states of construction. Moving up the four decks and to ther bridge Amelia takes the chair as the party takes their stations. Zs starts pulling up diagnostics on the ship's systems while Zukrom preps the engines.
Amelia: "We stole their sensor array. We stole their 'orb of holding'. Now we are stealing their ship. Get us out of here!"
Morriga System Space
As the final launch door opens, Zs powers on the warp drive and Zurkom engages impules engines as the Val'daan Starship blasts into orbit. The crew sees a medium sized Imperial vessel launching strikes on the surface. Once the party is detected it stops firing and moves towards them. There is a moment of tension as a hail comes form the Imperial Ship: text only. "Proceed with warp." It then turns and goes to warp out of the system and vanishes.
Amelia: "Those idiots! They thought we were them... We're clear. Zukrom get us out of here. Set a course back to Morriga Prime."
Zukrom: "You got it. I can get us there in... 2 hours!"
Amelia: "Opening hailing frequencies to Garcia."
Garcia: "Oh... oh... you're there! I was getting worried. When our connection was cut I thought-"
Amelia: "Hey Garcia, we're not dead! Also, we stole a ship!"
Garcia: "That's so good to.... wait what?"
Amelia: "So yeah that Shade Spinner lady contacted the base. Tyrin was there. We think he's probably gonna die since they took him with them. They tried to blow up the base but Zs stopped it. They blew up our other ship, sorry about that, but we got to the hangar full of big prototype starships and we stole the only working one. It's pretty big, like a battleship, and it's ours now. We stole it, and are on our way back to Morriga Prime with the sensor array. We're kinda the best actually."
Garcia: after a long silence, in a serious tone, "There was a battleship there?"
Zukrom: "There were actually three. This was the only working one."
The silence on the line clues the party into the major realiztion the adrenaline rush had so far masked: Morriga Prime is learning for the first time the System Lords had a shipyard in their backyard creating vessels of war, one of which was operational.
Garcia: "uhm. Ok. Ok. I will alert Consul Satesh, Chief Rivena, and Warden Fyro that you will be coming in on an unmarked vessel of Eldari design." There is a brief pause. "Officer Ka'ral says not to bring the vessel into orbit. She is requesting you meet up with Warden Fyro at these coordinates."
The party quickly flies back and en route are intercepted by Warden Fyro. He parks his fighter in the hangar bay and arrives on the bridge with the most serious expression the crew has ever seen from him. Due to the nature of the vessel, the party needs to go board a shuttle while this vessel is ... discreetly brought to the surface for investigation.
Warden Fyro: "It is good that you are all ok. This matter requires a delicate touch. I must ask that you turn this vessel over to me."
Amelia sees the logic in his request and moves to get out of the chair, but then realizes... something is not quite right. There is a sort of hunger in his eyes... something he is keeping hidden and the intensity with which he wasnt the party off quickly... does not make much sense.
Suddenly, a thin black line appears in space beside the engineering console that rapid expands with a burst of black feathers as a doorway opens to the lobby of Ravenloft Tower. Just on the otherside, Vosaara completes his spell and he and eight other AES members stride through and board the vessel. There is a sudden look of surprise and frustration in Fyro's eyes before he composes himself as Vosaara sternly glares back at him.
Vosaara: "That will not be necessary. Apologies, Captain. I understand it is custom to ask to board a vessel, however this magic is taxing and time is of the essence. I and these society members can watch over this vessel in your absence. In the meantime, Consul Satesh has requested your presence at the Myrdin Basilica."
Amelia: "So we will just leave this thing here?"
Vosaara: "For the moment, it will remain here until nightfall. Then I will use my magic to dampen it's signature as we bring it in discretely. We don't want prying eyes to stir up trouble speculating why an unmarked, unidentified Va'ldaan Escort suddenly appeared over Celta Moira. We need to make sure there is nothing wrong with this vessel and see how much they have learned."
Amelia catches his meaning. The Eldari are the only ones who have crafted cloaking devices capable of hiding starships.
Amelia: "I understand. That makes sense. Just one thing: when you're done, can we have it back? Can you say no to this face?" and she holds up Morph.
The other AES members stop and stare back and forth between Vosaara and Warden Fyro. The former with a wry grin, the latter a terse scowl.
Vosaara: "That is not my decision to make. Don't get your hope up, but you have done a great service here. I will see what I can do."
Zs: "Also, there is a moon base that needs to be secured. It has a lot of tech and some serious combatants."
A frown and then another brief smile falsh across Vosaara's face before composing himself back to a solemn expression and turns to Warden Fyro.
Vosarra: "I believe that was your original destination with you squad Kii. Take your squad and resume course for the moon of Dua. I will have 2 more squads following behind you. Your objective is to secure the base for further investigation."
The warden shakes off his frustration and puts on a grin saying "We can take 'em. They're no match for my squad," before quickly getting back into the turbolift and launching from the shuttle bay and resuming course.
Vosaara: "I apologize for that. I do want to congratulate all of you on another successful mission. Please, step through. I will see you soon."
Zukrom actually notices the beads of sweat forming on Vosaara's brow under the stress of maintaing this doorway. As the party walks through the portal, there is a sudden flash of nothing but black, and a chill permeates the air piercing to their bones. And just as soon as it struck, it passes and they find themselves in Ravenloft Tower with a portal behind them.
Just before he enters the portal, Zs holds up the blue orb for Vosaara, the only one left in the room, to see.
Zs: "The array is in here by the way. Don't let Warden Fyro have all the fun on that base."
For the first time ever, Zs sees Vosaara raise both eyebrows and smile wide with a look of pure delight and mischief. There is a level of amusement at just how much this crew can surprise not just others, but him, in ways no one expects.
Vosaara: "I will make sure our next squad has the apropriate scientists. Not many have ever seen technology like what you hold in your hand. Best keep it a secret for the time being." As Zs walks through the portal, Vosaara turns to the party.
Vosaara: "Very well done all of you."
And with a wink the portal closes like two black wings closing.
Myrdin Basilica, Celta Moira
In the foyer of the Basilica, Abigail Garcia runs to meet and hug the party.
Garcia: "Thank the Moonweaver. I'm so glad you are all ok. When we lost contact I was so worried. The Consul has requested all of us to meet upstairs."
The party is escorted to a lift they have never seen and arrive on one of the top floors. After a series of clicks, a door opens to a large circular chamber with a large dome covered in stars and skylights where they see Consul Satesh, AR-T1, AES Chief Umbedu Rivena, Officer Ka'ral, Chief Tarkon Stone, Chief Lin Kratar of Celta Adria, Chief Fargrim Stonetalon of Celta Sirrena (dwarf), and Chief Githon of Celta Birando (Pitarro Aarakocra) in person with Voasaara and Warden Fyro on screen from the ships. On another monitor is Senator Ormgalde Vanoth currently on Eldari Prime.
Consul Satesh: "Senator Vanoth, may I present the crew that uncovered the base Kronos was using to infiltrate Eldari space."
Senator Vanoth: "It is a pleasure to meet you. I believe we have much to discuss."
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