Enemy Squared: VN Ysadora
General Summary
We're in the Pavia System, having just delivered puzzleflowers and bantha weed to a Mentat colony on the world of Listoria in the far corner of the Cadriaan Province. Isn't listeria a bacteria? I'm here to, uh, wait, is that a distress call?
The transmission is coming in as we leave Hyperspace, emanating from the edge of the spaceship graveyard. Ship identification marker is "Krayt Runner", a Ghtroc 720 Freighter, and emergency code on default message is "under attack, desperately need assistance". The KR is near a war-wrecked Mon Cal capital ship; the KR is registered as a merchant ship to a Barnabas Colby.
We gear up with rebreathers, connect to the KR with a docking tube, and go over to find out what happened. Smoke and a fine white mist roll out of the door into the docking tube. Looks pretty badly damaged here, too; a boarding party seems to have fought its way through the halls.
According to the crew manifest, the other members include Snorryhn (the Wookiee), technician/gunner; Bruck Flautis (human), navigator; Yuned Freetaa (Twi'lek), first mate; Ephin Miskin (human), gunner.
According to the damaged log, 4 days ago Colby was at the colony on Pavia 3. The cargo hold computer was supposed to be maintaining a very precise temperature and dryness of air for "unknown" cargo, only accessible by Colby and his first mate. Previous cargo was "wind snakes" -- another ingredient, it later turns out, of glymph pie.
We don't get to do a lot of investigating since a swarm of fifteen buzzdroids are trying to get in.
Captain Colby was going to sell whatever was in his cargo hold to the university on Mrlsst because he thought they would pay a high fee for it. He picked up whatever it is on Pavia 3, without the colonists' knowledge. He was attacked by raiders; the camera picked up some very blurry images of individuals in formfitting reddish-brown body armor applying explosives to the door; they left with a very large crate, five and a half or six feet tall, about three feet wide.
A lone automated port beacon transmitting landing instructions is functioning (constantly) from the ground on the current day side of Pavia 3; the huge mass of satellites in orbit are all nonfunctional.
The Mentats have been very busy in a small area, working off one of the bombed cities.
As we explore the (apparently abandoned) mentat colony, automatic lights come on but no one is visible in the street. Up ahead is a sign: "Remember to regroup at Defense Point Beta."
Using the Force to try to find this Defense Point Beta, I can barely feel that some probably-sentient, non- Reaver life is clustered together at the edge of my range, outside the city.
A couple of kilometers outside the city we find the blocky gray shape of an Imperial Base. The cog of the GE has been removed but the walls are still a very dull grey, and the more damaged areas of the base have been hastily repaired. The oppressive feel remains, along with a sense of desperation. People on the walls are wearing either grey coveralls or light armor.
A man with light-colored brown hair comes out from the blast doors; he's definitely a Mentat, used to being in charge of other Mentats. His name is Korval. He brings us inside, where we see a Nightsister working on repairing the gun emplacements: Bel’tana.
Around the time Colby's ship the KR left the world, a Reaver ship arrived and attacked. The Mentats tried to psychotherapy the Reavers, which (wow!) didn't work out.
The thing in the crate was an egg. Large, metal egg. Ten thousand years old. Bel'tana's ship, carrying the stolen egg and the crew of the Krayt Runner, crashed about two and a half clicks further out into the jungle.
The egg has been moved to an ancient obsidian pyramid, inverted onto its point, now vine-covered.
One of the bad guys is a cyberDRIDER. Darth Caliper. Yes, like the tool.
Sister Sabine Benacor is totally NOT AVAILABLE at this time. She used the Voice to SING the right note so the crystalline components in the living machinery half of Darth Caliper's face will vibrate apart. Which works brilliantly. And then the living machinery part leaves Darth Tool's unconscious body to try to flee into the jungle, but gets shot into submission.
Along with the egg (which is a spaceship), we find notes by Darth Tool who has been trying to contact Matres Merglin. He has been browsing some of the news feeds off the black market; he was convinced that she was a potential colleague with whom he could collaborate then betray. He had sent her an unanswered message, and he had also sent a message to the Obulette System which got an encoded response: "Now is not the time, my friend. The seeds have been sown, but it is not time yet to reap the harvest."
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