B15. The Ranch

Characters Present

• Sabbath Rune (Jack L.)
• Tia O'Mandalorio (Laurie M.)
• Fausto (Roger P.)
• Major Tao (Antonio G.)
• Gand (Frank H.)

Tao, Sabbath, and Tia reached out to their allies in the Vigil, the Republic, and the Illip Kajidic to try and locate their missing friends, Velayna, Finnis, and K8. What their allies present to them is a daunting picture. The Republic, already stretched thin on resources, is not prepared to engage what appears to be a successfully rebuilding Imperial presence. With several sectors under control, Pentastar is a coherent and well defended region of space that has access to new ships, and a surging Inquisitorious.

The Vigil paints a a desperate picture after tracking the enemy ship that chased the team from Yavin IV. The hostages and artifacts from that world are now in Rimcee Station. Their recon of the system revealed the presence of a massive taskforce in the system. Their advice is to grieve and move on.

Which leaves them with Kestra.

In an agitated state, Kestra relays that she has a large operation in motion directed at Rimcee Station, where she was once imprisoned. However, she had agreed to help before she knew the location. She offers to reframe her operation to sneak the team of Fausto, Sabbath, Tia, and Tao into Rimcee Station. But only in return for an unquestionable favor, stating in no uncertain terms, "THEY OWE HER."

They set out on a Verpine Trader's ship and are smuggled into Rimcee Station in the cargo pallets themselves, not the containers, in hidden compartments originally meant for baradium bombs. On the ship, Kestra has sent slicers to steal data from the station, and Kortho to steal a ship and get them off once the job is done.

Isolated and alone for almost ten hours, the team finally gets the signal and emerges in the cargo conveyor of Rimcee Station. Kestra has provided a basic layout, and the Verpine slicers manage to get a more detailed schematic of the maintenance levels to point them the way.

They proceed to what they believe is the Inquisition's section of the prison, barely hacking their way through maintenance hatches, and having to divert through a cargo bay avoiding technicians. Upon arriving, they contact Kortho and the slicing team on the other side of the station through Verpine encrypted frequencies. That team gives them leads to where holding cells might be, below a CLASSIFIED are on the map.

The team forces their way through access panels into the detention block and identifies twelve occupied holding cells with numbered occupants. In opening them, they find the victims of experiments both pahrmacological and surgical, including Velayna and Finnis. However, in getting them out, they were forced to cut open some of the cells, triggering a lockdown.

The team fled back to the tunnels only to be confronted by blast doors sealing off sections of the station from the red alert. In the delay, the Verpine team could not delay leaving any longer, fleeing the station and taking their encrypted communication system with them.

Finally arriving at the hangar, and hoping to steal a ship, they find the hangar crawling with Pentastar technicians and troopers. The get as close as they can to a shuttle, and were about to break cover and attack when an officer redirects the trooper platoon into the nearby cargo tunnels, claiming to have heard lightsabers. With the officer's back to them, they see his hand waving them towards the shuttle. Realizing the officer to be Kortho in holo-disguise, they break for the ship.

With Kortho prepping the ship and the victims getting strapped in, the team is confronted by a feeling of dread as three force users approach across the hangar, each identical to the other with a face devoid of expression. Sabbath and Fausto hold two of them off while also engaging in a Force Duel at range with the third. The beings do not speak, and although not inquisitors, manage significant harm through lightsaber combat. Much to the team's dismay the clones appear to have implanted plates capable of deflecting even lightsaber hits.

Tao and Tia keep the two fighters bolsterd and standing until Kortho is ready to lift off. They quickly disengage and pull away from the deck before the clones can catch up. The stolen shuttle blasts from the hangar and weaves through the fighter cover and capital ships surrounding the station, making them risk crossfire to prevent being blown up. They make the jump to hyperspace and rendezvous with Kestra in teh Axxila system.

Kestra's medical teams aid the victims however they can and reveal some of the nature of what was done to them. For some victims, like Finnis, retroviral drugs were tested on them, spiking their midichlorian production while simultaeneously damaging the centers of inhibition in their brains, the side effect of leaving a pronounced stammer in the nearby language center.

The ones surgically tortured, were far worse. These victims, including Velayna, have had extensive neural grafts of a strange self-replicating substance. It self replicates through consuming nearby tissue, making any attempt to remove it nearly impossible without parazlyzing, killing, or driving the victim into a persistent vegetative state.

The substance itself is most strongly grafted to the regions of the brain known to control Force abilities, effectively rendering the individuals "Dead" in the Force.

Kortho returns the team and the two apprentices to Nigita, while Kestra continues to provide care for the others.

Adventure Capsule

Game Date: 18.Forn.35 ABY
Date: 7/16/2000
XP Earned: 10xp
Credits Earned: 1500cr
Gamemaster: Bill M.

Duty Rewards (Choose)

• Harmonium: --
• Independents: 20
• Republic Remnant: --
• Scum & Villainy: --

Casualties & Injuries

• Velayna Marus disconnected from the Force.
• Corporal Finnis, injured, recovering with PTSD from torture.

Notes

• Kestra moved significant assets she had put in place for her agenda, sacrificing her plans at great personal cost to rescue those on Rimcee Station. She expects that when the time comes, those she did this for will answer her call, no questions asked.

Episode B15

THE RANCH

PENTASTAR has kidnapped the apprentices of two of the Force Users of Nigita in an elaborate trap that hints they know more about THE VIGIL than thought.

Can the heroes find out where these former Imperials are hiding the hostages, or indeed if they even survive?

Can they mount a rescue to recover them? More importantly, what will this foray into enemy territory cost them?