B18. The Faceless

Characters Present

• Sabbath Rune (Jack L.)
• Tia O'Mandalorio (Laurie M.)
• Fausto (Roger P.)
• Syatt Walker (Scott R.)
• Zechs Malo (Jodi)

Sabbath is stopped at Ranger HQ by Technician Shend of Air Traffic Control. The technician is surprised to see Sabbath as he thought the Force User would be on the Southern Continent all day after clearing his ship through early in the morning.

Sabbath is startled, as he was asleep at the time and asks for clarification and the flight logs. To his dismay, the logs show The Runequest, his missing ship, getting approach clearance, filed by his missing droid K8 just after midnight. The flight plan departs Hub airspace headed for the Southern Continent.

Sabbath sounds the alarm to Tia, who offers to contact the others while Sabbath asks for follow up alerts from flight control. Tia gathers Syatt and Fausto to meet at Sabbath's current ship on the launch platform.

Meeting at the ship they quickly conclude that with the ship last in the possession of Pentastar forces, that this is some sort of an operation and possibly a trap. Tia leverages her contact network to identify just what is in the Southern Continent. This reveals that the majority of CorpSec's mining operations are down there, collecting valuable Ardanium from large mining platforms.

Reaching out to CorpSec operations, they get transferred to the CorpSec JSOC using Bandit's Marshall's clearance. The JSOC operator reports that none of the mining platforms has seen the ship, but that they have limited sensor range due to the interference from the heavy mining equipment. He shows nothing on scanners from the scout speeders assigned to the platforms.

The team reveals that The Runequest has stealth capabilities. The JSOC is not surprised they couldn't see it. They inform the team they will alert all stations and contact them with updates.

The group decides to take Bandit's ship, The Sasha, because of its Ion Weaponry, in case they need to engage The Runequest in flight. They depart for the Southern Continent and approach the Mining Outposts. At each step of the way, they scan for signs of the missing vessel, but the mining outposts are of no help.

Finally, the JSOC contacts them and confirms that they have lost contact with a Prospector Crawler in the Southern Polar Region. They are sending speeders to investigate, but the Team's vessel will be faster. They head South to investigate.

They fly through increasingly hazardous blizzard conditions and scan for the missing crawler, finally discovering it deep in the polar zone forests, crushing its way through the dense foliage. An aerial fly-by reveals that The Runequest is indeed landed on the large vessel, occupying its resupply landing pad. In the dense forests flanking the vessel, intense blaster fire can be seen.

The team drops on Grav Belts into the forest and engages Snow Stormtroopers in the midst of gunning down fleeing CorpSec technicians. The fight is intense, as the snowtroopers are trained and equipped for this sort of engagement, and have brough heavy weaponry to bear. But finally, the troopers are stopped. Though not before finishing the work of exterminating the fleeing technicians.

The team regroups and heads back to the Crawler. The massive mobile survey and drilling platform is easily the size of a cruiser, and they fight their way up from the tracked belly all the way to the bridge, dealing with dozens of stromtroopers along the way. When they reach the bridge, they find it defended by the officers of the operation and another of Pentastar's Force Clones.

The fight is fast and deadly, as the Clones continue to defy tremendous amounts of physical damage due to their implanted armor. However, Tia's sharp wit rules the day first by driving off two of the lesser officers, then by putting the last strain on the outnumbered clone.

As the fight ends, they have little time to react as they hear The Runequest depart the platform to attempt to escape. Signalling Pixel on the Sasha, they take their unconscious captive and pursue the fleeing ship. A tense dogfight ensues as the ship tries to escape before being disabled by Ion weaponry.

The team sets both craft down using a tractor beam to tether the disabled Runequest. They request Ordinance disposal teams and slicing teams from CorpSec and the New Republic to meet them. The EOD team sweeps the ship, discovering no bombs or booby traps, they clear it for entry by the team and the slicers.

The slicers find that disabling the ship triggered a failsafe set of restraining bolts on all the equipment, including the droids aboard. They have been "factory-wiped" down to base attributes, no skills, nothing but binary. Additionally the Navigation system has been wiped of all flight logs. They are able to recover some communications from the transceiver, which was damaged in the fight. These reveal communications between someone sounding like Pentastart Ministry of Science Director Loomis Vendredi and alternately the clone and the stormtrooper officer. Both messages reference "The Faceless Ones."

The team recovers a weird and extravagant encryption key from the system as well. Something more complex than the HoloNet, and requiring high powered transmission. Additionally, the team finds that The Runequest has been modified to carry specific cargo, including a large freezer compartment and a cradle for a fairly large speeder. The contents of both are missing. When they return to The Sasha, they find their captive has had some other failsafe triggered, consuming the body in a high intensity thermite burn, reducing the body and cybernetics to slag.

Returning to the Hub, the team informs the Governor and works with him to try and plan countermeasures. Unfortunately the manpower exceeds what the Hub has to work with. Neither the Rangers, nor Pilot's Militia have enough ships to make a thorough search for one speeder in the vast southern reaches. The Governor does have some theories as to what the key could be. He recalls rumors of a hidden Imperial network used to coordinate reprisal weapons deployed after the first death of the Emperor during Operation Cinder. But he'd need to do research to confirm.

With the Hub on high alert, Sabbath reaches into the Force to foresee the consequences of the day. He is confronted by a horrifying vision of bio-mechanical creatures, flashes of large scale detonations, and victims cowering in fear. In his mind he recalls an earlier vision and the echooing voice at the end. "When she arrives, they will all be lost. Every. Single. One. Until even the memory of the Force is consumed."

Adventure Capsule

Game Date: 6.Grek.35 ABY
Date: 8/13/2020
XP Earned: 10xp
Credits Earned: 1500cr
Gamemaster: Bill M.

Duty Rewards (Choose)

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

Casualties & Injuries

• None Reported.

Notes

Recovered Data From Pentastar Operation:
• Communication from Vendredi referencing "The Faceless Ones" who may have planned the operation.
• Communication to Vendredi regarding the "Resonance of the Vergence" on Nigita.
• Communication Encryption Key: Incredibly complex key for short range communication. Unknown what network it would be for and incompatible with standard HoloNet transmissions.

Episode B18

THE FACELESS

A mystery returns to Nigita dragging Sabbath front and center in a conspiracy against the very safety of Nigita.

Can Sabbath and his Allies find the cause behind the attack and root out the source to end it?

Or is this the opening move in a far greater gambit?