Honey I shrunk the Rebels

Discovery, Exploration

A small explorative party is sent from the Phalanx by Rev Cly D'Tirle to explore the a mysterious temple ruin on Janta V. The initial party of Brett Savage ,Wiktufa and Tel soon come to meet Bae a beautiful and bewildered zeltron activist looking to assist in the protection of natural species local to the temple. As is often the case for our heroes, things soon go awry as they are shrunk down into the temple interior, where they meet the inquisitive researcher Tchal and his friend in survival Yagmur.

It is a time of great exploration in the galaxy. As the new droid army of the Imperial-Santhe Coalition wreak havoc in their illegal war in the Rhao Solar System , hidden from the New Republics senate. The New Republic forces start to establish their governing bodies on the now liberated world of Tartarus II . One such group has been tasked with the exploration and documentation of the numerous ancient temples and structures of cultural significance in the system. Having recently taken an interest in such archaeological digs, Rev Cly D'Tirle volunteered to head up the team in their latest discovery on the planet of Janta V. Thousands of miles away from the controversial settlement of Mos Heskarr, on the equator of the planet, in the middle of the dune sea a stone pillar sticks out of the sand, battered and eroded by the harsh sands. The small landing craft launched from the Phalanx begins to wind its way to the structure, as the crew looks over the foreboding and scorching landscape. The small landing craft touches down within sight of the structure, as a group of sand people are filling out of what appears to be the main entrance and look to be engaged in conversation with a Zeltron female Bae. As the landing ramp at the rear of the ship opens the heat of the desert fills the craft almost instantly, the smell of sweet dusty earth penetrates the senses of the crew… as the communicator crackles into life and the familiar voice of the Reverend speaks to them. “Made it in one piece?... great… We have been given orders to explore this structure. Our scouts sent us some holos... it seems to be similar in design to that of the temple on Tartarus-2 and the ice planet of Olberian… We also picked up some form of power source, so we need to find that before we start any major operations… as I don’t need to remind you, the imperials and Santhe Industries seem to have taken an interest in the planet, so we are hoping we have beaten them to the chase. But Stay alert… any troubles, Smomdu and I are right behind you…” With that, the communicator falls silent and the crew step onto the burning hot sand… Wiktufa shades her eyes from the sun and focuses on the Zeltron, who seems to be trying to communicate with the sand people… something familiar about her… she stops and thinks and a flood of memories surface; bars, nightclubs, dancing girls and imperial officers… She has seen this woman before. She had spoken to her on occasion.. when she was with him… Wiktufa pauses… his face dominates her every thought, then the longing and pain being to surface along with it... Landing on the planets surface of Janta V Tel Wiktufa and Brett Savage amble out into the heat. Wiktufa alerted by the recognition of an old memory, goes to speak with the Zeltron Bae, Tel happy to meet new friends follows along. Brett Savage noticing a dazzling array of uniquely crafted moccasins, takes time to barter himself a new pair of shoes from the sand people merchants nearby. Not before long the group have befriended Bae who is visiting a nearby temple site, as an eco warrior, in protection of the natively indigenous scorpions. The group travel on to the temple together. The temple entryway is flanked by statues of robed women holding up an orb like shape. Most of the entryway is covered, but they find a way through, that is often used by locals when entering the temple to leave 'peaches' as an offering. A tradition that has been held locally for unnumbered years. Entering the temple they note four ancient drinking fountains overflow and cover the floor in a thin sheet of water that flows and disappears under a thin gap behind the altar. Nurman Tel 's lovable and ever present pet and friend, makes quick discovery of the nearby fruit, and the small scorpions nearby, and runs off. As the rest of the group begin to take in their surroundings, there is a crackling of blue lightning and a flash, the once moderately sized room appears to grow around them, as if the world itself was expanding, and before there is a chance to think you are sinking into water, bobbing like corks flowing downstream. The group are shrunk down and the waters flow, drags them into the networks below. As they are finally beginning to understand the fact that they have been shrunken down to the size of ants, the space around reveals itself to be appropriate to your size. Though the walls are coated thickly with sand, there is clear design in it’s architecture, the space has been created not through erosion or the burrowing of small creatures, but through careful thought and architectural design. Here the group meet Yagmur Saderach Hadi and Tchal who have been forced into accommodating each other, as friends of convenience, surviving day by day stuck outside the entrance to the Temple itself. As the group at large discuss their predicament, a Soma fruit is delivered from above, Tel who was worrying for his friend Nurman the Rat dives deep into the fruit and nourishes himself on the sticky sweetness. The group then tackled the sealed temple door, and through Wiktufa 's technical ability and a bit of Tel 's brute force, they crack the long sealed doorway. Entering the temples foyer, they note an ornate and large room stands in front of them, sand covering the floor, but they could still see the floor is divided into square tiles, with divides running between them. As the group all settle in the floor tiles open up sending them down into separate tubes. Tel ,Yagmur Saderach Hadi and Bae end up stranded together on one side, with Brett Savage , Wiktufa and Tchal in another part of the temple entirely.  Killawar's Lobby & The Grand Library Dusting themselves off after another unceremonious dumping, they see the room around them a simple square, with a statue in the centre. The statue is a large Wookie flanked by a Nexu, it points towards an archway, shaped as a door, but there is no door. Instead the archway coated in thick sand, hides numerous markings. The group figured out that by rotating the statue they could find different entryways. The found the temple library much to Tchal's delight, and found it hid much knowledge and mysteries of it's own.  Within the library across the the numerous shelves and bookcases they discovered a text that references this temple - The Temple of Perspectivee on Janta V, which describes power eminating from an Orb - A power that may make the meek mighty and the mighty meek. The found text that recounting some history of the Jatu Rhar, older than what we have previously discovered. Revealing that Jatu Rhar  means Protectors, and had nothing to do with Jedi originally. Brett Savage found himself enjoying the colourful pictures of The stories of Bu Lai Kun - A series of parables, broken into chapters that appear to reflect certain themes, Knowledge, Power, Duality, Balance, Trial, Death and Perspective. Due to the decaying nature of this tome, none of the stories can be fully recounted, but with a successful check - it was obvious that it is clearly aimed at teaching children certain lessons, a form of religious propaganda. The found a study of Scorpions - Referencing the hierarchy of scorpion behaviours and that large colonies would usually be presided over by a larger matriarchal queen. Finally they made discovery of a shelf of books that were just for show, and actually doubled up as a wall puzzle. The shelf read from left to right - Knowledge, Pathos, Duality, The Living Force, Perspective, Who shot First, Wildlife of Janta V, Foresight, The benefits of Trials, The one true Rest, Galactic Politics, A History of Mandalore, Absolute Power. They managed to deduce the puzzle revealing a hidden draw, which contained a holocron. It was difficult for Tchal to leave such a trove behind, but luckily for him he happened upon an old, but still working, mobile book storage. He filled it up with glee, and dragged it along with him. The group also came across a room with a tunnel created by the local scorpions, they fought a small number and Brett luckily managed to stop the female from calling the hive for further reinforcements. In this room the remains of a since long dead explorer, yeilded a blaster pistol. Brett having weapons of his own passed it on to the unarmed TChal. The group finally made discovery of a room with half it's wall collapsed, a grand statue similar to those at the entrance was in it's centre, with a platform for a round shape to be mounted. A rumble in the distance and deep screetch, some creature is approaching from beyond the gap in the wall. You brace yourselves for battle as the room begins to shake, nd the rumble grows louder...Then through the gap in the wall the face of a giant rat appears...he looks upon you and sniffs the air, particularly noticing Wiktufa and Brett..He squeaks a deafening squeak and beckons you to come aboard. Nurman the Rat now gigantic in comparative size, has discovered the group and takes them upon his back. Meanwhile The other group had been in Scorpion Central... Tel Yagmur Saderach Hadi and Bae fought their way through an army of small scorpions, until eventually finding their way to the Scorpion Queen. The smell of stale air is overwhelming as the crew move further into the caverns. The temperature seems to increase as the tunnels lead them further down into the earth, the air becomes thick with humidity. The corridor opens up into a cavernous room, mucus drips from the high roof as a dull light reflects off the walls giving the room an eerie red glow. From above, a blue light begins to light the room up, it crackles across the surface of a huge structure hanging from the centre of the room. The arks of blue light which move across the surface are exactly the same as the ones which shrunk the crew in the first place. As the crew stare at the light moving across the structure, it begins to move. 8 massive legs begin to find their footings as two massive pincers begin to show the form of the scorpion. With a tremendous thud the beast drops to the floor as the whole cavern shakes. Crackles of chain lighting spark and traverse the huge insect. With Tel 's immense strength and combat prowess, the group is able to hold their own and survive for a time, but as the battle wears on it becomes increasingly clear that they are outmatched. As Tel is brought to one knee and his shield torn asunder and flung away, a rumble and screech as a giant Nurman the Rat bursts through into the battle, with Tchal , Brett Savage and Wiktufa clinging onto his fur for their lives. Though Nurman takes quite an injury, the beast is finally vanquished by Brett, as he utilises a Z-6 rotary Blaster Cannon which had been discovered and brought along through the caverns by Yagmur Saderach Hadi. The corpse of the scorpion queen lays on the ground lifeless… but even in death, the blue ripples of energy still move across the lifeless insect. After some discussion the group make the realisation that the Queen holds the missing Orb of power. They pull it from the insects lifeless body, and jump atop of Mega Nurman, who instinctively take them back to where he first found Tchal , Wiktufa and Brett Savage. They place the orb upon the statue and with everyone in position, all eyes are drawn to the orb… a silence falls over the crew as they all wait for something to happen… the orb is lifeless and quiet, a few glances are cast at each other as nothing appears to be happening… then … a very subtle blue glow seems to appear inside the orb… it begins to pulse slowly… with each pulse, the glow gets faster and more intense until it becomes an audible throb. The light from the orb intensely illuminates the whole room… a crackle of energy erupts from the orb and connects with the ceiling, the smell of ozone starts to creep into the crew's senses as more bolts of energy start smashing into the walls around them. Almost spinning around the orb, the bolts of energy start penetrating everything in the room. As they get more frequent and more intense, the light begins to blind the crew, they shield their eyes from the brightness. A deafening rumble of rocks moving and sand falling is all that can be heard as everything begins to shake uncontrollably. It takes all the crews effort to stay standing as they brace themselves on anything they can..   … opening their eyes the crew can see the sand settling around them as the light fades from the orb and is replaced with a familia orange glow that penetrates the temple from the cracks above… Nurman scuttles up Tels leg and hides himself under his Fez… …As the crew pick themselves up and dust themselves off… a voice echoes through the temple. “Hello there…” The familiar voice of Bishop, the inquisitor… followed by the crack-hiss of his lightsabre igniting... ”