MISSION REPORT: Infiltrate Ymia

OBJECTIVES:

• Aquire Rebel contact of Salin, currently in Imperial custody. (Completed)
• Do not alert Imperial presence to operation.

ENEMIES ENGAGED
Imperial Storm Troopers
TIE Fighters
Rebel Holdouts

COMMENDABLE CITIZENS
None

MISSION DETAILS
I would like to begin this report by apologizing for my tardiness at the initial mission briefing. I stayed out too late at The Belching Rathtar. Feliya and the Hootful Haderan Clan were headlining and they don’t make it out to this part of the galaxy often, so I indulged.

We had not been informed that Dorn Squad would be taking on additional personnel, so it was a surprise to see the leather clad civilian waiting for us in the briefing room. Garren introduced him as Astra, our new splicer. Sounds like he’s here with us on some kind of community service.

Anyway, Garren starts talking to us about Salin, Baz’s surrogate father, who’s princess kidnapping gambit we had foiled on our last mission. Analytics had gone through the hyperdrive of the Correllian Blockade Runner we’d scuttled on our first mission. By charting past locations of the ship, the Empire was able to intercept another rebel vessel and shot it down over Ymia. Among the captured rebel personnel is a man who has close ties with Salin.
Garren wanted us to retrieve this rebel agent from the makeshift holding facility, so that the rebel could be properly processed for information.

We were given control of a ship, which we named The Grand Moff Lee, after the eponymous Moff who rose to prominence in the Clone Wars, but had tragically died of an, “Over Vigorous Heart,” according to the Imperial News Vids. It was fast, armed, but uncomfortably cramped.

We rode out on a Star Destroyer on routine hyperspace patrol, sparing the team an extended ride in The Grand Moff Lee. A few days later we broke off from the Patrol, with coordinates to rendezvous at after mission completion. Astra took the comms, Baz and I set up at the guns, Turk and 4GT set down in the cockpit, and R5 plugged in to recharge at a charging station.

Ymia was a resort planet, it’s economy based on tourism and exotic game hunting. When the rebel ship crashed on Ymia’s surface, the Empire quickly established a prisoner processing center by requisitioning a sprawling resort. They had also established a steady patrol of TIE fighters and set a Star Destroyer into contiguous orbit while the operation played out below on the surface.

Turk kept us out of scanner range for the Star Destroyer, dropping quickly into atmosphere. The resort wasn’t suffering much, it was winter in this region of Ymia, when we visited. the northern hemisphere was white with snow, and blizzarding clouds. We made a pass at the resort prison, checking it’s defenses from above, but we didn’t land on site.

Instead Turk took us out over the frozen forest, settling The Grand Moff Lee down in a snowy clearing. When the doors opened I did my job and took point, the others following behind me. I picked up an old game trail and started moving us down it, figuring it would eventually bring us to a road. I was so busy looking for tracks that I didn’t hear the speeders. Astra knocked down a dead tree in the path of the troopers, hoping they’d take a detour.

Instead they smashed their speeders and landed in the snow. Everyone else made it to cover in time to keep the Troopers from seeing them. I however, was wearing dark red armor. I tried to deescalate the situation by telling them I was a private contractor leading a hunting party. As a credit to their training, they didn’t believe it. Turk emerged from the snow to back my story up, but then Astra gave himself away by stepping on a branch buried under the snow.

When the Troopers heard the snap, they rightfully expected an ambush, so they burried a bolt in Astra’s chest. 4GT and Baz sprang up out of the snow, the robot trying to coordinate us. Baz had switched his gun to stun, but the Trooper’s armor was doing it’s job. The troopers weren’t going to stun back, they were intending the use of lethal force against Baz.

I made a judgement that lethal force was necessary. Switched my Heavy Blaster to Full Auto and buried a quiver of light into their backs. Aimed for their spines, so it would be quick and painless. Carbon scoring confirmed the shot pattern was tight.

Gave Astra a Stimpak to get him back on his feet. We did our best to bury the troopers under soil, but most of it had frozen solid, so we settled for snow.

Took point again and picked up the trail the speeders had whipped through the snow. Eventually we came up on the resort. We set up a stakeout position at the edge of the forest. A LAMDA Shuttle came down from the Star Destroyer, depositing Engineers who were heading into the building. Astra attempted to mix himself with the engineering staff in order to infiltrate the facility. It looked like he was stopped just before entering, when he couldn’t produce credentials. They detained him and took him inside.

Figuring we’d lost Astra, I took some time to check along the perimeter of the resort/prison. I found every door guarded by at least four Storm Troopers. They had set up communications equipment, shield generators, anti aircraft weapons, and even an AT-ST was marching a slow loop around the facility. If I had been there as some kind of surprise inspection, I’d have been impressed.

Turk and I decided to go sneak off and find the rebel ship that crashed, leaving 4GT and Baz to wait for any communication from Astra. We followed the path leading out of the place and toward the crashed ship. Instead we came across some rebels, huddled hopelessly against eachother, a futile attempt to stave off death from the cold. With only the two of us, Turk and I decided to leave them alone, but noted their coordinates on our datapads.

Eventually I picked up the trail of Snow Trooper bootprints leading away from the rebel wreck. Followed them back to their source. By the time we arrived at the rebel ship the sun had gone down. The flames from the wreckage made the snow look orange. We made out five snow trooper guards, their shadows cast long by the crackling flames.

I sent off an unsecured broadcast, pretending to be a rebel, claiming we would be gathering reinforcements at the position we had noted on our pads earlier. Three of the snowtroopers jogged off through the snow, in the rebel’s direction. Turk and I switched our weapons to stun for the remaining two.

Unfortunately while we were sneaking closer, Turk nearly tripped on a rock hidden under the snow. The troopers noticed. I shot one of them in the arm. One took a shot at me that went wide. Turk blasted one in the chest with a stun shot and I finished off mine. We detained them and went to work setting up a secondary distress beacon on the rebel ship, hoping to draw out most of the Imperials back at the resort.

We got back to the prison and waited a bit longer. Astra snuck up on us, having used our beacon distraction to escape the facility. He told us that there would be a prisoner transfer and that he’d arranged for our ship to be a gunship escort for the transports. We rushed back through the snow to Grand Moff Lee, where R5 had already been warming up the engines for us. We hopped on and made our way to the landing pad, in formation with the transports. When we got to the pad, we were somehow able to get our rebel prisoner, but a few guards came onboard as well.

After we lifted off, I got off of the gunnery seat and started a casual conversation, during which I pulled a stun grenade from my belt and dropped it on the floor. One of the Storm Troopers noticed and said, “You dropped something.” The blast hit everyone in range, our Prisoners, the Snow Troopers, Baz, and Astra. After the blast I pulled my Light Blaster Pistol and put a stunning shot into one of the Snow Troopers that was still standing. Baz shot the other one with a stun shot.

We stuffed the nonessential personnel in the escape pods and got ready to eject them. Turk tried to take us to Hyper-Space. The Star Destroyer made contact and told us to disengage. there was an extended back and forth that Astra was brought into, claiming that the engine was doing it involuntarily. They intended to get us with the tractor beam and that was when Turk made to break away. A Tie-Fighter that was part of our escort dropped behind us and made a strafing shot. It became clear that things wouldn’t be going well.

I strapped myself into the gunner seat and took a few shots. The matrix was totally different. Turk jerked the ship around and kept us out of trouble, one of the TIE Fighters ran into one of the other prisoner transports, causing unwanted casualties. Baz fired a Proton Torpedo and knocked one TIE into TIE. I obliterated the last one with a turret shot, managing not to hit any transports.

Once we were clear, Turk took us to hyperspace. As we broke into the blue strobe, Astra was bragging about having completely wiped our prisoner’s presence from The Resort’s records.

I would like to note I sincerely regret the loss of Imperial personnel during this mission, but believe we acted correctly given our orders and the circumstances that played out on the field.

End Report
-Cassius Numa

MISSION REPORT: Surcasis Mission (Part 2)

OBJECTIVES:
Investigate King Donovan H’Darr’s intention to join the Rebel Alliance. – Completed

ENEMIES ENGAGED
7 Rebel Guerillas – Deceased
Salin – Alive

COMMENDABLE CITIZENS
Kodo Ray – Deceased (Killed by Rebels.)

MISSION DETAILS

Like any great citizen of the Empire, Kodo Rey’s death did not prevent him from continuing to serve. We used his home as an ad hoc HQ for the duration of the Surcasis mission. After a night of rest, we set out the next morning to find a contact which the others had pulled from Kodo’s rolodex, a Quarran named Josh Thorn. Kodo’s posthumous generosity continued, when he volunteered en abstentia to let us borrow his speeder.

When most everyone else in Tinia was having their breakfasts, we were sauntering through a seedy Paza’ak Den looking for Surcasian criminals. Turk found Josh Thorn at a table, then convinced the Quarren to use the brand new Heavy Blaster Rifle for collateral on a game. It was a tense game, but Turk won. At first Josh tried to accuse us of cheating, but after Turk bought a round for everyone, the Paza’ak player calmed down and cooperated, giving us information about an Ithorian named Io Novar, who might know more information about Salin’s kidnapping operation. Asked Turk what his plan was if he lost the game. Didn’t care for his response.

We were lead to a Spice Den, one we were assured Io Novar liked to frequent. Turk, who loves the sound of his own voice, talked the Ithorian into trading data from the Princesses Droid for information about Salin’s location. Turk wiped everything about us from the data, then transferred the rest to Novar. The transaction complete, we headed off to the warehouse district, to look for Salin’s compound.

Our initial pass didn’t give us much information, so I asked to be dropped off on a roof across from Salin’s warehouse. After doing a sweep of the building’s exterior, no guards were found, only cameras. After some encouragement, Baz was dropped off a block or so off and he walked himself to the front door. He talked to a droid, or a data pad, leaving a message for Salin to meet him for drinks later. Baz then took the speeder and headed off to meet with Salin. When Baz confirmed that the Princess was in the compound he’d say the signal words, “I think you need another drink,” then we would breach the compound.

We waited as the rain fell, myself on top of a rooftop, scope trained on the front gate. A ship left out the top of the hangar, headed in Baz’ direction. We listened in on Baz talking to a guy who turned out to be his old mentor. Salin didn’t trust Baz, he’d brought backup just in case. EVentually Salin gave him a task, to hand deliver a note to King H’darr, then Salin left. The signal never came. Baz opened the letter and found it was a threat for King H’Darr to meet their ransom and they would hand the Princess over.

We decided to switch Baz for Turk, sending the latter off to meet with King H’Darr and deliver the note. Whatever he did there, it worked. H’Darr gave us free reign for our operation, the law enforcement reaction time would be slow, he promised. Turk gave the go ahead and I moved to enter the compound through the roof, as the ship carrying Salin returned to the compound.

The landing wasn’t quiet, the rebels opened fire and tore a hole through my chest. The shot must’ve seared lung tissue, breathing was hard and still hasn’t gotten better. Took a Stimpack and asked 4GT if he could use his fusion cutter to get through the front door. In moments, he and Baz burst through the hole the Droid had made, joining the fray.

Took a shot that didn’t go well, burried myself in cover behind the wall of a fuel shack. There was noise from inside the fuel holding area, a muffled woman’s voice. Went around the back side of the hut, took a Stimpack. Took a moment to recover, finished the walk around the shack, fatally perforated the three rebels standing there. Caught a glimpse of Baz running toward the ship Salin had just landed in, it was preparing for takeoff. Baz put a bolt in the ceiling door controls, stalling them for a while.

Standing upon the bodies of my rebel foes, I peaked inside the fuel depot and recognized the Princess tied up inside. She was tied to a bomb on a countdown, which one of the rebels must have activated. Called out on Comms that the Princess had been found. Baz peeled away from his attempt to get aboard Salin’s ship, instead coming to untie the Princess.

A manned turret emplacement opened fire, an impossibly direct hit in the back. Let the shot spin me around, took out one more rebel, while 4GT dropped a comms satellite on the gunnery emplacement. Baz was having some trouble with the ropes and the bombs and some sage advice from an old Storm Trooper must’ve gone a long way, because after speaking with him, he got her free. We managed to get the Princess out in time, though Salin escaped on his ship. Turk arrived just in time, swinging Kodo’s speeder into the open roof and allowing us all to get aboard before the facility exploded.

Back at Kodo’s place we asked the Princess a few questions about her culpability in her own kidnapping. She gave the impression she hadn’t realized what she was getting herself into. Still, 4GT and I thought we should report her. But Turk had made a deal with the King, insuring that Surcasis would continue to support the Empire for now.

There was a party, but I stayed at Kodo’s residence, recovering from my wounds. It was nice to have the place to myself. Kodo had a pretty good sound system and good taste in music. Guy deserved better.

- Cassius Numa

Objectives

Enemies Engaged

Commendable Citizens

Mission Details

First thing I remember is visiting a bar. Name of the bar? Doesn’t matter: it burned down! We met our guy Kodo Ray easily enough. Shifty guy from my recollection. No sooner did we make his acquaintance did some fringer-looking tough guys walk in and started shooting.

I managed to protect our contact from the rebels’ initial volley but he still managed to take a fatal shot. Before he kicked it, he let me know some vital information: the king’s daughter has gone missing from her hotel room. I knew we had to investigate.

Security at her hotel was tight, but we finessed our way past, undetected. In her room, we found her security droid waiting and after some negotiating, he divulged what he knew about her disappearance. She’d left with a man who [:baz-kellen|Baz] recognized as his old mentor Salin. By all the evidence it was not an abduction.

Next we acquired a base of operations, where we launched our next endeavor: find a way to contact Salin. Our friend Kodo’s belongings held the name of someone in the criminal element who could help us.

It took only a minor payoff to get this quarren’s help, and we were face to face with Io Novar. In exchange for information on Salin, we gave Novar the data from the princess’ security droid minus any data regarding our operation. Novar gave us the address of a hangar he knew to be used by Salin.

After some rest, we drove by the hangar on recon. Nothing came of it so we decided to leverage our connection to Salin and had Baz meet with him. Baz couldn’t get Salin to divulge anything, but did earn his trust enough to ask Baz to deliver a message to the king.

I took it upon myself to meet with the king, while the rest of the team would stand ready to breach the structure as soon as I gave the word. Talking to the king revealed some important information: the note was a message from her abductors informing him that he must announce public support for the Rebellion by the Surcasis government. If he did, his daughter would be returned to him. Instead of that plan, I offered to retrieve his daughter from these people in exchange for some less public support for the Empire: some favorable fee reductions for Imperial ships docking here. He acquiesced, and I gave the team the go ahead.

I arrived at the hangar just as they needed evac. I picked them up, with the princess. Soon after she was reunited with her father.

Dictated but not read.

MISSION REPORT: Surcasis Mission

OBJECTIVES:

• Investigate King Donovan H’Darr’s intention to join the Rebel Alliance.

ENEMIES ENGAGED
Three rebel soldiers. – Deceased
Droid – Detained but unharmed.
Local Law Enforcement – Stunned but otherwise unharmed.

COMMENDABLE CITIZENS
Kodo Ray – Deceased (Killed by Rebels.)

MISSION DETAILS
Requisitioned a Heavy Blaster Rifle and a Light Blaster Pistol, was really excited to use them. Later received news that this would not be a combat op. Brought the blasters anyway.

Baz was placed in charge of the unit by Command. It was decided that we should not represent ourselves as Imperials, given the changing political climate. Put the helmet in a tactical backpack and hung a poncho over the rest. This worked out, it was cold when we landed, and the poncho did not stand out.

The buildings in Tinia were a combination of ostentatious prewar edifices with post-war enhancements brought in from various parts of the galaxy. We were looking for one structure in particular: a bar. Baz and Turk thought we might find our contact, Kodo Rey, inside.

Walked in and took a position near the bartender, keeping an eye on the front door. The other three made their way over to a table that Coto was occupying. They sat down and talked for short period, Kodo looked pretty nervous. Turns out his paranoia wasn’t unwarranted, as it didn’t take very long for rebels to show up. They were looking for Kodo, I guess, because they made as if they would head right for him.

Stole a drink and broke the nearest jaw available, then dove behind the bar for cover. The rebels opened fire, so the heavy blaster rifle got to break in it’s auto-fire mode. Made one rebel into a martyr, maimed another, but not before they shot our fleeing contact in the back.

Baz turned up behind the bar too, sent a few shots at the rebels, but they went wild, ricocheting and igniting a pool of alcohol between us and the attackers. Another round of auto fire from the heavy blaster rifle brought the last two down. We retreated out the back door with Kodo’s body, before the place burned down.

Baz, Turk, and 4GT got a lead from Kodo before he died. The King’s daughter, Princess Cerronea H’darr, had vanished a few nights ago, about the time when the King seemed to change his mind about being part of the Empire. We went off to the hotel she’d last been seen at, where she had bee attending some kind of school event.

Once inside the hotel we hit a few stumbling blocks. We couldn’t get the Concierge to let us get a room, a few levels of the hotel had been completely shut off to visitors, and local law enforcement was crawling all over the place. Failed at getting a uniform, so Baz and Turk went off on their own to find some.

While they were gone, 4GT and I hung out at the bar, listening to the band. Waited until one of the off duty staffers of the hotel broke away from his drinking buddies and went off to use the facilities. In the restroom he suffered a concussion, but he didn’t have the kind of ID required to get upstairs.

Baz and Turk came back with two mobile laundry hampers and staff uniforms, so those of us without uniforms hid inside the hampers. When we got upstairs they had to be escorted by a guard. When they found the laundry room we stunned the guard with the new blaster rifle. Put on the uniform and escorted them to the next floor up, where the kidnapping presumedly happened.

Once we were up there and past the next set of guards, we found a Droid guarding a door. After some insults and 4GT trying to play sympathetic, the droid admitted that it was guarding the room the Princess had been occupying when she was kidnaped. After it repeatedly refused to grant us entry, it became clear that force was necessary. Tackled the droid and knocked it through the door, the other three followed behind and barricaded us in.

Eventually reached an arrangement with the droid and it let 4GT plug directly into it. We found out that the Princess wasn’t kidnapped at all, she’d left willingly, with Baz’s old mentor Salin. Never heard of the guy, buy Baz seemed pretty worried.

We made our way out of the hotel without alerting anybody, then found a place to plan our next move…

I have debriefed our newest arrivals of the special operations program. I am deeply concerned with their actions on the moon of Argai Minor. While escaping from local dregs, the squad secured an Imperial astromech droid, R5-B1, and proceeded to the closest mining facility. There, they were taken captive and used for hard labor for roughly three weeks. By imploring the use of fellow prisoners, many of which were identified as missing Imperial members, the squad attempted an exodus. On a scheduled surface assignment, the prisoners managed to overtake their guards. The troopers defeated the security force and took control of the encampment’s blaster turrets. After making their way into the mining facility’s central office, they apprehended the owner, Jar-Tan Jen. From there the team contacted local authorities. Sector law enforcement secured the scene until Imperial personnel arrived to extract our members. All were returned to Carida, including R5-B1 who has been retasked to assist Dorn Squad.

I will continue to keep a close eye on Dorn Squad. I am concerned with filling troop gaps with such unorthodox outfits, especially with the sensitive nature of the work. Perhaps their superfluous character could be useful with more expendable work.

MISSION REPORT: Droid Retrieval and Cleanup

OBJECTIVES

• Locate Escaped Witness from Derelict Correlian Blockade Runner – Complete

ENEMIES ENGAGED

• 2 Scavengers
• Scavenger Organization
• Cort, the Scavengers Leader

COMMENDABLE CITIZENS

• Bobek, a Miner.

MISSION DETAILS

Descent into atmosphere of Argai Minor’s moon went per usual: Flames engulfed the pod, we bounced around in our harnesses, stomachs shooting up to to our chests and then down to our legs when the retro-rockets kicked in. The Sozzenels wailed in my speakers as we crashed and slid a few meters, then unstrapped and popped open the hatch to see a surface of tall grass and rolling hills.

As usual, I took point. The others gathered the survival supplies in the pod. It was twilight and we could make out the faint glow of an encampment in the Northeast, so we started heading in that direction. Through the helmet I could make out a skiff sailing over the grasses, headed toward us. Signaled for everyone to hide, but the setting sun must’ve reflected off my armor: The skiff made right for us and the two occupants hailed, the younger of the two, found out his name was Zun, demanded I put down the slugthrower. After he was informed that this wouldn’t happen, the older of the two, Bobek, interceded and explained that they’d come to help.

Bobek elaborated that there was an illegal scavenging operation nearby, which was most active at night. Bobek and Zun came out to be sure the scavengers didn’t get to us first. They admitted they’d seen the first escape pod come down to the south, but that it was too dangerous to travel in that direction, because of the scavengers. The illegal operation had a base in the southeast, which Bobek insisted we avoid. Everybody else came out of cover and we loaded onto the skiff, then headed to their camp.

The locals were welcoming. Bobek explained that they’d travelled here to mine ore, but that after they arrived the ore was found to be substandard, some kind of contaminant. The Empire lost interest in the ore so most of the mining companies left and those in the camp were stranded. Their current income came from mining and selling ore to the Ebon Depths Mining Corporation. They would be meeting up with the Mining Co. in the Northeast in three days to exchange ore for whatever they were paid.

They said that the scavenger operation was at it’s most active at night and that they had lost equipment and skiffs to the scavengers in the past. It was clear from Bobek’s tone that they had also lost personnel. Some of the more desperate miners may have also become scavengers.

They gave us a place to stay the night and we took advantage, to give a chance for Turk and 4GT to recover from the wounds they’d taken from that beast on the Blockade Runner. Turk slept naked, maybe he thought it was hot. In the morning, 4GT recited the names of all we’d lost on the Deathstar, while I did my morning fitness routine. Droid really knows how to get you to focus.

We gathered a little more information about the scavenger base to the southeast, then Turk got dressed, and we left on foot while the miners took a skiff off to their mines. We decided on going for the Scavenger Base, assuming that they would have picked up the other escape pod sometime over the previous evening. NVR eventually lead us across a trail, which I was able to pick up on. We followed the tracks until we came behind two Scavengers, a Trandoshan and a Human.

There were rolling hills between us and the two, and we found that they had been sent to the other escape pod, as it was embedded in the soil atop a grassy green hill, which the two scavengers had just surmounted. We split up, the Droid and I settling into positions in the rear while Turk and Baz advanced to the next hill. Turk tried to start a conversation with the scavengers. I didn’t hear the gambit, but the scavengers went for cover behind the escape pod, pulling their weapons.

I was nervous about the shot. It was well outside the standard range of the Slugthrower Rifle and the wind was blowing the wrong way. Focus was narrowed on the bigger of the two, when the open pod door happened to show in the scope. Caught sight of the glowing red button for the thrusters and shifted aim at the last second. Slug hit the escape pods reserve rocket ignition and lifted off the hill, tearing up chunks of grass and mud. It didn’t have much fuel though, after floating about four feet off the ground the rockets gave out and the pod crashed back down. Pod rolled back over on the two scavengers, pinning them.

Turk, Baz, and I put shots in the Trandoshan. Smaller scavenger started taking pot shots with his blaster. 4GT updated me on the windspeed and direction and I adjusted my sight, then put a slug into the smaller scavengers shoulder that nearly ripped his shoulder out of it’s socket. It hung from gristle. Wasn’t long before the big Trandoshan was dead, the human just made things worse for himself as he tried to pull his legs free. We interrogated him, during this time I amputated what was left of his arm with a knife. He confirmed that a droid had come out of the escape pod and that the scavenger operation had picked it up sometime after. It was an R-Unit, currently being held at the Scavenger base in the southeast. The two had been sent to see if there was anything else useful among the pod wreckage.

After he gave us all the information we thought we could get, Baz gave him a Stimpack for the pain. We didn’t kill him, but we didn’t remove the escape pod from his legs or do anything to staunch the bleeding from his arm. Confident the scavenger died after we left.

We followed droid tracks from the pod to where the R-Unit had likely been picked up, but lost the trail. We figured the scavengers had picked up the droid on a skiff, confirming the story we’d heard earlier. Proceeded to the southeast from there, since we knew the bases general direction.

Found ourselves at the top of a canyon, looking down at the base the scavengers had built into the opposite cliffside. There were a few cliffs, a few huts, and a few cavernous openings in the cliff, leading into the base. We brainstormed and thought maybe we could pretend to sell 4GT to the scavengers, as a diversion to get closer.

NVR-4GT determined that I should stay up on the cliffs in a sniper position, in case things went poorly. The other three made their way down a winding path on our side of the cliffs. They weren’t very quiet, as the scavengers took notice and began pouring out of the cliffs to greet them. 4GT tried to hail their leader, offering to sell himself. The leader must have responded poorly, because 4GT gave me the signal to open fire.

Again, they were having me stretch the limits of my equipment, as the depth of the canyon took them out of the weapons standard range. I buried a slug in the leader anyway, but his armor took most of the damage and I just made him angry. The scavengers opened fire on NVR and the droid slumped over and lost power. I gave a retreat order over the comms, Turk and Baz ran quickly back up the hill. The leader of the scavengers put a bolt in my forearm, but luckily it was my left arm. I rolled out of the way, the scavengers didn’t pursue us.

The three of us regrouped on the cliff, while the scavengers picked up 4GT and took the droid inside. We all agreed that we still had to get inside that base, so we found an alternate path down, that didn’t put us directly in view. Night was falling by the time we got down to the bottom of the canyon again. A Skiff had pulled around to load some cargo. We were just about to sneak inside a side door when I saw them roll out NVR-4GT, seems the droid was the intended cargo.

I volunteered to retrieve 4GT from the skiff he was being loaded onto and cause a distraction in the process. Baz and Turk were incredulous, but they let me go, heading inside instead, to complete the mission objective and destroy the witness droid. I put a stimpack in my thigh and made my way toward the skiff. By the time I had snuck in close, the scavenger leader, Cort, had loaded on with 4GT and some other men. They were preparing to take off. All I could think to do was jump onto the side, using my knife hand to grab a rail, preparing my pistol to take shots in my right. As the skiff took off down the canyon, I heard shouts of warning to the skiff’s pilot. They had seen me jumping on and were giving chase.

4GT had been repaired to operating condition by the scavengers, but they had fit him with a control rod. The droid pulled out his fusion cutter and severed the rail I had tucked my knife hand around for grip. I hit the ground at speed, my armor doing it’s job as I tumbled through grass and dirt, orienting myself again on my belly, pistol aimed up to catch whatever came at me next, a piece of turf stuck to my helmet.

NVR’s fusion cutter worked too well: He’d unexpectedly taken off a chunk of the skiff, the craft did a nosedive to the right, then caught against the canyon wall, spraying fuel, dust, and rocks. While everyone recovered, Cort, their leader, pulled out a vibro-axe and started walking toward me. I lined up a headshot, but reconsidered, remembering his armor. Briefly recalling the stunt with the escape pod earlier, I noticed a boulder above Cort had been knocked loose by the skiffs impact and threw a slug at it to help it along. Cort didn’t even see it coming: One second he was walking toward me with a bloodthirsty gaze and a vibrating axe, the next a boulder came to rest in the space he’d been occupying.

With the leader gone, the control rod’s purpose on 4GT became unclear. He shouted out encouragement to the scavengers, but I’d gotten used to taking the droids words to heart myself. Thinking quickly, I fired another slug at a pool of leaking fuel, catching a spark on a rock and igniting it in a pyroclactic whoosh that caught all the scavengers by surprise. While they struggled to put out the flames on themselves, I dropped my pistol, switched to the rifle, then took out the control rod on 4GT with a well placed slug. One of them put another bolt into me, but then they ran. 4GT finished them off, in their panic. I gave myself another Stimpack and told Baz and Turk that I’d retrieved our C.O. over the comms.

We received confirmation that Baz and Turk had retrieved the other droid inside the base, so maybe the distraction paid off. Finally stood up, having not moved from my landing position during the brief firefight, checked on 4GT’s status, then prepared for the possibility of the second skiff coming in behind us…

End Report

- Cassius Numa

…n’t find the HoloNet app on this thing. The ithorian I bought it from said it had HoloNet on it. Maybe it’s in the tutorial… Hell with it, I’ll do it later. Wait, is this it? Yes!

No connection available? What kind of druk is that?? I want to look up information on those pirates. Maybe the data I dumped from the blockade runner includes local news…

Full minute of background chatter and engine hum

No, I didn’t forget anything: it’s all on me. “Light travel? Travel light,” my commander used to say. Although I could’ve used some protection down in the cargo hold. Look at the bruise that thing left in my ribs! I can’t sit up right.

Can’t believe how that thing was built. We unloaded our blasters on the thing and it didn’t flinch. Hell, it swabbed the deck with our droid’s blood.

Yes, lubricant.

Did you ever hear that joke about the astromech bartender? Hold on, I want to catch your reactions. Let me set my datapad to record…

MISSION REPORT: Cleanup Duty on Derelict Correllian Ship

OBJECTIVES

• Disable Distress Beacon – Completed
• Secure Sample of Payload – Completed
• Destroy Spacecraft – Completed
• No Witnesses – Incomplete – Pursuing Possible Witness to nearby moon.

ENEMIES ENGAGED
6 Security Droids
8 Pirate Spacecraft
3 Possibly Infected Lifeforms
1 Large Infected Lifeform, Suspected Payload

MISSION DETAILS
Met my new squad. Turk is a talkative smoker. He started the conversation while I was passing the time with some early Modal Nodes in my masks speakers. Turks a pilot, though he wasn’t flying our current transport. NVR-4GT looks like it was assembled by a Jawa on Spice, but it spoke well enough when Turk engaged it. Turk also introduced himself to Baz, a quiet man with a blaster and a wide brimmed hat.

We’d just finished introductions when the co-pilot came and told us we were rerouted to engage with derelict Correllian Blockade Runner in distress. We were given our objectives and the droid, NVR-4GT, was given command. First speech NVR gave was inspirational, talked about how we had nothing to fear from these rebels, we all took it to heart. We put on our breathers and prepped to go through the airlock.

It was dark when I stepped inside, and I was the first one to the panel. It seems none of us are genius slicers, so I hit some buttons until I got the display up and unlocked the doors. Got inside and, despite the darkness, you could see this wasn’t a standard pirate attack. There was blood on the walls of the main hall, as well as carbon scoring, from missed shots. Whatever attacked them had tore the crew apart. Turk lost his last meal, the pilot must be used to death happening at a distance, but everyone else kept cool, despite the gore. When he pulled himself back together, Turk downloaded the layout of the ship and we moved toward the main cabin.

Took a blaster bolt to the shoulder when we opened the blast doors to the crew quarters, security droids had deemed us a threat, they were fanning out to cover the room. The gunslinger and the pilot pulled their weight, knocking over a big table to use as cover and quickly took down two droids. I had gone to the right side, to keep us from getting flanked, but one of the droids got around us and put a bolt in NVR. Pulled my slug pistol and took the sneaky droid out with a shot to it’s central processor, took another shot at the droid on my side, they were all down a few seconds later.

While searching the crew quarters I found that one of the escape pods had been launched, it’s destination was a nearby moon of Argai minor. It had been accessed by something docking with the console, so I assumed a droid. We made a note that this escape pod could have contained a witness, who we’ll have to eliminate.

We got to the pilots cabin and found the pilots had died from some kind of infection, rather than dying from violence. Told Turk to get away from the pilots seat, then disabled the distress signal. Some pirates must’ve gotten the signal earlier, though, because they came out of hyperspace and immediately opened fire. Threw Turk back in the pilots seat and left the cocky bastard with Baz and the droid, to deal with the fighters.

NVR confirmed that I should move to secure the payload, so I ran back down the main hallway to get to the elevator. There were three creatures upright, hunched over, gave off some bad vibes, blocking my way into the hallway with the elevator. After reporting their presence, NVR gave the order to engage. Took out two before they knew they were in combat, the third attacked me with big long claws, didn’t get through the armor, scraped against the helmet. Caught it under the chin with the slugthrower’s barrel and removed it’s jaw. Took the elevator down when the area was clear.

By now the pirates had been dealt with outside, Turk and Baz shot them down while Droid-Commander shouted orders over the comms. Belowdeck, the lift doors opened to what looked like a medical facility with gurneys knocked over, flashing lights from broken fixtures, and dead bodies strewn about. Decided to get backup before proceeding. Took the elevator up and met with Turk, then headed back down.

When the elevator doors opened again, there was a larger version of one of the clawed creatures from before but with mottled bits of hair and four arms.. Turk and I both buried shots in the beast, then braced ourselves as NVR screamed over comms that they were coming to assist us. Thing charged Turk and slashed him with its claws, Turk’s blaster flashed again, my slug thrower let out another crack, the beast still raged. The lift doors opened and Baz moved into position, taking a shot to get the beasts attention off of us, and NVR turned on a flashlight to illuminate our target. The light seemed to make the creature really angry. It nearly scrapped the droid with its claws. Everybody opened fire then, I tried to attack it from behind, but the creature threw me into a wall. It went after Baz, he and Turk keeping it occupied while I switched back to my rifle, taking some extra time to line up a shot. Separated it’s spine from it’s skull with a slug to the back of the neck.

We turned on the lights and secured a sample of the payload. Finding no other useful information in the cargo area or on the ships computers (The droid downloaded something), we set the ship to scuttle and loaded on the escape pods. I turned up the Modal Nodes in my speakers again.

We are currently en route to a moon of the planet Argai minor, to clean up whatever witness may have gotten out with the escape pod. Just watched the Blockade Runner scuttle itself, headed into atmosphere.

End Report

- Cassius Numa