My second campaign of StarWars-ish began yesterday. The Albireo came out of hyperdrive over Hoth. There were a number of Star Destroyers orbiting the planet, along with great chunks of debris.They were, of course, immediately noticed, and were ordered to prepare for boarding. The Captain ordered Lyssia, the Engineer, to disable the hyperdrive, and she did so. The Jedi spilled into their usual hidey holes in the smuggler ship, and the ship was boarded.
The Captain, Sharastra, managed to convince the Imperials that she was on her way to Javin, but her hyperdrive had blown coming into Ison. They bought a new shunt there, but only made it as far as Hoth before that, too, blew. They inspected pulled the hyperdrive shunt and, examining it, found evidence of tampering. They gave her a lecture on buying cheap, possibly stolen parts, told her the people she sold it to probably rigged it to blow near Hoth so they could come in and collect the ship after everyone starved, and sold her a new shunt at "Fair Value" from their stores. They gave her a warning, and left. The engineer installed the shunt, and they headed off to Bespin, figuring it was the closest advanced world the Rebels might flee to, if there were any Rebels left!
They came into Bespin, and noticed that the beacon for Tibannopolis was darkened, but they ignored it and landed on a landing pad on Cloud City. As they exited, Sharastra noticed the Slave I on a nearby pad and wondered what Boba Fett was doing in Cloud City. She knew him as a former bounty Hunter herself. They split up into three groups - Sharastra and her second, Delilah, the Jedis Duke and Daykon, and the Jedi Hosia and his Padawan Torota - to find out what had happened on Hoth, and where the rebels had gone to. Lyssia, Dindar, the Wookie co-pilot, and the Protocol/Assassin Droid G2S4 remained with the Albireo.
Sharastra and Delilah cornered a Bespin worker, who tole them that Vader was there and had taken over the city, and that Boba Fett was there to collect a gift from Lord Vader. They let him go and contacted the others. "Darth Vader is here!"
Duke and Daykon were walking through the city when they felt a metal-clad hand on their shoulders. "The Force is strong in you. The last time I had seen you, you were about to destroy a Star Destroyer." said Darth Vader. There were two dozen Stormtroopers at his back. "Come along with me," he told them. "I have a proposition for you." They were taken down into the bowels of Cloud City. Their communicators chirped. "Lord Vader is here!" "Thank you, we know." answered Duke. Sharastra immediately contacted the others that Duke and Daykon were captured by Vader.
Duke and Daykon were brought to catwalk high above a huge room. "This," said Vader, "Is how I treat my enemies. Join with me, or enjoy the pleasures of carbonite." They watched a hoist lift a slab of carbonite from a pit. Protruding from the slab was part of the body of a man, his hands reaching out and his face contorted in sheer agony. Daykon flinched. "I will not work with you!" Duke, on the other hand, said "Carbonite looks very painful..." Duke was somewhat Dark already, and Vader knew it. Daykon started to walk away, when Vader said "Stop him, and earn your place at my side." Duke drew his lightsaber.
"you are drawing on me?" said Daykon. He hit Duke with a powerful stun. Duke fought through it, but had a significant penalty as his head rang and swam. Nonetheless he said "You want to surrender" and waved his hand at Daykon. Jedi mind tricks! Daykon fought, but couldn't resist the compulsion. An aide came up to Vader and whispered in his ear. "I have pressing duties." he said to Duke. "Finish this one, and I will meet with you on my return." Duke contacted Sharastra telepathically, telling her not to leave, and mentioning he was working with Vader. She immediately dropped the connection and told everyone else by communicator that Duke had gone to the Dark side - he was always teetering - and that they were going to leave immediately.
When Vader had left, the two dozen Stormtroopers still surrounded them on the catwalk. Duke said to Daykon, waving his hand: "We have to get out of here," reversing his former trick. His mind fogged with pain, Duke was not up to facing down twenty-four Stormtroopers. Grabbing Duke, Daykon force-leapt through the steam and smoke of the carbonite pit, landing well on the other side, the Stormtroopers missing with every shot. (I rolled straight, not nerfing them for 'genre', they just completely failed!) He and Daykon found a lift and headed up to the living levels. Daykon contacting Delilah telepathically, and telling her that they were coming, and not to leave until they did.
Hosia and Torota force-questioned a Stormtrooper, who told them that Lord Lando Calrissian was working with Lord Vader to trap the Rebels leaders, and that Vader was currently in the mining area deep underneath the city. They headed down to the nearest lift, when Sharastra's call to leave immediately came through. "But what about the Rebel Leaders?" asked Torota. "Shouldn't we rescue them?" "We have to go! Sharastra won't wait!" They headed back to the landing pad.
Sharastra and Delilah got to the Albireo first, closely followed by Hosia and Torota. As they were running up the ramp, they all watched as the Slave I departed in a hail of blaster fire. "Maybe Fett is rescuing the Rebel Leaders!" said Torota. "I doubt that," said Sharastra darkly. They grabbed seats as Duke and Daykon came in, and they blasted away.
"When you told us to get ready," Lyssia told Sharastra, "I checked comm traffic. There are a couple of Star Destroyers in orbit that came in after we left. We'll never get out!" Sharastra remembered the darkened beacon. "We'll go to Tibannopolis - I think it's deserted. We can hide there." Sharastra did some neat piloting, and located Tibannopolis deep in a cloud bank. It was dark and lifeless looking. She parked the Albireo on a firm looking pad, and they all went to sleep, to wait out the Star Destroyers.
The Albireo groaned and shifted as they slept, waking everyone up. When they looked out the view ports, there were huge, two meter long feathers everywhere. Hosia left though the ramp, while Sharastra told Daykon to shoot the giant bird on top of them with the top turret gun. Instead, Daykon pumped loud music through the external speakers, frightening the bird away. As it leapt off, however, it overstrained the landing gear, which collapsed. Torota wormed her way out and joined her Master.
They went inside, where Hosia brought a public kiosk up to power. They encountered a flock of man-sized bird-things with sharp teeth, but were able to frighten them off. They returned to the Albireo, and told Sharastra what they had found. The Jedi combined to lift the Albireo up while Lyssia and Dindar built temporary supports to hold the ship up while they repaired the landing gear.
As the clouds lifted, Sharastra saw a small ship on another nearby platform. "Let's investigate that!"
End of session.
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