Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic RPG

Recap the Eighth

4 October 2010

Recap of the previous adventure.

Limited Intel Leads to Small Gains

As a cap to the end of the previous mission, there were only a few loose ends to tie up. Upon her return to Coruscant, the padawan Kistra was promoted to full-fledged Jedi Knight. Her master, Alora, was reassigned to other duties elsewhere in the galaxy. Kistra was handed intelligence on her first "solo" mission, for which she was handed a small stipend and an intelligence resource by the name of former Jedi Knight Kaname Song.

The mission for the Council required a small strike force, for which Kistra knew Shagarr and his crew might be up for if she could name the right price. Shagarr was willing, but first he wanted to make sure Reatt the Hutt didn't have any reason to send any more bounty hunters his way. So he contacted the Hutt and offered his services - and those of the newest Knight of the order.

Reatt's objectives were simple enough: a rival crime lord had obtained some clues to the whereabouts of a man who had run out on some debts. Those clues were in the papers in his rival's safe. He needed a covert team to sneak in, copy the papers, and get out, preferably without the rival knowing anything had happened. He was willing to provide a layout of the suite, and in exchange forget everything about the whereabouts of the mishap on Tatooine.

The operation didn't exactly go off without a hitch. While Shagarr and Kistra attempted to infiltrate the suite, they ran into some security guards. And then some droids. And then some heavily fortified windows and doors. Downstairs, Kaname's attempts to start a bar fight in the upscale restaurant bordering the lobby -- ostensibly as a distraction -- ended up only getting Breaker thrown out for causing a ruckus. Though Shagarr was able to hack a droid into believing he was there for legitimate reasons, it wasn't too long before the crime lord returned home, alarms began to ring, and the police were called in. Shagarr and Kistra accessed the safe, hurridly copied the papers, and considered their options.

Buildings in Coruscant are reknown for their height, and likely the pair wouldn't have jumped if there had been much in the way of other options. But the police had landed nearby and begun a sweep of the premesis. They had hidden their entry as best they could, and being found at the scene of a reported crime would have traced their efforts back to Reatt. So they had to jump.

Kistra's decades of training as a Jedi Knight allowed her to bounce almost effortlessly from speeder to aircar, all the way down to ground level with nary a scratch. Shagarr was not so fortunate. It was all he could do to supress a howl of terror as he plummeted through the high-speed traffic. Eventually he landed in a convertible next to a terrified woman. Before he could reassure her, she executed an excellent barrel roll, ejecting him into a nearby waste receptacle. The drop was far, but at least it was mostly soft. Breaker found him exiting the dumping grounds with a couple of broken bones, cracked ribs, and a message from Reatt that the documents had been received. All was forgiven.

As part of the payment, Reatt provided the name of a well-respected mechanic to look over the Oota Goota. The bodywork needed was extensive, and a quick diagnostic revealed some terrible overuse of the hyperdrive, probably from flying too hot and fast near the galactic core. Full repairs would take at least two weeks. After Shagarr made sure Reatt had approved the expense, and that there were several subspace tracking devices onboard to guard against incident, he was willing to get patched up to join Kistra on her mission.

First Foray Into War

Kistra, Kaname, Shagarr, Breaker, and Chuurga were the command team for their latest mission. This one came with a modest escort: a full Republic cruiser, compliment of twelve hundred trained soldiers, several hundred of which had been hardened into a fighting force by the Mandalorian Wars. Captain Alon, commander of the Star Dance, welcomed the party aboard and gave everyone a brief overview of the mission objectives.

During the briefing, it was revealed that the Republic had managed to obtain a Sith vessel, which the party would be piloting the final AU's to Perat, under the guise of a routine shipment of supplies. Under the suggestion of Kaname, Kistra was disguised as a Sith apprentice. Thus, the rest of the party would be her support staff, and she could go as she pleased under the semblance of delivering a surprise inspection.

Though the Sith vessel was little more than a cobbled-together scrapheap, Shagarr was able to land it fairly easily at the spacedock. While the staff fumbled about in surprise at a high-ranking Sith in their midst, the party used the confusion to obtain a cargo hauler, access codes to all the bridges, and an opening for Breaker to sneak away under stealth.

The trip out to the research facility was fairly uneventful for the party. Breaker had the toughest assignment: while the others were trudging along in the cargo hauler, he had to use his jetpack to fly to each of the turbolaser emplacements, under stealth and undetected, place an explosive charge, and be off to the next - no less than seven times! In his rush, he was not quite a subtle as he could have been; each time he had to fly over the main road, Kaname could see his contrail. Fortunately, no one else seemed to notice, or at least Breaker wasn't blasted out of the sky.

While Breaker was afixing the last of the charges, the rest of the party made it to the research facility. They parked the cargo hauler, and moved into the main entrance. Things seemed very wrong - there were no guards, no scientists, no one at all. The first room seemed to be a large exposition hall, complete with stages, displays, lecture notes, and other paraphernalia. But the only things of any real interest were the five elevators at the far end of the room, each with only two buttons.

Puzzled, suspicious, and locked in, the party had no choice but to move forward. So they gathered into one of the elevators and decended further into the facility.

Meanwhile, Breaker had finished his part of the mission, moved to a safe distance, and hit the detonator. Four of the seven turbolaser turrets exploded. Did he somehow miss three? Or were the explosive charges not placed in prime locations for those three? He looked around for the rest of his party, and realized that they had already gone inside the research facility without him. Inside the shield. For which he had no entry. Thinking perhaps there was a way through the shield underwater, he dove into the ocean. But no, the shield descended all the way to the ocean floor. He did discover a point of entry near a cliff wall that looked like it might open away, but he instead chose to circle around inside the shield and go in through the front entrance.

The rest of the party had encountered a heavily-armed ambush. Though some words were exchanged between the leader, Shagarr, and Kistra, it wasn't too long before the room was filled with blaster fire. Chuurga took refuge in the elevator, using its limited cover to fire into the room. Shagarr followed the Jedi into the room, wielding his dual-bladed lightsaber almost as if he knew what he was doing. It wasn't long before the Sith troopers were all defeated.

Blame was flung about as fierce as the blaster fire that had preceeded. What had spawned the ambush? How could anyone have known they were coming? Where did the intelligence for this mission come from? Where there any scientists here at all, or was it all just a ruse? How did the leader in this room know Shagarr's true name? What role did their newest companion, Kaname, have to play in all of this?

The party grabbed one of the Sith soldiers that wasn't quite dead and restored him to conciousness with a medical kit. But before he could answer any of their questions, he cried out in pain and crumpled to the floor.

All eyes shot to Kaname. Had she done something to the prisoner? Kistra had definitely felt a surge of the Force before the man had cried out. A new discussion broke out over who Kaname was and of her involvement.

They dragged their prisoner to the elevator, which would only go back upstairs to the first room. They were fired upon by Breaker, who had made it this far and was edgy enough to shoot at anything that moved. The shot hit their prisoner - he would tell no more tales.

Trapped in an ambush, the party searched the room for further clues. A scouring of the exhibits revealed a maintenance droid with its power coupling forcibly removed. With a bit of tinkering, they were able to get it functional again. It was very pleased to see other lifeforms, especially those that matched the profiles of the prey this facility was built for. The elevators in the back of the room were specifically built to go only to one floor each. The first, the one they had taken, would go to the second sublevel. The second elevator would go tot he first sublevel. The third elevator went to the hangar. The fourth elevator went to the third sublevel. The fifth elevator went to the second floor. Why yes, there were three floors above ground - wasn't that peculiar?

From what Breaker saw of the outside, it looked like the shield generator was on the second floor. That was all the rest of the party needed to hear. They all headed towards the fifth elevator.

The Adventure Continues ...