Episode III - Dark Legacies


A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far, away…

Star Wars
Episode III
Dark Legacies

The newly formed Evil Galactic Empire has begun cementing its hold on the galaxy. Political opponents are being silenced by imprisonment and assassination.

With the recent “accidental” death the senator from the Taina sector – a critic of Imperial power – the governor has made an interim appointment until a special election can be held. Finn Numm, Chief Executive Officer of the Moelbarae Commerce Alliance, has been made interim senator. A staunch supporter of Emperor Palpatine, his securing the seat would be a blow to democracy in the Taina Sector.

Opposing him in the upcoming election is Lord Endicot Tarheena, a long-time critic of Palpatine and proponent of a restoration of the Republic. However, Tarheena ran for this office before, a decade ago. Though he won that election after many disputes in the courts, his victory plunged the sector into a civil war which prevented him from ever taking his seat in the Senate…

Played – August 22, 2005
Characters – Adigo, renegade clone trooper (Mike); Maya Fleet, fighter pilot (Heather), R2-JB, astromech droid (Patrick); Tappa Keeg, Duros Jedi Padawan (Ben), GM (Dan)


Summary:

The Gungan ambassador, Meesa Meesa Groll took our heroes on a journey from Naboo to the ruins of a spice-mining colony on one of its moons. The colony had been wiped out in the Clone War by a Separatist chemical weapon – the deadly Charitin Gas, whose cure was found a year into the war – after the death of many millions… On the moon waiting for them was the newly appointed Senator from Naboo – Jar Jar Binks. And the senatorial candicate for the Tainia Sector – Endicot Tarheena. Neither was friendly to the Empire and were in the process of organizing clandestine resistance to the new dictatorship.

The first order of business to this resistance was getting Tarheena to a place where he could better fight the Empire – the Imperial Senate. Though Tarheena had a decade before technically won the Tainan senate seat, his victory plunged his sector into civil war and he never did sit in the senate. As a compromise, in the aftermath of the war, his long-time friend Arrani had taken the seat. Now with Arrani dead in a “tragic accident”, Tarheena was attempting to secure the seat for himself in an upcoming special election – though the governor had already appointed Finn Numm, CEO of the Moelbarae Commerce Alliance to temporarily take the seat – and Numm was favored by Emperor Palpatine.

Tarheena explained to our heroes that an enemy of Finn Numm, a Neimodian named Tan Hiel, claimed to have information that would prevent Numm from securing the seat. In the aftermath of the Taina Civil War, the Moelbarae Commerce Alliance was a spent entity – it had dedicated far too much of its resources to trying to gain political power. Suffering from several losing quarters in the aftermath of the war, the MCA was acquired by the Trade Federation in, if not a hostile takeover, was an unwelcome takeover.

Finn Numm, at the time of the acquisition, was vice-president in charge of new technologies, a very important position. When the MCA was acquired by the Trade Federation, Numm found himself reporting to Tan Hiel – so she would be in a position to have dirt on him.

When the Clone War broke out, the Republic declared the acquisition null and void and made the MCA to again be an independent entity – this led to a lot of chaos, with various divisions pledging themselves to the separatists or the Republic – much like the rest of the galaxy.

The Republic named the ambitious Finn Numm CEO of the new MCA. This did not sit well with the Trade Federation. Numm didn’t care much for either government, but he did like the idea of being in charge…

(Tarheena also told Maya of the happy news that her sister Artemis had given birth to a baby girl, explaining her absence from the command of Green Squadron in recent months.)


Tarheena and Binks arranged for our rebels to have some new equipment. Aware that some of them had begun studying the Jedi arts under the tutelage of Tappa Keeg (himself still a Padawan), they provided them with some spare lightsabers – half of Darth Maul’s old double-bladed lightsbaer went to Adigo (who had begun studying the rare two-sword form) and Obi-Wan’s original weapon went to Maya (both were recovered by a utility crew from the bottom of an almost-bottomless shaft). They also equipped them with some grenades, a flamethrower for R2-JB (he always wanted one), and most importantly, a pair of ships – a beat-up Correllian YT-1355 freighter and a Z-95 Headhunter starfighter (with a hangar in the freighter for the fighter). Both ships could be found at any spaceport and were very inconspicuous. They would need transportation, for Hiel was unwilling to arrange a direct meeting – first they would have to pick up a package at the lowest level of a Moelbarae city…


Moelbarae was a city originally colonized by the Sullustans. Its architecture reflected that – its surface nearly uninhabitable, the cities were carved into craters hundreds of levels deep. After landing at the main spaceport the rebels locked their ship tight and took a speeder through an hours-long highway journey from one crater to another. To make the journey more exciting a swoop gang attacked them. Though they were dispatched with relative ease, there was evidence that someone knew of their mission…


In the middle of the night, down in the deepest slum-levels of a crater our heroes approached the warehouse. It was a narrow, tall building – level after level of balconies around a central pit, with the lockers within the outer walls. Finding the proper level, R2-JB and Adigo headed for the locker while Maya and Tappa waited in the speeder “outside”. A cloaked wino was suspiciously near the locker they needed. It was a Gran, armed only with a staff – and of course he attacked them. He turned out to be a deadly martial artist. Though he landed several lightsaber blows, Adigo was taken out of the fight, badly wounded. As Maya and Tappa came to give relief, R2-JB was taken out of the fight as well, his circuits overloaded by a solid kick amplified by a twirl around the quarterstaff. Maya tumbled past him, trying to shove him out of the way to apply a medpack to Adigo and a repair kit to R2. Finally, after much trying, Tappa managed to use the Force to send the Gran flying off the balcony.

Badly wounded but stabilized, our heroes opened the storage locker. Inside was a Verpine Worker Drone Droid. Designed to be a competitive protocol droid, the Verpine, while technically astute, were not too familiar with what most begins felt comfortable with. This droid came to life, introducing himself in a maddeningly calm voice as J-HAL-9000-86 (Hal for short). He would take them to Tan Hiel…


Miscellaneous Notes:
Force point awarded to Maya for heroically charging at and past the Gran martial artist to save Adigo and R2-JB.




Imperial Network News
16:6:1/INN/COR/COR/GBUBV/GOV
Office of Imperial Inquisition Founded

In an effort to protect the newly founded Galactic Empire and its loyal citizens from the scourge of renegade separatists and Jedi terrorists, Imperial Advisor Ars Dangor announced that Emperor Palpatine, per the terms of the recently enacted Imperial Security Act, has founded the Office of Imperial Inquisition. The Inquisition’s goals are to protect the citizens of the galaxy by finding and hunting down these renegades. In a prepared statement Ars Dangor stated that “while heroes like Darth Vader have been tireless in their efforts to bring these terrorists to justice, quite simply they need help. The Inquisition has the authority and resources needed to both investigate reports of terrorist activity and bring them to Imperial justice.”





Moelbarae 27 Hour News
16:6:10/M27HN/TAI/MOL/JHUI/TRA.1030
Swoop Racing Accident in Spaceport Tunnel 128 Delays Traffic

Spaceport authorities continue cleanup efforts to clear the debris in Inter-Crater Tunnel 128 (outbound). Authorities recommend taking tunnel 95 instead.