Star Wars (7ABY; M05, D19): Enter Ness / Back to the Beginning
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Morrigan, Ganen, Sekar, Mon, and Ness / [XP: 12]
Preston was late getting in from out of town and Orion was sick. Jay made her debut to the group.
Ness Luz: A Year on Obana
A young Falleen woman named Ness Luz arrived at Obana early in the first month of 6ABY. When she cut in the sublight engines, the whole ship shuddered; and she immediately knew that something was very wrong with her aged vessel (the diagnostic readouts were all green, but they’d been getting dodgy lately). She safely touched down at the spaceport in Xandar; only to then discover that she’d been leaking old, cheap, and rather toxic hyperdrive coolant ever since she’d entered the atmosphere. Not only was her hyperdrive motivator fried beyond repair, the inflexible and eco-conscious government slapped her with a very steep fine; threatening jail time if it wasn’t paid off soon.
After a day or two of panic and despair, she discovered that prize fighting (with padded melee weapons and lots of glitz and fanfare) was a very popular local sport. She wasn’t a half-bad fighter herself, so she decided to look into it.
Her initial queries put her in touch with a manger / promoter named Kissis Meenrax; an older Falleen woman of the more lumpy-headed variety. Meenrax was immediately impressed with how telegenic Ness was; and after a quick demonstration of her fighting moves, she agreed to represent her. She also loaned her the money to pay off her fine (at a rate of interest not quite at loanshark levels).
Ness shot to local stardom like a rocket; quickly become a fan favorite and seizing the championship by the end of the 2nd month of 6ABY. Her success should have made her rich, but the contract which she’d signed in desperation saw much of the prize money and all of the merchandizing money going into Meenrax’s pockets. Nevertheless; she had a nice apartment in Xandar, was making progress on paying back her loan, and still had enough left over to get some much-needed work done on her ship.
Over the next year, she would have 50 successful title defenses. By the end of the second month of 7ABY; not only was her ship almost ready to fly, it was in far better overall shape than it had been when it was issued to her.
It started with a massive ‘boom’ from the south side of the island which shook the entire city on a quiet afternoon on the 2nd day of the 3rd month of 7 ABY. Less than a minute later, there was a second one. It wouldn’t be until later that most people would lean that it was the city’s two shield generators blowing up.
As people rushed outside to see what was going on, the sky over Xandar was already dotted with Hutt caravels and other light capital ships. Within minutes, they’d landed a small army composed of armed stick-figure-like droids; and news soon came in that a column of grav tanks was advancing on the capital building.
Thankfully, the droids didn’t just start indiscriminately slaughtering people; though they had several clashes with local security forces which resulted in a fair number of civilian casualties and a lot of collateral damage. As it turned out, they were trying to ferret out a specific individual who was in the city at the time; and before the day ended, they learned that this individual had given them the slip. By dawn the next day, the Hutts had withdrawn; but the city was a mess.
Having heard that the spaceport had been captured during the invasion, Ness naturally wanted to check on her ship. As she made her way through the port, it became apparent that several ships had been stolen or ransacked; and her heart sank into her stomach when she reached her slip and found it empty.
To make matters worse, she learned that there had been damage to the arena and that her program was being suspended; possibly for quite some time. She was still in debt to Meenrax and had no income with which to make her next big interest payment. Meenrax, however, offered her a solution.
It turned out that in addition to her legitimate job as a manager and promotor for the planet’s respectable fighting circuit, Meenrax also owned a not-quite-so-legal-or-respectable establishment on the mainland outside of Xandar. With no other alternatives; Ness cleaned out her apartment in Xandar (which she could no longer afford) and moved into a cheap and tiny unit on the mainland.
Aside from utilizing the same basic skills, Meenrax’s underground bloodsport pit was nothing like the fights which Ness had grown accustomed to. In place of all the glitz and fanfare there was filth and sleaze. Instead of having interview and publicity, everything was a closely-guarded secret. Her adoring fans were replaced with bloodthirsty mobs, her padded staff was traded for an old and tarnished force pike, and fights which used to end with some bruises and a handshake now ended with maiming or death.
To make matters worse, the once-gorgeous city around her was rapidly deteriorating. After two and a half months of living in hell, she was desperate to get out; but she was pretty sure that Meenrax wasn’t letting her go anywhere as long as she owed her money.
Month 5; Day 19 (Continued)
It only took the PCs about an hour and a half to pop over to Mos Entha and load up the thermal grease. There was a little bit of a delay in figuring out how the Ghost’s cargo ramps worked; but once they did, they realize that it was going to be much easier to get things on and off than it was messing with the cargo cranes on the SkyBlind.
Once they were loaded up, it was only half an hour to Obana; and they arrived around 20:00 in the evening. Just as Badger predicted, they were directed to a smaller starport on the mainland; just north-east of Xandar and about four miles from the coast.
Also just as Badger predicted, they were informed that they would not be allowed to leave the spaceport (unless they took a direct shuttle to Xandar) but there didn’t appear to be enough security to actually enforce that edict. As the spaceport workers began unloading, Garth and Roger stayed behind to supervise and keep an eye on the ship.
Sekar, Morrigan, Ganen, and Mon all headed out into the warm and humid night and slipped out of the starport with ease. They had to pay a ludicrous 100 credits just for a taxi for a few miles; apparently because the entire city (outside of Xandar proper) had become incredibly dangerous.
In the lobby of the former Norid Sports Center, the PCs encountered several goons of various species armed with a variety of crude blaster carbines. After asking to speak with Meenrax and dropping Badger’s name, one of the goons made a quick call and then led the PCs down a hall towards a large pair of double doors.
Nearby, Ness had just finished up with a fight and was on her way to the showers when she passed a green-colored Verpine whom she didn’t recognize. He was chatting with some employees of Meenrax and clearly belonged there, but what caught Ness’ attention was what he had pinned to the chiton on his chest. It was the rank insignia from her dress uniform, which had been stowed away aboard her ship ever since she left her homeworld.
When Ness stopped and asked him about it, a very matter-of-fact explanation came through the alien’s translator unit. “It was among a number of personal effects aboard a ship which I was enlisted by Miss Meenrax to procure. I found it aesthetically pleasing, so I retained it.”
Ness nearly exploded right then and there. She’d suspected for some time that her business arrangement with Meenrax was less than equitable. She needed to be sure, though; and asked the Verpine about the ship. “Unknown type and model”, he replied, “but not a custom build; so likely a production vessel from an obscure system. It was very old but very recently refurbished. The hyperdrive, I believe, had never been used.”
That left little doubt that he was talking about her ship; now she just needed to make sure she was clear on the circumstances. “In the early morning hours shortly after the invading Hutts withdrew from Xandar”, the Verpine explained, “Miss Meenrax sent me to the starport in Xandar to procure a very specific ship. She provided me with both a pad number and a photograph. There was such chaos at the starport that it was an easy job; and so many ships were stolen during the incursion that nobody would have suspected anyone else.”
Ness was already pretty sure that she knew the answer, but she asked anyway about the current whereabouts of the ship in question. “Likely sent to Tatooine, Raxus Prime, Junkfort Station, or another low-profile breaking yard”, the Verpine confirmed.
Boiling with rage, Ness stomped right up to Meenrax’ office; still soaked in sweat and spattered with the blood of her last opponent. “Just a sec, hon”, the older Falleen replied when Ness declared that they needed to talk. She then gestured for Ness to come stand by her desk as she added, “We’ve got visitors coming up.”
Beyond the double doors was a large area which clearly had once been used for competitive swimming, but the main pool was now filled in with sand and sawdust to around 4’ below the top. Bloodthirsty spectators were packed into the bleachers on both sides; and in the pit, a mangy Wookiee with a Ryyk blade was clashing with a muscle-bound man armed with a spear.
The PCs were led to the other end of the area, up a flight of stairs, and into an office which had a window overlooking the spectacle below. Seated at a desk with her back to the window was an older and knobby-headed Falleen woman, and standing right next to her was a younger one with black hair and a more human-shaped skull. There were also three more carbine-armed goons in the room (in addition to the one who led the PCs in).
Despite standing 4’ 9” tall and wearing battered armor which was clearly more decorative than protective, the younger Falleen woman was an imposing sight. She was covered in sweat, spattered in blood which did not appear to be her own, holding a force pike taller than she was, and looking very angry.
Mon did a subtle double-take at the younger Falleen; suddenly realizing that he recognized her. While sitting in the back of the Sky Dome Lounge just before meeting the other PCs for the first time, he’d caught the tail-end of an interview with her. He never caught her name, but the interviewer was going on about her 50th successful title defense; so she was likely a prize fighter of some variety (and clearly a really good one).
Getting down to business, the PCs led with the simple truth; stating that they wanted to know more about what was going on on the planet and that they’d been told that she might be a good source of information. “What’s there to know?”, she asked with a shrug. “The government is pouring all of its money into keeping Xandar safe, clean, and happy and they’re letting the rest of the planet go to hell. Crime is out of control, there are riots almost daily, refugees are still pouring in from as far as the Mid Rim, the new ‘Nova Corps’ is nowhere to be found out here, and instead we’ve got ‘private security contractors’ who’re nothing but thugs with badges and heavy gear.”
When the PCs mentioned Badger, Meenrax quietly contemplated a moment; then asked if they were actually employed by Badger or simply contractors. “So how do I know who you’re working for today?”, she asked when they answered her. When it seemed that she was leaning in the “what’s in it for me” direction, Mon stated that they were highly skilled contractors and might be able to help her out in exchange for the information. After thinking for another few moments, she nodded.
“Well, I guess it’s not hurting me either way; so I’ll tell you a couple of places that might be worth checking. One is the food distribution center about 5 miles north-north-west of here. I had a guy in there for a little while misappropriating charitable donations. Just a week ago, I got a message from him saying that he found something very suspicious in the shipping records; but he disappeared before he could come see me with specifics.”
“The second is the Women’s Services Center about 4 miles south-east along the coast from here on the edge of a very human-unfriendly district called Oquay. I don’t have any specifics, but there’s a lot of rumors that there are some very unusual things happening there.”
Before the PCs could reply; one of the guards standing by the window sudden went wide-eyed, said “Boss!”, and pointed at the monitor on the desk. Meenrax glanced over, then went wide-eyed as well. The PCs couldn’t see the screen; but as the Meenrax activated her comm system, they could suddenly hear a lot of yelling and blaster fire. “What’s going on!?”, the Falleen demanded.
“We’re under attack!”, a panicked voice replied; “It’s Kanjikl…” The second statement was cut off by static.
“Kanjiklub!?”, Meenrax exclaimed; then suddenly looked up at the PCs with an absolute death-glare. “Oh, I get it”, she hissed in rage. “You’re working for the Hutts this week and you had to find out if I knew too much before you launched a potentially costly attack.” The PCs didn’t quite follow her logic; but she rose to her feet, activated some kind of force screen built into her desk, and drew a disruptor pistol before the PCs could respond. “Kill them!”, she then shouted to her thugs.
Finding herself at a very important crossroads in her life, Ness made a decision. As the other PCs moved to neutralize the guards, she turned her force pike on her boss and demanded to know if she’d been responsible for the theft of her ship. Whirling on her in rage, Meenrax answered by attempting to shoot her in the head; but thankfully missed.
Morrigan grabbed her stunner and dove under Meenrax’s desk; bypassing the force field and skidding to a stop at the older Falleen’s feet. Meenrax yelped in pain and surprise as the Chiss zapped her right in the ankle; and as she staggered, Ness cleanly eviscerated her (resulting in her entrails spilling right onto poor Morrigan’s arms).
The other guards had been neutralized by the other PCs by this point, but their friends from Glee Anselm were now pouring into the complex. Hoping that these people might be able to give her a lift off of Obana, Ness dug through her deceased boss’ blood-drenched pockets.
“She has a really nice speeder out back”, Ness said as she held up a blood-dripping key. “And I know the quickest way to get there.” While they had no clue what was going on between this woman and her boss, the PCs didn’t have any other options for exiting the area quickly.
As the PCs quietly crept through the parking deck, they could hear Kanjiklub thugs calling to each other as they searched the next level down. Meenrax’s landspeeder was on a locked garage and the ignition key which Ness had grabbed didn’t fit it, but Morrigan was able to get it open with a few minutes of effort.
‘Really nice speeder’ was an understatement, at least as far as Morrigan was concerned; it was a civilian-refitted SoroSuub Panther-class police interceptor. It was painted black with neon green trim, had a really clean and nice interior, and appeared to be in good running shape. As she watched Morrigan ooh and ahh over the vehicle, Ness decided that she was probably the better driver and tossed her the key. Ganen got his bulky self into the passenger seat, and Mon wedged himself between Sekar and Ness in the prisoner seat in the back.
As Morrigan eased the speeder out of the garage, she and Ganen were dismayed to see Kanjiklub pouring up onto the same level of the parking deck. In addition to several guys on foot, they had a crudely-armored speeder truck with some kind of pintle-mounted anti-vehicle weapon. Morrigan knew that there was no way they could outfight the thing, so she turned in the opposite direction and floored it.
The armored speeder took off after them, and Ganen feared that it would catch up with them when they slowed down to take the spiral ramp down to the ground level. But as they approached said ramp at the end of the deck, Morrigan continued to accelerate.
Even Ganen held his breath as Morrigan threw the speeder into a side-skid and then smoothly drifted all the way down the spiral ramp. Apart from clipping a couple of armed thugs on foot at the bottom of the ramp, she never so much as scratched the paint; but the PCs clearly heard the armored speeder crash behind them.
Once they were clear of the area, introductions were finally made; though Ness didn’t go into a lot of details about her past. Long story short, Ness agreed to help them out with their current job if they would take her off-world afterwards.
Despite how things had turned, the PCs had no reason to doubt the validity of the two leads which Meenrax had given them; and quite frankly, they were the only two solid leads they had. After dropping the boys off at the food distribution center, the ladies headed to the Women’s Services Center.
Ganen and Mon’s Tale
The food distribution center was a monolithic cylindrical building around 500’ tall and dotted with docks and hangar entrances. When the PCs arrived, the building was surrounded by thousands of rioters; and they knew that they had little chance of getting in on the ground floor.
Fortunately, the speeder had just enough altitude to pass over the mob and reach one of the lowest cargo piers. Mon and Ganen hopped out and then headed inside as the girls took off.
The vast majority of the building’s interior consisted of loading docks, storage areas, and a massive web of conveyors connecting them. Not only was the place practically empty, there were numerous signs that people had left quite suddenly; probably because of the riot going on outside. Every now and then the PCs encountered a security guard or other sundry employee who was still there, but they each took one look at Ganen and decided that they didn’t want to take issue with them.
Mon was able to locate and terminal; but neither he nor Ganen were particularly proficient with computers, and they were unable to get any information beyond the current status of their present location. They did, however, find a full map of the building; which indicated that all of the office areas were on the top floors.
As the PCs exited the stairwell into the office area, they ran into two men who were exiting the office area into the stairwell. They were dressed like spacers and one of them had a holstered blaster on his side, but they certainly looked no more out of place than the PCs did.
“You might want to hurry”, the guy with the blaster said in a tone which was cautionary; not threatening. “We just heard that the rioters have broken through onto the ground floor.” Mon thanked them for the tip, and the two men headed upstairs.
The first terminal which the PCs located was not only unlocked but also already opened to shipping records. It didn’t take long for the PCs to spot something which did indeed look unusual.
Someone named Kan Altron, who resided in the penthouse suite of an apartment complex known as the Kystro Building, had been buying an inordinate quantity of food every day for the last two months. It was easily enough to feed 50 people, which still didn’t add up even if he had a small army of household servants to feed. It wasn’t much to go on, but they had little doubt that it was the same anomaly which Meenrax’s employee had spotted.
Realizing that the rioters had gotten in and that they had no ride out, the PCs double-timed it up towards the roof; hoping that the two friendly gentlemen whom they’d passed hadn’t left yet and would be willing to give them a lift to safety. They arrived to find a YT-1300 on the landing pad; and though its ramp was closed on its engines were fired up, it hadn’t taken off yet.
Heading around to the side of the cockpit, the PCs waved their arms and managed to catch the attention of the unarmed bearded one, who was sitting in the copilot’s seat. After exchanging words with the armed guy, he left the cockpit; and a few moments later, the ramp lowered.
Much to Ganen’s chagrin, Mon asked for a ride to the Kystro building rather than just a ride away from the riot. The bearded man clearly recognized the building name, but said nothing about it and invited the PCs aboard. “Hey Rallo”, he called as he led the PC up to the cockpit. “These guys were hoping for a ride to the… what was it? ‘Kastro’ Building? Do we know where that is? Can we help them out?”
“Yes, Grant”, the Rallo calmly but awkwardly replied. “I think we can manage that.”
The 50-story Kystro building was located right on the coast, overlooking the water which separated Xandar from the mainland. Skillfully maneuvering the freighter to a stable hover next to a pier, Rallo opened the ramp and allowed the PCs to disembark. Once the PCs were clear, the ship disappeared into the night sky.
Unlike everyplace else they’d seen on the mainland, the Kystro Building seemed clean and safe; and it was also quite lively and full of young people. As the PCs made their way to the top floor, they noticed a number of private security officers around. There also seemed to be a lot more people around than the building was mean to accommodate; so the purchase of extra food might have had a very innocent motivation behind it.
Kan Altron was an effeminate-looking man in his early 20’s, and his blue-dyed hair was sculpted into something resembling an ocean wave. He was clearly a little alarmed when he opened the door and saw Ganen, but allowed the PCs in when Mon told him that he was in danger and that they were there to help.
As the PCs entered, noting a staircase up to a second story and some amazing smells emanating from the kitchen, they asked Kan about his food purchases. Citing that the city was full of starving people, he claimed that he was buying it to give away to people who needed it.
Mon casually entered the kitchen to find a chef droid busily preparing a huge quantity of food. It looked expensive and it looked highly varied; not like something being prepared for distribution to the poor.
As the PCs leaned harder and harder on the kid, he was clearly scared half to death; but he stuck with his obviously-false story. When the PCs mentioned Kissis Meenrax and the Black Sun Syndicate, the boy genuinely didn’t seem to know who they were talking about.
It immediately became clear, however, that someone else was listening to the conversation and that that person know exactly whom the PCs were talking about. No sooner had the Black Sun been mentioned than six rectangular section of the living room walls suddenly dropped out of place; each revealing a small alcove. Out of each of these alcoves stepped an armed Cartel battle droid bearing maroon markings just likes ones which the PCs had encountered on Lofquar and Tatooine (which the PCs still didn’t know the significance of).
Mon grabbed Kan and used him as a human shield as the droids raised their carbines and one of them ordered the PCs to drop their weapons and let the kid go. Mon instead ordered Kan to call the droids off.
“They’re not mine!”, the panicked young man yelled. “They belong to my roommate! Though… maybe we’re friends and not just roommates now, otherwise he’d have ordered them to fire.”
Before the PCs could make any inquiries about this ‘roommate’, a deafening chain of explosions ripped through the upper level of the penthouse from one end to the other. As Mon released Kan, the droids lowered their weapons and then just kinda stood there.
Ganen meanwhile raced to the top of the stairs as soon as the explosions stopped; arriving to find that the entire top floor was gone. Looking around, he spotted a YT-1300 hovering nearby just above roof level. It had a starboard-side cockpit, a low-profile rectangular sensor dish, and quad light laser batteries on its dorsal and ventral turrets; just like the one in which they’d gotten a ride from the food distribution center.
As the ships disappeared into the night, Ganen couldn’t help but marvel at how the top floor had been sheered clean off with no significant damage to the floor right below it. One of those two guys was one hell of a gunner.
Kan soon calmed down enough for the PCs to get his story: his roommate was a Hutt, the food was his, and so were the battle droids. Said Hutt had apparently needed a low-profile place to live on Obana; safe and secure but still outside of Xandar and on the mainland. Kan’s father was an asteroid mining tycoon, and the Hutt’s people had apparently made some sort of deal with him in exchange for secrecy and the use of Kan’s upper floor. The pieces were now beginning to fall into the place: the Hutts had apparently withdrawn their army but not actually departed.
Ganen returned upstairs to see if he could find anything intact. Amongst the debris, he noticed an absolutely awful chair which had somehow survived without a scratch. The plastic abomination was bright blue in color and shaped like an enormous human hand with the wrist forming the base, the palm forming the seat, and the fingers forming a rather uncomfortable-looking back. Whether to see if it was made of some highly-resilient material or just because it offended his sensibilities, Ganen fired a shot at it; blowing off one of its fingers.
Sekar, Morrigan, and Ness’ Tale
En route to the Women’s Services Center, Ness shed the broken pieces of her show armor. She then used the heavy end of her collapsed force pike to give herself a black eye.
There was a rather rough-looking crowd of Aqualish hanging around the enormous fountain which ran down the length of the road in front of the center, and they began to approach as Morrigan slowed down the speeder. But when she came to a stop right in front of the building, they suddenly seemed to lose interest. The main entrance was actually closed, but there was a sign pointing to a night entrance around the side.
Ness quickly proved to be quite the actress in addition to being quite the eviscerator. By the time Morrigan rang the desk buzzer, the Falleen already had the water works in high gear and looked legitimately traumatized.
The desk was approached by a nurse in her late 60’s wearing a name tag reading ‘Rosser’. The woman took one look at Ness and then buzzed the PCs into the waiting room adjacent to the entry foyer; and after giving them some paperwork to fill out, she went to get the on-duty head nurse.
While Ness and Sekar remained in the waiting room as instructed, Morrigan snuck out as soon as the desk nurse departed. The ground floor was a labyrinth of counseling rooms, medical rooms for outpatient procedures, and staff areas; all of which were eerily unoccupied. There wasn’t even anyone in the main nurses’ station, though she did find a coffee pot and a terminal which she was effortlessly able to slice into.
Though she was careful to avoid looking at any personal patient information, Morrigan quickly discovered that the center was currently serving about 20% of the occupancy which is was built for with about 10% of the intended staff. According to records, the place had already been under-occupied two months earlier when the director was fired and a new director was sent in from Xandar. After the majority of the resident patients were transferred to other facilities in the capital, the new director laid off every member of the staff who’d been there for less than 30 years (at which point they apparently couldn’t be fired) and then brought in a handful of younger nurses from elsewhere.
After Sekar and Ness had been waiting for almost 15 minutes, the on-duty head nurse finally arrived. Her nametag read ‘Tyrell’; and while she was a moderately attractive woman, she exuded all of the warmth and compassion of a snowball. After hurriedly asking a handful of routine questions and jotting the answers into a data pad, she took the PCs up to the second floor.
Tyrell took the PCs into a big communal lounge which was occupied only by half a dozen other women. Four of them were quietly playing cards, one was sitting in a corner building a sort of card-house wall around herself, and the sixth was glaring over a book at the fifth.
“Wait here while I go get your room ready”, Tyrell instructed. She then looked at Sekar and added, “You can stay until she gets settled in, but then you’ll have to leave until tomorrow’s visiting hours.”
While Ness wandered over to an area where there was some leftover food and started snacking, Sekar wandered over to the girl with the book and asked her what was up with the card-wall girl. “Idunno”, the girl quietly replied with a huff. “She does this every night; apparently she thinks it keeps ‘the monsters’ away or something. I’m just hiding out here until the cops arrest by psycho boyfriend. I thought they kept all the crazies like her up on the top floor.” The girl paused and then continued with an evil grin, “You should see her freak out when the wall falls.”
As Sekar turned to walk away, she made a subtle flick with her hand; and across the room, a card on the bottom of the wall got knocked out of place and brought the whole thing down. The girl in the corner began panicking and hysterically crying, then gathered up the cards to start over; but she was so shaken up that she couldn’t get more than a few set up before they came down again.
Genuinely concerned about the girl (and completely unaware that Sekar was the cause of her state), Ness ran for the nearest stairwell and began yelling for a nurse. None came, but Morrigan heard her and came running up from the ground floor.
By the time the PCs were done exchanging sit-reps, the girl in the corner had calmed down a bit; and the PCs decided to check out the rest of the building. Morrigan and Ness would check the rest of the second floor and work their way up, and Sekar would head straight for the 6th floor and work her way down.
The rest of the second floor was just more eerily unoccupied common areas, and the third floor was all residence units; each of the doors either closed and locked or open to an empty room. The only person whom the PCs encountered was a bruised-up middle-aged woman who was huddled in an alcove below a water fountain and sobbing, but the PCs decided they’d check on her on their way back.
The fourth floor was nearly identical to the third, but the PCs passed one open door which had about half a dozen women in it. They were all gathered around a video screen which was displaying a slowly-rotating cube which subtly changed shape, color, and texture over time. The people in the room were just staring at it mesmerized, and the PCs decided to move on before they ended up doing the same.
The stairwell which Sekar took to the top opened onto a hallway which appeared to run around the entire perimeter of the floor. There were a number of doors on the outside leading to lifts and other stairwells, but only one on the inside leading to the rest of the floor. It was a heavy door located directly next to a window; probably a security point. Sensing through the Force that there was someone just beyond the window, Sekar decided to head down to the fifth floor and look for another way up.
The fifth floor was the main medical floor, and it was completely empty except for a single room. Said room was occupied by a bald, middle-aged woman who appeared to be comatose and was hooked by over a dozen tubes to a very creepy-looking machine. Sekar was unable to find a chart explaining who she was or why she was there; but she did find a plastic bin under head bed containing a wig, a nice outfit, and a nametag which read ‘Asst. Director Tassa Sim’. Sekar took the name tag and exited the room.
Before she could resume her search for another way up to the sixth floor, Sekar ran into Ness and Morrigan; who’d just come up from the fourth. After Sekar showed them the comatose woman, she showed them the name tag; and Morrigan recognized the name from the facility records: she was supposedly the assistant director. After exchanging additional stories, the PCs agreed to find a way to access the sixth floor.
As they got ready to move, they heard multiple people approaching from the far end of the floor. While Sekar and Morrigan hid in rooms across from each other, Ness remained in the hallway trying to look lost and harmless.
“There you are”, Nurse Tyrell declared as she approached Ness; flanked by a pair of additional nurses. “What are you doing up here? And where did your blue friend go?” After Ness shrugged and meekly replied that she got lost, Tyrell heaved an annoyed sigh. “Never mind; let’s get you down to your room, then we’ll look for her.” As Tyrell turned and headed back to the lift, the other two nurses stepped aside and gestured for Ness to follow; then fell in behind her.
Not wanting Ness to get separated into the custody of these people, Morrigan bolted out of the room and tased the nearest nurse. As she hit the floor, the second nurse pulled a syringe and lunged at Morrigan; jabbing her right in the shoulder and injecting her with something. Tyrell, quite strangely, just calmly turned around and straightened her blouse.
Annoyed at Morrigan’s rash attack, Sekar popped out of hiding with her blaster in hand; shooting Tyrell in the torso and sending her slumping to the floor. Ness tried to punch the nurse who’d injected Morrigan, but suddenly began seeing creepy shadows flickering in and out of the periphery of her visions; startling and distracting her to the point that she was unable to land a solid blow. Morrigan was seeing them as well, but was also losing motor function from whatever she’d been injected with.
Seeing Tyrell go down, the remaining nurse made a run for the lift; but Morrigan went awkwardly shambling after her, which prompted Ness to chase her down. Sekar meanwhile found that Tyrell was unconscious but still alive, and started dragging her down the hall in the same direction.
Ness managed to grab the nurse before she got on the lift; and by the time Morrigan caught up, the paralytic was wearing off and she was able to help restrain her. When Sekar caught up (still dragging Tyrell), they began to demand answers from the nurse; but she just pointed behind them and said, “Why don’t you ask the assistant director?”
The PCs turned to see the woman whom, only a few minutes earlier, had been comatose and hooked up to a creepy machine. She was wearing the same clothes and wig which Sekar had found in the bin; but not her nametag, which Sekar still had in her pocket. “I know this must seem highly unusual”, the woman calmly began, “but if you’ll just come with me downstairs, I promise it will all make sense.”
Ness and Sekar were willing to go with her, thought the latter continued to drag Tyrell along. Morrigan refused to go and instead stayed behind with the remaining nurse.
Sim hit the button for the sublevel parking garage; but before the lift arrived, she suddenly collapsed to the floor. After Ness checked her pulse and found that she was still alive, Tyrell suddenly stirred; either regaining consciousness or having been playing possum the entire time. “She’s a vegetable”, she groggily declared. “The director uses her like a remote-controlled puppet when she needs to appear normal.”
When the lift doors opened, the parking deck beyond looked anything but normal. Blood was dripping from the ceiling and pooling on the floor, there were body parts fused with the walls, and all manner of disturbing sounds echoed from the shadows.
“You!”, a female voice suddenly hissed from the darkness. “You and your companions slaughtered my men… stole my ship… and used my ship to thwart our entire endeavor. But you… you humiliated me… and now you will suffer for it.”
An alien woman then materialized from the shadows; and just as Sekar already suspected, it was the same Revan whom they’d run into on their last visit to Obana. Her cybernetic arm had been repaired, she held the same lightwhip in her other hand, and she’d apparently mistaken Sekar for Morrigan.
Sekar shot and wounded the woman and then ran for the cover of a nearby column, but Ness was a little too overwhelmed and confused to act. Seeming to almost teleport through the shadows, the Revan appeared next to Sekar and grabbed her with her cybernetic arm; delivering an excruciating shock which left her paralyzed. “Don’t go anywhere”, the Revan quipped, “I’m just getting started with you.”
The Revan then approached Ness; and after looking over her bruised and bloodied body and her now-unfolded force pike, asked her what her story was. After Ness quickly summarized that she was an unemployed pit fighter who’d just killed her boss, the Revan smiled. “Bring me the head of the other Chiss”, she said, “and I’ll give you a new job.” Nodding silently, Ness retreated into the lift; mentally noting that the Revan hadn’t specified that the head needed to be removed first.
The Revan then slowly walked back to where Sekar had collapsed; monologuing the entire way about how much she was going to make her suffer. But when she got there, Sekar was gone. She’d recovered much more quickly from the shock than the Revan had anticipated; and not only had she gotten back to her feet and retreated to another column, she’d had time to take out the item which she carried in the secret compartment in her bag.
With a crack-hiss and a flash of purple light, Sekar lunged at the Revan with her lightsaber. After the first round of blows and parries, the Revan stepped back and laughed. “You might actually be worth killing”, she said.
Morrigan was waiting right by the lift when Ness returned, and hurried on when Ness told her that Sekar was in trouble. When they reached the parking garage, both of their jaws dropped at the sight of the mighty duel unfolding before them. “Is this normal for her?”, Ness asked. Morrigan shook her head.
“Her cybernetic arm is vulnerable to shock at the elbow”, Morrigan told Ness. She then added “I need a speeder”, and dashed off into the darkness.
Ness cautiously crept towards the duelists, who’d each dealt the other a nasty slash by the time she got close. Mustering all of her courage and retracting the blade on her force pike, she lunged out and nailed the Revan right in the cyber-elbow; locking it in place as the woman howled with rage.
Boiling over with anger, the Revan lashed out with all of her might with the Dark Side; reaching into the depths of Sekar’s mind and pulling her worst memories of her youth to the surface. Overwhelmed with the barrage of senses and emotions, Sekar fell to one knee.
But Sekar wasn’t that scared little girl anymore. She’d made a choice, and she’d left those days far behind her. Now she had a new life and a new strength; and drawing upon that strength, she rose like a phoenix from the flames. Drawing herself back to her feet, she raised her saber for a killing blow as the exhausted Revan nearly cowered before her.
Before she could bring her blade down, there was a blur of red as an ambulance shot out of the darkness and struck the Revan; pinning her against the wall. Morrigan had apparently found a speeder.
As Morrigan got out, Sekar approached the Revan; very happy to see that she wasn’t quite dead and was still conscious. “My sister has defeated you twice now”, she declared; reveling in the look of utter despair which filled the Revan’s eyes before the life died out of them.
As the Revan died, all of the blood and gore vanished; leaving an ordinary-looking parking deck. Solemnly, Sekar reached down and picked up the Revan’s lightwhip. Not-so-solemnly, Morrigan pulled out her toolkit and set about detaching the woman’s cybernetic arm (she totally got that arm).
Morrigan, Ganen, Sekar, Mon, and Ness / [XP: 12]
Preston was late getting in from out of town and Orion was sick. Jay made her debut to the group.
Ness Luz: A Year on Obana
A young Falleen woman named Ness Luz arrived at Obana early in the first month of 6ABY. When she cut in the sublight engines, the whole ship shuddered; and she immediately knew that something was very wrong with her aged vessel (the diagnostic readouts were all green, but they’d been getting dodgy lately). She safely touched down at the spaceport in Xandar; only to then discover that she’d been leaking old, cheap, and rather toxic hyperdrive coolant ever since she’d entered the atmosphere. Not only was her hyperdrive motivator fried beyond repair, the inflexible and eco-conscious government slapped her with a very steep fine; threatening jail time if it wasn’t paid off soon.
After a day or two of panic and despair, she discovered that prize fighting (with padded melee weapons and lots of glitz and fanfare) was a very popular local sport. She wasn’t a half-bad fighter herself, so she decided to look into it.
Her initial queries put her in touch with a manger / promoter named Kissis Meenrax; an older Falleen woman of the more lumpy-headed variety. Meenrax was immediately impressed with how telegenic Ness was; and after a quick demonstration of her fighting moves, she agreed to represent her. She also loaned her the money to pay off her fine (at a rate of interest not quite at loanshark levels).
Ness shot to local stardom like a rocket; quickly become a fan favorite and seizing the championship by the end of the 2nd month of 6ABY. Her success should have made her rich, but the contract which she’d signed in desperation saw much of the prize money and all of the merchandizing money going into Meenrax’s pockets. Nevertheless; she had a nice apartment in Xandar, was making progress on paying back her loan, and still had enough left over to get some much-needed work done on her ship.
Over the next year, she would have 50 successful title defenses. By the end of the second month of 7ABY; not only was her ship almost ready to fly, it was in far better overall shape than it had been when it was issued to her.
It started with a massive ‘boom’ from the south side of the island which shook the entire city on a quiet afternoon on the 2nd day of the 3rd month of 7 ABY. Less than a minute later, there was a second one. It wouldn’t be until later that most people would lean that it was the city’s two shield generators blowing up.
As people rushed outside to see what was going on, the sky over Xandar was already dotted with Hutt caravels and other light capital ships. Within minutes, they’d landed a small army composed of armed stick-figure-like droids; and news soon came in that a column of grav tanks was advancing on the capital building.
Thankfully, the droids didn’t just start indiscriminately slaughtering people; though they had several clashes with local security forces which resulted in a fair number of civilian casualties and a lot of collateral damage. As it turned out, they were trying to ferret out a specific individual who was in the city at the time; and before the day ended, they learned that this individual had given them the slip. By dawn the next day, the Hutts had withdrawn; but the city was a mess.
Having heard that the spaceport had been captured during the invasion, Ness naturally wanted to check on her ship. As she made her way through the port, it became apparent that several ships had been stolen or ransacked; and her heart sank into her stomach when she reached her slip and found it empty.
To make matters worse, she learned that there had been damage to the arena and that her program was being suspended; possibly for quite some time. She was still in debt to Meenrax and had no income with which to make her next big interest payment. Meenrax, however, offered her a solution.
It turned out that in addition to her legitimate job as a manager and promotor for the planet’s respectable fighting circuit, Meenrax also owned a not-quite-so-legal-or-respectable establishment on the mainland outside of Xandar. With no other alternatives; Ness cleaned out her apartment in Xandar (which she could no longer afford) and moved into a cheap and tiny unit on the mainland.
Aside from utilizing the same basic skills, Meenrax’s underground bloodsport pit was nothing like the fights which Ness had grown accustomed to. In place of all the glitz and fanfare there was filth and sleaze. Instead of having interview and publicity, everything was a closely-guarded secret. Her adoring fans were replaced with bloodthirsty mobs, her padded staff was traded for an old and tarnished force pike, and fights which used to end with some bruises and a handshake now ended with maiming or death.
To make matters worse, the once-gorgeous city around her was rapidly deteriorating. After two and a half months of living in hell, she was desperate to get out; but she was pretty sure that Meenrax wasn’t letting her go anywhere as long as she owed her money.
Month 5; Day 19 (Continued)
It only took the PCs about an hour and a half to pop over to Mos Entha and load up the thermal grease. There was a little bit of a delay in figuring out how the Ghost’s cargo ramps worked; but once they did, they realize that it was going to be much easier to get things on and off than it was messing with the cargo cranes on the SkyBlind.
Once they were loaded up, it was only half an hour to Obana; and they arrived around 20:00 in the evening. Just as Badger predicted, they were directed to a smaller starport on the mainland; just north-east of Xandar and about four miles from the coast.
Also just as Badger predicted, they were informed that they would not be allowed to leave the spaceport (unless they took a direct shuttle to Xandar) but there didn’t appear to be enough security to actually enforce that edict. As the spaceport workers began unloading, Garth and Roger stayed behind to supervise and keep an eye on the ship.
Sekar, Morrigan, Ganen, and Mon all headed out into the warm and humid night and slipped out of the starport with ease. They had to pay a ludicrous 100 credits just for a taxi for a few miles; apparently because the entire city (outside of Xandar proper) had become incredibly dangerous.
In the lobby of the former Norid Sports Center, the PCs encountered several goons of various species armed with a variety of crude blaster carbines. After asking to speak with Meenrax and dropping Badger’s name, one of the goons made a quick call and then led the PCs down a hall towards a large pair of double doors.
Nearby, Ness had just finished up with a fight and was on her way to the showers when she passed a green-colored Verpine whom she didn’t recognize. He was chatting with some employees of Meenrax and clearly belonged there, but what caught Ness’ attention was what he had pinned to the chiton on his chest. It was the rank insignia from her dress uniform, which had been stowed away aboard her ship ever since she left her homeworld.
When Ness stopped and asked him about it, a very matter-of-fact explanation came through the alien’s translator unit. “It was among a number of personal effects aboard a ship which I was enlisted by Miss Meenrax to procure. I found it aesthetically pleasing, so I retained it.”
Ness nearly exploded right then and there. She’d suspected for some time that her business arrangement with Meenrax was less than equitable. She needed to be sure, though; and asked the Verpine about the ship. “Unknown type and model”, he replied, “but not a custom build; so likely a production vessel from an obscure system. It was very old but very recently refurbished. The hyperdrive, I believe, had never been used.”
That left little doubt that he was talking about her ship; now she just needed to make sure she was clear on the circumstances. “In the early morning hours shortly after the invading Hutts withdrew from Xandar”, the Verpine explained, “Miss Meenrax sent me to the starport in Xandar to procure a very specific ship. She provided me with both a pad number and a photograph. There was such chaos at the starport that it was an easy job; and so many ships were stolen during the incursion that nobody would have suspected anyone else.”
Ness was already pretty sure that she knew the answer, but she asked anyway about the current whereabouts of the ship in question. “Likely sent to Tatooine, Raxus Prime, Junkfort Station, or another low-profile breaking yard”, the Verpine confirmed.
Boiling with rage, Ness stomped right up to Meenrax’ office; still soaked in sweat and spattered with the blood of her last opponent. “Just a sec, hon”, the older Falleen replied when Ness declared that they needed to talk. She then gestured for Ness to come stand by her desk as she added, “We’ve got visitors coming up.”
Beyond the double doors was a large area which clearly had once been used for competitive swimming, but the main pool was now filled in with sand and sawdust to around 4’ below the top. Bloodthirsty spectators were packed into the bleachers on both sides; and in the pit, a mangy Wookiee with a Ryyk blade was clashing with a muscle-bound man armed with a spear.
The PCs were led to the other end of the area, up a flight of stairs, and into an office which had a window overlooking the spectacle below. Seated at a desk with her back to the window was an older and knobby-headed Falleen woman, and standing right next to her was a younger one with black hair and a more human-shaped skull. There were also three more carbine-armed goons in the room (in addition to the one who led the PCs in).
Despite standing 4’ 9” tall and wearing battered armor which was clearly more decorative than protective, the younger Falleen woman was an imposing sight. She was covered in sweat, spattered in blood which did not appear to be her own, holding a force pike taller than she was, and looking very angry.
Mon did a subtle double-take at the younger Falleen; suddenly realizing that he recognized her. While sitting in the back of the Sky Dome Lounge just before meeting the other PCs for the first time, he’d caught the tail-end of an interview with her. He never caught her name, but the interviewer was going on about her 50th successful title defense; so she was likely a prize fighter of some variety (and clearly a really good one).
Getting down to business, the PCs led with the simple truth; stating that they wanted to know more about what was going on on the planet and that they’d been told that she might be a good source of information. “What’s there to know?”, she asked with a shrug. “The government is pouring all of its money into keeping Xandar safe, clean, and happy and they’re letting the rest of the planet go to hell. Crime is out of control, there are riots almost daily, refugees are still pouring in from as far as the Mid Rim, the new ‘Nova Corps’ is nowhere to be found out here, and instead we’ve got ‘private security contractors’ who’re nothing but thugs with badges and heavy gear.”
When the PCs mentioned Badger, Meenrax quietly contemplated a moment; then asked if they were actually employed by Badger or simply contractors. “So how do I know who you’re working for today?”, she asked when they answered her. When it seemed that she was leaning in the “what’s in it for me” direction, Mon stated that they were highly skilled contractors and might be able to help her out in exchange for the information. After thinking for another few moments, she nodded.
“Well, I guess it’s not hurting me either way; so I’ll tell you a couple of places that might be worth checking. One is the food distribution center about 5 miles north-north-west of here. I had a guy in there for a little while misappropriating charitable donations. Just a week ago, I got a message from him saying that he found something very suspicious in the shipping records; but he disappeared before he could come see me with specifics.”
“The second is the Women’s Services Center about 4 miles south-east along the coast from here on the edge of a very human-unfriendly district called Oquay. I don’t have any specifics, but there’s a lot of rumors that there are some very unusual things happening there.”
Before the PCs could reply; one of the guards standing by the window sudden went wide-eyed, said “Boss!”, and pointed at the monitor on the desk. Meenrax glanced over, then went wide-eyed as well. The PCs couldn’t see the screen; but as the Meenrax activated her comm system, they could suddenly hear a lot of yelling and blaster fire. “What’s going on!?”, the Falleen demanded.
“We’re under attack!”, a panicked voice replied; “It’s Kanjikl…” The second statement was cut off by static.
“Kanjiklub!?”, Meenrax exclaimed; then suddenly looked up at the PCs with an absolute death-glare. “Oh, I get it”, she hissed in rage. “You’re working for the Hutts this week and you had to find out if I knew too much before you launched a potentially costly attack.” The PCs didn’t quite follow her logic; but she rose to her feet, activated some kind of force screen built into her desk, and drew a disruptor pistol before the PCs could respond. “Kill them!”, she then shouted to her thugs.
Finding herself at a very important crossroads in her life, Ness made a decision. As the other PCs moved to neutralize the guards, she turned her force pike on her boss and demanded to know if she’d been responsible for the theft of her ship. Whirling on her in rage, Meenrax answered by attempting to shoot her in the head; but thankfully missed.
Morrigan grabbed her stunner and dove under Meenrax’s desk; bypassing the force field and skidding to a stop at the older Falleen’s feet. Meenrax yelped in pain and surprise as the Chiss zapped her right in the ankle; and as she staggered, Ness cleanly eviscerated her (resulting in her entrails spilling right onto poor Morrigan’s arms).
The other guards had been neutralized by the other PCs by this point, but their friends from Glee Anselm were now pouring into the complex. Hoping that these people might be able to give her a lift off of Obana, Ness dug through her deceased boss’ blood-drenched pockets.
“She has a really nice speeder out back”, Ness said as she held up a blood-dripping key. “And I know the quickest way to get there.” While they had no clue what was going on between this woman and her boss, the PCs didn’t have any other options for exiting the area quickly.
As the PCs quietly crept through the parking deck, they could hear Kanjiklub thugs calling to each other as they searched the next level down. Meenrax’s landspeeder was on a locked garage and the ignition key which Ness had grabbed didn’t fit it, but Morrigan was able to get it open with a few minutes of effort.
‘Really nice speeder’ was an understatement, at least as far as Morrigan was concerned; it was a civilian-refitted SoroSuub Panther-class police interceptor. It was painted black with neon green trim, had a really clean and nice interior, and appeared to be in good running shape. As she watched Morrigan ooh and ahh over the vehicle, Ness decided that she was probably the better driver and tossed her the key. Ganen got his bulky self into the passenger seat, and Mon wedged himself between Sekar and Ness in the prisoner seat in the back.
As Morrigan eased the speeder out of the garage, she and Ganen were dismayed to see Kanjiklub pouring up onto the same level of the parking deck. In addition to several guys on foot, they had a crudely-armored speeder truck with some kind of pintle-mounted anti-vehicle weapon. Morrigan knew that there was no way they could outfight the thing, so she turned in the opposite direction and floored it.
The armored speeder took off after them, and Ganen feared that it would catch up with them when they slowed down to take the spiral ramp down to the ground level. But as they approached said ramp at the end of the deck, Morrigan continued to accelerate.
Even Ganen held his breath as Morrigan threw the speeder into a side-skid and then smoothly drifted all the way down the spiral ramp. Apart from clipping a couple of armed thugs on foot at the bottom of the ramp, she never so much as scratched the paint; but the PCs clearly heard the armored speeder crash behind them.
Once they were clear of the area, introductions were finally made; though Ness didn’t go into a lot of details about her past. Long story short, Ness agreed to help them out with their current job if they would take her off-world afterwards.
Despite how things had turned, the PCs had no reason to doubt the validity of the two leads which Meenrax had given them; and quite frankly, they were the only two solid leads they had. After dropping the boys off at the food distribution center, the ladies headed to the Women’s Services Center.
Ganen and Mon’s Tale
The food distribution center was a monolithic cylindrical building around 500’ tall and dotted with docks and hangar entrances. When the PCs arrived, the building was surrounded by thousands of rioters; and they knew that they had little chance of getting in on the ground floor.
Fortunately, the speeder had just enough altitude to pass over the mob and reach one of the lowest cargo piers. Mon and Ganen hopped out and then headed inside as the girls took off.
The vast majority of the building’s interior consisted of loading docks, storage areas, and a massive web of conveyors connecting them. Not only was the place practically empty, there were numerous signs that people had left quite suddenly; probably because of the riot going on outside. Every now and then the PCs encountered a security guard or other sundry employee who was still there, but they each took one look at Ganen and decided that they didn’t want to take issue with them.
Mon was able to locate and terminal; but neither he nor Ganen were particularly proficient with computers, and they were unable to get any information beyond the current status of their present location. They did, however, find a full map of the building; which indicated that all of the office areas were on the top floors.
As the PCs exited the stairwell into the office area, they ran into two men who were exiting the office area into the stairwell. They were dressed like spacers and one of them had a holstered blaster on his side, but they certainly looked no more out of place than the PCs did.
“You might want to hurry”, the guy with the blaster said in a tone which was cautionary; not threatening. “We just heard that the rioters have broken through onto the ground floor.” Mon thanked them for the tip, and the two men headed upstairs.
The first terminal which the PCs located was not only unlocked but also already opened to shipping records. It didn’t take long for the PCs to spot something which did indeed look unusual.
Someone named Kan Altron, who resided in the penthouse suite of an apartment complex known as the Kystro Building, had been buying an inordinate quantity of food every day for the last two months. It was easily enough to feed 50 people, which still didn’t add up even if he had a small army of household servants to feed. It wasn’t much to go on, but they had little doubt that it was the same anomaly which Meenrax’s employee had spotted.
Realizing that the rioters had gotten in and that they had no ride out, the PCs double-timed it up towards the roof; hoping that the two friendly gentlemen whom they’d passed hadn’t left yet and would be willing to give them a lift to safety. They arrived to find a YT-1300 on the landing pad; and though its ramp was closed on its engines were fired up, it hadn’t taken off yet.
Heading around to the side of the cockpit, the PCs waved their arms and managed to catch the attention of the unarmed bearded one, who was sitting in the copilot’s seat. After exchanging words with the armed guy, he left the cockpit; and a few moments later, the ramp lowered.
Much to Ganen’s chagrin, Mon asked for a ride to the Kystro building rather than just a ride away from the riot. The bearded man clearly recognized the building name, but said nothing about it and invited the PCs aboard. “Hey Rallo”, he called as he led the PC up to the cockpit. “These guys were hoping for a ride to the… what was it? ‘Kastro’ Building? Do we know where that is? Can we help them out?”
“Yes, Grant”, the Rallo calmly but awkwardly replied. “I think we can manage that.”
The 50-story Kystro building was located right on the coast, overlooking the water which separated Xandar from the mainland. Skillfully maneuvering the freighter to a stable hover next to a pier, Rallo opened the ramp and allowed the PCs to disembark. Once the PCs were clear, the ship disappeared into the night sky.
Unlike everyplace else they’d seen on the mainland, the Kystro Building seemed clean and safe; and it was also quite lively and full of young people. As the PCs made their way to the top floor, they noticed a number of private security officers around. There also seemed to be a lot more people around than the building was mean to accommodate; so the purchase of extra food might have had a very innocent motivation behind it.
Kan Altron was an effeminate-looking man in his early 20’s, and his blue-dyed hair was sculpted into something resembling an ocean wave. He was clearly a little alarmed when he opened the door and saw Ganen, but allowed the PCs in when Mon told him that he was in danger and that they were there to help.
As the PCs entered, noting a staircase up to a second story and some amazing smells emanating from the kitchen, they asked Kan about his food purchases. Citing that the city was full of starving people, he claimed that he was buying it to give away to people who needed it.
Mon casually entered the kitchen to find a chef droid busily preparing a huge quantity of food. It looked expensive and it looked highly varied; not like something being prepared for distribution to the poor.
As the PCs leaned harder and harder on the kid, he was clearly scared half to death; but he stuck with his obviously-false story. When the PCs mentioned Kissis Meenrax and the Black Sun Syndicate, the boy genuinely didn’t seem to know who they were talking about.
It immediately became clear, however, that someone else was listening to the conversation and that that person know exactly whom the PCs were talking about. No sooner had the Black Sun been mentioned than six rectangular section of the living room walls suddenly dropped out of place; each revealing a small alcove. Out of each of these alcoves stepped an armed Cartel battle droid bearing maroon markings just likes ones which the PCs had encountered on Lofquar and Tatooine (which the PCs still didn’t know the significance of).
Mon grabbed Kan and used him as a human shield as the droids raised their carbines and one of them ordered the PCs to drop their weapons and let the kid go. Mon instead ordered Kan to call the droids off.
“They’re not mine!”, the panicked young man yelled. “They belong to my roommate! Though… maybe we’re friends and not just roommates now, otherwise he’d have ordered them to fire.”
Before the PCs could make any inquiries about this ‘roommate’, a deafening chain of explosions ripped through the upper level of the penthouse from one end to the other. As Mon released Kan, the droids lowered their weapons and then just kinda stood there.
Ganen meanwhile raced to the top of the stairs as soon as the explosions stopped; arriving to find that the entire top floor was gone. Looking around, he spotted a YT-1300 hovering nearby just above roof level. It had a starboard-side cockpit, a low-profile rectangular sensor dish, and quad light laser batteries on its dorsal and ventral turrets; just like the one in which they’d gotten a ride from the food distribution center.
As the ships disappeared into the night, Ganen couldn’t help but marvel at how the top floor had been sheered clean off with no significant damage to the floor right below it. One of those two guys was one hell of a gunner.
Kan soon calmed down enough for the PCs to get his story: his roommate was a Hutt, the food was his, and so were the battle droids. Said Hutt had apparently needed a low-profile place to live on Obana; safe and secure but still outside of Xandar and on the mainland. Kan’s father was an asteroid mining tycoon, and the Hutt’s people had apparently made some sort of deal with him in exchange for secrecy and the use of Kan’s upper floor. The pieces were now beginning to fall into the place: the Hutts had apparently withdrawn their army but not actually departed.
Ganen returned upstairs to see if he could find anything intact. Amongst the debris, he noticed an absolutely awful chair which had somehow survived without a scratch. The plastic abomination was bright blue in color and shaped like an enormous human hand with the wrist forming the base, the palm forming the seat, and the fingers forming a rather uncomfortable-looking back. Whether to see if it was made of some highly-resilient material or just because it offended his sensibilities, Ganen fired a shot at it; blowing off one of its fingers.
Sekar, Morrigan, and Ness’ Tale
En route to the Women’s Services Center, Ness shed the broken pieces of her show armor. She then used the heavy end of her collapsed force pike to give herself a black eye.
There was a rather rough-looking crowd of Aqualish hanging around the enormous fountain which ran down the length of the road in front of the center, and they began to approach as Morrigan slowed down the speeder. But when she came to a stop right in front of the building, they suddenly seemed to lose interest. The main entrance was actually closed, but there was a sign pointing to a night entrance around the side.
Ness quickly proved to be quite the actress in addition to being quite the eviscerator. By the time Morrigan rang the desk buzzer, the Falleen already had the water works in high gear and looked legitimately traumatized.
The desk was approached by a nurse in her late 60’s wearing a name tag reading ‘Rosser’. The woman took one look at Ness and then buzzed the PCs into the waiting room adjacent to the entry foyer; and after giving them some paperwork to fill out, she went to get the on-duty head nurse.
While Ness and Sekar remained in the waiting room as instructed, Morrigan snuck out as soon as the desk nurse departed. The ground floor was a labyrinth of counseling rooms, medical rooms for outpatient procedures, and staff areas; all of which were eerily unoccupied. There wasn’t even anyone in the main nurses’ station, though she did find a coffee pot and a terminal which she was effortlessly able to slice into.
Though she was careful to avoid looking at any personal patient information, Morrigan quickly discovered that the center was currently serving about 20% of the occupancy which is was built for with about 10% of the intended staff. According to records, the place had already been under-occupied two months earlier when the director was fired and a new director was sent in from Xandar. After the majority of the resident patients were transferred to other facilities in the capital, the new director laid off every member of the staff who’d been there for less than 30 years (at which point they apparently couldn’t be fired) and then brought in a handful of younger nurses from elsewhere.
After Sekar and Ness had been waiting for almost 15 minutes, the on-duty head nurse finally arrived. Her nametag read ‘Tyrell’; and while she was a moderately attractive woman, she exuded all of the warmth and compassion of a snowball. After hurriedly asking a handful of routine questions and jotting the answers into a data pad, she took the PCs up to the second floor.
Tyrell took the PCs into a big communal lounge which was occupied only by half a dozen other women. Four of them were quietly playing cards, one was sitting in a corner building a sort of card-house wall around herself, and the sixth was glaring over a book at the fifth.
“Wait here while I go get your room ready”, Tyrell instructed. She then looked at Sekar and added, “You can stay until she gets settled in, but then you’ll have to leave until tomorrow’s visiting hours.”
While Ness wandered over to an area where there was some leftover food and started snacking, Sekar wandered over to the girl with the book and asked her what was up with the card-wall girl. “Idunno”, the girl quietly replied with a huff. “She does this every night; apparently she thinks it keeps ‘the monsters’ away or something. I’m just hiding out here until the cops arrest by psycho boyfriend. I thought they kept all the crazies like her up on the top floor.” The girl paused and then continued with an evil grin, “You should see her freak out when the wall falls.”
As Sekar turned to walk away, she made a subtle flick with her hand; and across the room, a card on the bottom of the wall got knocked out of place and brought the whole thing down. The girl in the corner began panicking and hysterically crying, then gathered up the cards to start over; but she was so shaken up that she couldn’t get more than a few set up before they came down again.
Genuinely concerned about the girl (and completely unaware that Sekar was the cause of her state), Ness ran for the nearest stairwell and began yelling for a nurse. None came, but Morrigan heard her and came running up from the ground floor.
By the time the PCs were done exchanging sit-reps, the girl in the corner had calmed down a bit; and the PCs decided to check out the rest of the building. Morrigan and Ness would check the rest of the second floor and work their way up, and Sekar would head straight for the 6th floor and work her way down.
The rest of the second floor was just more eerily unoccupied common areas, and the third floor was all residence units; each of the doors either closed and locked or open to an empty room. The only person whom the PCs encountered was a bruised-up middle-aged woman who was huddled in an alcove below a water fountain and sobbing, but the PCs decided they’d check on her on their way back.
The fourth floor was nearly identical to the third, but the PCs passed one open door which had about half a dozen women in it. They were all gathered around a video screen which was displaying a slowly-rotating cube which subtly changed shape, color, and texture over time. The people in the room were just staring at it mesmerized, and the PCs decided to move on before they ended up doing the same.
The stairwell which Sekar took to the top opened onto a hallway which appeared to run around the entire perimeter of the floor. There were a number of doors on the outside leading to lifts and other stairwells, but only one on the inside leading to the rest of the floor. It was a heavy door located directly next to a window; probably a security point. Sensing through the Force that there was someone just beyond the window, Sekar decided to head down to the fifth floor and look for another way up.
The fifth floor was the main medical floor, and it was completely empty except for a single room. Said room was occupied by a bald, middle-aged woman who appeared to be comatose and was hooked by over a dozen tubes to a very creepy-looking machine. Sekar was unable to find a chart explaining who she was or why she was there; but she did find a plastic bin under head bed containing a wig, a nice outfit, and a nametag which read ‘Asst. Director Tassa Sim’. Sekar took the name tag and exited the room.
Before she could resume her search for another way up to the sixth floor, Sekar ran into Ness and Morrigan; who’d just come up from the fourth. After Sekar showed them the comatose woman, she showed them the name tag; and Morrigan recognized the name from the facility records: she was supposedly the assistant director. After exchanging additional stories, the PCs agreed to find a way to access the sixth floor.
As they got ready to move, they heard multiple people approaching from the far end of the floor. While Sekar and Morrigan hid in rooms across from each other, Ness remained in the hallway trying to look lost and harmless.
“There you are”, Nurse Tyrell declared as she approached Ness; flanked by a pair of additional nurses. “What are you doing up here? And where did your blue friend go?” After Ness shrugged and meekly replied that she got lost, Tyrell heaved an annoyed sigh. “Never mind; let’s get you down to your room, then we’ll look for her.” As Tyrell turned and headed back to the lift, the other two nurses stepped aside and gestured for Ness to follow; then fell in behind her.
Not wanting Ness to get separated into the custody of these people, Morrigan bolted out of the room and tased the nearest nurse. As she hit the floor, the second nurse pulled a syringe and lunged at Morrigan; jabbing her right in the shoulder and injecting her with something. Tyrell, quite strangely, just calmly turned around and straightened her blouse.
Annoyed at Morrigan’s rash attack, Sekar popped out of hiding with her blaster in hand; shooting Tyrell in the torso and sending her slumping to the floor. Ness tried to punch the nurse who’d injected Morrigan, but suddenly began seeing creepy shadows flickering in and out of the periphery of her visions; startling and distracting her to the point that she was unable to land a solid blow. Morrigan was seeing them as well, but was also losing motor function from whatever she’d been injected with.
Seeing Tyrell go down, the remaining nurse made a run for the lift; but Morrigan went awkwardly shambling after her, which prompted Ness to chase her down. Sekar meanwhile found that Tyrell was unconscious but still alive, and started dragging her down the hall in the same direction.
Ness managed to grab the nurse before she got on the lift; and by the time Morrigan caught up, the paralytic was wearing off and she was able to help restrain her. When Sekar caught up (still dragging Tyrell), they began to demand answers from the nurse; but she just pointed behind them and said, “Why don’t you ask the assistant director?”
The PCs turned to see the woman whom, only a few minutes earlier, had been comatose and hooked up to a creepy machine. She was wearing the same clothes and wig which Sekar had found in the bin; but not her nametag, which Sekar still had in her pocket. “I know this must seem highly unusual”, the woman calmly began, “but if you’ll just come with me downstairs, I promise it will all make sense.”
Ness and Sekar were willing to go with her, thought the latter continued to drag Tyrell along. Morrigan refused to go and instead stayed behind with the remaining nurse.
Sim hit the button for the sublevel parking garage; but before the lift arrived, she suddenly collapsed to the floor. After Ness checked her pulse and found that she was still alive, Tyrell suddenly stirred; either regaining consciousness or having been playing possum the entire time. “She’s a vegetable”, she groggily declared. “The director uses her like a remote-controlled puppet when she needs to appear normal.”
When the lift doors opened, the parking deck beyond looked anything but normal. Blood was dripping from the ceiling and pooling on the floor, there were body parts fused with the walls, and all manner of disturbing sounds echoed from the shadows.
“You!”, a female voice suddenly hissed from the darkness. “You and your companions slaughtered my men… stole my ship… and used my ship to thwart our entire endeavor. But you… you humiliated me… and now you will suffer for it.”
An alien woman then materialized from the shadows; and just as Sekar already suspected, it was the same Revan whom they’d run into on their last visit to Obana. Her cybernetic arm had been repaired, she held the same lightwhip in her other hand, and she’d apparently mistaken Sekar for Morrigan.
Sekar shot and wounded the woman and then ran for the cover of a nearby column, but Ness was a little too overwhelmed and confused to act. Seeming to almost teleport through the shadows, the Revan appeared next to Sekar and grabbed her with her cybernetic arm; delivering an excruciating shock which left her paralyzed. “Don’t go anywhere”, the Revan quipped, “I’m just getting started with you.”
The Revan then approached Ness; and after looking over her bruised and bloodied body and her now-unfolded force pike, asked her what her story was. After Ness quickly summarized that she was an unemployed pit fighter who’d just killed her boss, the Revan smiled. “Bring me the head of the other Chiss”, she said, “and I’ll give you a new job.” Nodding silently, Ness retreated into the lift; mentally noting that the Revan hadn’t specified that the head needed to be removed first.
The Revan then slowly walked back to where Sekar had collapsed; monologuing the entire way about how much she was going to make her suffer. But when she got there, Sekar was gone. She’d recovered much more quickly from the shock than the Revan had anticipated; and not only had she gotten back to her feet and retreated to another column, she’d had time to take out the item which she carried in the secret compartment in her bag.
With a crack-hiss and a flash of purple light, Sekar lunged at the Revan with her lightsaber. After the first round of blows and parries, the Revan stepped back and laughed. “You might actually be worth killing”, she said.
Morrigan was waiting right by the lift when Ness returned, and hurried on when Ness told her that Sekar was in trouble. When they reached the parking garage, both of their jaws dropped at the sight of the mighty duel unfolding before them. “Is this normal for her?”, Ness asked. Morrigan shook her head.
“Her cybernetic arm is vulnerable to shock at the elbow”, Morrigan told Ness. She then added “I need a speeder”, and dashed off into the darkness.
Ness cautiously crept towards the duelists, who’d each dealt the other a nasty slash by the time she got close. Mustering all of her courage and retracting the blade on her force pike, she lunged out and nailed the Revan right in the cyber-elbow; locking it in place as the woman howled with rage.
Boiling over with anger, the Revan lashed out with all of her might with the Dark Side; reaching into the depths of Sekar’s mind and pulling her worst memories of her youth to the surface. Overwhelmed with the barrage of senses and emotions, Sekar fell to one knee.
But Sekar wasn’t that scared little girl anymore. She’d made a choice, and she’d left those days far behind her. Now she had a new life and a new strength; and drawing upon that strength, she rose like a phoenix from the flames. Drawing herself back to her feet, she raised her saber for a killing blow as the exhausted Revan nearly cowered before her.
Before she could bring her blade down, there was a blur of red as an ambulance shot out of the darkness and struck the Revan; pinning her against the wall. Morrigan had apparently found a speeder.
As Morrigan got out, Sekar approached the Revan; very happy to see that she wasn’t quite dead and was still conscious. “My sister has defeated you twice now”, she declared; reveling in the look of utter despair which filled the Revan’s eyes before the life died out of them.
As the Revan died, all of the blood and gore vanished; leaving an ordinary-looking parking deck. Solemnly, Sekar reached down and picked up the Revan’s lightwhip. Not-so-solemnly, Morrigan pulled out her toolkit and set about detaching the woman’s cybernetic arm (she totally got that arm).