Our "Heroes"
Ne'vets Aharo - an exotic animal broker, both legal and otherwise
Evus - Twi'lek former mercenary, Ne'vets' armed muscle with a tendency to shoot first.
Tarrie - Human pilot "under contract" for the upcoming mission, whatever that is.
Frokazza -Wookie co-pilot, mechanic, and unarmed muscle. Very distrustful.
Frokazza -Wookie co-pilot, mechanic, and unarmed muscle. Very distrustful.
Recovered!
Having set out a distress call
before becoming captured by
the Space Pirates on this moon
Orbitting Dathomir,
Our heroes escape imminent execution
with the arrival of no mere "Space Cops,"
But an Imperial Star Destroyer
With a full complement of destruction
Are our heroes saved,
or is it a case of out of the
Dathomirian Cooking Tray
and into the Imperial fire?
Whisked onto an imperial shuttle, the group couldn't see the carnage the Stormtroopers inflicted upon the pirate compound. Thermal detonators were used to destroy the buildings. TIE Fighters hunted down pirates escaping in vehicles.
From communications with the medics tending to their wounds, it could be ascertained that they were going to be visitors of the Imperial Victory Class Star Destroyer Iron Fist.
As the shuttle neared the Star Destroyer, the relaxed atmosphere of their saviors began to tense. Upon landing in the hanger an entire company of Stormtroopers met them at the bottom of the ramp. There, they were escorted into the ship and separate holding cells...
After a number of hours the four were reassembled in a conference room and traded stories of their endeavors.
None of them were fans, much less allies of the Empire, but all could agree that the Imperials were extremely congenial to all of them.
Each one had been escorted to a separate room and spoke with a beady-eyed middle aged Lieutenant Coremar Torrruss for Imperial Intelligence. Almost all questions were pertaining to the attack on the Hyrkania,
 |
| Lt. Coremar Torruss - Imperial Intelligence |
The most disconcerting words that all four heard from a Imperial Officer, "What can we do for you?"
They were all amazed that after a simple debriefing, that they were being offered basic equipment and a drop-off at the Botajef starport. No charges, neither criminal or financial, seemed to being amassed for any of them.
After another hour, the doors to the room finally open, and a contingent of low-ranking Imperial officers escort them for showers, a change of clothes, more food, and medical attention, if any was needed.
Upon completion, they were escorted to what appeared to be a non-commissioned officer lounge and left well alone... with two officers standing around the corner, and some sort of civilian staff taking and serving beverage requests.
Two drinks in, Lt Torruss made an appearance, dressed in officer dress grays.
"Everyone's here?"
They nodded.
"Everyone hungry? The least we can do is celebrate your survival and rescue from this horrible event, in addition to all the vital information you all provided to fill in the holes of the investigation. You will be dining with the Captain of the Iron Fist himself, Captain Zsinj!"
After discovering what Star Destroyer they were on, Ne'vets had already filled in the rest of the group to what knowledge he had heard about Captain Zsinj. It wasn't much, only that the Captain came from a family of Naval Officers and was completely dedicated to peace and order to the Quelli Sector.
"After dinner, we will have proper individual quarters for all..."
In an obvious move to impress the group, Lt Torruss howled in Wookie. Evus and Ne'vets made it out to be "The item you requested has been recovered. It shall be in your quarters after dinner."
Tarrie, and obviously Frokazza, could pick up the subtle nuances. The bowcaster Frokazza had "left" on the moon was recovered by the final team sweeping the pirate bases.
Torruss left them, and a few moments later, staff escorted them to a large dining room, with Captain Zsinj at the head and four officers at the sides...
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| Captain Zsinj |
"Gentlemen, I am Captain Zsinj. Welcome to the Iron Fist. Please be seated."
Captain Zsinj was quite appreciative of the information the group provided and before the wine was poured, promised them safe passage to Botajef.
With drink flowing and food served, the Captain and his men asked even friendlier versions of Lt Torruss' questions.
"I have been hunting the Devorian devil pirates for twelve years. They're a motley group of smugglers, black-market operations, but until the Hyrkania, I've never seen destruction of vessels added to their repertoire."
Evus finally felt the courage to speak, "Are we the only survivors?"
"Yes, we didn't do a full sweep of the third moon of Dathomir, but we found no one else in our search."
Dinner and desert served and cleaned up, the staff officers (and Lt Torruss) were excused, and Captain Zsinj got a bit more personal...
"Ne'vets, this is your team? Don't worry, all your paperwork was in order. Nary a speck of anything questionable"
"Yes sir."
He proceeded to question him on his three "employees," including all the disciplinary records of Tarrie's four month stint in the academy.
Things went a bit uncomfortable when Zsinj inquired whether that had done any government work.
"If the Empire is in need of your services, they have access to an insane number of credits...."
"Are your offering me a job, Captain?"
"I don't have that sort of authority. However, the Empire has a extensive Science Corps that does an variety of tasks around the galaxy. They are quite knowledgeable in the their fields, but the lack in drive or physical prowess.... we lose an awful lot of new scientific recruits from getting mauled."
"The Empire would be remiss if we would not offer your opportunities not currently available, and keep your current business interests. I can make some contacts tonight. It's the least I can do."
Tarrie spoke up, "We're going to need a ship!"
"I can't do that, but I can offer you the reward of certain individuals we knew were on that pirate vessel.... How's 15,000 credits as 'start-up' capital?'
Ne'vets contained his excitement as he nodded approvingly.
Frokazza finally spoke up, "What's the catch? Why are you being so nice?"
"All I can say is that I have been searching for certain individuals with rebellion contacts for quite some time, and those individuals were on the at ship. Their reward was less than the amount I have provided. Consider the remainder to be a personal thanks from myself."
"Well thank you, Captain," Ne'vets quickly replied.
Further negotiations procured them some basic weapons with proper registration, and Captain Zsinj bid them a good night.
"So, we're out of the Drop Bear business?" Tarrie asked Ne'vets.
"Not yet... but we do need to find a ship...."
Captain Zsinj was quite appreciative of the information the group provided and before the wine was poured, promised them safe passage to Botajef.
With drink flowing and food served, the Captain and his men asked even friendlier versions of Lt Torruss' questions.
"I have been hunting the Devorian devil pirates for twelve years. They're a motley group of smugglers, black-market operations, but until the Hyrkania, I've never seen destruction of vessels added to their repertoire."
Evus finally felt the courage to speak, "Are we the only survivors?"
"Yes, we didn't do a full sweep of the third moon of Dathomir, but we found no one else in our search."
Dinner and desert served and cleaned up, the staff officers (and Lt Torruss) were excused, and Captain Zsinj got a bit more personal...
"Ne'vets, this is your team? Don't worry, all your paperwork was in order. Nary a speck of anything questionable"
"Yes sir."
He proceeded to question him on his three "employees," including all the disciplinary records of Tarrie's four month stint in the academy.
Things went a bit uncomfortable when Zsinj inquired whether that had done any government work.
"If the Empire is in need of your services, they have access to an insane number of credits...."
"Are your offering me a job, Captain?"
"I don't have that sort of authority. However, the Empire has a extensive Science Corps that does an variety of tasks around the galaxy. They are quite knowledgeable in the their fields, but the lack in drive or physical prowess.... we lose an awful lot of new scientific recruits from getting mauled."
"The Empire would be remiss if we would not offer your opportunities not currently available, and keep your current business interests. I can make some contacts tonight. It's the least I can do."
Tarrie spoke up, "We're going to need a ship!"
"I can't do that, but I can offer you the reward of certain individuals we knew were on that pirate vessel.... How's 15,000 credits as 'start-up' capital?'
Ne'vets contained his excitement as he nodded approvingly.
Frokazza finally spoke up, "What's the catch? Why are you being so nice?"
"All I can say is that I have been searching for certain individuals with rebellion contacts for quite some time, and those individuals were on the at ship. Their reward was less than the amount I have provided. Consider the remainder to be a personal thanks from myself."
"Well thank you, Captain," Ne'vets quickly replied.
Further negotiations procured them some basic weapons with proper registration, and Captain Zsinj bid them a good night.
"So, we're out of the Drop Bear business?" Tarrie asked Ne'vets.
"Not yet... but we do need to find a ship...."
GM Notes: Due to some original hardware limitations, our initial online set-up was limited to Roll20 for character sheets and mapping, with Skype used for audio only. We probably could adjust some formats nowadays, but this session was the first were I pulled away from the main call and did one-on-ones with each player to represent the interrogations. It went quite smooth (the intelligence officer was a push-over, and the PCs rescue was positive news for that sector. In fact, some of the opportunities offered to the Ne'vets/the group were thanks to Frokazza being quite open about the variety of life on the moon.
Captain Zsinj is part of the regular Star War canon, but I've changed some of the backstory. Nothing ever survives first contact with PCs, why try to keep thing puritanical?
Oh yeah, that moon of Dathomir that they were stranded on? Its name may have been mentioned in passing on the Star Destroyer....
Volturnus, Moon of Mystery
Pulled from the pages of the classic Star Frontiers modules SF-0 and SF-01
Minor spoiler: It won't be the last time Star Frontiers gets mixed into the fray, but there's plenty of other Sci-Fi RPGs to mix into Star Wars canon.
Next: #13 - Learning the Customs of Botajef
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