(Star Wars d6) #32 - An Unexpected Arrangement

The Current Crew of the Pretio

Ne'vets Aharo - an exotic animal broker, both legal and otherwise, majority owner in the Pretio.

Evus - Twi'lek free mercenary, Ne'vets' armed muscle with a keen eye and a tendency to shoot first.
Tarrie - Human pilot "under contract" to fly the Pretio, and drive the Piscopo.  Brother of potential terrorist, rebel  Latorna Savvn.
Frokazza - Wookie co-pilot, mechanic, and unarmed muscle. Very distrustful.

Kafla Thingvellir - Billionaire entrepreneur turned zoological enthusiast, in search of the Translucent Chromatic Trapper.

I Didn't See the Meeting on the Schedule...

Trapped underground on barely recognized planet, 

The crew of the Pretio have stumbled 

Upon a giant complex full of odd cultists 

With unknown motives.

But what lies in store for them, when

A completely out of place Twi'lek women

Appears in front of them?

Getting this far into the "Holy Place," "The Obsidian Cylinder," or whatever the proper name of this place was, it was a quite a surprise to find a beautiful Twi'lek sitting in a comfy chair at a boardroom table, in the midst of a facility full of crazed cultists and pirates.

"Come in, I've been expecting you..."

Ne'vets was so bold as to pull out a chair along the table and take a seat. 

"I know why you're here.  I assumed it would take awhile for someone to rescue the prisoner, and I'm willing to help get them released."

"That would be great," Ne'vets replied.

"Obviously you must do something in return.  I simply want to ensure everything works out for all parties."

"Plans are definitely good," was all that "Ne'vets could utter in a deadpan voice.  "What do you need."

"The whackjob leader of this place wears a sword pendant on his cloak.  That pendant belongs to me.  Bring that pendant back to me, and I will override the security doors.

"And how do we get them out of here..."

"There are repulsor transports to where the ships are.  It's like you guys don't know what the plan is?"

"We're just making sure all our bases are covered before we dive into this operation. We know the drill."

"Good, get the pendant, I'll get you the prisoner, and I'll grab my men and we can let the High Leader and his crazed minions dwell on this rock and plot whatever they want."

"Great, where's the leader now?"

"Up the turbolift one floor."

The crew worked their way back to the turbolift and pressed the button for the next floor.  Normally it appeared that a code cylinder of some sort was required for access, but after a long delay, the system executed the request. 

The doors open up to a vast open room.  The central cylinder on each lower floor was not there, just a empty room, save a smaller turbolift across the room, which continued another hundred meters further up.  A grey-green mist floated to knee level and a cloud of the same color rolled about thirty meters above them.  

Off in the distance, Tarrie could see six figures levitating down from the cloud onto the ground at the far side of the cylinder.  

Tarrie cautiously walked forward to get a better look and possibly engage the figures, only to be met with some pretty heavy firepower over his head. 

"That's bowcaster fire!" Frokazza roared, "What the fark!"

Evus, Tarrie and Frokazza all returned ineffective fire, all while Ne'vets ducked down into the mist, hoping his rebreather would protect him.   

Other blaster shots came from the figures, all of which were moving forward.  The large figure amongst the six appeared to be a Wookie.  By forty meters the Wookie's cohort seemed to include spitting images of Tarrie and Evus.  At thirty, two of the others looked like Ne'vets and Kafla.

A loud voice emanated through the room.  Perhaps not the room, it might have all been in their heads....

"You are not MINE?  You are from THEM?  That's pathetic.  You believe you worms can stand up to me?"

Ne'vets tried to negotiate out loud,  "Worms? I'm just a guy trying to make his way in this galaxy."

"Great, another bounty hunter... Kill them."   And with that the other five charged in.  

Evus fired at the greyer, "evil" version of himself, vaporizing it.  A wave fell over the Twi'lek, unsure if it was self-guilt or self-doubt.   The others simply fired wildly into the mist. 

Two shots from the mirror images hit Frokazza and Kafla, knocking them back, but causing not injury. 

Tarries slung his blaster rifle, pulled out his pistol, and tried to charge the extra figure in the back. The first shots went wide, but as the later shots focused onto the target, and a terrifying sound of a lightsaber igniting overwhelmed the room, an orange blade deflecting those closer blast.  

Ne'vets ignored his own copy, or the welfare of his crew, and charged the lightsaber-wielding figure.  

The evil Frokazza and Kafla locked up in melee with their counterparts, while the evil Tarrie futilely attempted to tackle the pilot.  

Stopping to avoid the tackling (and dissipating) evil Tarrie, Ne'vets turned around to find his twin behind him, "Hey, your bootstrap is loose."

The real Ne'vets quickly quipped back, "No, YOUR bootstrap is loose!"

The evil twin looked down, but before Ne'vets could get a shot, the animal broker was flung across the room by an invisible force.  In his travels, we flew through the evil Ne'vets, making him disapear. 

Locked in a bear-hug, Frokazza whacked his doppelganger with double fists, and the evil Wookie disappeared.  

Kafla pistol whips his copy and took a deep breath to figure out why there was a lightsaber in the room.

Additional blaster fire was coming from where the figures emerged.  Reinforcements of some sort had arrived.

Deflecting a few more blaster jobs, the lightsaber-wielder moved forward, and struck at Tarrie.   The pilot under character dove back and scurried into the mist.  

Tarrie's only action was to roll at flash grenade at the feet of this apparent Force user.  The room was filled with blinding light and the blaster fire fell silent.  

Ne'vets ran over to check on his blinded crew.  By the time he reached them, he realized that there was no sign of the lightsaber user, or the individuals firing blasters in the distance.  The only thing left was that persons robes, partially aflame, with gold sword pendant. 

With no sign of their foes, and not sound of an alarm, the crew focused on the small turbolift that went further up.  Too small for the Wookie it traveled up through the clouds in the room.  

Tarrie volunteered to go up.  Upon stopping it opened up to a small platform two meters across, attached to the turbolift. Upon the walls of the lift and the platform were various runes and marking.  Tarrie had no clue what the markings were, so he travelled back down

"I think somebody smarter than me should go up there and check it out.  Maybe they should carry the sword-thingy."  Ne'vets volunteered to go up.  He could not translate the markings, but he had an idea that this area was for EVIL meditation and a bad feeling about everything.  Tarrie's ignorance appeared to be bliss.

Ne'vets came back down empty-handed with ideas, so Evus gave it a go as well, but with the same luck as Tarrie.  

The returned downstairs to claim their mystery prize, and hopefully a way back to the surface.  

"Excellent, go to Level 2, Room 300.  The prisoner will be released from that location.  The prisoner will have knowledge to the transport. to get you folks out of here."

With that the female Twi'lek faded away from her chair, leaving nothing.  

"Anyone have questions," Ne'vets asked the others.

"We just fought our evil twins and a dude with a lightsaber.  Why be worried about anything?"

The crew traveled down to Level 2 and stood outside Room 300, trying to look as culty as possible.  

Frokazza expressed his displeasure, "This is an ambush spot!"

Tarrie empathized with his furry friend, "True, we don't even know where the prisoner is coming from."

The other crew members spied a peculiar door a few meters up the wall when is made a noise while it opened.  A lone figure, with bound hands and  a hood over their head, was pushed out the doorway, heading right for Tarrie and Frokazza....

GM Notes: Yes, the crew took a job from someone they did not know, in the middle of a big evil place.  I'm completely amazed the group dived into the middle of some feud with individuals they didn't care about.. all for the chance to get the heck out of the underground caverns and back their actual contracted mission with Kafla.  I don't need to railroad, they have personal rail passes for the month and they like to get off at every little station. 

Next: #33 - Dip, Dive, Dodge