[RoSM: Clan Scholae Palatinae - Team Dysfunctional]

Multi-Objective Team Fiction:

Team Dysfunctional - Aylin Sajark, Bale Andros, Elincia Rei

Snapshots, including NPCs:

• Aylin Sajark #14505 - Aylin Sajark Snapshot
• Bale Andros #826 - Bale Andros Snapshot
• Elincia Rei #5951 - Elincia Rei Snapshot
• Aylin Sajark NPC - Zehsaa Hysh Snapshot
• Bale Andros NPC - Kaela Vel Snapshot
• Elincia Rei NPC - Zentru’la Snapshot

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Chosen Objective: Sabotage

Phase I objectives

‘‘Phase I begins on October 14th and ends on October 28th (two (2) weeks)’’

After intercepting a transmission from the now destroyed Brotherhood Listener ship, the Psi Termina I, your team has been hand-picked and sent on a mission. You are already boarded on the Dreadnaught-class heavy cruiser Akan, arriving in an Imperial boarding craft through the auxiliary starboard hangar, only several decks below your target. The Akan’s hyperdrives and major systems have been disabled by ion cannons from escorting ships and a battle still rages outside.

The ship’s power fluctuates with every blow from turbo lasers and ion cannons and you have limited time to complete your mission. The Collective regiment typically onboard is currently deployed, but ship security is fully staffed and some elements of the regiment may still be onboard. Intel expects Soldiers and Partisans onboard.

Your team has been tasked to complete one of the following objectives in limited time (you may complete only one (1) objective):

• Revenge path: Reach the main bridge, face and eliminate Captain Brith Kayle and extract valuable information from the computer core before the fleet destroys the ship.

• Sabotage path: Reach the primary computer core behind the main bridge, extract the information and set the ship to self-destruct before extracting.

• Pacifist path: Reach the primary environmental controls on the main bridge, pacify the whole ship with Stun gas before extracting data from the computer core and calling in the cavalry.

Caution: the Captain is accompanied by an unknown number of enemy combatants.

The Phase must end with the bridge secured and the ship either pacified or destroyed. In all but the Revenge path, the Captain’s fate is up to you.

Three. Two. One. With a hiss of hydraulics and a wail of screeching metal the boarding shuttle’s landing gear ripped into the hangar’s durasteel tiling. In a shower of sparks to rival the explosions of battle outside, the spacecraft spun out of control, raking a full battalion’s worth of Collective troopers underneath its mass. Three hundred sixty degrees. Seven hundred twenty. It stopped. Chaos averted, a stunned silence hung over the landing bay. Troopers stood at the ready, blasters in hand with all the apprehension of a pack of hungering hounds. Squad leaders exchanged glances and hand signals. One nodded. The other advanced on their uninvited guest, squad in tow. Three strides were all they got before the boarding vessel split open with a belch of blaster bolts.

Riding the ramp down was one massive, armored Zabrak and one massive, armored Twi’lek, together unleashing an army’s worth of firepower as one hellcat of a Togruta knelt between them, picking out key targets—namely, two very obvious, decorated squad leaders—with deadly, pin-point accuracy. The carnage was absolute. Try as they might to fight back, the defenders found themselves pinned down behind cover. Ramp touched ground and the trio shot into action, slipping behind their own cover as more of their companions poured down the ramp. At least, that had been the plan. Of course, with Bale Andros, nothing ever went according to plan.

It was a matter of pride, after all.

The hulking Zabrak bounty hunter blundered past cover, roaring like a hungering Rancor, his finger glued to his repeater’s trigger. One Collective soldier made the mistake to pop out of cover in front of him, a puny blaster in his bunched up fist. Armor would have done little against a DLT-19 rifle’s spitting volley. Not at point-blank range. This sad fool was wearing a recruit’s uniform. Bale caught another soldier rising up from the corner of his eyes, but he didn’t have time to even consider blasting him. Zehsaa’s perfect shot caught him through one eye. Bale was immensely grateful for the Togruta’s skill right then. He glanced over his shoulder at his Twi’lek companion. Zentru’la, always clad in his pristine armor, was laying down cover fire, his repeating cannon leaving a smoking trail of scorch marks along enemy lines. The Zabrak couldn’t see his face but he would have wagered a bottle of Corellian Hooch the fellow was frowning at him. Bale didn’t rightly blame him, but after Nar Shaddaa, the Twi’lek had to know what to expect.

The enemy tried to retreat to abysmal results. Wherever they went up, they were put right back down. Those that stayed put fired blindly in Bale’s general direction, their blasters flailing this way and that out of cover. Not a one came close to hitting their mark. He kicked his plated boots up, vaulted over their cover and landed right in their midst. Eyes went wide. Mouths went slack. Repeater repeated.

Once again, the hangar was plunged in stunned silence. Bale thought he could still hear the sound of blaster fire ringing in his ears.

“Whoo!” he cheered with all the enthusiasm of a jackpot-winning Canto Bight gambler, “I do love me a good landing!”

“And an explosive entrance,” Zehsaa hissed with a drip more venom than he’d have liked. So that was still happening. Bale sighed inwardly. There was a time when she’d been whooping at his antics, joining in on it even. They’d made quite the deadly pair, the two of them. Now, the Togruta sharpshooter was all business and his cot was left empty and cold at night. Before he could respond she’d turned her back to him. Thankfully, that meant an eyeful of her supple form in that revealing, black jumpsuit. He puffed his cheeks and blew out his frustration.

He needed a drink.

He turned his gaze to the Twi’lek Colonel. Zentru’la was barking orders at the squad of six Imperial Scholae stormtroopers filing down from the boarding vessel’s ramp. They scurried to the whipping crack of his voice to set up a defense perimeter across the hangar. Someone had to stay back to guard their ticket off the Collective’s cruiser, and that wasn’t going to be Bale. He reckoned Zentru’la, for all his stoic frowns and brick-sized chin, wasn’t about to stay back either. So it fell to the boys in white. He could live with that.

Two more climbed down. First came Aylin Sajark, the key, their ace in the hole. The Nautolan moved sheepishly, blaster in one hand, datapad in the other, an uncertain twist to her green lips. Her thumb was hammering at the screen with all the speed of a pecking Mynock. Bale didn’t know a thing about slicing but he reckoned she was the best he knew. Plus, she knew her way around explosives, and that made her A-ok in his book. Kaela Val came last, her black cloak sweeping onto the deck. When pushed her hood back, revealing her youthful features, Bale’s breath caught in his throat. Black paint formed an horizontal band over the eyes, making their green color pop and for one moment, one fleeting, infinitesimal second, he thought he saw her mother. The girl had—so very thankfully—inherited just about everything from her Kiffar mother and nothing from his ugly, drunken mug. In that black skin-tight attire and with that cloak wrapped around her shoulders, she certainly looked every bit as deadly as her mother had been. He felt a surge of pride watching her. Then his eyes settled on the lightsaber hanging off her belt. His heart sank faster than Collective troopers to a boarding crew. She moved quietly, arms wrapped around her as sure as her cloak, eyes riveted to the body of one Collective trooper as she stepped over it. This was no place for a novice, no matter how powerful she was. Bale had pleaded with the Palatinaean empress to keep his daughter out of harm’s way, pleaded with words and Bryar pistol both to no avail. Nothing would sway the ruler’s will. That much was becoming clear to him. She had her claws in deep, and she wasn’t letting go, not until he made her. And so he turned to the next best option: fighting alongside Kaela. At least, this way, he could keep an eye on his beloved.

“Hey, Andros!” Zentru’la’s bass voice snapped the bounty hunter from his reverie.

“Time for a drink?”

“Not this time. Let’s get the hangar door open.”

Bale sighed as he threw his rifle over his armored shoulder and joined the Twi’lek.

It took Aylin some time to realize the fighting had stopped. The Nautolan frowned down at the pistol, cool and unused in her hand, then back at the datapad in her other hand. The ship’s schematics scrolled down bright and blue to the flick of a thumb. It was a good thing Zehsaa had brought a backup datapad along. Apparently, datapads weren’t built to withstand a big Zabrak butt. An eager, inquisitive bleep tugged her attention back to the boarding shuttle. A splash of bright colors was peering around the edge of the ramp.

“Yes, you can come out now,” she said with a hint of impatience.

The astromech droid came whirring down the ramp with enthusiasm to match their bounty hunter companion’s bloodlust. If she hadn’t ordered it back into the ship when they landed, it would been rolling in glued at Bale’s hip.

I really need to tweak its programming.

The droid shot past her and she let it be for now. Her efforts were better spent scouring those wireframe schematics for some access point she could tap into. Before she could focus, a shadow brushed past her . Kaela Val. The new girl. Boy, did she give her the creeps. As if her being a Force user wasn’t enough, there were rumors about her abilities. It had taken a long time to warm up to Zehsaa, and to a lesser extent, the Empress, and even then, she didn’t much trust their space magick. Kaela stopped in her footsteps ahead, then glared at her from over her shoulder. Their eyes met for just a split second. Aylin retreated to her datapad. She didn’t like this one bit. And the fact that she was Bale Andros’ daughter didn’t comfort her any.

Aylin could still feel the girl’s eyes on her as she scurried away towards her other companions. She joined Zentru’la and Bale at the hangar door, curious as to why it wasn’t open already. The two giants were arguing and gesticulating angrily. They stopped talking when they saw her approaching. She got her answer when she spotted the smoking access panel behind them. She said nothing, pushed past them, popped the carbonized plate off and set to work on the interface. She yanked a braid of wires out, all blackened, and tossed it over her shoulder. Tongue sticking out of her mouth, she pulled out two more wires and touched them together. There was a spark, but the door remained disappointingly shut.

“Busted,” she announced, her eyes aimed directly at the hulking Zabrak.

The bounty hunter poking an accusing finger at the Twi’lek’s, “Pops did it.”

“I actually look where I’m shooting, Andros,” the soldier said with a grunt.

Aylin pulled up the datapad. She quickly found what she was looking for. She ran her fingers along the wall away from the panel, one, two, three strides. Sure enough, there was an access point. She looked around for the astromech, found it prodding at a dead Collective soldier.

“Spots, stop that!” she hissed. Its domed head spun her way. She pointed to the access point as it rolled up. It beeped and booped, extended its connector rod and rammed it into the outlet. “Get that door open will you?”

With that taken care of, she went back to the schematics. There were a series of access points and terminals along the ship’s corridors, but slicing into them would be tricky. For one, they were out in the open. Even with her considerable escort, there was no guarantee she wouldn’t catch a blaster bolt tapping in. Second, the Akan’s main systems were offline, taken out by the Imperial Scholae Navy’s ion cannons. They were going to have to get to the bridge if they hoped to break into the ships auxiliary systems and overload the ship’s reactor core.

There was a groan, and the hangar door began to move.

“Let’s get moving,” Zentru’la ordered.

Alarm bells blared throughout the Akan. The party’s explosive entrance had alerted the entire ship to the presence of an enemy boarding force. “ Bridge is a few levels up. Sajark, where to now?” the Colonel asked of the Nautolan, unwilling to waste any time in the hangar corridor.

A couple of seconds of staccato rhythm of fingernails on datapad… “There’s a turboblift not too far! That way!” she gestured a direction down the corridor. Shielded by the two hulking masses of muscle and metal in front of them the team made their way through the ship with haste. Their haste was justified as a small squad of Collective troopers came hurtling around the corner from the direction of their destination, but Bale and Zentru’la’s repeaters laid down so much firepower that their front line was obliterated before they could even take aim. Bale’s unpredictability was a potential liability, but very few times in Zentru’la’s long military career had he fought alongside such a formidable fighter. He made a powerful ally, so long as you kept one step ahead of him. That wasn’t always so easy.

The sound of Zehsaa’s pistol was muffled in the cacophony of the heavy repeaters leading the charge, but its effect was no less devastating. She walked with her back to the team, neutralising an attack from the rear with surgical precision to little fanfare. Kaela was a shadow illuminated in violet by her lightsaber as she parried blaster bolts, aimed at other members of the team.

A thunderous strike from the Imperial Scholae Navy shook the Akan, almost sending Zentru’la tumbling off balance as he called the turbolift to their floor. When he looked back, he found the Zabrak bounty hunter leaning against the wall. One long, arcing scratch along the surface suggested Bale might have gone in head first.

Clearly designed to transport military platoons from the barracks to the hangar, the lift was more than big enough for the strike team and Aylin’s droid. “That’s odd,” Zehsaa remarked.

“What’s wrong now?” Bale asked impatiently.

“We’re setting off the weight warning.”

Aylin giggled. “Maybe some of us need to lose some weight!”

“No time to worry about that now,” Zentru’la said as he punched in the floor for the bridge on the control terminal. The lift began to accelerate towards the top deck. “This is it. We get to the bridge, we go in hard, we hit ‘em harder and be the only ones standing when the dust settles.”

“Something… something feels wrong,” Kaela was whispering to herself, her eyes wide with confusion, “I, I don’t understand what’s happening, I feel… I hear… Oh no!”

They’d made it up only a few levels before the turbolift suddenly jolted and screeched to stop, sending Zentru’la’s team staggering around the platform. Bale and Zentru’la were knocked down by an invisible crack to the back of the skull. Zehsaa found her sniper rifle wrenched clean from her hands. Before they could recover, ten collective soldiers deactivated their personal holoshrouds, weapons pointed at the team. Special forces. “Drop your weapons!” echoed around the turbolift from the ambushers, mostly at Bale, who had already reached for his blaster pistol.

“Stand down,” Zentru’la said placing his own pistol on the ground, raising his hands. They had both superior numbers and a superior position, weapons already trained on their targets.

Bale being Bale, that wasn’t going to fly. “Like hell I am!”

“Drop your weapons!” The commandos on edge. “We are taking you to the captain!”

“Andros. Do it.”

“Bale listen to him!” Zehsaa pitched in, her voice sharp.

“Blast you both!” Bale spat phlegm with every word.

They were all screaming at once, the tension rising with the heat. Aylin had joined in, pleading with Bale who was growing less and less coherent with each passing second. His knuckles were white from gripping the Bryar pistol so tightly. His hand was visibly shaking. It was a wonder no one had fired a shot already. Any moment now. Zentru’la could almost smell carbonized flesh. The bastard was going to get them all killed.

“Stop!”

Everyone of them stopped talking at once.

“You will not take us to the captain.” The female voice was pleasantly soft yet authoritative, melodious yet overpowering. Zentru’la felt immediately compelled to listen. Bale too, had fallen quiet. An eerie stillness fell over the turbolift. Kaela Val stepped into the center, her movements slow, deliberate, her gaze sweeping over the enemy commandos. “We must reach the Akan’s mainframe. You will help us.”

“Yes, ma’am,” the leader spoke, obedient and eager to assist.

Yes, ma’am?

The words echoed in Bale’s mind and he realized he’d almost spoken the words aloud. The Zabrak frowned down at his empty, half-clutched hand, wondering when it was that he’d holstered his blaster. Then he looked around him. He wasn’t dreaming. The Collective commandos had lowered their weapons at Kaela’s behest, and for that matter, so had everyone else. The enemy stood still around them as if awaiting her orders while Bale’s companions, for their part, all wore the same splitting frown on their faces. All eyes were on his daughter. It took the Zabrak a moment longer to wrap his mind around what had just unfolded, but dawning realization came down on him like a meteor. Someway, somehow, Kaela had used the Force on them, every last one of them. This left a bitter taste in his mouth, alright. He wanted to spit in disgust, but that was his daughter. What was he to do?

He swallowed hard as he stepped up behind her, finding it excruciatingly hard to place his hand on her shoulder but he did so anyways. He had to.

“Kaela?” He spoke the name softly, as if jostling her might set off a bomb.

She peered over her shoulder up at him, her face paint catching the gleam of light, giving her a disconcerting, feral look about her. Beneath those piercing eyes, he found a smile of satisfaction. The kind of satisfaction he could understand, the same kind he felt whenever he collected on a bounty. The sweet, sweet taste of success. That was his daughter alright, playing Jedi under that dark veil.

“We need to move,” she whispered for his benefit. She turned to the enemy, “Remove your cloak emitters. You will not require them any longer.”

They did as asked, moving as one to unhook the devices from their belts, then proceeded to toss them aside as one would a piece of junk. Bale watched the devices slide over the edge of the turbolift. They might have come in handy, but then, he reckoned he wasn’t much of the sneaking type anyway.
“We should kill them,” Bale growled. He didn’t relish the thought of killing unarmed men, never had, but then he reckoned this was no place for scruples. If they let them be, the commandos were bound to turn against them before this was over. You have to be realistic about these things.

“The ambush was planned. Somebody is issuing orders to them,” Zentru’la chipped in. He was right. Someone knew this was going down. No two ways about it.

“And that means they know where we are. They are monitoring the turbolift’s position.” Zehsaa completed the Twi’lek’s train of thought.

“So we keep pushing. We’ve come this far,” Bale groaned as he bent over, plastron sinking in his gut as he swept his rifle off the floor. He trained it on the enemy, ready to open fire at a moment’s notice, but Kaela’s hand came up. He waited.

The young girl, barely an adult, stepped up to the foremost commando—the leader, if the pins and stripes on his armor were anything to go by. She said nothing as she placed her hand before his helmet. They stood this way for what seemed an eternity. When the man began to fidget and grunt Bale realized he’d been chewing the inside of his cheek. He had seen a whole lot of dark pfassk in his line of work, and done his fair share if he were being honest, but this was getting to be downright sinister. Kaela dropped her hand, and with it, the enemy leader, who slumped down to his hands and knees, panting through painstaking sobs.

“Zentru’la is right. Their Captain, a Rodian, issued the orders,” explained Kaela.

“Brith Kayle,” the old Twi’lek soldier announced.

“Indeed. The order came with specific directives. He wants us alive, though he did not impart with his reasoning to this man.”

“Didn’t need to. He’s looking to extract information from us.,” explained Zentru’la. Kaela shot him a quizzical glance from over her shoulder and he elaborated, “Torture. Some of us are high ranking officials within the Dark Brotherhood. Perhaps not you or your father, but don’t go thinking you’ll be spared”
“That doesn’t change a thing,” the Nautolan slicer spoke from behind her astromech droid, one hand sitting on its color-spotted dome. “We need to get to the bridge if we’re going to complete our mission.”
Zehsaa grimaced at the enemy soldiers, “What are we going to do with them?”

“We will help you,” croaked the squad leader, halfway to straightening himself up.

“Kaela, can we trust them?” Bale couldn’t believe the words were coming out of Zentru’la’s mouth. He’d watched the soldier tear through a gang-full of Nar Shaddaa creeps without batting an eyelash. What was this? Honor?

“Trust them? They’re the enemy!” Aylin’s voice was a frustrated squeak.

“If I can maintain my hold… there is no reason to kill—”

A shriek of blaster fire lit the turbolift red as it cut a vicious circle through the enemy squad. Some collapsed where they stood, scorch marks sizzling through their armor. Others were thrown over the railing and out of sight. None were spared. Then, the shriek ended as abruptly as it had begun, the barrel of Bale’s repeater rifle smoking and reeking of carbon, his massive chest heaving with each breath. He threw the weapon down, then spat as he stomped over to the turbolift’s controls. He punched at them, his hammer of a fist nearly caving the console in in the process. Not a one of them spoke as the lift got moving once more, but he could feel their eyes on him. Kaela stood there as pale as a ghost, jaw hanging slack, hands shaking at her sides. Once more the Zabrak retrieved the rifle, one giant’s claw snatching it up by the carry handle, his dark eyes locked on hers.

“You… you…” Kaela stuttered.

“Monster?” asked Bale.

She did not answer. He didn’t press. The group rode the elevator up in silence except for Aylin’s astromech and its gleeful bleeps and bloops. The blasted thing clearly wasn’t programmed to read the vibe. Bale might have shot it too, had it not been a pleasing distraction from his daughter’s sagging shoulders. Was she not ready for this? Questions would have to wait for another time. A time when they weren’t standing right dab in the middle of an enemy ship. A time when there wasn’t a thermal detonator clattering onto the turbolift. He did a double take as the rounded explosive rolled and stopped against his boot, flashing in glorious and deadly red.

“Uh,” was all he could think to say.

Zehsaa was already moving, her hands stretched out before her, weaving a great arc through the air. Like a leaf swept up by the wind, the explosive matched the Togruta’s movements and swung away from Bale up whence it came, disappearing out the level above. Barely a thought had gone through the Zabrak’s head. He barely had time to register what was happening before he was flattened by the explosion.

The lift was frozen. The explosion of the thermal detonator bathed the lift shaft in a crimson glow as the shockwave channeled downwards, sending the group to the floor. “Good work Hysh,” Zentru’la rose back to his feet nodded his appreciation to Zehsaa. He had served the Imperial Scholae Army for decades, and was familiar with serving alongside the Jedi of Scholae Palatinae. Zehsaa Hysh was one in particular he had been looking forward to working with, her skills behind a sniper scope were legendary in the among the troops, with her still holding the record for the longest confirmed kill by Scholae personnel. It was interesting that Bale disliked Force users so much, to him they were quite alike, equal parts powerful and unpredictable.

Bale punched in the command on the lift terminal repeatedly to restart its motion, cursing loudly, but it was still frozen. The explosion of the thermal detonator had blasted out the controls. “So what now?” Bale growled, getting more and more frustrated about this whole damn situation by the second.

“Up there!” Aylin said with youthful enthusiasm that did very little to lighten Bale’s mood. The thermal detonator Zehsaa had returned to sender had blasted a giant hole in the lift shaft few metres up. “We just need to get up there!” she looked down at her datapad, then up at the hole. “I think that’s one floor below the bridge!”

“But how do we get up there?” Zentru’la had barely finished his sentence before Kaela had answered it through action, launching her grappling hook up the elevator shaft, latching it to the hole.

“Who’s first?” Kaela asked, her shoulders down, expression dejected, like she had lost all will to continue with the mission after her father’s actions.

A huge gauntlet grabbed hold of the rope. “If this thing can take my weight, it can take anyone’s,” Bale stated as he planted his feet on the wall of the elevator shaft to help haul himself up. As Bale laboriously hauled his heavy frame and armour up the grappling hook rope, Zehsaa made her own way up with an unnaturally graceful leap. The Togruta sharpshooter demonstrated her prowess in close range combat, sparking a crimson lightsaber into action as she landed her leap in a roll, slashing at Collective troops on the upper level.

Kaela watched Zehsaa’s incredible leap past Bale. At that moment having more respect and trust in the Togruta than she did in her father, she mimicked her leap, igniting the blade that her father so hated seeing her carry, as much an act of defiance as anything else. From half way up the rope Bale could not see the action unfolding above, only hear the unmistakable sound of lightsaber attacks in a rapid staccato rhythm from his one-time lover and his daughter, and the screaming of collective troops.

By the time he reached the top, the fighting was already over. He hated missing a good fight. They were in a maintenance room on the floor blow the bridge, with an entrance on both sides. Most of the people Zehsaa and Kaela had defeated were technicians armed with blaster pistols. Zentru’la and Aylin appeared soon after.

Aylin quickly scanned the room they were in, her sharp eyes taking in the information on the terminals. “Nothing here will have what we need,” she shrugged, looking at each terminal in turn. “All low level stuff, sewage systems, communication… looks like we’ll need to get up to the bridge to get the info we need and overload the reactor core remotely.”

“We get there the same way we got here,” Zentru’la suggested. “We blow a giant hole in the ceiling to get to the bridge.”

“We can get straight under the bridge through a hallway out that entrance!” Aylin said with visible excitement at Zentru’la’s suggested methodology.

“Right, we get to that point, blast our way in, disrupt the bridge and get to the main terminal. Aylin can hack into the terminal, extract the information, set the reactor to overload, and we run like hell back to the han—”

The blaster bolt Zentru’la caught to the chest and sent him sprawling to his back, the blast sliding him across the floor. His ragtag team of infiltrators jumped to action around him. Zehsaa was a blur of death as she produced her sniper rifle and dropped to one knee, unleashing hell this way and that from one end of the chamber to the other alternatively, one, two, three, four, five, six shots, before she switched to her Relby pistol. Aylin and her astromech ducked into cover, the Nautolan taking potshots from around her hiding spot while the droid whistled and whooped . The enemy poured in from both entrances at once, a tactical mistake that immediately nullified their number. Realizing the high risk for friendly-fire, the Collective attackers were constrained to charge, stun batons and vibroblades flashing. Bale met them with a crack of his repeater—a sledgehammer in his hands—across the chest, clothes-lining two soldiers at once and sending them down for the count. He moved with speed that belied his mass, pulled the Bryar pistol from its holster. Twin crimson bolts ended them both before they could recover. A third came up, forcing the Zabrak to discard pistol and rifle. The soldier got a kick in. Bale brought his horned head down in retaliation, bludgeoning the man bloody. Then, the bounty hunter set to kicking.

Kaela had been moving since before the bolt took Zentru’la down. She stood over him now, her lightsaber in her hand, forming a protective perimeter around the fallen soldier. Swinging the violet blade in a backhanded figure-eight pattern she kept the enemy at bay. She gasped when the Twi’lek sat up from beneath her, pushed her aside at the hip and shoved the bulk of his grenade launcher past her with one hand. The weapon bucked and she stared in awe as the cylindrical explosive spun over itself and flew straight across the room with all the precision of a crack shot. It bounced once, twice, then disappeared out the far door to set the world beyond on fire. The explosion could be felt from inside the room. When Kaela turned away, her face paler than ever, the Twi’lek was standing before her, his broad, armored chest eclipsing her view. Polished, spotless, and perfect, except for the smoking scar dead center.

“Zehsaa! Shoot the door out!” Zentru’la shouted…

There was no asking her twice. In one fell swoop, the Togruta roundhouse-kicked an attacker, whipping him off his feet, then came up with her Relby blaster and pulled the trigger. The door’s control panel exploded. The blast door came crashing down into the fray, cutting off any potential reinforcements from that side. She was about to take out the other one when Bale caught her wrist. Their eyes locked momentarily but he was pulled back into fighting before he could say anything.

“Ah ha! I was right! The bridge is right above us!” Aylin could barely be heard above the clatter of the melee. “We need to get this done now!”

The Zabrak bounty hunter doubled an enemy over with a knee to the gut, grabbed him by the back of his collar and flipped him into a wall. At Aylin’s words, he glanced up at the ceiling and then back at towards their one remaining exit. The Collective kept on coming through, stepping over their downed comrades to make it inside.

“Now would be a good time to do something!” he screamed at Kaela but she sneered her response.

“I will not kill them!”.

“Blast it, kid! What the kriff is it you think we’re here to do?”

“I… I…” She had no answer. Her eyes were wide with fear. She may have been as immensely powerful as the rumors said, but Kaela was still the same young, innocent, naive girl, his beloved daughter, his everything. This was no life for her, he could see that now. She wasn’t ready, and part of him hoped she never would be. She wasn’t a killer. She wasn’t like him.

A fine sentiment, but it only mattered if they actually made it off of this blasted cruiser alive.

He waded through the fray as if he were moving through chest-high, churning water, punching and body slamming his way across towards Aylin. Green blasts from the Relby pistol dragged his attention over to Zehsaa as the Togruta continued to unleash a hail of shots from point blank range, a blur caught in a deadly dance of spins and twists and flips. She fired faster than anyone could punch or kick. Faster than she could swing a saber, he wagered. He winced and hissed when a vibroblade nicked the Togruta’s shoulder and broke her rhythm, leaving her open to a stun baton in the back. Bale had to fight his every instincts not to help her. There was no time.

He reached Aylin just as a Collective officer yanked the Nautolan back over her cover by the head-tails. He brought a massive fist up, before he could do anything, a pair of yellow, armored-clad hands wrapped around the man’s head and snapped his neck. Zentru’la dropped the body…

“Here!” Bale spoke past him at the Nautolan as he plopped a nice, big proton charge into her hands. “You do your thing! I’ll do mine!”

She was gaping at him, her black eyes blank, her mouth working wordlessly.

“You know how this work this, right?”

She nodded, a stiff, rapid kind of nod, the kind that said, I’ll do it, but whatever happens, it’s your fault.

“Good. Set the timer, then you haul out of here. Pops, you get Kaela and Zehsaa,”

Everything happened quickly. Zentru’la joined Kaela and, together, they got Zehsaa. Aylin was already up on a stack of crates, her droid booping after her as she picked out where the ceiling might be most vulnerable. It didn’t take her much longer before the explosive charge was planted.

Bale, for his part, mowed through the thinning resistance, head low and shoulders out wide, like a rampaging Reek. He bludgeoned his way across the room towards the remaining entrance but a stun grenade clattering into the chamber stopped him in his tracks if only for a moment. They never learn, he sighed as he kicked it back out the door. He slipped into cover right next to the entrance before there was a violent crack of electricity and a bright flash. Then, silence, hollow and thankless. This wasn’t over, not yet. He kicked into action and burst out into the hall with a roar, his wrist-mounted arsenal charged and ready, held up pointing on either sides of him down the hallway. More Collective creeps were coming from all directions and begin firing in his direction the moment they spotted him. Blaster bolts crisscrossed around him, too kriffing close for comfort. He unleashed hell. His right arm bucked as it fired a rocket into an oncoming squad. The left engulfed the corridor in spitting, golden flames.

It bought Aylin all the time she needed and the team filed out of the doorway one after the other, pushing past Bale with their own weapons at the ready. He kept mental count of them. Aylin, Spots, Zehsaa, Kaela, Zentru’la, they all made it past and into cover across the hall through the hail storm of enemy fire.

“Dad!” Kaela called out, motioning for him to join them, but the ship exploded around him.

Aylin, lying on hands and knees, was wracked with violent coughs as the smoke cleared from around her. As her stinging eyes regained focus, she thought she was somewhere else entirely. The hall, or at least what remained of it, was riddled with shrapnel and debris, plunged in darkness, lit only by red, blinking emergency lights. The room where they’d planted the proton charge all but gone, obliterated, the walls torn out from within. All that remained was a massive gaping hole two stories high. If she winced through the floating cinder and the lingering flames, she could see the bridge above, and, to her amazement, the level below them. She shouldn’t have been surprised. Everything had happened so fast, she’d been driven by the shock of it all from the moment the Zabrak had thrusted the Proton charge into her hands. What else could she have expected? The explosive was built to breach a ship’s hull. And now, it had made short work of Akan’s inner structure. Worse yet, it now dawned on her that the explosion might have damaged the computer core. If that was the case, there was no moving forward. The mission was a bust.

A grunt pulled her attention away from the destruction back to her companions. She realized with shock that a circle around them remained as pristine as Zentru’la’s armor, untouched by the explosion. At their center, Kaela still knelt, arms stretched out and shaking. The Nautolan swallowed hard. The girl had saved them. She had no notion how she had done that, but there they were. She realised one of them hadn’t been so lucky. Bale lay just short of the circle, sprawled face down, arms twisted awkwardly at his sides. He was dead. He had to be.

“Bale? Bale!” Zehsaa all but shoved Aylin out of the way as she scrambled to get to Bale. Aylin’s head was still swimming as she watched the Togruta kneel down next to the Zabrak and stuck her hands underneath him. She shoved at him hard to roll him to his back, her pointed teeth gleaming in the red flashing light. He did roll, and groaned as he did so.

“Oh,” he croaked, “that’ll leave a mark.”

Zentru’la was up on his feet, surmising the scene with cannon in hand, trailing back and forth from one end of the wall to the other. Aylin could see no movement, except for sparks and blinking lights. What Collective armor she could make out in the debris was utterly and completely still. She could still not believe they had survived. Spots had rolled up to her, blooping as he prodded her with his extended tools.

“I’m alright, I’m just… wow,” she told the astromech. It whistled affirmatively.

“Dad?” Kaela asked as she approached him. Her voice was a tremor, as if she was close to crying. Aylin wasn’t much older than the Force user, but she figured she’d witnessed a whole lot more death and destruction than a save guarded bounty hunter’s daughter. Zehsaa nodded and smiled up at the girl, a friendly smile, equal parts reassuring and relieved. Aylin noted the Togruta’s hand lingering on the man’s heaving chest. She felt a pang of jealousy, but quickly shook it off. That was a story for another day.

“I’m alright,” the bounty hunter said, echoing the Nautolan. He was already pulling to his feet, the resilient bastard, but he’d clearly been hurt. If the blood hadn’t been a dead give away, the way he was holding his left arm up against his chest like a wounded person would have betrayed him. “Still alive,” he chuckled.

“Andros, can you walk?” Zentru’la was all business. Someone had to be. The Zabrak nodded. “We need to end this.”

Zentru’la glanced over towards Aylin with a fatherly kind of nod. The kind of nod that said, “I’ve got your back.” This strengthened her own resolve. When you had a man like him behind you, you could do literally anything. They moved together over to the hole, the droid hot on their heels. Kaela and Zehsaa lingered back, fussing over Bale as he struggled to remain upright, asking after his weapons. The Togruta was back to her stoic self again, any hint of worry gone. Now that the giant was safe, the animosity was fair game again.

“I can’t believe you got my guns out.” Aylin heard him laugh weakly.

With a flick of her hand, Aylin produced her datapad—or rather Zehsaa’s as the sniper had had to reminder a few times—and conjured up the cruiser’s blueprints. Her eyes flickered left and right as she followed electrical grids. It took a moment, but she found what she was looking for. Her lips curled up with a grin.

“Finally, we caught a break,” she mused aloud.

“I reckon we caught more than one,” said a gravely, tired voice from behind her. She didn’t have to look back to know it was the Zabrak flapping his gums again. Does the man ever shut up? There was no time to follow that train of thought. The full team was gathered around her, looking to her for directions.

“The explosion did more than erase a pesky room. It breached the bulkhead into the mainframe sitting behind the bridge.”

“In common, please?” Zehsaa reminded her.

“The computer core. I can access it from within the structure. With a bit more luck and a whole lot of cooperation from Spots, I can extract the information and overload the computer from inside. No need to stick my head out on the bridge for someone to shoot at.”

“Uh, that sounds like good luck for you, maybe. We’ll be sitting mynocks out here,” Zehsaa pointed out.

“I’ve got a few punches left in me,” Zentru’la stuck his chin up with a prideful smirk.

“Eh, does he? Won’t be that easy for me either. We need to get Spots up into the mainframe with me, and I need him steady if he’s going to plug in. That means muscles or,” Aylin swallowed as she said the last option, “Space magick.”

Zehsaa shot her a grin, lifted one hand, but Bale spoke up before she could lift the droid, “I’ll lift the droid.”

“You’ve got to be kidding? In your state?” Zehsaa was incredulous, and more than a little annoyed by his interruption. “I can handle it, you blasted fool.”

“Dad, she’s right, there’s no need for this,” Kaela chipped in.

It was Zentru’la who answered for Bale, “The enemy will be coming for us. We need to make a stand if we’re going to buy Aylin the time she needs. We need Zehsaa. Bale, are you up for this?”

“I’ll hoist your fat ‘hind around, Twi’lek,” the Zabrak growled. “‘Sides. Not gonna do much good with a repeater now, I reckon. Zehsaa, you take it.”

“They are coming,” announced Kaela before they could hear any sort of footsteps.

They set the plan into motion. Aylin was already climbing over twisted durasteel into the gap, Bale lumbering after her with spots. He moved slowly, but the Zabrak pulled through, conjuring enough strength to hoist the astromech after him. Before he disappeared completely, Bale caught Zehsaa hoisting his DLT-19 heavy repeater over her shoulder and bit his lip.

“That there’s what dreams are made of, Spots. Dreams.”

Then they were gone from sight.

Zentru’la was the first to move, jogging along the hall until he found a key position to set a trip mine. The defenders then lined up before the breach, a Twi’lek with a cannon, a Togruta frowning down at her oversized repeater, and a young Kiffar with her lightsaber blazing violet.

The trio squeezed themselves into the cramped, hexagonal shaft that comprised the mainframe’s servers, a compartment no more than four times the breadth of Bale’s shoulders with a towering pillar sitting at its center, taking up most of the space. It was no place for astromech droids or bounty hunters for that matter. The Collective likely used technicians and more modern types of maintenance droids with repulsorlifts to maintain the Akan’s systems. As Aylin had suspected, the connector points were sitting some ways above the ground, well beyond the droid’s reach. That’s where the Zabrak came in, if he managed to hold on.

She pulled her slender body up the structure, hand over hand, her eyes probing the imposing amalgamation of electronics and servers until she found a series of access terminals that would do the trick. A vicious grin split her lips. This was her moment. She propped her feet up against the pillar, pressed her back against the cool durasteel of the outer wall, then flicked out a full array of slicing tools. Some, she set onto her lap, others she stuck through her teeth for quick access as she worked her magic. She fished out her computer probe and plugged it into the wall terminal. She found a good spot to set her datapad down, then brought up the software she would require.

Whining whistles and panicked boops and beeps drew her attention downwards. The Zabrak was already hoisting the droid up, grunting and visibly struggling to get Spots onto his shoulders. He was positively glowing with sweat, his greasy hair stuck to his face. She wondered then if maybe they’d be rid of Bale Andros soon. She found both terror and relief at that thought. Despite her reservations, the droid was now perched on the bounty hunter’s shoulders, plugged into the core.

“Alright, Spots. First, we get us some dirty, dirty info on these Collective jerks,” she explained, “The moment I break through security, you start downloading.”

The droid agreed with an eager whirr.

Here. We. Go.

The drip, drip, drip of sweat as it pearled over his brow and gathered at the tip of his nose to then fall to the floor was his anchor. The pain in his left arm, the cramping muscles, the waning strength, they were his world. Bale could hear the rhythmic thump of his heartbeat in his temples as if it were a distant war drum. He clenched his teeth as the droid shifted on his shoulders, its base wheel pressing down on his armor, causing its straps to dig into his skin. Spots bleeped and blooped with satisfaction from his perch.

“Stars and tides! We did it!” Aylin’s hushed, disbelieving tone danced on the edge of his consciousness. Almost instantly, the wail of sirens poured in from outside the breach in short, grinding bursts.

“Warning: Reactor Core Overload,” announced a robotic, female-sounding voice.

As if on cue, the Zabrak’s legs gave out from under him. Everything that followed was a blur. He was only half-conscious when he dragged himself out from the mainframe breach, hauling the droid behind him, his body seemingly moving of its own volition as if it was running on sheer survival instincts. He barely registered the combat that raged around him, barely noticed the pair of small hands that clamped down around him, heaving and tugging without much success. He was only remotely aware of the Bryar pistol pulsing in his right hand as the team pushed through the endless maze of corridors. The Nautolan slicer’s voice called directions from somewhere up ahead. His boots stomped and scrapped after them. Something kept bumping and prodding up against him like some impatient brat, filling his ears with frustrated, binary bleeping. The rest of them were a blur, a parade of silhouettes casting a circus display of lasers as they darted to and fro all around him. The Akan rocked up and down, again and again, the floor bucking then falling, bouncing the bounty hunter and sending him lurching and tumbling. The clatter of boots, the repeating bursts of sirens, the shriek of blasters, the rumbling of distant explosions, it all melded into some nondescript, tuneless but oh so galvanizing melody that reverberated through his mind.

He wondered as he trudged on if mayhaps he was dead, just a massive, horned, armor-clad corpse lumbering along. It made sense, really. Say one thing about Bale Andros, say he was a stubborn bastard. It wouldn’t like him to let something as insignificant as death get in his way. And yet, as they reached the auxiliary hangar, the world seemed to snap back into place. Maybe it was the sight of the boarding shuttle, or maybe he really was alive after all, and now recovering. Either way, the galaxy seemed to regain its color, appearing vivid and sharp all of a sudden. He walked right into Zentru’la when the Twi’lek stopped cold in his steps.

“What the—” growled Bale but fell silent the moment he saw them: dead stormtroopers, their white, gleaming armor riddled with scorch marks, the purple Scholae Palatinae insignias a beacon on their chests. “Pfassk.”

“Watch out!” Kaela screamed as she shoved Aylin out of harm’s way. A blaster bolt sizzled past them and the whole team ducked for cover. Bale grimly noted the reversed roles as he slid down behind a crate next to dead Collective soldiers. Soldiers they’d made dead.

A whining, nasal-sounding kind of voice spoke over the sound of alarms in broken Basic, “Chuba Brotherhood sleemo! You take my ship, I take yours!” Sure enough, the enemy captain, a pale, gawky Rodian with a cybernetic arm, stood on the ramp of their shuttle, flanked by a full squad of commandos. They were a tough-looking group, not unlike the bastards who’d ambushed her team back on the turbolift.

Bale was already charging up a Bryar pistol shot when Kaela placed a calming hand on his shoulder and said, “Put the blaster away, father.”

The Zabrak did as asked, feeling suddenly compelled to listen to his daughter.

A wave of sorrow washed over Kaela as she slid her hand off of her father’s shoulder. The thought of using her powers on her own father made her sick to the core, and yet, she had no choice. No two ways about it, as he would have said.

The girl inhaled, exhaled, then pushed out of cover. Her black cloak swept the deck behind her as she took careful, controlled steps forward. She could sense their thoughts in the Force. Her father’s chaotic confusion, the Nautolan’s distrust, Zentru’la’s matter-of-factness even now in the face of disaster, they painted a vivid, emotional fresco in her mind. She could almost share the relief and hopefulness that emanated from each individual Collective trooper now aiming to commandeer their escape ship. Above all else, she could feel the maelstrom of fear and hatred that raged within Brith Kayle, and hear his thoughts as if he were speaking aloud. I may escape with my life, but Oligard will have my head for losing the Akan. I need to get away. I need…

“You need to listen to me,” said Kaela as she secured her grasp on their minds.

The truth was that she felt every bit as afraid as they did. The implications were dire for all parties involved. Whoever won this next bid would survive. The loser was doomed. The Akan trembled beneath her feet as if to underline the fact, but she maintained her cool composure as best she could.

“First, lower your weapons,” she ordered. They obeyed. “Now, step down from the ramp.”

She could feel their competing emotions, the eagerness to please in direct contradiction of their self-preservation. And yet, soldier and captain alike acquiesced to her demands…

“You are the enemy,”, she spoke without mercy, her voice sharp as she planted the thoughts in their heads as if she were a farmer sowing her fields, “Again and again you attack our people, you kill our friends, our families. You are not the heroes, the good men fighting their righteous crusade. You kill. Murder. Monsters!. You are sick, driven by fear and lies.”

They stood there absorbing her every word, doubt and self-loathing growing in their minds like a good season’s crop yield. Her grasp on them was complete, and yet, she knew not what to do. What could she to do? The thought of killing them, or harming them, it tore at her insides like a flesh-eating parasite. She could feel her companions’ gaze upon her as surely as if their eyes burned a hole between her shoulder blades, sensed the mix of loathing and astonishment, the fear and the hope. Only Zehsaa understood her, and yet, even she was stricken with sadness. Kaela never wanted this, never asked for any of this. Her eyes faltered at that thought. It was a lie, and she knew it. Over and over she double-guessed her decision, again and again she wondered what it was that she had expected coming about the Akan, but the cold hard truth was that it was she who had volunteered. It was she who now refused to do what had to be done.

She found herself hoping for the shriek of her father’s repeater, for the sweet, sweet release of guilt, but it never came. It was she who controlled the very outcome, she who had to do what needed doing.

Her eyes flicked up. Cold. Hard. Deadly.

“Step aside,” she spat.

They did as asked. Their tight formation parted at the seam, splitting in twin columns and forming a direct pathway towards the boarding shuttle. Only Brith Kayle stood still, barring the way forward, his pale green skin now that much paler, his mouth twisted with terror. She could sense the struggle in his mind, the burning desire to reach for his Blastech pistol.

“Do it,” she snapped.

Like a hound released from its binds, the Rodian’s hand shot down to the X-8 pistol dangling from his waist and ripped it out of its holster. He trained it on her. She could see it shaking in his grip from where she stood. Do it, she insisted, driving the thought into his mind.

“The… galaxy needs to be rid of… of…” the Rodian stuttered.

“Of you,” completed Kaela with a sharp wave of her hand.

One, single bolt. Kaela Val felt nothing as the Rodian collapsed, the side of his head smoldering, the barrel of his X-8 still smoking as it bounced free from his dead grasp. No fear, no hope, no guilt. All eyes were on the dead Collective captain. She would have known exactly what her team thought of her, even if she had not been able to hear their thoughts. They feared her. The loathed her. They felt sick, sad, heartbroken.

She had nearly called her father a monster before, back on the turbolift. Perhaps the jogan fruit did not fall so far from the tree. She was her father’s daughter, after all.

And now, she felt nothing.

She pulled her hood over her head and stepped forward. She walked down the corridor of soldiers. They stood there, back straight, unaffected by their captain’s untimely demise. They watched on as their enemy swept before them, victorious and merciless. Once she was clear of them, she paused. She did not look back as she spoke.

“End this.”

The sound of blaster fire and clattering armor filled her ears as she climbed aboard the shuttle. She was seated and waiting when the rest of the Brotherhood infiltrators joined her.

The escape and the flight back was a silent one. The young Kaela Val sparred no thought for the disturbance which she felt in the Force, for the countless voices that screamed out in terror only to be suddenly silenced.

They had the information. The Akan was gone. Her team lived.

This Phase lasts from October 29th until November the 11th (two (2) weeks)

Request from the organizers: Please add a note to the top of the next post which path your team will choose in this Phase. Thank you.

Phase II objectives

Your team left the dreadnought Akan with information that, together with the data analysed by Clans and the Inquisitorius, has lead your to the Meridian Prime space station, a fortress, correctional facility and space dock floating in interstellar space just off the Wild Space boundary. Already under attack by Clan and Dark Council forces, dogfights light up the blackness around the behemoth, and intel suggests the shields and defenses have not yet been weakened enough for a full-scale naval assault. The station is on full alert and firefights have already started as skirmishes between Collective troops and Brotherhood assault teams pepper its three massive hangar bays.

The station houses civilian and enemy personnel, including a correctional facility that holds hundreds of Brotherhood prisoners of war, both Non-Force users and Force users alike. The prison has an isolated security system, its own power generator and life-support. Intel suggests that the prison is managed by a powerful AI (artificial intelligence) controlling the Dioxis security system, many defense blaster turrets, ray shields and a large complement of Imperial Sentry Droids acting as guards, controlled by the prison warden. The interior of the prison itself is pumped with a thin mist of Dioxis gas, preventing escape and anarchy.

You have been dropped off on the lower decks via boarding pod.

Breath masks are provided for this mission, should your team require them. Any Possessions item that prevents inhaling of poisonous gas will be effective as well.

Your team has been tasked to complete one of the following objectives in limited time (you may complete only one (1) objective):

• Revenge path: Reach the correctional facility and eliminate prison warden Rutgar-4. Caution is advised as there are Imperial Sentry Droids defending him.

• Sabotage path: Reach the prison’s AI core to recycle the life support and free the prisoners. Prepare for a riot as many prisoners are powerful Force Users and Non-Force Users.

• Pacifist path: Reach the prison’s AI core and disable the security systems to allow incoming Brotherhood troops to secure the facility.

The phase must end with the prison facility secured, one way or another. In all but the Revenge path, the prison warden’s fate is up to you.

Relevant character sheets:

• CS: Rutgar-4
• Since there are no character sheets for droids, participants will use the Possessions i9tem page as reference: Imperial Sentry Droids
• See the station wiki for other possible adversaries

Phase 2 Objective: Sabotage

Empress Elincia Rei, a the image of a slim togruta in her mid-thirties, stood out like a sore thumb around the tactics room of the ISN Sidious as veteran military commanders debated battle strategy and tactics. Fleets and armies, ships and soldiers were not the Empress’ weapons of choice. A mastermind, a scholar, a conspirator, she felt much more at home in wars of words and ideas than in those of blasters and missiles, but she acknowledged the need to be present for such meetings. Things got done faster when the boss was in town. Her attendance was immediately cut short, however, when she received a message on her commlink. It was from the Akan.

“Continue in my absence,” she stood up and spoke with a smooth, even tone that seemed to carry beyond its volume. Her military uniform was a pristine white, having never seen battle. The blaster at her hip looked fresh off the production line, having never been fired. She turned and left the meeting, making way to her nearby office. By the time she reached her own throne room terminal, the report already compiled and the information decrypted. Zentru’la’s report was short and to the point, stating that the mission was successful and he would provide a full account once back on the Sidious, with the information attached.

The silence was aboard the boarding craft was broken by a bleep from the intercom, followed by a holographic image of the Empress in the centre of the ship. As the image of Zentru’la’s daughter flashed into being in a ghostly holographic blue, beside him he heard Bale ground his teeth against each other at the sight of the witch while Kaela daughter inclined her head respectfully to her master. “You have done well,” she said plainly, appreciatively. “The information Aylin sliced from the bridge terminal has been analysed and decrypted back at the Sidious. The Meridian Prime Valor-type space station is a prison facility housing Brotherhood prisoners of war, mostly patrolled by droids managed by a powerful AI, that sounds rather similar to the G14 system we found on Judecca in 33 ABY. We need you to reach the AI core and disable the security systems to allow for a frontal assault. You’ll be rewarded handsomely if you could extract the powerful AI. I’d love to see how it works. Return to the Sidious, catch your breath, resupply. A boarding pod will be waiting in the hangar for insertion on the lower decks of the prison. Elincia out.” The shimmering blue hologram faded into nothingness.

Scholae space superiority around the Sidious following the destruction of the Akan made the trip back aboard an uneventful one. The squad would appreciate the break to recover emotionally as much as physically. Or at least most of them. Zentru’la watched as Kaela carried herself with a confidence she hadn’t shown before while Bale’s joviality had disappeared, his smile replaced with a suspicious frown in the direction of his daughter as Zehsaa quickly whisked him away to the medical facilities. Aylin’s eyes also flickered back and forth to the Empress’ apprentice as she departed to the armory to restock, leaving Zentru’la and Kaela alone in the hangar.

Kaela was a mystery to the Colonel, but one he wanted to understand. His daughter’s apprentice. Zentru’la had been estranged from his daughter from her childhood up until her mid-thirties. Seeing Kaela in her teenage years was like looking in a mirror back in time to see what his daughter might have been like in her prime in the Imperial Scholae Intelligence’s ace card. “I need to report to the Empress,” the Colonel stated gruffly. “You should come with me, she would like to hear from you too.”

“I would like to see her too,” Kaela affirmed. “She needs to know what happened.”

Kaela bowed to her master as she entered the Empress’ throne room, and Zentru’la greeted his daughter with a military salute, keeping with standard procedure as their parental relationship was not common knowledge. The Colonel retold the story in detail, from the explosive entrance, to Kaela’s mind control in the elevator, through Bale’s slaughtering of all of them, Aylin’s hacking of the terminal and overloading of the reactor core, and Kaela’s actions to get the team out alive. Kaela stayed quiet throughout

“You’ve done well, Kaela,” the Empress said with a smile. “And how did it feel to have the Collective troops under your control?”

“I felt awakened, powerful.” Kaela responded. “Like I had finally found my true calling.”

“Channel that power, savour the feeling of control it gives you, and you will become more powerful than your father could possibly comprehend. Others may become afraid of your power. Never become afraid of yourself.”

“And Colonel Zentru’la,” she said, addressing her father. “We both know Bale’s talents… and… unpredictability. Protect Kaela at all costs. Now return to the hangar. Your team will be waiting for you.” Zentru’la and Kaela left the throne room with the same salute and bow as Elincia looked back at a terminal.

Zentru’la and Kaela arrived back at the hangar to see the team already assembled by the boarding pod, with Bale animatedly talking with Zehsaa. They seemed closer than before, and Bale walked more upright than previously, although their conversation fell silent upon seeing Kaela and Zentru’la, with Bale knowing exactly where they had been, wondering what words had been conversed in the witch’s lair. “No sense standing around longer than we have to,” the Colonel said made sure this wasn’t the time for that conversation. The team boarded the pod with Zentru’la taking the pilot seat.

Not one for fancy techniques, and unfamiliar with the craft, Zentru’la took a direct approach, accelerating the escape pod to top speed, hurtling it directly at Meridian Prime.Through explosions, lasers and smoke, the boarding pod landed on the lower levels of the space station.

It took Aylin a moment before she regained her bearings after hurtling through space in a boarding pod. The others of her team had left the pod a few moments before her and secured the area. Something about Bale’s body language suggested a loss of enthusiasm towards the mission since witnessing Kaela manipulate others through the Force. Kaela seemed to have changed since their last mission, and Aylin too didn’t like that at all. She felt creepier than she did before. Zehsaa had been closer towards Bale, but also… different, like she enjoyed fighting along another Space wizard. She shivered at that thought.

Zentru’la looked towards Aylin and her droid, and she nodded in return before looking on her datapad.

“The AI core isn’t to far from here. I’ll lead you towards it and remember to use your breath masks if needed.”

Aylin’s words were cut short by a hellfire of blaster weapons. Kaela and Zehsaa sprung their orange and violet blades into action, jumping in front of the team to deflect the enemy fire. Five ebony black Imperial Sentry Droids converged on their landing position, blasters firing. From behind the cover of the protective shield formed by the flashing blades of the Force Users, all it took was a few well placed shots to take out the enemy. “This way!” Aylin bounced towards a corridor deeper into the station, flanked on all sides by the team.

Kaela’s bladework began to shine against the robotic opposition, with no moral compass holding her back she cut apart the droids with ruthless precision as the team moved deeper into the space station under the directions of Aylin. “That door!” Aylin shouted above the carnage. “Cover us!” More waves of sentry droids began to swarm around as the team stood in formation around Aylin and her droid while they worked their magic on the security door.

“Are you sure it’s behind that door, girl?” Bale yelled at her.

“Why? You don’t like the extra challenge?” Aylin answered as they ducked away.

After a moment they got the door open and it opened to another hallway. They quickly entered and crossed it, ending into a bigger room with another door, heavier than the one they just passed and heavier guarded too. There were turrets on either side of the door.

“You got to be kidding me…” Aylin said as she saw the turrets aiming towards them.

The next part all happened in a blur to her. She saw Zehsaa and Kaela dart from around her, both ignited their sabers ablaze and struck the shots fired at them. Some deflected back towards the turrets, others covered the walls and ceiling in smoking scorch marks. It took them a few moments, but they were gaining distance on them. A few acrobatic jumps later, it was over. The turrets stopped firing as they had been deftly destroyed by the two lightsaber fighters.

“And that is why it’s a good thing they are on our side,” Zentru’la said with an approving nod.

Aylin got slowly up and walked close towards the smoldering turrets, before getting towards the door that they were guarding.

“My…” Aylin started, before she got bumped by her droid who moved past her and plugged himself into the wall socket. A few bleeps later the door to the AI room opened.

The team dashed into the AI room as the door slammed shut with an almighty crash behind them. Inside was dimly lit, the lightsabers of Zehsaa and Kaela the primary light source, illuminating the team in a crimson hue. “We couldn’t keep it open for long. Besides, at least we won’t be followed!” Aylin explained the dramatic door closure. “We can hack it again to get out. Spots, more light?” A strong flashlight from the droid lit the room in a brighter white light.

The AI core room was silent except the breaths of the team, modulated through the breath masks. A small room, barely big enough for the six of them, a simple looking terminal in the middle was surrounded by large, expensive looking computer equipment. “Don’t damage anything,” Aylin warned as she approached the terminal.

“Turrets!” Zentru’la called to the team, raising his repeating blaster at the ceiling, but his colossal arms were pulled down by the entire frame of Aylin hanging off them.

“No firing!” she said to the Colonel in the strongest telling-off tone of voice she could muster. “Everything here is connected,” she said, as the droid’s light shone on the turrets, revealing cables linking to the AI core. “We don’t know what will happen if we destroy anything in this room”

“So we just let it get the jump on us?” Bale questioned with skepticism, preferring to be the aggressor than the defender.

“If I was rigging this system I’d have the room self destruct if a turret was destroyed,” Aylin explained. “We don’t want that getting the jump on us.”

“Sajark is right, Andros.” Zentru’la conceded. “We can deal with turrets. Getting this right is paramount. If the security systems weren’t dangerous we wouldn’t be here. You know what you’re doing?”

“Nope!” Aylin giggled and her droid approached the terminal, instantly faced with a log-in screen. She had never faced anything quite this advanced. Despite trusting the Nautolan’s abilities, Zentru’la kept his repeater raised, ready for action at any given moment. Deployment of her computer probe bypassed the security systems, delving them deeper into the AI systems.

“Supplies, communication, finances, prisoner info, boring stuff, boring stuff” Aylin mused as she scrolled the menus. “Ah here we are! Security!” Aylin tapped away at the terminal, bypassing a few warnings and access denied error messages. “Hey here’s something, deactivate all security doors. Might as well give ourselves an escape right?”

Kaela seemed oddly silent.

“If anything goes wrong I want a quick route out of here,” Zehsaa piped up, the experienced sniper always knew their escape routes.

“On it!” Aylin tapped a few keys and the door opened behind them.

“WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?” Kaela screamed. Zentru’la felt his heart skip a beat. There was nothing.

“What is it Kaela?” Bale’s fatherly protective instincts kicked in at the sight of his daughter’s fear.

“I felt something, like a wave of… I don’t know. A surge of power. Impending danger.”

“That’s a wave of Force being released… The cells are unlocked as well, which means they will now all fight to get out of here,” Zehsaa said.

“We need to get out of here, and now!” Zentru’la said with a commanding voice.

Zehsaa nodded as she went after Spots who bleeped besides Aylin as it moved out the room the way they entered, followed by Kaela close behind it and Bale, Zentru’la and Aylin quickly followed.

“Spots! Don’t go do stupid things now, we need to return to the pod.” Aylin warned her droid.

More bleeps and tweets were heard as the droid rounded the corner before it hurriedly drove back. The sounds of blaster shots told the rest enough of what would be around the corner of the hall.

Shots were being fired down the hall towards a riot of prisoners who were trying to either get away or unleash their rage onto their captors. So far the guards hadn’t noticed the team yet, but they didn’t stand much of a chance against the riot.

“Aylin, is there a different way back?” Kaela asked.

Hurried fingers ran over the datapad, trying to find a different way out of here and she began to frown, “Guys, most of the routes are connecting to this hall they are fighting in… Or we cut our own path.”

“Or we blast out way through,” Bale said, getting itchy for action and reaching for his weapon.

“…Or that,” Aylin added.

“One way or another, we need to get away,” Zentru’la said, “and I don’t care how, but we act now.”

A big grin grew on Bale’s face as he moved around the corner and unleashed a volley of shots into the room, effectively clearing out the room from any resistance. Kaela flinched for a moment as Bale’s blaster volley eliminated sentients and droids alike, but followed after them just as quickly.

The whole team moved through the hallways back towards their docking location, but before they got there, there was a large group waiting for them. Some of them were able to find weapons from either the guards they killed or lockers.

“So, this is our heroic group of saviours… too bad you won’t be leaving from here,” a gruffy looking Rodian said and motioned to the others behind him, “If they move, shoot them.”

“We don’t have time to deal with this idiot. Charge!” Zentru’la shouted.

With that, Bale and Zentru’la unleashed a volley of blaster shots onto the group. Some got shot down without so much as a chance to fight, but the larger part was able to get out of the way. Zehsaa and Kaela took their lightsabers and fought off the shots fired towards them, keeping the shooters safe behind them.

“Kaela, keep us safe,” Zehsaa called out to her.

She moved a bit back and reached into the Force, calling it to aid them, making them work more effectively together than they did before. Bale, Zentru’la and Aylin worked as a team now, taking out their opponents until there were just a few left who seemed to keep defying the odds.

“They are stronger Force users… Guys, stay back,” Zehsaa warned them, “Kaela, let’s go get them.”

Kaela hesitated a moment, but nodded eventually. Both ran at them and engaged in melee combat, fighting in an out of range of their opposers, armed with lightsabers against the makeshift armaments of whatever the rioters could find. Zehsaa was a blur of moves at times, knocking opponents back with blasts of kinetic energies. Kaela struck them down as they stumbled by from the blasts and backed up by shots from the others.

It didn’t take them to long before all of the resistance was knocked down, and left Zehsaa panting heavily.

Kaela moved over to Zehsaa, “Are you alright?”

“Yeah… I just need a moment… or two.” She felt tired, not just tired, but exhausted.

Bale hurried over to Zehsaa and held her up, “Let’s get you back to the drop off.”

Zentru’la, Spots and Aylin had also gotten to them, “That was some good fighting.”

With that, the team went on towards the drop pod without much resistance from other rioters. They had no clue who those rioters were, but as they made their way back to the ISN Sidious aboard the drop pod, they could be confident that the ensuing chaos would wrench the facility out of Collective control.

This Phase lasts from November 12th until November the 19th (one (1) week)

Request from the organizers: Please add a note to the top of the next post which path your team will choose in this Phase. Thank you.

Phase III objectives

The Brotherhood advances. What started as sporadic fighting in the major hangar bays of Meridian has turned into an all-out battle on all decks. Spurred by your team’s success in the prison, your Clan forces have come to support you and issue new orders for your team.

Daggo Mouk, one of the leaders of the Collective and the Guildmaster of the Technocratic Guild, has been confirmed on the station. With him he has a potent Technocratic Artifact that, if whisked away, would threaten the position of the Brotherhood in future engagements.

Daggo’s last known position was in the command center, however we have been having trouble following his movements. Wherever he is on the station, he would not leave the artifact unattended. The return of the artifact to Brotherhood hands is of absolute strategic value.

Your team has been tasked to complete one of the following objectives in limited time (you may complete only one (1) objective):

• Revenge path: Confront and eliminate Daggo Mouk. Have no mercy.

• Sabotage path: Sabotage the Collective’s future plans by stealing the artifact by any means necessary.

• Pacifist path: Capture Daggo Mouk for interrogation and trial.

The phase must end with the artifact retrieved. Daggo’s fate is open-ended and up to you.

Relevant character sheets:

• CS: Daggo Mouk.

Pacifist Path

No sooner had the drop pod departed from the station had the pod’s communication systems bleeped with incoming intelligence. The unmistakable clear, educated tone of the Scholae Empress came through clear above the chaos outside. “We have received new intelligence that the Technocratic Guild’s Daggo Mouk is stationed aboard Meridian Prime, carrying a valuable artefact. The first flotilla of the ISN are there to support you. ISA forces will flood the station and secure a path for you. Our maps of the facility suggest entering from the other side would be a better approach. Take that artefact back. Elincia out.”

Zentru’la noticed a growing feeling of frustration on the expressions of the others, the feeling that this mission would never end, that there would always be one thing after another. He was beginning to feel the same way too, but kept focus on the mission, taking heart in Aylin’s typical upbeat expression and mannerisms. “So looks like we’re turning this thing around then!” he said, taking control of the boarding pod and beginning an arc around the station.

“Nope!” Aylin bounced, nudging the giant twi’lek out of the way, who moved out of bemusement more than anything. “I don’t like this thing anymore! I have a better idea! Eli won’t mind!” Her positivity did little to brighten anyone else’s mood as she took control of the ship. “To the Guts and Glory!” The little Nautolan pressed hard on the accelerator, the rollercoaster forces on the ship when she was flying a stark contrast to the smooth flight of the Colonel.

“I do hope you know what you’re doing with this thing,” Bale grunted. Zehsaa attempted to convince the Zabrak of Aylin’s abilities while the pod spiralled through the battle.

“There!” she shouted. “Our ship!” A Marauder class corvette sailed through space in front of them. The Guts and Glory: Aylin’s flagship as leader of Scholae Palatinae’s Vindictae Immortalis. She tapped a few buttons on the intercom, patching through a message in typical Aylin fashion. “Hey guys! It’s me in the pod! Bringing home some friends!”

Zentru’la shuddered at her lack of military protocol but appreciated her idea. “Finally, a proper ship,” Bale echoed the thoughts in Zentru’la’s head, the Vindictae Immortalis’ home ship being a welcome improvement over their previous fragile approach craft. “Commander!” A member of Scholae Imperial Special Forces greeted Aylin with a salute as she got out first. “And… Colonel Zentru’la?”

While the others were frequently fliers on the Guts and Glory, it was Zentru’la’s first time aboard the ship. He was impressed with the quality of their support, carrying an entire company of special missions troopers on board, dressed in black armour, prepared to operate in dark environments while the ship itself was escorted by Decimator gunships and X-wings.

The team followed Aylin to the bridge of the ship. “We’re going to the Meridian! Far hangar! Floor it!” she said to the pilot before moving to the intercom to communicate with the ship as a whole, before she was held back by a huge armoured hand on her shoulder.

“Might be better if I handle this one, Sajark. Military to military.” Aylin was about to say something before she realised the Colonel was probably right after spending two decades in the Imperial Scholae Army.

“This is Colonel Zentru’la of the 1st Imperial Regiment, speaking on behalf of Commander Sajark. We have a new mission from the Empress herself. A battle currently rages on Meridian Prime, a battle between escaped prisoners and droid guards. On board is Daggo Mouk, Collective top brass. We are going to board Meridian Prime, join the fray. The main decks must be secured while a 5-man infiltration team will confront Mouk. Ready your weapons and prepare for boarding in 4 minutes. Over and out.”

Commanding troops was a full time job for the twi’lek and his words carried power, troops prepared weapons and reported to their direct commanding officer for final instructions as the pilot steered the corvette towards Meridian Prime. Protected on all sides by the supporting craft and its own guns, the Guts and Glory docked in the hangar bay relatively unopposed.

The Guts and Glory touched down in the hangar bay. As soon as the hatch opened far enough to get out troops poured out. They quickly set up a safe perimeter around the ship and spread out to get the whole hangar bay under control. When the hangar bay was under control, troops fanned outwards, swarming the space station and slowly claiming it under Scholae control, clearing a path for the infiltrators.

Zentru’la, Bale and Keala left the ship first and looked around.

“Different entrance this time, hope you don’t mind that,” Zentru’la said with a wink towards Bale.

“It’s a bit too quiet this way,” Bale grumbled a bit.

Zentru’la chuckled and continued on. Moments later Zehsaa and Aylin, together with her droid, got off their ship. Zehsaa still looked a bit tired from their last fight, but she kept insisting the was fine.

Aylin frowned slightly as she walked up towards Zentru’la, “So… the others have secured the way now?”
He nodded, “For the larger part they should have by now. Let’s get moving.”

The group went further, crossing the hangar bay and getting into the many hallways. There was a smell of burning in the air, they could see the struggles and the many shots that riddled the walls, bodies lay lifeless on the floor. In the distance the sound of battle still raged elsewhere on the station. Aylin was looking on her datapad, they had heard before that Mouk should be around here on one of the upper decks. She swished through the blueprints of the station and sighed softly.

“There are various hallways connecting were Mouk might be holding up. How are we going to keep him there and confront him? she said.

“I’m sure you will find a way for that, slicer,” Bale said as he shrugged, “Else we just blow pieces up to keep him trapped.”

“Can’t we do something without getting more people hurt?” Kaela interrupted.

“Blowing up stuff shouldn’t hurt people if there are none around, this area is empty,” Bale threw back at her a probably little harsher than he meant as it made Keala take a step back.

“Guys… calm down, I’ll find a way towards him, just give me a moment,” Aylin said as he looked at both of them with worry on her face.

Quickly she entered one of the rooms and searched for a connection point to the mainframe systems and found one. As the others followed she sat down next to the connection and plugged her tools into the connection and her datapad… or Zehsaa’s datapad. Babbling away at everything she found her droid joined and together they closed down various hallways so that there was only one way connecting towards their target.

“Zentru’la, our troops can still get through the doors with this passcode, can you patch it through to them?”

“Sure, what is it?”

“Starcakes.”

He stared at her for a moment and shook his head slightly before starting to contact troop leaders and giving them the passcode.

“All set, let’s go get that artefact.” Zentru’la ordered as he started to move out the room again.

The rest of the group filed in after him, the rest of the hallways were empty except for the few guards at the door of the command center. Both sides raised and aimed their weapons as soon as they spotted each other. A moment of tension hung heavily in the air before in a blink both sides exploded into a firework of blaster shots. The fight ended with Zehsaa and Kaela in front of the others with their lightsabers ignited.

“Can’t we stop fighting like this,” Kaela muttered under her breath, which earned a glance from Zehsaa.

Aylin skipped between the dead bodies and started her work on the door, which opened a few seconds later.

The Ithorian looked like something out of science fiction. With one cybernetic eye and two additional cybernetic arms, Daggo Mouk was more metal than flesh. He stood in the centre of the command room, flanked by collective special forces troops. “I’ve been expecting you,” the Ithorian said plainly. “You’re here for the holocron.” He raised the artefact in his hand, as if to tease the team before placing it down on a shelf.

“Hand it over!” Zentru’la demanded, his colossal repeater cannon raised in Mouk’s direction while Bale and Zehsaa readied their weapons beside him. There was an awkward standoff as both sides held weapons at the other, ready to fire at any moment.

“You are heavily outnumbered,” Mouk stated, gesturing to his troops. “This is not a battle that you can win. Turn around, go back to your ship, and my men won’t open fire.”

“You really think those are going to stop us?” Bale laughed. “We’ve fought against worse odds.”

It was a shot from Bale that caused the whole command centre to explode into a flurry of blaster bolts, cannon fire, explosions and lightsabers. The best Scholae had to offer against the Collective elite. The battle was as quick as it was ferocious, almost every inch of the command centre was peppered with blaster fire.

When the dust settled and the last shots had been fired, Daggo Mouk was the only one on the Collective side still standing. In the commotion Kaela had vanished, reappearing with the holocron in her hand.

“Don’t kill him!” Kaela said, pushing Bale away from Mouk with all her strength. “We don’t need to kill him! I have the artefact!”

“He’s too dangerous to be left alive!” Bale protested, his blaster aimed at the Ithorian’s head as Kaela stood in the way.

“Our orders were to reclaim the artefact.” Zentru’la spoke up. “His fate was not one of our mission parameters. But keeping him alive is too big of a risk.”

“No!” Kaela shouted. “Enough innocent lives have been lost! I won’t let you kill anyone else in cold blood!” Her eyes burned with resolve as she stood between her father and Daggo Mouk, her breath drawn out in rags.

“Kaela, step aside… now.” Bale demanded.

“No,” she refused once more, standing firm. “We can take him back for questioning.”

The words of the Empress echoed in her mind with supernatural clarity. Use the Force, Kaela. She took one slow, deep breath to compose herself. Was this right? What WAS the right thing to do? These people were her family… her friends.

“We will take him back alive,” she stated matter-of-factly, waving a hand.

“We will take him back alive,” her father repeated, lowering his weapon. Her heart beating like a drum, Kaela used her fibercord whip to restrain the Ithorian, dragging him back towards the Guts and Glory. Zentru’la also lowered his weapon, and began escorting Mouk back to the ship. Bound by the fibercord whip, disarmed, and flanked by Bale and Zentru’la, he had no opportunity for escape.

Kaela struggled to regain her breath. She dreaded to think of the consequences of her actions. She wondered what the true intentions of her master were. Why was she selected to serve on this alongside her father? The incident in the lift, when her father murdered her mind-controlled troops was the beginning of the rift between the two. Surely she must have known something like this would happen. Was she trying to divide the family? Kaela carried the artefact in her hand, planning to give the holocron to the Empress herself, and when she did so, she would confront her on her true motives…