You arrive at Rylath and the traffic control guides you into the southern-most space port. You and your new crew are watching the the city grow in the cockpit viewport.

The port is busy; droids come up to the ship and start to service it. A Twi’lek custom inspector/port administrator also comes up to the ship. You put the ramp down and he greets you. You greet him and he asks to look over the ship. You agree and he moves through the ship with a scanner. He comes back and smiles, letting his pointed teeth show. He hands you a data pad with the docking fees, fuel costs and restocking fees. Tippy looks over your shoulder and whistles.

She looks at you and the others and says, “Do we have that much?”

You look at the others and collectively you realize you are about five hundred credits short. You pay the inspector what you have and assure him you will get the rest. He tells you of the employment board at the entrance of the port.

You weave your way through the service droids and technicians to the entrance. For a small port it is pretty busy. You make your way to the employment board.

On the board are three jobs. You discuss the options and agree on a skip trace job offered up by a local merchant. You leave the port and flag a speeder down. A Twi’lek driver says, “Where to?” You give the address and he says, “No problem.”

Your speeder moves through the city and you notice signs of celebration. Banners are flying. As you get closer to the address you notice flags of all colors are strung between the buildings. You even occasionally notice what looks like parties on the roofs.

One of you lean forward and ask “What goes on here?”

“Oh, you know, it’s liberation day. The day we finally kicked the separatists off the planet. But nobody celebrates it like Gone Dune neighborhood. Yes sir, we do it right. Well, here you are.” The driver says. “Would you like me to wait?”

You look to the others and they nod. “Yes, thank you.” as you hand him the fare.

You get out of the speeder. You see in front of you a general supply store. You enter and are surprised. The rows have been moved and there is a party in the store. Everyone turns when you enter. “Oh, good! We have guests!” A large Twi’lek says.

Nervous, you say, “Uh, we are here for the job.”

“Great! We have been waiting for someone. This is an unusual retrieval job. Are you interested?”

Looking to your companions you can see nervous glances toward you. “Yes, we need the money.”

“Great, Great! It is a contest. You see, we have a tradition. To celebrate the capture of critical data we needed to overthrow the separatists. There is another group with some data. If you can get it in the allotted time you not only get the 500 credit but an additional 1000. Captain Yalzet, can you come lock their weapons?”

A tall military man steps forward and asks for your weapons. You balk at the thought of handing your weapon over. He says you have to have the weapons locked on stun to compete. You all reluctantly had over your weapons.

“The contest begins! You have until nightfall. Your quarry has to stay within the district. Good luck.” Everyone cheers. You collect your weapons and step out.

One of you looks to the others. “Well, where we do we start?”

Another of you says, “Let’s find a watering hole. Maybe we can figure out where we should look.”

You go to the speeder and say “Local watering hole, please. We can’t leave the district.” He smiles at you knowingly and takes you to a nearby bar. It is a normal bar with a few tables and patrons. You go to the bar sit down. “Well, what do we do to get started?”

The bar tender says, “What is bothering you, friend?” One of your companions turns and says in frustration, “We are new to your city and just got a job tracking some people with some important information but we have no idea where to start finding them.”

“Oh, really? Well, the district tends to be pretty close knit. I might know something.” With that he pushes forward a tip jar. One of your companion drops a single credit in.

You shake your head in exasperation, knowing information like this will cost you 50 to 100 credits.

To your surprise, the bartender smiles with a gleam in his eye and says, “Well, it just so happens that a group of strangers were in here earlier and they mentioned having a data packet.” With that he taps the tip jar again. Encouraged, your companion puts another credit in. “I think I heard them say that they were going somewhere to eat, but that is all I know. Oh, and two of them are blue.”

One of your companions asks the patrons, “Anyone overhear where?”

“Well, I was sitting nearby.” A customer says, opening his hand.

Perplexed, you put a credit in his hand. “Well, I wasn’t really listening but I think I heard something about noodles.”

Your group probes further but you don’t learn any more. You step out of the bar and head for your ride. You hear the parties on the roof. You shake your head. That should’nt have worked, or, at least, it should have cost a lot more.

You get in the cab and say to the driver, “Where could you get noodles here locally?” He smiles at you and nods knowingly. “There are two that I know of. One here, to the east and one back at the port.”

One of your party says, “Let’s try the one to the east.” With a smile and a wink the driver starts off. Suddenly, a cheer rises from the rooftops and confetti rains down on the speeder.

The speeder goes several blocks and stops in front of a diner. The sign reads- Noodles R Us. You and your party get out again, and you can hear revelry from the roofs. You enter the diner and notice a waitress behind the counter, as well as two patrons sitting in booths slurping noodles.

You sit at the counter and the waitress approaches you and your friends.

“Watcha want there babe?” You are actually hungry so you order a bowl of noodles. Your friends order the same. She happily goes to the back counter and dips in a silver ladle and dishes each of you a generous helping of noodles. She sprinkles some seasoning over the top, places the bowls on a serving platter and brings it back to your motley group. “We don’t often get offwolders here in the neighborhood. What might you be doing here?”

Taking a sip of the very hot noodles you look up and say “We are actually looking for friends of ours.” Understanding gleams in her eye and her palm opens up in a gesture of payment. Misunderstanding you pay for the groups meal. She laughs and thanks you takes the payment to the till in the back. Comes back and then again puts her hand out. One of your companions gets the hint, takes a credit out and places it in her hand. “Well, you might be in luck. We have had a couple offworlders in here the last couple nights. In fact, I think they live in old Calvaigh building.” Pointing to an older Twi’lek male sitting at the counter.

You turn to Calvaigh and ask, “Do you have offworlders living in your building?” He looks at you and slurps his noodles. He puts out his hand. Taking a cue from the waitress you quickly put a credit in the man’s hand. A gleam of mischief crinkles in his eyes and he says, “Yeah, we have a couple blue chaps living in my building. I’ve seen them in the lobby a couple times.”

Excited and eager, you quickly ask, “Which is your building?”

He sticks his hand out again and another credit appears. “Why, it’s just down the street on the left,” he says.

Getting frustrated now, you ask, “What is the address, man?”

His had comes out again. Another credit falls into his hands and he looks at you, slurps some more noodles and gives you the address, offering to show you the way.

It is a building to the north of you two blocks away according to your data pad. You turn back to the Twi’lek and ask “What floor do they live on?” The hand comes out and after another credit he looks at the group “Well I don’t know. Above the second is all I know. You see, I live on the second and they are always on the lift after me.”

You get up to leave but Heckin says “Hey! I am not done with my noodles and I am hungry. Just wait a second.” You sit, eager to get going but Heckin will not be rushed. He finally gets up and wipes his face.

You quickly lead the group out of the restaurant. As you leave you can hear the waitress say, “Old Fart. You did not have to drain so much out of them.”

“Well, my beautiful lady and wanted to give you a better tip.” Hecking says with a wink, following the group.

You head north and after walking two blocks come to the address. The celebrations on the nearby roofs are quiet. “Hen, could you do a life form scan on the building?” you ask.

“Hmm, yes. There is a large number of the building’s population on the roof and four apartments above the second floor that have life forms in them. I can also tell you that there are several people on top of the building that are either intoxicated or suffering from a viral infection. From this distance I can’t tell for sure.”

As you enter the building a rousing cheer rises up and then the celebrations are back in full swing. Just before you enter the building you notice again a surveillance droid focused on you.

You go into the building and there is not a lot to distinguish itself from any other tenement building built after the Clone Wars. These are buildings that lack personality and are only really designed to keep the rain off the population’s head. You go to the lift and ask Henny, “What is our first stop?”

She says, “Third floor unless you want to take me up to those poor unfortunates on the top floor to treat them.”

Ignoring that you hit the button for the third floor. You arrive quickly and she leads you down the hall to one of the last apartments. An old lady answers when you ring. “What do you want?”

“Madam, we are looking for some offworlders. Do you know what apartment they might be in?”

She rolls her eyes and says “I don’t have time for any of this foolishness.” She slams the door in your face and laughter breaks out above you on the roof you can even hear it four floors down.

Henny says, “One of the four apartments are no longer occupied.” You race to it and see a door ajar. You peek in and it looks like the occupants have left quickly.

“Henny, scan the street! you yell.

“Scanning…… there is nobody in the street but our driver.” Everyone races to the lift. You run out of the lift and out the door. Hennie is floating behind complaining about not being able to treat the sick.

You go to the speeder you had been riding in and yell at the driver “DID ANYONE COME OUT OF THAT BUILDING!?”

Startled, he stammers “No….Nobody came out.”

You turn to Henny, “Is there anywhere your scans can’t get to?”

Henny says, “Why, yes. I can’t penetrate underground. There is too much material for me to see anything farther then a couple feet.”

You race back into the building. You turn to the doorman and say “BASEMENT! HOW DO WE GET THERE?” He points to the door. The surveillance droid from the street follows you into the basement.

The lights are on and you see a big storage area. You see rows after rows of small cubicles with various items in them. Henny says, “There is a strange heat exchange to the south.” You quickly move through the rows to the south and you find a door. It is ajar.

Moving quietly, you open the door. A metal staircase leads down to a long tunnel. You see the door lock has been fried. You move cautiously north down the tunnel. To the south is only a drainage pipe where to the north is a walkway beside the open water. It stinks to high heaven here. Sensing that you are near your query you all pull your guns. One of you cusses as he automatically checks his gun and finds it still locked on stun.

As you move down the tunnel you hear voices up ahead. You can’t make them out at first, but soon you can hear, “Hurry! Hurry, we’re going to lose!”

“Yeah, so much for easy money,” another voice says. You see a light up ahead and a group of people are blocked by a bunch of pipes. One of them has cutters out trying to cut through them. Just then one of the party in front of you spots the light of Henny’s eyes. He snaps a shot at you. The blue streak flies by you and hits Henny square. Sparks fly and Henny drops to the floor.

The rest of you snap your guns up to the ready and move to the sides of the tunnel. The next volley from the group in front of you misses everyone. You are far luckier. The one with the cutter falls to the floor unconscious. Cussing is heard and the two Chiss start charging toward you. You see several bolts hit them as they race forward and you realize that they must have armor sewn into their cloths. A lucky shot catches both in the upper body and when they are staggered you take aim and fire hitting first one in the head and then the other one.

The last one tries to push through the pipes but between the water rushing out of the pipes and the fact there really is not enough space he quickly gives up and places his hands above his head. By this time Henny’s self repair dignostics have rebooted her and she charges forward with eyes blazing red. She hits the surendering man with an electronic prod.

“Enough!!” echos through the tunnel. Everyone pauses, even Henny. The Marshal from earlier comes up to you and smiles. “Congratulations, you have won!” He takes each of your weapons and unlocks them. He leads you out of the tunnel. As you go through the basement some EMT s pass you. Your employer stands in the lobby of the building when you get there. He is surrounded by a bunch of well wishers. He clasps all of your hands and gives you the money he promised you. You all find yourself in the middle of a party.

You eventually extract yourselves. More than one of you are a little tipsy.

When you get in your ride the driver says “Congratulations, Congratulations! The ride is on me. I won 50 credits on you guys today!” As he takes you back to the port he keeps talking to you about how the seekers hardly ever win and that the last time was three years ago. On and on about things and how you broke a bunch of records and things like that.

You make your way back to Pathfinder stopping to pay the port for the rest of supplies. As the ship takes off you all feel kind of puzzled. Tippy explains that you were caught up in a local tradition that represented the chase for sensitive information during the seperatist occupation.

The ship flies south and you wonder what is next on this crazy trip with this crazy crew……

GM – Note – Wanting to play a little more I decided to start a campaign that included only the players here in New Mexico. I decided to go with Edge of the Empire mainly because I wanted to get away from the Rebellion and explore the Edge of Star Wars society. Our group is also based on McDougal’s world (a moon) but not working for the Rebellion.

The time period our characters find themselves in is just after the fall of the republic. Bale Organa and Monmathma are still in the Senate. The corruption of the new Empire is just taking hold. People are worried and frustrated but nobody is rising up in rebellion. Nutral worlds like Mandilor and seperdist strongholds are just intigrateing back into the unbrella of galactic civilization. . Things like the purge of Mandalor and the massive work quotas from the empire have not happened yet.

Our group has been gathered by McDougal a rich salvager and engineer. Each owed him quite a bit of money. He needs people to go out and scout locations for future salvage jobs. A new company has made its way into the outer rim. “The Rock Salvage” company has suddenly made its presence known stealing several jobs he would have gotten.

His agents had found out that the company belonged to “Rock Mining” a major member of the mining guild. That means that the imps were making moves to start controlling the mid rim. So far they had not tried to get any jobs on the outer rim but he knew it was only a matter of time and it still means someone was still cutting into his bottom line. The individuals in front of him was his opening gambit in fighting for his territory.

There was Sulizan a Fringer and her droid who had other things to worry about stood beside him awaiting the rest of the crew. There was an engineer a specialist in modifications. A gambler charmer and our pilot. Another droid a medical droid with a statistic streak. He had paid a slicer to get the torture routines out of the droid but he was only partially successful. He had pulled the pathfinder out of mothballs for them to use. How he missed that faithful little ship. It had got him out of many scrapes in the old days.

Well folks what I need is a scout crew. Someone to go out and look at potential jobs and report back so that I can lay claim to those jobs before our competition. I need a small little crew to be my eyes and hopefully stay ahead of the competition. In return I will let you use Pathfiner here. You will follow leads that you come up with and ones that I assign you. You looking for large salvage jobs that I can take on with the Reclaimer. In addition I will be asking you to do certain support jobs for me when the need arises. Any salvage you bring back I will buy off you for a fair price. Any other jobs I will pay you directly for keeping 50% for your debt. So what do you say?

The three debtors all relluctly agreed. Well in that case lets do a test run. A couple years back I was flying over the southern continent of Rylath. It was far away from that war torn little world. I am sure nobody had disturbed it but I could not explore it as I was a little pressed at the time. I want you to fly to Rylath and look it over. Any salvage you bring back will go toward your debt. The coordinates have already been uploaded into D23 (the astromech).

The 5 of them shuffle off to the ship. Tippy the sullizan looks at McDougel. “Really, this is the crew you are giving me?” “If you and your friends want to use my company as a cover you are going to have to take my people.”

She sighs “Fine.” her and the droid head off to the ship.

Cut Sene: We find ourselves into the Cockpit of the freighter Pathfinder. All of the party is present. There is an awkward silence as everyone tries to figure out where to sit. Tippy comes in and sits in the copilot chair. The gambler takes the pilot chair. The human with a Mandalorian helmet and mismatched armor sits at the gunnery station. The medical droid stands in the back and D23 stays in the common area. The next week in hyperspace is a quite one there are several conversation mostly get to know your stuff but otherwise it is pretty quite.

The alarm rings letting everyone know that they are reaching the end of the hyperspace lane to Rylath. They all converge on the cockpit and the stars slow down. Rylath comes into the cockpit widows. The ship lines up and over the comms is traffic control. Pathfinder please state your business?” Hekin hits the comm this is Pathfinder with business on the southern continent. Do we have you permission to land?”

To be continued,,,,

.

When we left our adventurers they had split up. Most reported for duty on Arda One, Yondu stayed to oversee the refit of the ship.

Not long after the others leave McDougal asks Yondu to his office. Going up the main street, Yondu is struck by the calm of the small town with so many different races involved. The road goes up a small hill on the right and at the top is a big sturdy house with a large covered porch. A servant is sweeping the porch and Youndue climbs up the steps.

The servant pauses. “McDougal summoned me. Can you let him know?” The servant sets the broom aside and says, “Yes, Sir.” She goes inside and after several long moments both the servant and McDougal come out. Startled, McDougal welcomes the the pilot. “I was expecting the other one, oh well. Well, come on I need to talk to you.”

McDougal leads Yondu inside. The entry way is tastefully done with native wood and artwork. Yondu sees a sitting room and to the left a living area. Down the hall are more doors. McDougal leads him to the second set of doors.

Inside is a library and office. A collection of data pads and ancient books cover the shelves. The occasional shelf is covered with souvenirs. Directly behind the desk in the center of the room is a set of shelves. On the shelves are two Mandalorian helmets: one broad one and strong looking, the other sleek and almost delicate.

McDougal sits behind the desk. “Well, I need a favor from you and your group. You see, we are about to have visitors. This happens once or twice year and I can’t have you or your companions causing problems. Imperials will soon be arriving for thier inspection. I know how you feel about these spiders and I even share your feelings but to keep them out of my hair I need you keeping a low profile and not causing problems.

Yondu assures McDougal that he and his crew won’t be a problem when the imps arrive.

“Good, Good.” McDougal says and gets up to escort him out. A stranger is in the entry waiting. McDougal is startled and escorts Yondu out a little quicker, saying, “I will be right with you,” as he goes by.

As Yondu goes down the stairs he hears- “I know the Aldruanians are already here and building, but I won’t agree to this if we don’t work out the details.”

The next morning Yondu is on top of the ship inspecting some communication gear that was installed yesterday. He notices activity on the other side of town at the tree line between two hills. It’s about a click out of town; some sort of ship has landed and is unloading some big building materials.

He doesn’t have time to stop. He wants to have the ship all buttoned up by the time the Imps get here. He sees McDougal walking down the road, some heavy machinery follows him. McDougal calls up, “Can that ship fly yet?”

Yondu yells down, “The last of the repulsers were installed yesterday. We can’t break atmosphere but she can fly on her own power. Why?”

“Good! I need you to move this thing up to the public port so it looks like any other ship being refitted.”

“We can do that, but what about the other wreckage?” Yondu points over to the wrecked rebel ship.

“I have that taken care of. Just get this one to the port. The imps are due any time.”

Yondu goes down into the ship and grabs an engineer. “We’ve got to move this thing.”

“But, but, sir we just got the repulsers installed and we haven’t had time to test everything,” The engineer stammers.

“Well, no time like the present. Hup-to get those engines spun up!” Yondu says.

“Yes, Sir!” and the engineer runs off to do as instructed.

Soon everything is ready for Yondu to try moving the ship and he makes it to the bridge. Four heavy lifters are moving the wreck into the junk yard to hide it in plain sight. Three agriculture droids are waiting to plow the crash sight.

“Ok, let’s try this. Ymee, cycle that engine up. Watch those readings and let me know if there’s any trouble.” His hands fly across the controls and the ship called “Mother” rises up in the air under her own power for the first time.

Yondu maneuvers the ship up and over to the public space port. The tarmac is completely empty except for a single tiny long-distance shuttle. Yondu lines the ship up and about that time an excited warble comes from Ymee. “Speak common, you stupid droid! I can’t understand you.”

About that time one of the port repulsers goes out. Like a 5 year old on a slip-and-slide Mother veers hard to port, straight into the folded wing of the only other ship on the tarmac. With a crunch the two ships meet.

“I said the port repulser was fluctuating.” Ymee says in perfect common.

“Thanks!!!” Yondu says.

The owner comes out of the other ship and starts yelling up at the bridge. Out of the window Yondu sees McDougal running up. By the time he gets down to the front ramp things are calmed down. McDougal waves Yondu over and introduces the pilot. McDougal tells him that he needs to repair the wing. Yondu agrees and orders the mechanics and engineers to work on the other ship.

It’s not long after that two tie fighters and a short range shuttle land on the field. An imperial officer steps out with four storm troopers. McDougal meets them at the ramp. Yondu watches it all from the bridge.

After awhile he goes down to see how the repairs are going on the other ship. As he’s watching he notices three pilots in front of the shuttle talking. He slides over to where he can hear them better. ” …. lucky is all.”

“What do you mean? I heard the rest of the fleet was going on the offensive.”

“We hear that rumor every week. No, this was different. A rebel base was discovered in some backwater called Arda.”

With that Youndue slowly makes his way to the ship as to not arise suspicion. When he clears the ramp he sprints to the bridge. Ymee and a technician are working on the relays for the faulty repulser.

“Arda base is going to be attacked! Get them on the comm.”

“Sir, if we transmit anything it will be intercepted by the cruiser in orbit.”

“Fine. It’s time for a shakedown cruise. Get everyone on board now and let’s do a quick turn around the system.” Yondu says as he slides into the pilots chair.

“Sir, we don’t know where your recruits are. There is also still work to do on the wing.”

“I don’t care. Did you hear me? Our friends could be dying. Get me in the air!!”

“Yes, Sir.” and the young technician scrambles to get the others outside.

“Mother to control, asking permission to go on a shake down flight to work out some bugs.”

“Control to Mother, permission granted but stay close in case things don’t work out.”

“Roger that.” Seeing the ramp go up he starts lift off procedures. The senior technician comes in “Sir, I don’t recomend this.”

The ship lifts off and climbs up into the atmosphere. They break away from the moon with out any problems. “Ymee, start calculating a micro jump. Let’s get far enough away so we can transmit to Arda.” The ship flies without any problem out into the system.

The jump goes smoothly and when they come out of hyperspace Yondu turns and says, “Get Arda base the comm. We need to warn them about the attack.”

“Sir, we can’t get them on the comm. We don’t have the range.”

“What do you mean we don’t have the Range?!” Yondu says.

“Sir, all we have is an old merchant class comm. It has limited range. This system is older than the clone wars. We had a new one on order but it hasn’t arrived yet,” A technician says.

“Shit.” says Yondu. “Ymee, plot a jump to Arda. We have to warn them.”

Meanwhile, we find our heroes looking out over the canyon they have just blown up. The resulting slide has destroyed or stopped the AT-ATs. As the dust settles Tala and Nod see a platoon of sand troopers starting to climb over the rubble.

Not letting the 50 guys with guns stop them, both bring thier blasters up and start firing. The shots take out a trooper but the response bounces through the port. As a second platoon comes up Nod takes a hit. It staggers him. Tala starts pulling on him to get the heck out of there.

They run down the passageway. They quickly come back to where they left Doc. The last of the survivors has been dug out. Tala sees the heavy blaster damaged by the opening salvos. She runs over and quickly does her magic. The blaster is quickly operational.

Nod mans the gun. The blaster spits death down on the sandtroopers. They slow, allowing the evacuation of the tunnels. When the gun gets too hot the team abandons it.

As they make thier way into the main hanger they witness chaos. The evacuation ships are leaving as fast as possible. Doc sees his damaged speeder pushed off to the side. Doc rushes over to the speeder, the destroyed technology they found earlier in the canyon. As he does a soldier comes out of the tunnels wounded. He falls to the feet of Nod.

“Help me, I need to overload the generators.”

The Captain rushes up. “Get this man to the hospital ship! Pilot, take his mission. It is critical that those generators are blown.”

Nod salutes and moves into the corridor down to the command center. The general and his staff are still directing the defense.

On one of the monitors a soldier screams, “They have broken through! They are in the base!”

“GENERAL!!” Nod yells, “you have to evacuate!”

The General looks back and nods. He starts to order the command staff out. Nod signals to the group to head down a service corridor. They rush down the corridor only to be blocked by sand troopers.

There is a fierce fire fight between the two groups. Tala shows how fierce she can be. Doc kills a trooper in hand to hand. The group escapes into the service ducts. They make thier way to the control room of the generators.

Nod and Tala quickly lock the controls onto overload.

They run up the corridors to the second landing pads where Peggy, Tala’s droid has thier lamda shuttle ready to go. Doc sees an unclaimed T95 waiting for a pilot. He jumps in, the droid in the back whistles a greeting as they shoot up into the sky.

Nod reaches the ramp of the Shuttle and turns. He sees groups of confused individuals milling about trying to figure out where to go. Nod yells for the crowd to start loading the shuttle. Hearing a voice of command for the first time in a long while they rush to the shuttle.

As Tala and Peggy take the shuttle up into the air the combat whirls around them. Nod raises the ramp up as they climb into the atmosphere. He looks out just as the generators explode.

Back on the bridge of Mother, Yondu is screaming at the technicians, asking why the weapons have not been fully installed. Looking out at the screens he can see in the far distance the rebel fleet breaking away from the Imperials.

Ymee says, “Meat-droid, there is a lone Z-95 breaking away in an erratic flight path. He looks like he is in trouble.” Yondu pulls up the screen at his command chair. Taking only a second he orders, “Set an intercept course.

They set an intercept course and the two ships move closer together. Yondu says, “It’s almost as if there’s no pilot.”

The two ships move closer together. The reason for the erratic flight soon becomes obvious. The top of the ship had been strafed, the cockpit holed and the droid blown apart. Between Ymee and Yondu they manage to grab the ship and get a docking collar out to it.

Yondu rushes to the bottom deck and, risking his life, cuts power to the disabled ship. He pulls the pilot out and hands him off to a nearby tech.

About that time Ymee starts to warble and says, “They are coming out of the atmosphere.”

Yondu comes on to the bridge. “What is the problem you bucket of spare parts?”

Then the comms open up with Nod’s clear voice. “Yondu, what in the hell are you doing out here with that death trap?”

The shock wave from a massive explosion on the surface of the planet hits the ship.

“Oh, just trying and failing to save your butt.” Yondu says.

The four ships rendezvous at the edge of the system. They jump out together, the two Z95’s attached to Mother’s back.

It takes a couple days to get back to McDougal’s world. They call in for permission to land and instead of the spaceport they are directed to the Tarmack that Yondu had seen being constructed before he left.

Under the tree canopy is a full-size hanger. On the building is a sign: Idiots-R-Us Salvage. The crew starts to unload and McDougal comes out of the hanger. “You better go on in to the office.” He then gets onto the comm and starts ordering medical droids down the hill. He has a brief argument with one called Mother Hen.

The group goes into the hanger and in the office is a portable holo projector. Champlain stands there looking tired and defeated. “I am glad you made it out.

“We are going to need you here in a couple days. Get your ships repaired as soon as you can and meet us at the coordinates that are stored in Peggy.

“In related news, I have been promoted. The council also has decided to change the status of Falcon squadron. You are now Falcon group based out of McDougal’s world. You are to act as an insurgent group, much like Phoenix group. You will report to me here at the new base or to McDougal. You will be left with Mother and the two headhunters you have. The engineers are to leave immediately in the lambda shuttle. You are to follow as soon as your ship is able.”

About that time the Wookie and Brandon walk in. They look at Yondu and say, “Did you forget something? We have been cooling our heels here for weeks.”………

The adventurers unload thier cargo of freed slaves in Gungun Town. The big wookie stays seated and starts to snore. A human and sulilan are waiting neviously at the foot of the ramp. The human waits till you get to the bottom. “Sirs and Madam? Myself and Bub Bub here were wondering if you had some work for us? You see, we don’t have anywhere else to be and if we have to work for someone we would rather it be someone we respect.”

Yondu looks over the two. Hands them 400 credits and says, “Braydon, get yourself some good clothes and a shower and meet back here in a couple hours.”

“HEY, you! Furball! If you are going to sleep in the ship go get a bath. You smell like a rug that has sat out all winter.” He yells up the ramp. Leaves 400 more credits on the ramp and moves off quickly. Karak Kar comes lumbering out of the back of the shuttle and stops at the foot of the ramp and roars.

The electric voice of Ymee can be heard “You always got to poke the wookie, don’t you?”

4 hours later the party comes back to the shuttle. The three are standing at the foot of the shuttle. All are cleaned up with hair cuts and showers the two are wearing fresh clothing if not new. The wookie has a new but empty Badelior on. When Tala walks up and hugs his leg she sniffs his fur and chitters something in her native tongue. “Juniper” Ymee translates.

As everyone gets into the ship you settle in for the 5 day trip back to McDougal’s World.

When you land Nod looks at the grey and black shuttle and says, “Where did you get the ship?”

Doc says, “Pretty cool, huh? We just picked it up.” With that he starts to walk past. The three newcomers start to come down the ramp.

“Who are they?” Nod says. Yondu says, “They’re new crew.” and follows Doc.

As they are eating in the pub one of the rebel techs come in. They go to Nod and say “You have a comunicay, Sir.”

Nod gets up and goes to the ship. ‘We really need to give that ship a name’ he thinks to himself. He passes Tala. She is chattering away working on the hyperdrive. Her droid is chirping away as they work together.

Nod goes to the bridge and he keys up the holo projector. Champlin comes on. “Nod, we need you to run a mission. There is a load of supplies we need at base. Is your ship ready?” “No, but we have access to a Lamda Shuttle.” Nod seys. Chanplin pauses and says, “That will work.”

Nod says “We will get started right away.” Nod goes down to the pub. “Hey, Falcon Squadron, we have a mission. We need to do a supply run for base.” Yondu looks up “I will stay and oversee the work and our new recruits.”

The crew finishes their dinner, gets up and moves to the shuttle. You head off to Gungun Town. You land and quickly find the rebel liaison. The cargo is quickly loaded and the crew takes off for Arda base. Nod follows in his X-Wing.

Falcon squadron comes out of hyper space. Nod’s X-wing immediately catches the base signal and he flies into the Gauntlet. The shuttle can not connect to the base. There is some source of interference. Doc flies into the Gauntlet.

Suddenly out of the cliff face comes a lizard-like beast. They hit the shuttle and started to try and RIP it apart. You and the crew act fast and with the turret Tala blasts one off. Doc’s good flying gets rid of the last one just before coming around the corner and lining up for a perfect landing. The landing is so flawless a couple technicians actually applaud.

The squadron comes down the ramp and starts unloading the cargo. Captain Bess walks up. “Great flying!” Champlain comes up “Good job, get cleaned up and meet me in the mess hall.”

The squadron gets to the mess and they quickly find Champlain, Dick and Jane. All three are looking tired. “Great, you are here. We need you to go on patrol. We are spread thin right now and we are exhausted.”

“No problem, boss. We can cover for you,” says Doc. Nod stands up as do Tala and Doc and they salute. Nod leads the three to go get briefed by Captain Bess.

You walk through the corridors to the main hanger. They quickly find Captain Bess. He waves them over to a couple speeders. “We really need someone to do a patrol on the Gauntlet. We try to run these once a day but we have been really short handed.”

Jane walks up in a flight suit. “I am your Reo Nod,” she says.

The tan speeders are ready and Captain Bess gives you the route as you walk over to them. You all perform the normal preflight check. When you’re ready, you take off following the route Bess laid out for you.

When you get to the last sector near the base again one of the speeders start to act up. Doc who is flying scrapes some paint off it. Suddenly one of you spots something man made on the cliff face wall. If you had not slowed down due to the near miss you might have missed the tale-tell blinking lights.

You stop to investigate. Nobody knows what it is. You desire to take it back to base. After one or two attempts you get it off the wall. Unfortunately the disk is damaged. As soon as it goes off the interference stops.

Just as you are getting in your speeders you spot an imperial probe droid. You chase after it. Your first shot hurts it. It fires back as it races through the canyon hitting Doc and Tala’s speeder damaging it. You take another shot and BOOM the droid explodes. You know you did not hit it that hard.

Before you can investigate the sensors in the undamaged speeder light up. Three Star Destroyers have come out of hyperspace. You try to contact base but the signal is being blocked from the planet. You race back to warn the base. You get to base just before the tie bombers.

The klaxons are going off and everyone is running to their battle stations. Over the noise you can hear the General ordering the evacuation of the base. “All essential equipment first, then whatever we can get in the time our defenses give us. Remember, nobody is left behind.

Jane runs to her X-Wing and preps for takeoff.

You are ordered to the defenses in the Gauntlet. An explosion rocks the cavern and several people are wounded. You race to help and you reach one valiant warrior. As Doc holds him with his lifeblood oozing through Docs hands Doc looks up with a stricken face. The wounded soldier reaches up and grabs Nods and says, “You have to reach the charges and blow the wall.”

You catch up to Captain Bess and explain what just happened. Bess curses and quickly explains that there are charges in the cliff face that need to be blown to stop or slow down the imperials.

You all race to the warren of tunnels that lead out into the Gauntlet. As you race to your positions the distant rumble of bombs being dropped from tie bombers can be heard. Just as you are about half way there a massive explosion. Several defenders manning a lesser battery are buried. Doc says, “Go! I will help out here.”

You race to the charges but suddenly one of those lizard bats come out of the dust. It screeches and attacks. The fight is quick but vicious. When you are done several of you have wounds and the lizard is dead.

You race to the charges and reach them just in time. You blow them just as three AT AT are in range. The cliff face explodes and rains down on the three walkers. Two are destroyed outright the third is badly damaged. The gauntlet is blocked!

You see sandtroopers scrambling over the blockage. You race back to Doc with the troopers on your heels.

While you were gone Doc saves one man and quickly goes back to digging.

You race by a destroyed emplacement and you quickly arm yourself with blasters from the dead defenders hands.

To be continued………

You have had a hard day the ancient ship found in the wrecking yard is starting to come together the old husks of engines have been removed and the modern engine have been installed in the engine casing. Tala is still climbing through the compartment making sure the power units and the engines all work as they should. The hyper drive will be next salvaged from the cruiser.

Tala has an idea about the small shuttle she is building a docking port in the back of the ship this will give us guns on the upper dorsal section when the shuttle/fighter is docked.

You are tired the work was exhausting. Going to the small pub was long overdue. The weather was kicking up the wind was blowing dust off the plain. The town was small mostly stores and houses for McDougal salvage yard. The pub was easy enough to find.

Going through the door you see an open floor plan. Half the tables are full of workers eating and drinking. McDougal wife Mama McDougal is moving around the room talking with worker after worker. The serving droid was coming from the kitchen with an aroma filled plates. The atmosphere is light and relaxed.

You sit down and place an order with the serving droid. You fully intend to get dinner and hit the rack. It in nice to think you have a rack. After they got the mold out of that stuff that was bought in gungen town.

The order comes and the plate of roasted beast serounded by vegetables smells awsome. A stought ale hits the spot as well. The hubbub of conversations rise and fall as you eat. Suddenly a crash can be heard. You turn around and see a grey haired man looming over a table. His chair sits upended on the floor. “You calling me a liar Lars?” He spits out in anger.

Mama McDougal casual glide turns into one of a predator as she moves through the crowd. For the first time you see some hard lines under that loose dress she wares. “Niner stand down!” She commands.

“But mama he was saying I was lying.” The gray haired man said.

“I know niner.” Mama said as she moved closer. Putting her hand out and gently moving the gray haired man’s away from the small blaster on his belt.

You take a closer look at the man and realize he is a clone. You have seen him in the junk yard running an antiquated hauler around the massive yard.

“Now Niner you know this is not the way we do things here. You know we let the crowd judge who is in the right here. Then we let the matter rest.”

Looking down at his feet very nervous he says “I know.” Clearly something is bothering the clone. You wonder if it means he was lying. “now mama I not sure I want to share this story with the group?!” He says.

“Well Niner then we will just have to assume you are lying then.” She says.

Niner winces and seems to collapse in on himself. “Ok mama”

She turns to Lars “Well Lars what do you think Niner was lying about?

Lars suddenly looks very uncomfortable and kind of shifts in his chair. “Well Mama, I never said he was lying. All I said was that sounds like a tall tale.”

Mama turns and says “Well Niner let’s here this tale let us decide.”

Niner takes a long draw on his ale to fortify himself. “Well it was the end of the war right after order 66. Fortunately, I was not a part of that as I was in the hospital after getting shot up by some klinkers. I later learned that thier was a chip in our head forcing us to follow that order. When I was forced to retire I had that thing removed. The thought of those days still makes my spine shudder.”

“You see I heard General Konobi had destroyed the Jedi archives before he disappeared. The emperor was in a tizzy over the loss of the archives. For all of the locations of the other temples were lost. The real jewel was serenity. You see the Jedi had a system they used to send masters in the twilight of their life. A place that was safe for them and safe for the galaxy at large. The system had been struck from the maps and nobody knew where it was. You see these old masters had many enemies and they had to be protected. Also it was often the case when a master got old thier control got away from them. Serenity was a safe place for them. Why I don’t know.”

He took another draw of his ale. “Well that is where I come in. You see I was done convalescing and reassigned to the cruiser Spear. You see Spear was newly put under the command of an imperial officer by the name of Tally. This commander was very ambitious and smart. He had pieced together a possible location from freighter captains. Getting permission from the Emperor himself he was going to take the Spear to check it out. In secret we jumped to the quadrant he thought the planet was. It was a rough reentry but we made it. We found a small blue and green planet around a yellow sun. It had two continents and hudge polar oceans. We moved in to check it out.”

Niner got up and moved to the center of the room where there was a huge open fire pit. “We entered orbit and one area of civilization was apparent. On the smaller continent. The first wave loaded up and flew out of the flight bay. I was in the third wave. The first wave confirmed they found a jedi temple. They moved in to take it and the second wave boarded to assist. As they flew out a ship left hyperspace. It was two separatist cruisers they moved into attack positions. The call for battle stations was put out and we moved forward to engage the cruisers.”

“We moved in and quickly figured out that these cruisers were undermanned and first salvo took out the first cruiser. The first wave of droids hit our cruiser. We were in the middle of repulsing them when suddenly a wave came up from of the planet. Suddenly the ship split like a axe cleaved it in two. The other cruiser was destroyed intently. The bridge of the Spear was gone. Those of us that were left hit the escape pods.

The thing I saw was another wave hitting the pods. My pod and my six brother were the only one recovered. We crashed on an far planet in the uncharted space. We have no idea how we got there. The only reason we made it back was that a group of pirates landed on our planet and well not realizing who we were tried to take us captive. With thier ship the three of us made it back. By that time the clones had been replaced by the buffoons you call storm troopers. We were discharged and that was the end of my career as a soldier.”

With that he sits down. He puts his head into his hands and soft sobs come from it. The crowd watches silently then almost in silence someone stands and collects the old broken clone. They lead him out and after he leaves. Mama McDougal stands up and says “Not a word of this is to be shared” She walks out following after the clone and his friend. Lars sits quietly looking very ashamed.

You finish what is left of your meal and go back to your bunk. The old clones story bounces around in your head as you drift off.

The party moved away from the small hoard of goblins and hightailed it over the hill but as they came down the other side of the hill the hoard came chasing after the party.

Seeing the them coming over the hill and some smoke in the distance we headed in that direction. A river rose up in the front of us our chicken flew our bard over the river. Leaving me to swim for it.

We made it to the other side with the lead goblin waving his one gold coin. We made our way through the forest. Before us was a wood stockade. We announced our presence and were let in.

Here we were introduced to a horny paladin commander. Thinking my halfling butt was a boy butt he tried to take me back to his tent. Not wanting any part of that our bard “convenced” him in letting us go. Using sweet words of suggestion she convinced him we need to go forward not back the way we come. By the way I palmed a couple silver from the guy while he was palming me.

We set out into the jungle to a nearby town. We think there is a clue to finding a cure to the death curse. When we get there it is an abandoned rune of a town with one lone hut.

We approach the hut and an old crone is out front. Well we approach her asking for information. Negotiations break down quickly. Tired of her suggestions and dismissing me as a child (I think the gm is intimidated by my awesomeness) I walk up to her and blow her brains out. The rest of the party is not pleased.

Still needing info from her our bard convinces her corps to tell us what we need (taking to the dead go figure). She tells us what little she knows. Before our bard can release her she calls up a flesh golem. This golem is after me. Grabbing my trusty black powder revolver I put three shots into it. Our chicken guy does some awsome moves between us we do significant damage.

The flesh goblin brops dead. Breathing heavy we look at each other and wonder what is next.

To be continued….

Out on the rim near wild space is a habitual moon. It is largely Savannah with major rivers feeding out to two large polar seas. A large mountain chain create a major rain shadow affect in the southern hemisphere. It seems that this mountain chain is almost always serounded in most. It is here you find large evergreen forests coming off its slopes. The gravity is that of a larger planet leading many to believe it has a very dense core.

McDougal’s Junk Yard and outpost is on southern plains. The outpost is nestled up against the forest with the salvage yard and large farms to the south on the plains. It is run by humans and droids. There are many races there that work for McDougal.

It is ran by a grizzled old veteran and his partner “Ma McDougal”. The salvage yard and the small outpost that has grew up near it has become a heaven for individuals working the outer edges of society. McDougal runs a large salvage ship that has ranged far and wide to collect the miles apoun miles of salvage found in the yard. It is said that if you need it it can be found at McDougal’s and if you can’t find it it has not been made.

Ma and McDougal have no love for the Empire. There seems to always be a Mandalorian near the junk yard who will be quick to respond if there is trouble. Most who visit the yard know to mind thier manners and as much as people fear McDougal most fear ma more.

Both of them are followed by an inventory/protical droid. Rumor has it that if anyone threatens the pair these droids are quite capable of dealing with the threat. It is also rumored that McDougal has been seen taking a blaster hit to the chest and then turning his assailant into a unrecognizable mass.

Ma is often found in town socializing with the locals. She is a beautiful older lady with long flowing silver hair and bright green eyes. She normally wears a loose dress covered by a large cloak.

McDougal has a full service spaceport with a couple large buildings you can use to repair your ship out of the weather. There is a large Inn/pub to stay at for most spacers. In addition there is a Tailor and machinist shop. A general store to stock up on supplies and even an armoure you can get weapons repaired at.

McDougal when on planet can be found at the yard or at his and Ma’s house. When he leaves it is on the Reclaimer a hudge service ship that he uses for salvage jobs and repair jobs. Hundreds work on the Reclaimer but the salvage yard has hundreds more.

At the space port shipments of parts come and go but so does the excess from the farms. Shipped out on small freighters ran by locals. Nobody knows where these supplies end up. Also there are several independent crews running out of the space ports that act as McDougal scouts and job finders.

Sent out to get supplies for thier new base at Arda 1. They go to a nearby planitory system. When they land the Sqaudron finds a place to relax while thier supplies are loaded.

On the way to the pub Yondo accidentally runs into an young lady. It is the little sister of a childhood friend. Dawn was the annoying tag along from childhood. Now she is a beautiful young woman. After they exchange greetings. Yondo quickly asks about his childhood friend. Dawn quickly becomes sad and tells a large tale of whoa.

According to Dawn a couple weeks back Talon; Yondo friend got into some gambling with Black Sun a crime syndicate. When he could not pay he was taken right off the streets. Not wanting to get in the middle of Black Sun business especially for a refugee family the local law enforcement washed thier hand of it.

Feeling a responsibility to his friend Yondo quickly vows to get his friend back. Tala follows along to keep her friend out of trouble.

After chasing down some clues they found the local chapter of the Black Sun. Found in a grooming shop Yondo charges forward. After a brief altercation Yondo backs out. Yondo leaves Tala to watch the front door; he goes to the dack in the hope of cutting of the gang members off. Not realizing there was a side door as well as a back one. Yondo is ambushed. Getting hit hard Yondo is laid low.

Just before they completed the job a great spout of flame shoots out. In this last gasps a half destroy R2 unit saves Yondo.

Tala finishes off the remaining Black Sun men. Hauling Yondo and the droid back to dase she gets both the help they need. Yondo when he gets out of the Bacta bath he vows to find his friend. Yondo arranges the safe passage of Dawn and her remaining family away from Black Sun.

Be prepared for the next episode.

Starfighter Pilot / Laborer

Brawn 3 / Agility 3 / Intellect 2 / Cunning 3 / Willpower 2 / Presence 2

Soak: 2 / Wounds: 15 / Strain 15

SKILLS: Computers 1 / Cool 1 / Mechanics 1 / Piloting (planetary) 1 / Piloting (space) 2 / Skulduggery 1 / Streetwise 1 / Vigilance 1 / Gunnary 1 / Melee 1 / Range light 1 / Underworld 1

EQUIPMENT: Light Blaster Pistol (Damage: 5 CRIT: 4 Range: light stun) / Flight Suit / Civil Cloths (durable) / Tool Kit

TALENTS: subbarn & dependable 1 /

Female human who flies with Falcon Squadron. She is 5′ 5″ with brown eyes and brown hair.

JANE DIED IN THE BATTLE OF ARDA 1

Brawl 1 / Agility 2 / Intellect 2 / Cunning 3 / Willpower 2 / Presence 1

Soak 4 / wounds 12 / Strain 12 / Defence

Skills: Astrogation 3 / Computer 3 / Discipline 1 / Mechanics 3 / Coardination 1 / Perception 2 / Brawl 1 / Skulduggery 2 / Knowledge (outerrim) 2 / Piloting (space) 2 / Piloting (planetary) 2

Abilities: Gearhead 2 / Solid Repair 2 / Fine Tuning 1 / Toughened 1

Weapon: Arc Welder (Dmg 3 Range:engaged Special:stun)

Equipment: built in repair kit / encrypted comlink / emergency repair kit