Jedi Ship, take two

There's more talk of a medal ceremony, and probably another parade. However, for the moment, the crew managed to escape, heading back out to look for the Jedi ship.

And they found it. Derelict in space. When they boarded, they found the signs of a lightsaber fight, along with lots of dead bodies. Reviewing the tapes, they watched Darth Maul marauding through the halls, with Dalt and the witch following behind him. They found about fifty dead Jedi, and thirty more escaped in the pods. They seemed to be headed for a planet in Hutt Space, where Onna suspected they'd have to ransom the Jedi off.

So they called General Solo. When Ree explained the situation, he said, "Let me get this straight. Darth Maul just killed fifty Jedi, and you're within two days of his location? I'd get out of there if I were you." Then he said he'd deal with it, and they'd be sending a Republic transport out to reclaim the remains.

Then they took him up on his advice, and cleared the hell out.

On to Kamino--a stormy, water-covered planet perpetually raging with storms. The Kaminoans were, as always, unfailingly polite. They were uncertain of the propriety of releasing information to the group at first, but Ree offered some convincing arguments (that had nothing at all to do with lightsabers or violence!). Essentially, she simply pointed out that the deal for the clone troopers had originally been with the Jedi Order, even if it was through the deceit of Count Dooku pretending to be a different Jedi. Accepting that, the Kaminoans informed them that the last of the genetic material for the clone troopers had been turned over to the Emperor years ago. They hadn't dealt with him since.

Well. Apparently someone has been busy. The smart money's on Dalt. So it was back to Coruscant, again, to talk with Dalt's very vociferous holocron.

It was very pleased to get attention (god, Dalt's such an attention whore), and answered most of their questions with a little coaxing. Dalt had indeed learned the foundation of his own cloning technology from the Kaminoans (in the holocron's words, "With enough work, anyone can be persuaded to talk"). But the Daltocron was disgusted at the idea that he'd been less than brilliantly inventive in coming up with his own version...and indeed, he can't entirely be faulted on that. He explained that the procedure came from an understanding of the interaction of living beings with the Force. It's simply a matter of programming their personality as the clone grows, to simulate the maturation process. In non-Force sensitives, it's not really even an issue. An average clone could be grown in perhaps four years, he said, with more time being taken for what he called "works of art."

Doing some checking, the clone troopers had indeed been grown using Dalt's technology. Consensus on their next move was to head back to Kuat and see if they could find more information on Dalt there--perhaps a hidden lab or something away from his residence, that'd give them some clues.