The Cabal of Falling Stars

Once again on Coruscant, the crew gets orders to kick back for a few days while the Republic hashes things out with Thrawn regarding the Thule fleet.

A sound in her rooms wakes Ree in the middle of the night. She chops a small assassin droid in half and quickly chases down the one who sent it after her. Turns out, it's the stupid Rodian they met way back on Tatooine. She drags him back to toss him in a cell at the temple, then goes back to bed, figuring they'll have some information out of him by tomorrow.

The next morning, the crew goes to breakfast together. Kedrihm'Val realizes Ree's eggs have been poisoned, and then Ree narrowly dodges a speeder that comes plummeting at her out of the sky to crash through the facade of the diner. Talking to one of the waitresses, they get no real clue on who might've done it, but Ree finds a radio relay point on the roof. Whomever sent that speeder after her could've done it from anywhere within a couple of miles.

So they talk to the Rodian, whose name I think might be Koobis (it means 'mighty'). The Jedi guarding him say that the Rodian insists he's 'in hibernation' so he can't talk. Yes, there's a paradox there. Kyp gets a little annoyed, so he spends the next few hours occasionally strolling by the Rodian's cell and Force-pulling the guy into the zappy stun-bars. Eventually, this pays off, and the Rodian is willing to spill the beans in order to get Kyp to stop zapping him. Not that he has much to tell. He thinks he was trying to collect the bounty from the Bloody Spiral, a group that the crew had already smashed.

Getting back to her room, Ree finds a note on her pillow from an operative of Dust (the syndicate run by Oola's father). It says 'Bartho Schild' and 'Cabal of Falling Stars.' Ree recognizes Schild's name as being one of the formerly rich men from her planet. The Cabal of Falling Stars, Oola finds, is a group of four elite assassins.

Ree's uncertain of exactly what to do, but if she's going to track these people down, heading to her planet seems like the best move. When they go to the ship, they discover that SARR killed two would-be intruders. One of them, he...kind of chopped up. A lot. Cubed him, you might say. At least, presumably it was a him.

Z doesn't go with them. He heads of with the bounty hunter, Lerin, who intends to pose as...well, infiltrate the Thule forces as bounty hunters in order to see what may be seen.

Arriving at Ree's home, they discover that her youngest brother, Cal, had been kidnapped the day before by men who looked like Imperials, only to be rescued by a man wielding a sword with immaculate skill. From clues, Oola realizes that this guy works for her father. While they're talking to Ree's family, Kedrihm'Val realizes that their animals are stampeding. In fact, stepping outside, they see that not only are the animals stampeding, but they have bombs strapped to them. Furthermore, the space-cows (AH hahahahaha! space-cows!) are being mind-controlled. Kedrihm'Val uses a Force illusion of 'predator scent' to fend off the noble space-cows (hahahaha!) while Oola scrounges together some farm equipment and rigs up an ion gun to disable the bombs with.

(Ree's player informed everyone that technically, they're more like space-sheep.)

At this point, the family notices that Ree's uncle, the mechanic who works in the city, is late for dinner. Ree thinks she'd better check on him. Kedrihm'Val and Onna go with her, while the others stay at the farm to watch the family.

Sure enough, when they reach her uncle's shop, they note signs of a struggle, along with marks that look like lightsaber burns. Kedrihm'Val is able to follow the trail, which he counts as four people carrying Ree's uncle, which takes them to the shuttle port, while Ree contacts the port authorities and tells them to prevent all ships from leaving.

One ship was prepping for liftoff, and that's their target. Ree meets security there. They guard the front of the ship while she goes inside, where she finds herself confronting a Miraluka Force-user. The woman warns Ree that all she has to do is hit a button on the console and her uncle will die if Ree makes a move on her.

So, Ree stands still while she notices the lights on the console slowly blinking out (her uncle is no slouch at computers). She asks questions to keep the Miraluka distracted, and finds out that the woman wants to capture her. When the control panel goes dead, Ree draws her lightsaber and suggests the Miraluka surrender. She does. Ree's uncle steps out of the back, looking none the worse for wear. Ree calls Zann to let him know that everything's under control. Zann, however, informs her that there's a crisis back at her family's place: they're completely out of pie. Ree hangs up, vaguely disgusted.

While they're occupied with talking to their friends, the Miraluka's buddies stun Ree, Kedrihm'Val, and the security officers. Ree manages to shake it off and disable the goons, only to confront another assassin droid at the gangplank of the ship. This one's a real assassin droid, not the pathetic excuse for a floating laser pod that Ree had dissected in her room before. It informs her that it has captured and bound people from the port's staff, and has wired sensors to itself. If the sensors detect the droid taking any damage, then the bombs in the room with the prisoners will go off.

Ree's between a rock and a hard place on this one. She defends herself when the droid fires at her, but can't attack. The droid soon tires of the game, holding its blaster pistol to its own chassis. Ree pulls the pistol out of its hands. It draws a rifle to do the same thing, and she tugs that away too. So it triggers its self-destruction sequence.

Kedrihm'Val, meanwhile, has awakened from the stun, and with Ree's uncle's help, he sneaks out the back of the ship, intending to free those prisoners. When he gets there, though, he finds a man already doing so. Figuring it's easier than arguing, Kedrihm'Val tells the guy about the countdown, so the man just shoots the sensors and they break the people out. Ree, informed of their safety, proceeds to trash the assassin droid.

Apparently, this Cabal of Falling Stars means business. Ree's not sure what their next move should be, but just in case, Oola decides to track down their headquarters. Turns out, the Cabal is HQ'ed in Hutt space, on a space station. Oola's inclined to see if she can hijack and entire space station.

Star Wars: the real story

An essay some guy wrote about what was really happening in 'A New Hope,' in light of Episodes 1-3.

A New Sith

Worst day EVAR. So far.

The trip back to Coruscant is uneventful. Talk about what just happened centers around how Master Skywalker might take this (Kyp opines that his reaction will involve a lot of brooding), about vacations, and about Severan’s goals. Ree worries that he surrendered too easily, and wonders whether he wants something on Coruscant.

On their arrival, Kyp reports to the Council, as a kindness to the poor people who really don’t want to face Luke Skywalker over his father's cloned body. The characters go their separate ways for a day or so while they wait on the Council’s conclusions. Heading to her room for a lie-down, Ree finds a letter from a toy company asking permission to make action figures of the characters. There are plenty of toys already (Oola collects them) but these action figures would be of the real people, not the actors from the movie. She delivers the note to Master Roon, who is again in charge of their PR now that he's rid of Dalt, and thinks no more of it.

That night, she's awakened by a massive surge in the Force from the direction of Luke Skywalker’s rooms. She meets Kyp there and they discover that Luke is gone, his window open. Severan, meanwhile, now claims to be Luke. Looks like someone got body-switched while he wasn’t paying attention. Poor Luke. I swear he exists so that the universe can punch him in the face. He's now inhabiting the cloned body of his father. Needless to say, this disturbs pretty much everyone who knows him, since it's fairly obvious that no good can possibly come of this.

The Council does their best to play this down, but time is short before the universe at large realizes there’s something wrong. They have to retrieve Skywalker's body before Severan does something...unfortunate with it. The Starwind’s crew is assigned Muunilinst, a financial capital of the galaxy where the Telliks have resources. It’s located on the border of Imperial space, so they take their Empire-infiltrating disguises with them.

Oola quickly learns that Severan himself is controlling stockholder in Sienar Enterprises--the company that manufactured TIE fighters for the Empire. Sienar is currently preparing a major demonstration of a new product. Rumor has it that they're premiering a new ship. Some of the crew prepare to sneak into the compound to learn more, but before they can make a move, they spot Imperial infiltrators already in place. Then Oola calls them back. She has more information and they need to meet before they decide what to do.

Rumor is right. Oola's research shows that Sienar has perfected a cloaking device, and has built an entire line of warships--fighters, light warships, and heavy cruisers--utilizing this technology. They were, in fact, designed by Dalt. Dalt having given them a communicator, they place a call to him. He enthuses over his 'babies,' explaining that his design also included Force-stealth capabilities and ablative armor. The capital ships, furthermore, are equipped with climate control weaponry, which he refers to as 'weather dominators.’ He also designed personal ablative armor with self-contained environment for post-weather dominated invasion. Finally, he says he never got around to perfecting the weapon, but he at one point worked on a design for a Force-suppressing gun.

But there's more. While still unclear regarding Severan's movements, Oola does know for certain that the Imperial Remnant wants these ships...and the mission to steal them is operating under the orders of Grand Admiral Thrawn.

The demonstration is in an hour, which doesn't leave them enough time to react adequately to that revelation. However, they obviously can't allow the Empire to get their hands on these ships. This calls for a new plan. Oola disables the print-reader at the entrance to the prep area, and the Force-users mind-whammy their way past the guards. Z supplies them with ion charges to disable the three fighters there, then they plan to fly the Starwind up and dock with the capital ship to steal it before anyone else does. It goes smoothly, but once they get in, Zann changes the plan. He wants no trace left of the schematics for these things, so he suggests they steal two fighters, destroy the other one, then head up to dock with the capital ship.

Oola, meanwhile, is in the system, deleting the schematics and doing surveillanc. She realizes that the Empire already has gotten to the capital ship. The place is awash in storm troopers. After she gets the Starwind up there, the easiest route becomes nabbing some storm trooper armor and heading to the bridge to incapacitate the bridge crew. Then they lock the ship down and run off with it.

Again, all goes smoothly...except that a Star Destroyer arrives just as they're clearing orbit. Having an idea just who might be on that ship, they get the frakking hell out of there. The Star Destroyer pursues. Dalt, on the comm link (“My babies are coming home?” freaky bastard), suggests they drop one of the fighters in the other ship’s path and detonate it. When Oola expresses her disbelief, he explains that he built bombs into the fighters so they could be used as mines (that son of a bitch, you know he was planning to use pilots as strategic explosives). This they do, forcing the Star Destroyer to hitch up in order to avoid the blast.

After they refuse to respond to a hail, the Star Destroyer hijacks communications so Thrawn can inform them that he is aware of is a Sith fleet running out of Thule, heading toward the Core, and he wants these ships in order to confront that fleet. The crew is unwilling to engage him in conversation, so Z snags the comm, yells "Blue balls!" at him and then shuts off the signal with a war yodel.

Oola answers the second hail. Clearly irked, Thrawn insists that he means no harm to the Republic, and as a gesture of good faith, he is willing to turn over the prisoner he captured, stepping aside to show them a bound Luke Skywalker. Thrawn seems aware that this is not, in fact, Skywalker, whom he has met and was never so obnoxious (they wonder what Severan must’ve said to him to get Thrawn to even mention it). Ree answers, this time, saying that she'll carry word to the Republic. Thrawn tells them to contact the Imperial Remnant when they decide they wish to speak with him, then breaks off.

They arrive at Coruscant, where the Jedi inform them that the Thule fleet took Bimmisaari while they were en route. Asked how he's doing, Luke casually informs them that the body is not altogether unaware—a statement that makes the Council just as nervous as it does the crew. Way to drop a bombshell, Master Skywalker. The Senate, recovering from a momentary fugue state at the news of his survival, agrees to open communications with Thrawn, sending the Starwind to meet him not too far from Corellia to retrieve Skywalker/Severan.

Thrawn welcomes them quite cordially, in fact, even offering them a meal before turning over Skywalker's body. He points out the headband which, he says, represses a being's sentience, keeping them at an infantile level of mental faculties, and warns that while it can be removed safely, it will subsequently self-destruct. He suggests they not tinker with it without removing it, since doing so will fry the wearer’s neural system...and they want to keep Luke's body intact.

And oh, he knows who they are. No convenient anonymity for Oola or Zann from this man. He comments approvingly on the crew's efficiency, making a few comments that let them know he’s been following their exploits quite closely. “A fool,” he remarks in the tone of a cryptic warning, “might believe that you’re more dangerous than Skywalker.” His reaction to mention of SARR hints at recognition of the droid's name. On their way back, Zann (who, guess what, worked under the man in the old Imperial days) says that the Grand Admiral was attempting to be reassuring, but polite as he is, Thrawn is more than mildly terrifying.

But the crew figures the Senate can worry about that. They turn Severan in Luke's body over to the Jedi Council. Debate ensues regarding disposal of the various elements. Severan can’t be allowed back into Anakin's body, but no one is enthusiastic about putting him elsewhere. They end up depositing him in one of those Force crystals the crew keeps finding. Luke, meanwhile, isn't altogether certain he wants to go back to his body just now. This does exactly nothing to reassure anyone. Even the Council members look truly nervous about the idea. Kedrihm'Val points out that if this clone is in fact sentient, it's not a good act for a Force-user to continue inhabiting his body and repressing his mind. Of course, it takes him a moment to realize the problem at hand: if Anakin's clone is sentient, then there’s serious concern about ‘who’ the clone is, especially if he’s been influenced by the people who've been in there already (to wit, a genetically engineered Sith baby and Luke Skywalker).

Luke ends up back in his own body. What happened to the clone, they're not certain yet. Other things came up.

First, they learn that while they were gone, the Republic let Dalt onto the new ship. Fifteen techs follow his every move within the system, but while Dalt could cut off his own foot with his lightsaber, he's frankly frightening when he has technology in his hands. So this is worrisome. With Dalt backing them up, the characters start rummaging around. The bays are full of fighters, the armories stocked with the ablative armor and weaponry, crew quarters prepared...these ships were obviously ready to go to war, not just prepped for a demonstration. They suspect that Sienar still has ties with the Empire (and this, in turn, may well mean that Thrawn was already aware of Thule; it’s his kind of perfect timing). The Force-jamming capabilities turn out to be crude—nothing more than containers of ysalamiri goo. Dalt scorns it. His original plans involved some sort of technological focusing of the ysalamiri anti-Force aura, but Sienar didn't have the ability to pull that off. Still, they’re functional. Those "anti-Force-user" weapons, on the other hand, are nothing but net-launchers wrapped around globes containing baby ysalamiri.

Dalt wants to go with them to face the Thule fleet. He's quite serious, pointing out that much of the Sith fleet’s weaponry is of his design. When they object, he tells them, "Just give me a cortex bomb and a lightsaber." Having had this conversation among themselves last time he asked to go with them (when they came to the conclusion that Dalt would probably find a way to use a cortex bomb as a weapon), the crew expresses their opinion of this idea. In Oola's words, "I've seen you with a lightsaber. I'd be more worried about the cortex bomb." Dalt is speechless, and just possibly a little bit flattered.

Cue distraction number two: at this point, pretty much the entire galaxy is hit with a broadcast signal. It’s Drath Orion, signaling from Centerpoint Station. Having deciphered notes left by Severan and Darth Maul, he has figured out how to operate the station’s equipment--which he demonstrates by moving Tellus out of its orbit. The beam, he says, is in fact a potent weapon. To demonstrate its power, he destroys both Kaamino and Gammorea. “Now that I have your attention, I’m pointing this thing at the Deep Core. The galaxy—including the Republic, Empire, and Thule (I can see you from here)—has three days to turn Severan over and surrender, or I’ll fire this thing. I really don't know what that'll do," he comments, "but we'll be finding out if you don't obey me." He informs them that any attempt to approach the station without his permission will result in the same consequence, and signs off.

As Drath's signal cuts out, Thrawn signals the Jedi Council directly, announcing that he's coming through to Coruscant to meet with the heads of the Republic. Nettled, Kyp snaps, "You'd better come in slow, 'cause I might get lost on my way to telling the fleet not to shoot you out of the sky." He doesn't seem to respond well to authority.

The meeting convenes—Thrawn, Jedi Council, heads of state and military (Leia and Han are seated notably far away from the Grand Admiral), and the crew of the Starwind, who’re most familiar with Drath. And Dalt, who after all knows more about freaky technology than just about anyone. Dalt says they have little to fear. The weapon on Centerpoint generates gravity wells. Firing it into the Deep Core will do precisely squat, seeing as that whole region of space is one giant freaking gravity well that could eat the ones generated by Centerpoint for breakfast. He can, of course, reposition it, but that takes about ten minutes, giving them an initial window of time. They might win more time, he continues, if the beam could be blocked or diverted…he hesitates.

Prompted, he reveals that he has equipment that'll deflect energy beams. See, Dalt never quite trusted that the Emperor wouldn't blow up Dalt's favorite planet (that being whatever one he was on at the time), so he made certain the thing had features he could exploit. Luke can't resist a comment about exhaust ports, to which Dalt replies, “I hate you this much,” holding his hands about a foot apart (he’s wearing shackles).

Dalt hid the equipment on one of Dathomir’s moons. If someone could take him to get it, he’s fairly sure he can convert it to work on Centerpoint’s beam. Ideally, he’d like to set it up somewhere in Corellia’s solar system, since the closer to the beam’s origin, the better the effect. Han Solo volunteers to take him, and Leia says she’ll try to get Drath to agree to allowing humanitarian aid efforts to land on Tellus, which is currently being wracked with spasms related to the gravitational shift. Dalt thinks that’d do perfectly. From there, he could isolate Centerpoint's beam completely, preventing it from striking out at anything else.

The crew, meanwhile, agrees to take the stealth ship to Tellus to wait for Dalt. While they wait, they plan to look for anything that might teach them more about Centerpoint. Malina and Ja’len, their ship-jacker acquaintance, agree to go with them to lend their piloting experience.

The Republic arranges to hand Severan over, figuring it’ll distract Drath and make him more amenable to requests. Drath will be expecting them to sneak aboard that way, anway—he’d demanded that the crew transporting Severan be incompetent. Thrawn’s amused by that, commenting that it’s one of the more intelligent things he’s ever heard.

On Tellus, it doesn’t take them long to find what they’re looking for, a massive door in one of the ruins that no one has ever been able to open. It’s unlocked, now. When they enter, they’re confronted by a multi-armed droid wielding lightsabers. Z and Ree engage it. Ree takes off one of the arms, but the thing is extremely fast, putting some hurt on our intrepid heroes. Kedrihm’Val manages to use the Force to drain the thing’s energy reserves, shutting it down, but he feels resistance when he does so. This was no ordinary droid. The Jedi realize that the Force was used to make it. Perhaps the ancient Jedi left guardians…

Passing through another door, they find the room they’re looking for, guarded by several more of these lightsaber-wielding droids. Taking a gamble, Ree raises her hands and declares, “I’m Jedi!” A droid approaches her, asking, “How do we know?” She offers to accept whatever test the droid puts to her, so it quizzes her on Jedi lore. When she answers all its questions to its satisfaction, it allows them to pass.

The droids have been down here for a very long time, set by the Jedi to study and protect the machinery here. Only a few of the Jedi Council knew, they tell the crew. Perhaps Yoda was the last to keep this secret. They’re able to share a great deal of information about Centerpoint Station. Indeed, it turns out that Centerpoint’s weapon can be directed from this place, so they can lock down the targeting. What’s more, there are teleporters that allow persons to travel between this room and the station—a secret way on board! Briefly, they consider evacuating the station with them, but the droids tell them that the station will register it when the teleporters are used. While they can be used for surprise, they can’t be used for stealth.

Receiving a hail from Dalt, most of the group returns to the surface, though Oola stays below to study the machine. They agree to keep Dalt out of this room, fearing that he might learn dangerous things if he’s able to study the technology down there. While they and General Solo help Dalt set up, Oola receives a communication from the station, alerting them that Darth Maul has arrived, and has been given access to the station.

Thrawn signals the crew (hey, hold on a sec, how’d Thrawn know Maul had gotten to the station? His ship’s all super-cloaked and stuff!) and they revise plans in light of new information. Dalt tells them that from this close, he can use his equipment to turn the station’s beam back on itself, crushing the station if they wish. Solo refuses, pointing out that there are still people on board. Thrawn, who sees such casualties as an acceptable loss for destroying this weapon as well as two such dangerous enemies, is annoyed, but offers an alternative: he believes that Drath would have gathered all the people into one area near himself as hostages (Dalt agrees). Thus, chances are there’s no one near the station’s firing mechanism, if Dalt is able to focus his equipment with that much accuracy.

Dalt confirms that he can, which means they can neutralize the station’s weapons entirely. Once that happens, Thrawn will challenge the station to provide a distraction while the crew sneaks on board. Solo believes, based on what they’ve seen of Darth Maul so far, that he won’t want to stick around for such a one-sided fight, and will probably evacuate the station. Thrawn asks if the crew plans to board using the teleporters, but Kedrihm’Val suggests they activate the teleporters as a feint while the crew sneaks on board using the stealth ships. Realizing this will put them on board near Maul's Scorpion, Thrawn suggests that rather than confronting the dark Jedi, while Maul’s eyes are turned toward the teleporters and Thrawn’s ships, the crew can sneak a homing beacon on board the Scorpion…and then they can finally track the elusive Sith back to his lair.

Thus it all goes down. Entering the station, the crew is briefly held up by Severan’s Dark Side spirit. He angrily tells them that Maul smashed the crystal he was in. He seems about to make a threatening move, but Ree, Zann, and Kedrihm’Val dispel him with Force Light. He vanishes. They aren’t certain whether they destroyed him or simply drove him off. They head into the station to confront Drath and Darth Maul while SARR plants homing beacons on Darth Maul’s ship, and Maul indeed vacates rather than confront them. All the crew has to do is gather up the hapless civilians and get them to safety.

Turning on the tracking device, they’re greeted by a humongous red blur. Looking at SARR in disbelief, they ask, “How many trackers did you use?” 37, he says. He also mentions that he slipped some herbs into their food calculated to cause explosive diarrhea. Oh, SARR. SARR, by the way, turns out to have been an Imperial medical droid, converted to…well, a medical interrogation droid, I guess (torturebot, essentially), before being reprogrammed as a protocol droid and coming to work for Onna. Onna promises them he’s quite safe. Her family knows his history and he was completely and totally debugged before they began to employ him.

Thrawn comms them to ask, “Am I following an artificial sun?” by way of letting them know his crew has got the signal. When they tell him what SARR did, he replies, “You’re an efficient group. If we weren’t allies at the moment, I’d blow you out of the sky where you stand.” I suppose this is high praise from him and is, granted, sort of what they were worried about while they were on the station. But while Grand Admiral Thrawn's hallmark is pragmatism, he's not interested in shooting down the alliance he needs to confront Thule's Sith army.

Kedrihm'Val, disliking the idea but truly tired of confronting all these lightsabers with no way to deal with them, asks General Solo if it would be possible to acquire a cortosis bracer or gauntlet. Han puts on his innocent face and wonders "Why does everyone assume I know all the shady stuff?" Seeing as this wins him no particular reaction (really, does it ever?), he shrugs and answers, "Yeah, I should be able to find something."

They track the Scorpion as landing at Bimmisaari. Next episode: the Republic/Imperial alliance against the Thule fleet is still on, Severan's ghost is unaccounted for, Dalt is in the middle of technology he created, and Thrawn has something to do besides observe (which, honestly, yay! Spooky bastard sees frigging everything).

In hindsight, it might be a good thing they never got around to infiltrating the Imperial Remnant.

The Deep Core

After they inform the Jedi Council of their next move, Kyp pulls some strings to get them a heavy cruiser. He figures they might run into some heavy-duty resistance in there. The Emperor probably kept his old stash well-guarded, and it's difficult enough to transmit in and out of the Deep Core that they might not be aware that the Emperor's dead.

They talk to Dalt again, who once more is surprisingly willing to cooperate. He tells them he's been there; there's one path in and one path out, and remnants of the Empire indeed still stand guard. What are they guarding? Kaminoan cloning facilities. The Emperor tricked some Kaminoans into working for him, and a small facility is still operational in there, presumably with Emperor clones. He offers to give them the codes (which only he knows), if they'll take him with them. They offer to give him better quarters instead, and he calls it a deal.

So they ask Kyp if they could go with a Star Destroyer instead. They plan to go in in disguise,
pretending to be on a mission from the Emperor with all appropriate codes. He arranges it. Z comes up with a hare-brained plan to dress Zann in Vader's armor and parade him around as the big black guy, but Zann understandably nixes that. They do plan to take a Kaminoan with them in order to convince the Kaminoans at the facility of the truth, which the Kaminoans agree to (there are a few on-planet; they don't belong to the New Republic, but they do have an embassy to the Senate). They don't like the idea of fellow Kaminoans basically being Imperial slaves. Lerin and Malina decide to go with them as well. First chance to test out their prospective disguises for infiltrating the Imperial Remnant.

They get a last-minute message from Dalt to come see him, and he informs them that the ship Severan flies was designed by him, along with a gadget that's attached to Severan's ship--a Force-amplifying dish. Severan's probably going to want those clones, and if he's powerful enough, he might not have to actually get to the facility to possess one. Luckily, Severan's course toward Thule took him a few days further out than the crew is. They have a good head start on him, maybe enough to deal with things before he can catch up.

Also, Dalt informs them, there might be Vader clones. Well. Anakin clones. Having informed Luke of several other disturbing things today, they figure they'll just assume he's smart enough to figure that one out without having to explain it to him face-to-face. Finally, Dalt reminds them that Darth Maul probably is none too happy with Severan's gallivanting around the galaxy, and this could be a great place to lay an ambush and force a confrontation...

The mission takes off, arriving at and accessing the facility without a hitch. While the Kaminoan slips the word to his people and helps them get on board the Star Destroyer, the crew goes searching for clones. They find no Palpatine clones, but they do locate three Anakin clones...of which they find two, along with a third tube that's been shattered from the inside.

They destroy the two clones (wonder if they'll get a Dark Side point for that). Following the trail left by the third, they quickly discover they're following the trail of a running lightsaber battle,. It doesn't take much to guess that Severan must've managed to get close enough to possess one of the clones (they have no real idea how powerful he is) and that he's quite possibly fighting Darth Maul. The idea that Severan in a newly-possessed Anakin body could keep up with Darth Maul in a fight is disturbing...

The trail finally splits, as the two combatants apparently sheared off. Half the group--Ree, Lerin, Oola, and Malina--follows Severan/Anakin's trail. The others--Onna, Zann, Kedrihm'Val, and Z--follow Darth Maul's.

Half of the group catches up to Darth Maul in a sky-bridge, where he does a number on them, but Zann takes a pretty good chunk out of him, too. Z passes his friends breath masks, then blows out the glass on the bridge, apparently hoping to suck Maul out into the planet's thin, vacuumlike atmosphere. Instead, Maul zips off using Force speed, and Kedrihm'Val and Zann follow him, leaving Z and Onna in the dust. Z's action sets off alarms throughout the complex, alerting the inhabitants to possible intruders. The crew's disguises prove to be a great move on their part.

Anakin's trail leads back into the populated area of the complex. Tracking him, Ree and her companions have to duck a barrage of Imperials who attack them despite their apparent status as fellow Imperials. They seem to be mind-controlled. After dealing with those, they arrive at a play area for children, where some civilians are hiding. Ree realizes that Severan is in there somewhere, but at first has trouble spotting him, not being overly familiar with Anakin's face (though the group did see a holo of him once). She lingers under the pretense of evacuating the civilians due to "intruders in the area," and is able to figure out which person he is, but as he keeps lurking near one of the children, she can't get to him without endangering people.

Severan's chance comes when Imperial reinforcements arrive at the room, Z and Onna tagging along, having no chance of catching the darting Force users they'd been with. Again, the soldiers don't behave properly when Oola feeds them the appropriate codes. Instead, they seem to be lining up to shoot the children...so she pipes static feedback into their helmet comms, disorienting them too badly to act. Ree makes a move toward Severan, but he's able to grab the child he was standing near. He takes out the lights in the room using Force Lightning, but Z reminds the crew that they have night-sight goggles built into their helmets. With the advantage of sight, they're able to get the kid away from him. Knowing he's beaten (for the moment), Severan surrenders, realizing that no Jedi would ever harm him while he's willingly under their power. Z is peeved.

The other two catch up to Maul in a docking airlock, where he seems to be waiting for his ship to arrive. The blast doors behind them close, and Kedrihm'Val and Zann are left to square off with Darth Maul. They take pretty good chunks out of each other, and Lerin arrives from somewhere to back them up. Still, this doesn't go terribly well.

Ree having cleaned up her end at this point, Oola uses the computers to search for the other group, figuring that if they've caught up to Maul, they might need help. When she finds them, it's pretty obvious that they could use a hand. And maybe a couple of legs.

Lightsaber battles just aren't clean, especially when your frigging GM keeps rolling crits. Everyone, including Darth Maul, is short a limb. At least Maul can't make full use of that bloody double-bladed lightsaber anymore, but it's hard for Kedrihm'Val or Lerin to fight when they're each missing a leg, and Zann's down a hand, which means no two-weapon fighting for him either. To add to the mess, they hear the blast doors behind them screaming in protest as something frighteningly powerful on the other side applies enough pressure to warp and mangle them. Whatever it is wants to get in.

Maul's ship arrives right about then, and in a sudden hurry, he tries to bail...but when he jumps for the hatch, he practically brains himself. It didn't open. As Maul kneels on the floor, stunned and trying to recover, SARR pokes his head out of the hatch to shoot a needle into him. Thankfully, Darth Maul rolls an astonishingly sucky Fortitude check (seriously, the man's a monster; I think he needed a 5 or somethign) and slowly crumples to the floor.

Looking through the cameras, Oola realizes why Maul suddenly wanted out so badly. The thing tearing the blast doors apart is Kyp Durron. He stowed away on the Star Destroyer in case they needed him. He's warped the doors too badly for her to open them at this point, but with Maul now unconscious and SARR tending to the characters' wounds, he can wrench the thing open at his leisure. Whether he's gratified or dismayed at the outcome is hard to tell, because right about then, they notice that Darth Maul isn't breathing. The obvious answer is that SARR killed him...but SARR insists he was only using a tranquillizer. They realize that Maul must've fought the drub back long enough to project himself from his body. Where he's gone is anybody's guess...

But there is an empty Severan body lying around, probably guarded by Drath, who always did find Maul a little too interesting for anyone's good.

Three characters are laid up in the med bay getting their limbs reattached while an evil Sith baby is comatose in a room down the hall from them. They've dosed Severan up with ysalamiri goo, knocked him out with ordinary drugs, and Kyp is...dismayed is a mild word when he realizes the genetically engineered Sith lord is occupying the body of Luke Skywalker's father. No one is really looking forward to going back and telling him about this.

Goddamit it, Drath!

Onward to Naboo, in pursuit of the Sith baby. They arrive at the Corellian ambassador's vacation house only to hear from the droid butler that the young master has already been and gone; he has no idea to where. They go exploring, and find nothing unusual about the house...but they do find a trail of Dark Side energy. When they prepare to follow it, however, the robutler and his ninja-maids attack. They have to take out the droid butler, who is also the house's security system, in order to get the hell out of there. Z blows up the front wall. Nice move, Z.

With the butler out of commission, they check the security logs, hoping to get some clues. What they see is the bounty hunter (in a face-concealing helmet) waving exuberantly at the camera and saying, "You found the message on the wall here, right? The one right here? I'll be seeing you around!" Which is no help at all, other than alerting them that the bounty hunter's a dick--a fact that was fairly obvious already.

Chasing after the trace, they follow it to a hidden cave that's full of Dark Side energy. Apparently the Emperor had a Naboo vacation spot, too. Entering the place, they find little of interest...except for a case that looks like until recently it contained a chunk of someone's flesh. But whose flesh, you ask?

Why, Vader's! That crummy old prune had apparently shaved off some of the man's leg while he was having all those bionics installed, holding onto it in case he wanted to clone the guy or something. Crazy bastard.

Ah well, Severan's got it now! And he's heading to Tatooine, where the bounty hunter who's been leaving these cryptic messages will meet them. They know this, because the bounty hunter left them another note. Z goes into bounty-hunter envy when he sees the name on the message. He's apparently some super-awesome bounty hunter that Z would like to be when he grows up.

So, now we're off to Tatooine. Upon arrival, they follow Severan's trail to old Ben's house (that's Ben Kenobi). There's a big hole in front of the old hut. Apparently, the old man had moved Shmi's body after baby Luke moved in to his aunt and uncle's place. Her remains were permeated with the remnants of Anakin's rage, and presumably, he didn't that drifting around the edges of Luke's young and impressionable life. Well, she's obviously been dug up and carried off into the desert. Z is able to follow the tracks without much trouble. Drath lingers, briefly, doing something to the wall of Ben's hut before he catches up.

The fairly prominent trail leads them to a bunker in the desert. Upon entering, walls slide across the hall, cutting the characters off from each other. Severan's voice is piped in, so he can gloat a bit and inform them that the place is rigged to explode (very fond of exploding buildings, is Severan). Drath, at the rear and able to get to the entrance, comms them that he'll leave and call the ship. The people in front head down the hallway, while the people in the middle chop through a wall to see where it leads them.

It leads them into another room through a bank of computers built into the wall. A hologram of Severan pops up to tell them the computers Ree just hacked through (with her lightsaber; not in the computer-friendly way) had the information about what he was planning to do and where he's heading next. The crew figures that he's a total bastard, and bets that he built identical rooms into both sides of the hallway, just in case they chopped through the right wall instead of the left one. The hologram confirms this, but explains that if they disable the bombs in the bunker, doing so will erase the copied data.

Oola figures what the hell, she'll give it a shot anyway. Naturally, she makes it. They learn that he's heading to Coruscant, where he plans to kidnap Jaina Solo as part of his preparations to create a Darth Vader clone and then put his own spirit into it. See, he has no interest in having a copy of Darth Vader running around the countryside. That's just insane. It's not like he's ever going to work for you, after all. No, instead he means to claim the man's vaunted power and have a Vader body of his very own.

Perhaps at this juncture, I should note for posterity that Kedrihm'Val is kind of confused as to what bodies have to do with the Force, when their spirits can be dislodged and float around with all the same power anyway. Ah, well. He's not up on these things.

But this leaves Drath unaccounted for. You see, what happened to him was that, instead of leaving the bunker, he went down a little set of stairs that opened up next to him. Severan was waiting for him at the bottom. He had left a note on Ben Kenobi's hut inviting Drath to join him. Asking, "So...you joining me, or do I need to give the whole 'seduction of the Dark Side' speech?" Drath happily agreed to the alliance. So Severan and his treacherous new apprentice hied off together.

The rest of the crew get out of the cave, discover that their erstwhile buddy has betrayed them, and catch up to the ship...where they meet the bounty hunter. He is, as some have surmised, Severan's adoptive older brother, Lerin. The man's been stalking his hateful step-sibling for most of his adult life, waiting for a chance to avenge his parents and wipe out the nasty little rug rat. They invite him to tag along, since they figure having an inside POV might be helpful. While they're at it, he agrees to teach Z a few new tricks of the trade (i.e. Z is going to enter a prestige class!).

Cue the suspenseful three-day chase scene back to Coruscant through hyperspace. You know, these deep-space chases really are kind of anticlimactic. They just kind of sit around impatiently while the ship does all the work. During this period, via GM's cut-scene, the viewer learns that Severan has the crew bugged. Unbeknownst to the characters, he can hear every word they say.

Arriving at Coruscant days later, they alert the appropriate individuals, only to discover they're too late! Jaina's already gone missing! Severan's off to Thule, that hellhole of evil to which they'll have to follow him if they want to rescue the Chancellor's daughter!

"Whoa, whoa, hold on," says General Solo, arriving on the scene before they're able to begin the long, slow chase into danger. "My daughter? She's not even on Coruscant. I had Winter take the kids and go to a safe place. I'm not having my family hanging around where people are going to try to kidnap them every time I turn around."

Um...but who's the girl Severan kidnapped, then?

"You remember that...stuff that Dalt was using to turn into other people? Yeah, she's...kind of a duplicate Jaina. We had people stand in as doubles so no one would get suspicious." Which is great for Jaina, but thanks to the bug, that poor duplicate is now dead. A pity, because only a few minutes later, Kyp Durron spots and destroys the bug Severan had been using to listen in.

Suddenly freed of tight constraints on their time, the crew decides not to jump to Severan's tune. Instead, they sit down to consider their next move. Certainly going to Thule would be the next best thing to a death sentence. Severan and Drath can run there, but they'll have to come out again eventually. The crew can wait. Taking a different tack, the character consider what ominous things they know that Severan didn't...until he got hold of Drath. Severan craves Sith knowledge and technology. They go through the list of unclaimed or unguarded items until they hit the Emperor's stronghold in the Deep Core.

They'll go there and deal with it, they decide, before Severan is able to catch up. Severan's current trajectory takes him out past the Core planets before he can correct and sweep inward again. At the very least, they have a three-day head start.

Sith Baby!

Turns out, Dalt's Force ghost is easy enough to deal with. Kedrihm'Val's people excel at dealing with Force spirits. They can summon it to them easily enough if they have something of Dalt's. Since the group has plenty of things of Dalt's, this is a snap. It takes them a while, but they gain one bottled Dark Side spirit.

As it turns out, the Dark Side spirit is actually the spirit of the clone. It's the real Dalt who's in his body. Zann simply severs Dalt's connection to the Force, and they take him back to Coruscant as a prisoner.

While they've been off saving the galaxy one planet at a time, the New Republic has pursued investigation of the corrupt Miraluka ambassador (remember that?). They've learned that on the day the crew saved the Senate, a message was recorded as beamed out by the ambassador to a location the investigators can't track. While interrogating Dalt, they ask if he knew about this. He denies that she sent such a message to him, but tells them that she wasn't answering to him.

They realize that whoever she was dealing with must have had ties to the Senate, which will make investigation difficult and sensitive. Zann suggests a trap: they'll leak the fact that they're investigating and let people know where they're heading (they choose a random planet) and see if the person responsible comes after them.

The person responsible does attack them, using some kind of monsters made of...evil Force goo or something. They're all squishy and tentacular and generally disgusting. Ree fights one off after it nearly chokes her, discovering that when they're "killed," they disintegrate and leave Dark Side crystals behind. Drath freaking mauls the one that's sent after him, while Kedrihm'Val catches his in a sack and beats it off the walls until Z gets a bit gung-ho and nearly tries to blow up his room.

Unfortunately, while the crew ends up with pockets of evil crystals, they do not manage to capture any information on the person who sent them...although now they know that whomever it was is both interested in their destruction and steeped in the Dark Side (it couldn't just be a regular evil politician, oh no, it just had to be a Dark Sider. Dark Siders are jerks.) They discover that these goo-things actually are people (well, ex-people) who somehow swallow these crystals, which then possess them and turn them into monsters. How...revolting.

Cleaning up the mess, Ree discovers a note on her bedside table, from a bounty hunter, suggesting they go to Corellia. This elicits the following conversation over comm:

"Hello, Master Kyp. We just fought off evil Force goo-monsters, and a bounty hunter left a note in my bedroom."

"Oh, reaaaaaally?"

"Get your mind out of the gutter, Master."

Upon investigation, it does turn out that the Miraluka in question had ties to Corellia's embassy. The crew decides to pursue the lead, but they're warned that the mission might be politically sensitive, and are asked not to upset anyone important unless it's vitally necessary to do so.

They find nothing. Squat. The place is quiet as a...quiet thing. At a loss as to what to do, they choose to poke around an interesting old bit of news, about some relic that washed up on one of the beaches a while back. Turns out, "a while back" means years ago. But they're sort of curious anyway, because the story goes that this family--the Seraf family--was vacationing at a seaside resort where they found a bauble washed up on the beach. Shortly afterward, the parents were hideously murdered by some means that the authorities could never figure, but which looks an awful lot like someone might've torn them apart using the Force. Their passing left two young sons behind. With nothing else to do, the crew visits the resort, where they learn that one child (Adjen, aged 5 at the time) was later adopted by an anonymous individual, and the older son (Lerin, aged 14) simply vanished shortly after.

Well, this is curious, mysterious, and just possibly relevant. Oola decides she'll try her hand at some research, but finds the adoption records sealed shut like a...really tightly shut thing. She does learn that a man named Onjo Panib was in charge of the case, but they learn that he retired some years back and after that, his record disappear behind the same wall.

Here's where it gets interesting. A note turns up at their hotel with Panib's current address on it.

With the distinct scent of Mystery wafting in their sensitive, heroic little noses, the crew is off! Only to find that Panib won't tell them anything, except that the kid was adopted by a VIP who wanted the good deed to go unremarked. He remains, he says, sealed under an order of silence to this day. Frustrated, Oola calls Erin, the New Republic Investigator, to try to get the records unsealed. Erin agrees to work on that.

Meanwhile, they do have the family's old home address, which they decide to check out since Onjo's imitating a clam. There, they discover an unsettling thing: a Sith holocron. Obviously, something is not right. They do a bit of speculating, most of which is disturbing, until Erin calls them back to inform them that Adjen was adopted by the Corellian ambassador to the New Republic Senate. He now goes by the name Severan Tellik. Severan just happened to be on Coruscant around the time the whole deal with Dalt and the Miraluka went down.

Well, well. Looks like they stumbled onto a connection after all. Since they know now what Panib couldn't tell them, they decide to go back and try talking to him again. When they arrive, in true crime-solving fashion, the man is dead--of a lightsaber cut to the neck. All that remains are bloody footprints and...an ultraviolet flashlight?

Shining that around, they see a message written on the wall: "You should watch some home movies." What?!

Though a series of events that I cannot for the life of me recall (it might involve another note; they got a lot of anonymous notes), they discover said home videos hidden in a closet in the nice suburban home of a completely unrelated young couple on Coruscant. Watching those videos, they witness the hidden evil of the young child, who displays uncanny mastery of the Force at a young age, even constructing his own (black, how ominous) lightsaber from a strange sort of crystal that also washed up on that beach there (this, apparently, is what the child found, and what set him to murder his parents). Older brother Lerin in the videos is freaked the hell out, but Adjen hides it well from the adults.

Obviously, what we have here is some severe wrongness. To learn more, Oola does some research on the names of the parents--Jek and Mara. Turns out, they worked at Kuat Shipyards during the Imperial years...oh, round about the time Dalt lived there. After an accident at the shipyards that killed a number of people, the Serafs found this baby, who they figured had been orphaned. They took the little tyke in and raised him as their younger son.

Aha. This smells suspicious. A brief talk with Dalt, who's oddly cooperative, reveals that, hell YEAH, that explosion was his fault. He's quite proud of it, in fact. Dalt explains that he learned the Imperials were there in order to pick up a genetically engineered Sith baby shipped out of Thule, who was created to be the Emperor's specially-bred apprentice. Dalt didn't plan on having any test tube baby take his destined spot at the Emperor's right hand, thank you very much, so he blew up the entire bunch of 'em, killed the kid, and made it look like an accident. He's disgruntled to learn that he missed the kid after all, and wishes the crew the best of luck in hunting the brat down.

Asked about Thule, he tells them them that it's a planet the Sith lords hid way back when, where they kept all their stuff after the Jedi hunted them to near-extermination. The whole planet's full of Sith stuff, Sith people, Sith technology, Sith armies... Only the Dark Lords of the Sith know about it. It's located at those mysterious coordinates the group kept running afoul of. Darth Maul? Sure, he'd know all about it. Dalt opines that it's probably where he's been stashing all this stuff he keeps making off with.

Oh, goodie.

Well, anyway, back to the business of this kid. They need to catch up to him. Easiest way to do that is to get invited to a party the ambassador's family is attending. And, why, the heroes of Coruscant are visiting Corellia?! The ambassador thinks this is a perfect excuse for a party!

The party, as you might imagine, does not go well. They meet young Severan, who ducks out shortly afterward while everyone checks the food to make sure there aren't evil Force crystals in it. There are, disguised as caviar. Z bursts into action, kicking over the buffet table, while Drath starts knocking the caviar out of peoples' hands, shouting, "The caviar is evil, don't eat the caviar!" Zann and Kedrihm'Val proceed to exorcise a couple of people who chomped down on it before they could be stopped (yay, Force Light).

Ree takes off in pursuit of Severan, following him down a secret passageway under the house, but gets distracted by some people he had tied up in another room, who're slowly being gassed to death. Young Severan seems to think ahead. So he makes his escape. Meanwhile, the people upstairs notice the house is wired with bombs. They start herding people out while Oola shuts them down. Severan seems to feel like being thorough, though, so before he heads off-planet, he takes a swipe at the building with his neato custom-built Sith starfighter (built to the specs of a miniature Scimitar-class, that being Darth Maul's personal ship). He totals the ambassador's mansion, but sadly for Severan, by then the heroes have managed to get people to safety.

He takes off to Naboo. The very upset parents inform the crew that they have a vacation property on Naboo, and don't mind in the slightest if their Sith-baby son is arrested. Poor things.