Star Wars Shards of the Empire Season 01 Episode 02 Recon in Farce

Sand Panther Squadron had been sent on a mission to Nod Kartha a planet in the Karthakk system near Lok to search for one of Nym's operatives.  Morago was a Kubaz member of the Lok Revenants who was spying on Storm Lord activity on Nod Kartha.  As near as Nym could tell he had made it to the planet but they had not heard from him since.  Nym was not sure if he had been captured by the Storm Lords or the Local Neimodians who were no friends to Nym or his followers.

First they would have to get past the Spine and the Storm Lord patrols.  "Eyeballs dead ahead!" shouted the Zabrak Sune' Arkel over her comm.  "I see em!" replied one of the Revenant Y-Wing pilots.  "Darin let's get these two on the right!" Jenny Kule.  Two X-Wings and a Y-Wing banked towards their targets scoring a few hits.  "Hey I'm gonna need some help over here!" Sune' said excitedly.

"Got em!  Two down!" excalined Darin-Une.  "Yeah but their chewing us up over hear.  Shields out!" yelled Sune'.

 "Interceptor down!  We're comming to help." replied Jenny.  The Sand Panthers swung around to help their friend.

 "Hey I got one!" shouted one of the Revenants.  "We might just pull our backsides out of this yet" Sune' said.

 "Got the last TIE!  Take out that Squint before he gets away." Sune' said as her X-Wing rolled through the debris of the TIE fighter she had just vaporized.

 Darin lined her ship up on the final TIE Interceptor and opened fire.  In a flash the small craft vanished.  "He's down.  Let's get clear of the Spine and make our jump." she said.

The three Sand Panther pilots and two Revenants landed a few kilometers south of Gunray station on Nod Kartha.  The planet was a cold and desolate wasteland but there was so little moisture that nothing more than a heavy frost covered most of the ground.  "Separatist used to make Trihexalon weapons on this rock.  Cold kept the stuff stable." one of the Revenants said.  "Sounds like a great place to live." growled Sune'.  

Gunray station was a large town consisting mostly of prefabricated structures in fairly bad repair.  As the three pilots made their way through the outskirts they noticed that the town itself was fairly sparsely populated and in fact they had not seen any Neimodians at all.  

They got directions to the local cantina.  The place was named Rizzno's and it was owned by a Rodian.  Darin went up to the bar.  "Hey I thought that this was suppose to be a Neimodian town.  Where are they?" she ask.  The Rodian bartender looked around nervously "They moved on.  Yeah some time ago.  None of them left around here.".  He was obviously hiding something but Darin didn't know what.  

Sune' went up to the bar next and ask if the bartender knew Morago a Kubaz.  "Yeah there has been a Kubaz in here lately.  Comes in about this time most days. 

Sune' set back down with here drinks and watched the door.  After a while a Kubaz came in and set down at a table along.  The three Sand Panthers approached his table.  "Well, well you all don't look like the locals." the Kubaz said through a robotic sounding translator.  "We aren't.  You wouldn't happen to know a Morago would you?" Sune' asked.  The Kubaz leaned in and said "I hope Nym sent you.  I'm Morago.  I've got some intel for Nym but I need to get it out of my safe house.".  "Lead the way." Jenny said.
  

They made their way across the street to Morago's safe house.  "Hold on here.  I'll get my stuff and we can get back to Lok." the Kubaz said then went inside the small structure.

 Darin heard a group moving up behind them.  Turning she saw a group of four Stormtroopers.  "We've got company!" she shouted.

After a brief blaster exchange all four troopers lay on the ground.  "Crap they got me." Jenny said.  Just then the Kubaz ran out a side door of his safe house and headed across the street.  "Stun that bastard!" Sune' yelled.  The three pilots shot the Kubaz with stun bolts and he fell to the ground.  

After patching Jenny up Darin used some smelling salts from her pack to wake the Kubaz.  "So Morago you planned to double cross Nym" Sune' said as she held her blaster out at the Kubaz.  "I'm not really Morago.  The Storm Lords hired me to impersonate him in order to catch any Revenants who came looking for him.  My name is Velis.  If you promise not to kill me I will show you where the Storm Lords are holding Morago." the Kubaz said.  "Well Velis" Jenny said "We best get moving".

The Sand Panters and their Kubaz captive traveled to the warehouse sector of town.  There were eight Stormtroopers guarding a large warehouse.  Velis pointed at the structure.  "Morago is in there and I can tell you there will be more troopers in there guarding them.  Now if you let me go I promise I won't be any more trouble".  "Get moving then before I decide to kill you." growled Sune'.  The Kubaz ran off.

After searching around the three pilots found a large barrel full of fuel.  "Let's set this up behind this warehouse and set a thermal detonator to blow it.  When the troopers come to investigate we can attack the warehouse." Sune' said.  "Sounds risky but I don't have another plan" said Jenny. 

The Sand Panthers set the detonator then moved across the street to another warehouse. 

The entire warehouse exploded in a ball of fire.  The shock wave knocked the three pilots off their feet.  The Stormtroopers ran towards the inferno but stopped in the middle of the street gawking at the flames.  

 "Quick let's move out!" Darin said and she and Jenny ran towards the warehouse that Velis had pointed out.  A Stormtroopers came out a side door and Darin shot him.

Sune' sat on the ground shaking her head.  It took her a moment to get to her feet.  She then moved back towards the street and fired at one of the gawking troopers killing him.    

Jenny and Darin took out another pair of troopers who came out the door.  The troopers who were watching the fire seemed confused for a few moments then they realized they were under attack.  The split into two ground.  One group headed back to their warehouse while the other moved towards Sune's position.

Sune' dropped another detonator and ran away from the advancing troopers.  One trooper rounded the corner of the building and shot her knocking her out.  The detonator exploded killing the trooper and his comrades.

Darin and Jenny engaged the other group in a fierce fire fight.  They had good cover from a piece of heavy industrial equipment they were hiding under.  Eventually they managed to kill all the troopers.

Darin ran back towards Sune' and pulled her medpack out.  Jenny went into the warehouse and found a Kubaz tied up.  "Hey are you with Nym?  I'm Morago." the Kubaz said through a very chipper sounding translator.  "Yeah he sent us to find you" Jenny replied.

Darin managed to patch Sune' up.  "We had best get our butts out of here." Sune' said.  "Yeah let's get someplace safer." Darin replied.  Morago and the pilots made their way to the edge of town.  "Alright I need to get to my Z-95.  Don't worry she's got a hyperdrive so we can make an in system jump back to the Spine." Morago said.  "Sounds good.  See you in space." Jenny replied.

 After making an in system jump the Sand Panthers and pirates made their way towards the.  "Looks like we got problems already.  These Imp bastards just won't give up!" Sune' said.  "Six Eyeballs, two Squints, and a Decimator!  Who did you guys kill?" asked Morago.  "Oh just a couple Storm Lord patrols." replied Jenny.

A pair of Z-95s bearing Revenant markings came up on their position.  "Nym thought you could use some help" said one of the Z-95 pilots.  "We certainly do.  This is going to be a tough fight!" Jenny answered.

The ships engaged at high speed firing at each other.  Several scored hits in the first pass but kills were scored.  "I always end up by myself!" Sune' growled.  "Stop doing that then." Jenny answered.

 The Decimator turned into the fight it's turret spraying out deadly green fire.  One of the Z-95s exploded.  "We lost one already!  We've got to fight they are too fast!" Morago yelled.

Darin, Jenny, and two of the pirates concentrated their fire on the Decimator and the larger ship exploded in a flash.  "Yeah he's down!" cried Jenny.  "Good, now get over here and get these Squints off me.  My shields are down already." Sune' yelled.

Another TIE exploded.  "Don't worry Sune' we're on our way" Jenny said.  Just then Sune's X-Wing exploded.

 "Sune'! Sune' are you there!" Jenny shouted into her comm.  She hit her thrusters charging straight at a TIE firing as she flew.  The small craft exploded but she over shot directly into the path of the oncoming interceptors.  The two fighters riddled Jenny's X-wing with laser fire and her ship spun out of control before exploding.

Darin took down another TIE and another was taken down by the Revenants but the TIEs took out a Pirate Y-Wing.  "Sith!  Did anyone see if they ejected?" Darin yelled over her comm.  "It's too hot.  We've got to get out of here!" was Morago's only answer.  
  

Darin-Une banked her craft away from the battle.  As she did she check her scanners.  Two familiar emergency transponders were blinking on her screen.  There was at least a chance her friends had survived.  

"I'm sorry about your friends but I want to thank you for bringing Morago home.  Jenkins if analyzing some vital data he brought back.  The Storm Lords have rounded up the Neimodians and they have them working as slave labor trying to produce Trihexalon weapons.  We're doing everything we can to find out what happened to your squadron mates.  Rest assured that we will let you know if we find anything."  Nym said.   Darin nodded and walked back to her quarters.  

Sune' and Jenny awoke to find themselves tied to a pair of chairs aboard some kind of ship or space station.  "Welcome to Blood Razor Outpost.  I'm Jorund Saleem a captain of the Blood Razors. I sure hope for your sake your worth more to me alive than dead." a tall human man with braided hair stood and crossed his arms smiling at his two captives.  

Notes:  Well that was another rough one.  The players planning to rescue Morago was a little too rushed.  They planted their explosives way too close to the guarded warehouse.  While it cause the distraction they intended most of the troops were able to recover and get right back into the fight before they could rescue the Kubaz.  The final space battle in the Spine went pretty poorly as well.  I think the opposing force was just a bit too strong but they also split up a bit too much.  At first they tried to just punch straight through but TIEs are too fast for that so they lost a whole round of fighting trying to run too early and they also took too much damage doing that.  Fortunately the two players who got shot down managed to eject.