Episode 5: What has been sown

[tomcat]

STAR WARS: BLACK SUN

Episode 5: What has been sown
Dark times - with the starship engineer, Antar Danjapa
– lead developer of a new experimental X-wing fighter -
freed from captivity on the penal planet, Tantau II, the heroes
race to the delivery location and make their first stab at freedom
from the omnipresent Empire.

Yet, it came at a cost of one of their own, and now they understand
that the freedom they hope for will not be immediate or easy and that
many more could die before the Emperor is overcome. Still, their hearts
are true and so the planet Tatooine is the new goal. On this remote world,
Danjapa will be delivered to agents of Senator Bail Organa and maybe a new
assignment will be given.

But it is on this remote, sandy world where the heroes will find that what has been
sown must now be reaped. They will discover that the darker side of the galaxy still
has interest in them and that they cannot yet escape that shadow.

[tomcat]

Caden sat at the controls of the Aegis. To his right sat Kara. The Corellian was still showing signs of the engagement on Tantau II, but she looked a far cry better than she had when she had come aboard a week ago. Next to Kara sat Sam. The droid was also in much better shape - on the inside. His external shell plates still showed evidence of the grenade fragments that had torn into his metal surfaces.

Sam was currently at the communications console where Caden thought he could best serve with their current task - transmitting the code via the bandwidths that Organa had given them. The droid took the code cylinder that the jedi, Ulrik Bek, had given them on Jovan Station and slid it into the interface with the Aegis' computer. The bandwidth code was captured and set as default for the transmission - also recorded on the cylinder.

Had they failed, the transmission would have been 'Time table inefficient for arrival'. But because they had had success, Sam instead entered 'Coruscant morning sunrise'. With the screen flashing the transmission text, which would be vocalized by the transmitter, the droid hit send. As a soft sound of static, the words transmitted across the holonet and to some far off, unknown location. Sam nodded that it was done.

Caden looked at his ship's controls and her sensor systems - she was floating in the middle of nowhere with enough engine thrust to allow for steerage. They had been here in the middle of nowhere between Junction and Bandomeer, along the Hydian Way, for a good while. During this time they had healed their wounded, explained to their guest, Danjapa, who they were and why he now was free, and finally, prepared their fallen for burial. Caden thought that maybe they shouldn't have waited so long, nor needed to place Britton's body in a freezer, but the crew hadn't mustered the desire to let a companion go. But now it was time, and Brim had taken the dead soldier from the ship's freezer and to the lower-deck airlock. The Rodian waited below for them all to come say their last goodbyes.

As the captain stood, Kara followed suit. Sam also went to stand but then looked down as the comm panel beeped. He looked at the duo now standing beside him and said, "There is a reply. It is very simple... three words... Mos Entha, Tatooine."

[Jingo]

Kaida followed and joined Brim and the others at the airlock. She didn't think it was proper to jettison Britton's body into deep space. Better to have him buried in the ground at a physical location, where some monument could be left, attesting to his life, his fight for right, and the reason for his death. But it was time.

She nodded to Brim once everyone was gathered and moved to the front to say a few words, just to start it off. She wished there was a parade or something more formal. But this would have to suffice.

"Britton died an honorable death. He died a soldier's death, fighting in battle, fighting for freedom. From his sacrifice, a blow was struck against the tyranny and darkness that even now envelopes the galaxy. Some may view it as a small blow, but out of such small beginnings great results can and will be wrought. Britton, you will be missed." Her eyes shone with unshed tears, but she continued, blinking them back. 

She still had Britton's gun. In fact, she had it slung over her shoulder. For some reason she had taken to carrying it whenever possible as a banner and a reminder of what the cost of freedom really was. She held it out in one outstretched hand so all could see, and continued. "And we pledge to continue the fight that you so nobly left behind! You and your sacrifice will not be forgotten. May the force be with you."

And then she stepped aside, feeling a little awkward. But she stood tall and erect, and felt glad at what she said.

Some questions:
1) In the past week has Sam communicated the info he got on Kaida's sister from the prison's computer? Or has he been too deeply ingrained on self-repair tasks? 

2) What kind of gun did Kaida get from Britton?

2) Also, since we recovered his Britton's body we still have his other gear right? Is his armor still useable? If so, what type was it? What else did he have that we might be able to utilize?

[tomcat]

  To answer your quesions:
1) Britton had a standard blaster carbine.
2) He wore a Corellian power suit, which is damaged and will need repaired DC 15.He had little other gear, but he did carry 2 war swords.
3) Lastly, you will need to RPG what Sam knows and he will tell you when ready. 

[sdrotar]

"Tatooine," Caden replied. "So we go from the middle of nowhere to the middle of nowhere."
He went back to the navicomp to punch in a course.
"At least we should be able to lay low," he suggested. "I had family there once, and the one thing I remember besides the heat is that people that end up on Tatooine tend to mind their own business." He looked to Sam. "And maybe we can get your outsides fixed up a bit - looking a little worse for wear there, buddy."

***

At Britton's service, he heard Kaida speak, and figured it was best not to try and add to it.
He never eulogized Kex, or Kal, and both of them died in the fight that Britton was lucky to survive in the first place. That odd twist of fate put him on the Aegis, and Caden would miss him, but then again, he was getting used to missing a lot of people.

When everyone had said their goodbyes, Caden simply nodded and vented the airlock, as slowly as possible, so Britton's body gently drifted away into endless night.

After the makeshift service, he called everyone to the ship's central area, where he would brief them on what he knew.
"I'm impressed. Assaulting an Imperial prison and breaking out a high-value prisoner... that's one heck of a start. But it's just that - a start."
He explained what had happened with the pirates he had encountered when they were gone, and wondered why they were so eager to get back into that prison. It certainly wasn't for salvage.
"There may have been something else going on there. Perhaps some of those questions will be answered when we get to Tatooine. All we know for now is that we're headed to a spaceport there. We're going to need to lay low, resupply, and then get in touch with our contact before we do anything else. And I suggest that our guest doesn't so much as look out a window until we know the coast is clear."

[donimator]

Sam easily fell back into routine once his repairs were made. It was...nice to return to a more normal pace. Sam derived no pleasure from the chaos of combat nor did it inspire fear. It merely increased the probability of him being decommissioned and since he had thrown that droid's duty crap out of his programming since he was picked up by Caden, things that threatened his survival were anathema to him.

He continually ran benchmark tests as damage was repaired against his logged performance standards. The physical damage was mostly repaired, but the rerouting of commands and processes was taking much longer as he was not replacing his internal circuitry, only re-purposing it. It was a few days after their escape that he restored access to some memory nodes and came across some info that did its best to shock the droid.

Code Select Expand


Prisoner: 55428, Katan, Kilstara.
Transferred: 263.75.3324
Location: Imperial Re-Education Facility 593B, Haruun. Dustig Sector.
End file.


He pulled Kaida aside, "Miss Katan. I re-accessed some information from the prison. If your sister was Kilstara Katan, she was transferred some months ago to a facility in the Haruun system. That was all of the information I acquired." Sam had a feeling of foreboding about breaking into another prison.

(Damn, sorry I forgot all about this tidbit. It was about two months ago and I'm getting old.) 

[Jingo]

Kaida had only been half listening to the droid until she heard the name of her sister from Sam's vocalizer.

Kaida sat up and grabbed the droid's arm. "There was a record of her? She was transferred to the Haruun system?" Her sister! She was alive! Or at least had been. She wondered how long her sister had been languishing in the "re-education" camp. That sounded somehow very ominous.

She thought about the Huuran system and what she knew about it from her studies. Some bits and pieces she remembered from her history courses, but needed a refresher. She went to the nearest console and punched up the information on the system in the Dustig sector on the ship's navicomputer along with holonet info on the system. Freedom for the entire galaxy was a lofty life-time goal. If she could somehow help her sister though... Her sister had been a senator. She remembered all those times she had assisted her older sister on many assignments with the republic. Kaida had even written some of those speeches for her. But she was alive!

She ran her hand through her hair. What should she do? She had the whereabouts of one of her family and a team that now had some experience at prison breakouts. But would they go? Could she ask that of them? She was sorely tempted.

She shook her head and swallowed as anger toward the empire boiled up hot within her, turning into a cold fire that settled deep in her bones. She would help her... somehow. But for now they had to settle this business with Danjapa.

[tomcat]

Just a note to keep continuity with what is in my head and what I have committed to our posts - Kilstara was never on Tantau II. She was always on Haruun (and I love your designation as Imperial Re-Education Facility 593B, Don!). I know it is trivial and it can work for our story that Kilstara was on Tantau, but I don't want it to be THAT coincidental. Sam retrieved the data of Kilstara's location only because he was tapped into the Imperial network via a master Imperial passcode - and the name jumped out to his processor and was logged.

So, you can leave it as is, but I will change your dialogues when I consolidate them to PDF.

Tatooine was a bright planet due to its twin stars, and also arid. The precipitation and surface water content measured in the single percentiles, but still life prevailed on the desert world.

Tatooine was thought to have been one of the oldest planets in known space and was composed of a molten core with a rocky mantle and silicate rock crust. Fossil records suggest Tatooine was once covered in large oceans, which dried up, leaving behind many pre-arid geological formations, including Beggar's Canyon, formed around 2,000,000 BBY, back when Tatooine was lush. Other notable geological features included the Dune Sea, an enormous sodium-rich desert; Mushroom Mesa, a vast formation of giant standing stones; and the Jundland Wastes, a rocky region. There was a settlers' saying that one's eyes burn out faster by staring straight and hard at sun-scorched flatlands than by looking directly at the suns.

The planet orbited two suns, Tatoo I and Tatoo II and was covered in deserts and rock formations, so the days were extremely arid and bright, especially during double noon. In fact, it was so brightly lit by the suns from space it could appear to be a star itself. This was the case for the people who discovered Tatooine as they first thought Tatooine was in fact a star until they approached and discovered that it was a desert planet. The planet circled the suns far enough to develop a stable, but very hot climate. Due to the extreme conditions, only a relatively mild region of its northern hemisphere was habitable, and less than 1% of the planet was covered in surface water. The average humidity level was 5.4%.

One of the many extraordinary features unique to Tatooine was the mysterious mists, which rose regularly from the ground where desert sands met cliffs and mesas. Various theories of this moisture's origin were disputed by meteorologists and geologists, like water suspended in sandstone veins beneath the sand and complex chemical reactions which made it rise when the ground cooled, then fall underground again with the double sunrise.

Tatooine's harsh arid climate caused Humans to show signs of accelerated aging.

*******

The Aegis boomed into the atmosphere of the large desert planet, its hull super heated as it impacted the layers of air. Caden controlled the descent so as not to allow the ship's heat resistant shields to be overwhelmed by the friction. He already had the coordinates entered and the city of Mos Entha beeped on the geographic map that was displayed on his console. Kara made a few adjustments and the rest was just a walk in the park, so to speak. Due to their altitude and the curvature of the planet, their fall from orbit brought them over the Tatooine city in no time at all. Kara watched to see if Mos Entha had any ship registry service from B.o.S.S., as the Aegis' transponder code was now being received by the spaceport. Hopefully, Organa had done what he was supposed to and the Loronar-class explorer was a brand new ship.

A communication came through the speakers, "Inbound vessel, transponder code received. Please state your purpose for approach."

Caden transmitted, "Mos Entha, we are inbound for re-supply and general maintenance." It took a few seconds but then an answer was returned, "Acknowledged, Aegis. Please come in on vector 79 degrees to Lat-41.074:Lng-75.491. You may land at docking bay 61. Welcome to Mos Entha."

The voice transmission ended. Kara and Caden looked at one another. The Port authority recognized the Aegis by its transponder code, so that meant one of three things - Tatooine did not have an updated ships' database; Organa had swept all ill-information from the database regarding the Aegis; or nothing had been done and they could meet a squad of stormtroopers when they landed.

*******

Dominating the skyline were four massive 500 meter tall domed spaceport hubs. Sixty ultra-modern docking facilities were grouped radially around the four domed hubs. Nearly another dozen docking bays were scattered around the edges of the city resulting in nearly 75 docking bays being available for visiting starships.

The majority of the cultural, entertainment and government establishments were contained within the spaceport domes. Each dome contained large multi-level, controlled environment hotels that catered to the tourist trade. Also contained within the domes were many government offices, shopping centers, restaurants, museums and theaters.

Outside the general area of the spaceport domes the streets of Mos Entha were much like those of other Tatooine cities. Swoops and speeders could be found darting around slower moving traffic like dewbacks and rontos. Jawas and traders from hundreds of worlds clogged the streets.

[watanabe]

Kara shook her head.  She had been down from the last fight, trying to recover, but it was tough.  Her senses told her to go back to the alcohol or drugs from before.  She figured nothing could make her feel worse... that was until she felt the ship come out of hyperspace.  Moving forward to the cockpit with a bit of a limp to try and not cause too much pain she looked at the starfield before them.

"Tatooine..." she muttered.  "Great, now we can get killed by the heat or the Hutt's."

[Jingo]

Just a note to keep continuity with what is in my head and what I have committed to our posts - Kilstara was never on Tantau II. She was always on Haruun (and I love your designation as Imperial Re-Education Facility 593B, Don!). I know it is trivial and it can work for our story that Kilstara was on Tantau, but I don't want it to be THAT coincidental. Sam retrieved the data of Kilstara's location only because he was tapped into the Imperial network via a master Imperial passcode - and the name jumped out to his processor and was logged.

So, you can leave it as is, but I will change your dialogues when I consolidate them to PDF.

I modified Kaida's dialog slightly to fit.

[tomcat]

I realize I left you guys little to work with...



The Aegis soared above Mos Entha at high altitude until Kara began to descend, flying the ship in a long racetrack pattern whose terminus was over Docking Bay 61. The Loronar flared as it came down to land on its struts, the craft venting steam from multiple pressure hoses. Kara and Caden sat and looked through the ship's canopy waiting to see if they would soon be visited by white and black-shelled soldiers, but none came. Only droids exited mech closets and moved to attach lines for re-fueling and re-supply. Caden shrugged and hit the button to lower the landing ramp.

*******

His body had been left behind by Fett, on Jovan Station. The bounty hunter had positioned it so that when his ship, the Slave I, had taken off its rockets would wash over him. He was sure that Fett had intended for it to kill him, but he had failed. The Shadow was alive though no longer the way he once was.

He had been found by others... people that had once been human, or near-human, and had been exposed to and brought into the Cult of the Bando Gora. The cult's sorcerers and medics used strange arts to make these once-humans into obedient slaves with an almost hive-like mindset. There were many and they were transformed into varied levels of awareness. Some were reduced to a level of near rabid dog; others who had shown strength and intelligence were left with these faculties to lead; and others attained clerical positions to teach the dogma of the cult and to keep all the members in line. Finally, the highest order, some Force-sensitive, ruled over all and saw to it that the operations of the cult were a success. Primarily, the operation dealt in the production of death sticks. The drug was produced by the cut in remote, hidden facilities and then distributed - the dogs of the cult guarding the shipments with their lives.

Shade lifted his arms to look at his hands. He knew that the eyes through which he peered may no longer be his own. He also knew that the last two-weeks immersed in bacta had allowed for the skin-grafts to take and for his body to be somewhat whole. Still, Shade could sense what was him and what now were cybernetic extensions. He looked around, completely aware of his surroundings and saw a large man in a scarlet robe. The man wore the skull of a vastani beast and his eyes glowed cold blue.

"Kearse noctu baush," he said to the Dark Jedi. "Talo esh Bando Gora mohrsay."

Shade understood the words though he had never spoken the language - another benefit of his new augments. He had been hired and betrayed by the Black Sun, now he would serve this new master. His hands found his metallic-mask covered face, and he turned to look at himself. It had been painted in the strange patterns of the Bando Gora. The patterns mimicked the faces of the Cult's dogs, which became evilly distorted by the vile sorcery used to create them, but Shade knew that that was not to place him amongst their level. The shadow knew his face was now a mask of horror for all who would see it. He reached behind his head and pulled his robe's hood up. His hand next went to his belt and found the lightsaber that hung there. He hit a switch that snap-hissed the blade to life, then he hit the other switch that lit the weapons other blade.

"Talo esh Bando Gora," he said, hearing his new voice for the first time. It sounded like a hissed whisper.

[watanabe]

"I'll be in my room, with the temperature control on." Kara got up and headed to her room.  She wanted to feel a nice blast of cool air before they were stuck with the long time of heat and dryness that this planet was known for.  She had been here before, it had cost her plenty of credits.  She had taken a loan to get off the planet as soon as possible.

[Callowmoryne]

Logar lay on his bunk. He hadnt left the room since they'ed commited Britton to the blackness. He felt lost. They'ed be planetside Tattooine soon, he hadn't seen the place in years and hadnt missed it. A desolate place. Well work was work. And it was better than the his half-life since the war. At least he could do some good here. Try to make more of his life. If only he could keep his mouth shut. "Im beginning to think im scaring your friends Britton." He wispered to the empty room. "To frelling morbid i am." He would try harder to not sound so jaded. He didnt know how to tell them about his past or what he felt. He'd only destruction and death and greed to show for most of his life. He'd known since the war ended he couldnt go on like that. He needed more. He wanted to leave a better mark in life than a puckered wound beneath his blade. "Ill carry on for you Britton. Ill do what i can to protect them. And try to keep my mouth shut." And a tear finally left his eye. "You've my word on that"

[Jingo]

Kaida took Britton's blaster carbine and collapsed the stock so it was more easily concealable under the temperature cloak she wore to protect against the heat and checked the full energy pack as well as the extras she carried on her. She also had her blaster pistol and her other usual gear she carried on her belt under her cloak. Who knew what trouble they might run into here? She hadn't heard whether or not the Empire had a garrison here. She hoped not. There wasn't much here but sand and heat and more sand. But they seemed to have their fingers everywhere these days so it was best to be cautious.

She made her way to the ramp and slowly walked down it and into the heat, her eyes scanning for any trouble. She saw Caden. "Any any news on where to meet our contact?"

[Callowmoryne]

Logar took his time getting ready. He check his rifle a half dozen times before he was satisfied. Placed Katherine in the sheath at his belt. His bandolier now  held only ion grens but he strapped it on nontheless. Medkit. He'd take it with this time. Strapping his pack to his back. When he was ready he made for the ramp and out into the heat. "What can i do captain? Im here to help."