Starrise Falcon

We got our equipment together and Hicks gets a shuttle - and Spook. I set Hicks to pilot while Spook and I begin scanning the area to map the area under the planet. We are tracking the continents as they drift around inside the gravity well of the planet. There is so much of the land that really shouldn't be visible like ore and crystals. As we get deeper I am beginning to see that the core of this moon is a natural ionic field that works as a tractor beam. The two most outermost land masses do appear to be part of the original moon, but the closer I get to the core I decide that Jedi are at fault. It appears that something broke the moon by maybe sending another moon into this one. It almost appears that this is a solar system in miniature and maybe that something is still in the core. The deeper we fly, the more evidence we find of older satellites and we are talking eons here.
 
Spook finds something interesting. The deeper interior islands have different minerals and also that their orbital paths follow an actual pattern. The ion storms are particularly strong. Then she passes me telemetry of Blood Smith hawkbats and Tie interceptors flying a patrol route - TOGETHER! - on this third layer. They seem to be doing a search pattern focusing on the same asteroid we want to search. It is around 10 miles wide with valleys and a breathable atmosphere - in most places. I can see the Hawkbats coming from the right and the interceptors from the left and they will meet in front of us and looks like the are waiting to communicate only when they are switching from sensors to communication with each other. Hicks suggests we fly below the patrol and get to the asteroid safely.
 
I ask Spook to check and determine where on the asteroid the ship disappeared. She pulls up the video and compares it to the telemetry data from the asteroid and finds the correct valley. Inside that valley is metal buildings and an old cargo freight. She also sees a field protecting a landing pad. The patrol passes behind us and I can tell from the data feeds that they are sharing information and chatter. We hold our breath until we are through and they continue on their patrol. We head to the valley. There is greenery and animals and it feels like it would be a warm environment. Sensors are picking up that the ground cover is a fungus or maybe a moss - not a traditional ground cover on Corellia!
 
The valleys seem to harbor the majority of the life with the high points being barren as I expected. They have weird trees with furry leaves and orange glowing fruit? on the ends. We decide to land in a valley that intersects with our intended target. It will leave us with an hour's walk, but safer than landing either out in the open where the patrols might spot us or too far away and get caught in the ion storm. We land in what most would call an oasis - sapphire blue water and smooth terrain. Knowing things are often to be too good to be true, I scan the area starting with the air. It is breathable, but thinnish. However, it is not urban air - it is way more pure than I have ever seen. I do a quick sensor scan of the water to verify that it is drinkable. It has a high electrolyte count with minerals and a high ionized level so able to drink it, but won't enjoy it very much. Lastly, I scan the area for any beasties. There is a lot of plant life around. Small swimming hand-sized creatures in the water seem to be the biggest around here. Then I see a tree move!! It pulls up its roots and just walks to the other side of the pool and takes two of its buddies with it. We discuss it and decide they are neutral.
 
I grab a couple of rebreathers and we all head out across the moss towards the valley where the metal buildings are. We pass more of those trees and they appear to ignore us. Small galactic sized yellow flowers sprout up in our footsteps. Then we arrive at a pirate base. A boxy bulk freighter, several buildings around the area, a blue force screen for the landing pad. The freight is locked down and shows signs of blaster scoring. We can see several people around in Bloodsmith pirate uniforms. Fuel cells, parts bins, pit droids, the usual base detritus. There is plenty of rocks to hide behind on this rise. I am looking for a door when my commlink buzzes - making Spook jump.
 
"Aerena here, what do you want?" A scared, nervous voice starts telling me a story about being kidnapped and a plan to use them in a Ghost Ship maneuver. There are 15 - 20 that were captured about three days ago. They have already sent three freighters out already and he claims they have around 30 reavers in cryo freeze in the cargo holds. Plan is to get the navy to swoop in to do the rescue and get attacked. I mute him and discuss this with Hicks. We talk about the various strategies they might be using. They could be sending three out to pull the navy away from Chalcedon and then send this one to the planet in order to attack it with reavers while the navy is busy or maybe sending four to the different cardinal points in order to spread the navy out and send in another force to destroy Chalcedon. Another possibility is to create a media nightmare for the fledgling planet by having them fire on innocent victims as the reavers on board would be hidden from all outside viewers.
 
We can see roughly five pirates outside. I ask Spook to do a sensor sweep of the building for life signs and project where they are inside the building. I have four in command center in D8 and the kidnap victims are in D5 - 20. High energy signs in D3 & D4 so possibly either reavers in cages or already in cryo. Areas to the north are more than likely barracks and galley and a tunnel to the west that is out of range, but something is back there. We make a plan to send Spook in as a distraction to head to the force field and keep it up - by whatever means necessary. Hicks takes left and I head right. We stay up high and find cover so we can shoot into the bowl. Spook waits for us to get into position and then heads straight down the trail to the force field keeping to the side of the fuel cells. We can see two of them doing the pre-flight check. The final two are heading towards the control pad, but they stop short while Spook trundles past and plugs in her dataport and starts what looks like a maintenance program. They ignore here and head back towards the freighter to discuss tactics to load the freight - maybe using the repulsor lift I can barely see on the other side of the force screen.
 
Since they barely reacted to Spook, I ask Hicks to blow up a fuel cell. He is about to fire when one of the pirates walks over and requests a diagnostic of the fuel cell as he is about to shoot. He pulls the shot and we listen in as the pirate complains about the moss and its electoconductivity. We decide to go ahead and fire as we should be down three pirates even if the force shield does go down and the four join in. We both fire at the weak points and they hit. The fuel goes up in a mushroom cloud and three pirates are blown around while Spook takes cover behind a rock and is mostly protected. The two of the other side are protected by the freighter itself and there is a lovely hole in the side where the fuel was being loaded. The force screen holds for a brief moment and then collapses. Three pit droids are running for cover and we can see ammo crates and the usual docking bay material. The four from command are running out with blaster drawn. They are looking, but don't see us. I turn on my shield and fire at the one closest to me.
 
I hit him dead center of his chest and he is knocked on the ground and has the wind knocked out of him, but is still conscious. Apparently, he has a good heavy blast vest. Hicks knocks one of the pirates in front of the freighter and knocks him into the freighter and he goes down. I instruct Spook to run in and start causing mayhem and I shoot at the next one in line. He tries to get to the freighter to use it as cover, but does not make it in time. My shot hits him in the side and knocks him down. I managed to hit him between the armor plates and he has a nasty burn.
 
One of the pirates fires at me and the shot hits the rock. One fires at Hicks, but he manages to dodge behind his rock. Spook in the meantime, rolls inside and turns on the repulsor loader on full speed and it runs into the three pirates knocking them unconscious. One is still moving, but not quickly. I bring my blaster to bear on the one standing that does not have the E11. He dodges and I hit the freighter causing ion sparks and the remaining pirates have to dance around to avoid being hit. The tough guy dodges and the two shots from Hicks the freighter. Spook turns on the fire suppression system and now we have foam and ionic arcs decorating the area. I see the guy with the heavy blaster aim at me so I duck behind the rock again and more stone chips come flying at my shield. They seem to take heart at hitting something and Hicks manages to dodge in time. The other pirate tosses a concussion grenade at us and I step from behind my rock and use my shield to batter the grenade back to the pirates. I hit and it arcs back towards the pirates and explodes with a loud bang above the valley.
 
Hicks runs over to my rock and fires at the E11 and hits him with the E11 which crashes to the ground. I can hear Spook playing with the controls and I can see another group heading towards us just as the door slams shut. I fire at Mr. Grenade dude and I miss as he turns and races for the docking area. Hicks and I race down the hill and arrive to the ionized area where we can see him almost to Spook. He is zigging and zagging, but I manage to hit him a glancing blow and slow him down. I turn to Hicks and offer him the chance to finish him off. He gets him with both shots and he hits the ground. I turn to Hicks to see if he has any ideas on how to stop the ionization. We run to the ramp and head inside where we can see damage from where the arcing electricity had run amok. We get to the area and see smoke and area. Hicks does a look around while I open the panel and disconnect the power. As it powers down Hicks starts yelling to get it back on!! I am afraid of why and get it back on quickly.
 
I can hear the electricity start arcing outside and we discuss options. There are 20 reavers in cryo tubes and those tubes are connected to the ship power. We split up and search the engine room to see if we can find the exact area that is causing the problem outside. Hicks finds nothing, but I find the area impacted is the backup power - which is connected to the cryo power. I have to reroute the cryo tubes to the backup power from the repulsorlift. I turn to get the repulsorlift powered up and hit a security wall and I fail to hack the system and the console shuts down. I turn the situation over to Hicks and head out to be a lookout. I take the opportunity to check out the ship and there are definitely reavers in cryo tubes. The power cycles down and then back up and I can breathe again.
 
We head to the cockpit and I attempt to access the autopilot to get the nav information. Again, I get that enter access code and I turn it over to Hicks. He prys open the panel and manages to get part of the nav data and we discover the plan was to get the navy to the four cardinal points and then force the navy to kill innocent victims. We quickly head back and deactivate the back up generator and head over to Spook. She is unhappy because someone has been trying to unlock the door that she has locked. I tell her to unlock the door and Hicks and I set up for battle. He takes the left and I take the right. We stand back so the pirates won't see us and I have Spook let them think they win. The door pops open and four pirates come barreling out, but they don't look before they run ahead. I use my heavy blasters and shoot the two on the right side. The one in front hits the ground and the one behind him gets hit in the back and his blaster vest takes the brunt of it.
 
Hicks is able to take out the two on his side mostly and I use the distraction to jog around Spook and get inside the doorway. I send Spook to head inside to be a lookout to make sure no one comes up behind us. Hicks shoots at his last man standing and hits him again. The one on my side of the door starts shooting wildly trying to ricochet shots inside the hallway and hit us. I lay down and put out one arm to shot at him and manage to hit him as he tried to roll out of the way. The shot went under the collar of his blast vest and knocks him unconscious. We head down to the control room and can see where they have been monitoring the freighter, the reavers, and the kidnapped victims in the area in the center of this base. They are in small power cells with four or five per cell. Most of them are common, but one guy is wearing a gear grinder jacket.
 
There are cameras showing pirates in D6 and D7 getting ready for a fight. The pirates in D1 seem to be set up to deal with whatever is the power source coming from the west. D2 is set up to guard the reavers - who are not in cryo tubes!! - in D3. In D4, there are no reavers, but some empty cryo tubes and then a black suited individual walks in from the hallway to the north. He is calm and walks over to the pirates in D2. They seem very animated and he listens to them and then moves on to check on the other areas without concern. He heads down the tunnel to the west and then we head to D5 to release the victims. They look tired when we arrive and like they have lost hope - except for the gear grinder. He has a mess of wires and components and he starts pointing wildly at us and a wave of hope flows through the room.
 
We look around for how this place is wired and we find a master switch with three circuits. I send Hicks to keep an eye on the reaver cage and I ask Spook to trace the circuits to tell me which one to flip. She tells me to do the middle one. The north switch controls the reaver cage and the south switch does something with the controls in D4. I flip the middle switch as Spook told me. The crowd is unsure what to do, except the gear grinder. He runs over and asks where is our ship and when are we getting out of here. I explain that we have a few other problems to solve like reavers and pirates oh my! I ask Spook about weapons - none - and if she was able to discover what the area to the west was - Starship Grotto. I know we have to get these people out of here so we have to deal with the reavers first. I ask Spook to change the reaver cage to electrocute.
 
Spook handles the rewiring quickly and gets the cage set up to electrocute the reavers instead of keeping them enclosed. One sees Hicks and heads to the fence to attack it to see if he can get out. As soon as he touches it, he is electrocuted and another one touches him and is also killed. Another two or three are electrocuted so we are down to half of them. I ask Spook to set up a doorway to let one out at a time. Door opens and one comes out, one trying to get out behind him and is electrocuted. Since we keep them down to one at a time, we can concentrate our fire and we manage to either kill or electrocute the remaining reavers. We tell the rescued to stay where they are and we head into the next room to take out the two pirate sentries.
 
I sneak down to the entrance and look around the door. There are crates of food, some Mon Calamari crates, some marked as Exploration Corp. Those crates would make good cover so I grab Hicks and we sneak to cover and then stand and fire. We manage to knock both of them unconscious and then search the crates for food to help the rescued get some nourishment after captivity to keep up their strength for the rescue. I find food and portable power cells and mining equipment. Hicks finds journals and light saber parts - and a holocrystal with the captain's log. We turn it on and Hicks saves the one complete light saber to take to Vanya. The captain is Moriko Nash on the screen with dark circles under her eyes. She talks about a rock flying by itself and the Jedi insisting it had to be investigated. There was a story about a cosmic turbine that wiped out some people and shouldn't have been turned back on. They scattered the parts around the universe because it had made a force sensitive reaver. This holocrystal is the key to unlock the ship and there is a hollow sphere that I should know what to do with it. She gives her ship, the Starrise Falcon, to the one who finds this crystal.