The Crystal Cave

Zandra walks up and tells me that Zynvek wants to talk with me. I decide to take Dizzy for backup and tell her to gear up and go as a bodyguard quiet type to look intimidating and recording. He is mostly out of his armor and we can observe his coloring and musculature. I address him and ask what he wants. He thanks me for the warning and tells me that he wasn't aware of what he had gotten into. Dizzy speaks up and indicates that he should be forthcoming or he would die at Wookie hands. He starts a line of what I consider to be total bullshit, but I can't discount that there is some truth in it somewhere that would help us. He offers us secured landing codes and I accuse him of trying to sell us out for more enhancements. Zynvek gets upset about being reminded about his eyes. We group chat about our options and decide to do both a search of his ship's history to see if there is any corroboration for his story and once Doc Fuzzy has finished his surgeries, he will voodoo him.
 
While we are waiting for Doc Fuzzy, we go first to Zandra to get her to check over his ship. We walk into the hanger bay and see their plans for the takeover of the moon base. Some of what they say is in galactic basic, but some is not. Chakarr doesn't think he will be able to figure out a translation, but he is trying. Dizzy and I approach Zandra. I ask Dizzy if she wants to take the lead and she says"NO!" because she is over the top with tinnies. I ask Zandra for a favor to go through the ship's database and why I need it done. She says that shouldn't be a problem and that she has a tech, Phara, over there now and we can get an umbilical setup in order to go over and check out the ship.
 
Chakarr and Dizzy discuss marching order and Dizzy is in front with me in the middle. I take the opportunity to ask Doc Fuzzy to do his voodoo on Zynvek to see if he is a lying rat bastard or just a maker of extremely bad decisions. The doc tries to make excuses but is convinced by Dizzy to do his thing. He contacts us later while we continue into the Lovil. Dizzy checks over her gear and enters first - ready for anything while I follow behind with my rebreather ready. We ask the first tech for Phara and he sends us to the cockpit with Dizzy in the lead. We get to the cockpit and an individual rises from the inside of a console with bright orange-red spiked hair and two curls that are almost like horns. Phara. He sets us up with a place to view the files and I have Chakarr plugs in and starts pulling information which he sends directly to our datapads.
 
Everything we find indicates that he is telling the truth. We see holograms of him being pressured to get enhancements by the quartermaster, the message I sent to him is on his personal drive, schematics and codes for the moon base, and no messages that disagree with anything he has said. We check for any information on raids, or on the criteria used in selecting the prisoners, but find nothing. There is one message about him being invited to "The Plex" by Bol Spar himself - whoever that is.
 
Based upon exchanges between Dizzy and Doc Fuzzy, we stop by the kitchen area on our way back to meet up with the group to see if there are any colored sugars or spices that might prove helpful in later experimentations.
 
We then go back to the room where Zynvek is being held to ask some more questions. I let him know that we were able to confirm his story and he tells us that the Doc should be able to fix his eyes. I introduce Dizzy to let her take over the questioning for the military operation. She starts with the details of his last drop off and we discover that he never left the landing bay. We quickly revise our plan to be a two-man prong attack where Dizzy and Doc fuzzy take the Lovil in masquerading as pirates that found the ship and are finishing up the contract and want to get repairs and the contract while the rest of the team will take Vader in under her shadow, drop off in atmosphere, and land at an air shaft. Follow the shaft to the mining center, take over, let them in and kick butt.
 
Two field techs, two commandos, and Zandra join Greelo and myself on Vader for the flight down to the moon. We follow the Lovil into the atmosphere and then break off to land at an airshaft entrance that is close, but not too close. As we go down below the tree line, a tree hits us and we take hull damage. Vader requests a quick repair as he has lost maneuverability. I do the repair and another tree takes a swipe at us and then one tosses wood at us. Vader asks what they are and Greelo tells us they are Darivids and they react to repulsor lifts and might be okay once we stop the ship. Then we see a flock of Taftu, bird-like creatures that attack while we are in the air, but they settle down once we land and shut down the engines. Ahead of us are three Kiitch, wolf-like creatures that appear to be made of crystal. A quick review of the database shows us that they are not harmful.
 
I ask Zandra how close we are to a mineshaft and check for life signs in the area. We leave Vader with instructions to behave and head out with Greelo in the lead and me bringing up the rear to protect our retreat if necessary. The others are grouped in the middle. We get to the air shaft and there are obvious signs that a giant rat or rat-like creature has torn off the cover. We walk to a different air shaft that doesn't show any signs of destruction and enter to head towards the mining center.
 
We scramble down the air vent which comes out in an area where there is some illumination. There are signs that mining operations occurred in the past. Zandra pulls up her datapad and points out the correct tunnel. We head out with Greelo scouting and then tech, commando, Zandra, commando, tech, with me bringing up the rear. There are footprints in the dust and Greelo indicates that this could be prisoners so we begin to follow the tracks - sneakily.
 
We stay behind Greelo, but then we hear a deafening crack of crystal that echoes down the hallway. Then we hear some kind of rat sound that echoes down the hallway. All is okay until we hear the crystal cracking behind us, in front of, and beside us and giant rats are breaking down the walls. Their fun is mossy, their teeth are mossy, and they are not happy. I shoot the one beside me and hit it at point blank range. It gets hit and backs into the tunnel it created. The commando beside me also fires at the same rat but doesn't hit it. I hear firing from the other side of the group. Then we hear Greelo say over the comms that there is a bomb and we need to run back towards the entrance. I hear Zandra shout, "Greelo!" and turn around to see Greelo picked up by his long coat and hauled back by the rat.
 
The rat I had hit throws spikes from its tail. I dodge, but slip on a crystal fragment and the commando beside me pushes me out of the way. He takes the spikes in his armor and then starts pulling at his armor. I go over to help him and he tells me to release the seals. I do that and then pull the armor off and it sort of peals away. I can see the crystal fragments actually drilling into the armor. I tell him and Zandra to high tail it back to the entrance while I cover their exit. The others follow and then Zandra asks about Dizzy and Doc Fuzzy. I tell her we can try a different tunnel and then she points towards Greelo who has two thermal detonators bouncing towards him. I send them on the way and tell her I will handle that situation once they are out and if we don't make it, they can meet up with the other group.
 
Suddenly there is a wall of ionization energy rolling towards me. I hear Chakarr scream and pick him up and run towards the exit. I see a cart actually turn on and explode. The crystals in the cave are ionized and I ask Zandra if there is a way through safely. She says yes if I trust her. I say I do and watch as she jumps into the air and turns into a speeder bike. I hop on and the others turn into speeders bikes with Chakarr on one and we head towards screaming down one of the nearby hallways. We speed past and can see the ionization pulse as we pass and attempt to reach us, but we manage to dodge them and get to the area where the screams are coming from. We end up in a room with multiple forcefields with a large number of people behind them. Some of them are partially transformed into the feline creatures we have seen before. They see us and start to pound on the force field to get our attention.
 
We see around 30 - 40 people in a variety of cells and Greelo fires off an arrow towards the console. The arrow hits the console, but it causes a huge ball of ionization. He fires a second arrow quickly which destroys the ball of fire and the console. The console explodes and the force fields go down. The captives start running straight towards us. I yell at Zandra to turn around and lead the captives towards the exit. They all turn and head back the way we had come, helping the captives out. We reach the surface and can see the damaged dome of the mining facility.
 
We reach out on comms to the other team to check status. They are stuck and need help to get out of danger - and haul the loot. We bring Vader in on the comms to see if he can manage to get over to the landing bay. Doc decides to go to Vader to help him and Dizzy tells the captives what we know about the situation and the events leading up to this moment in time. She checks in to see if my grandson or her sister are in the crowd but discovers that both of them were taken off planet two days ago.
 
Suddenly, I see a young wookie in the smoke and haze. He looks like my family, but entirely too young. I run towards him but he doesn't know whether to run or cower. I shout our family motto of "truth, honor, integrity" and he responds in wookie that he doesn't know how to respond to that. I think that maybe he had been modified and tell him that I know a doctor that has a cure, but he tells me that he has never been anything but what he is. My next thought is that he has been cloned and there is no fix for that. People must die for this!!!