Enemy Squared: Eleni Benacor
General Summary
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…
*Something about kidnappings and Jedi stuff. *
On the outer edge of the Pavia System, I was taking a shipment of puzzle flowers and bantha weed to a Mentat colony on the world of Listoria with a certain padawan. Vanya and I took it as an ill omen that the planet is named for a disease. Also, it is in Cadriaan Province. Not a reason to feel uneasy, just something to remember for later.
On the way, we mused over the contents of the cargo hold. It was a good way to keep from talking about the recent absence of men in our lives. Besides, how many times can you talk about guys who are always too busy to call or write?
Puzzle Flowers - from the planet Nimban, and eaten by natives. To get to the edible part, the petals need to be unlocked. The petals swivel, resembling a geodesic ellipsoid when closed. Mentats, of course, love this stuff. We both think it may be a fruiting body instead, because the locking mechanism would be counterproductive for seed release. Unless, I hypothesized, all life but the most intelligent are somehow damaging to the seeds when they are eaten (some kind of neurochemical symbiosis), or it uses the brain waves somehow. (Maybe the use of Voice would open them? I need to try this)
The Mismatch's crates have force shields and are pressure-sealed for protection.
Bantha weed - common in the outer and mid-rim systems. Petals are brown and furry. Use is wide enough that the native world is not known. Bantha weed is the primary ingredient for glymph pie. Mentats of the Listoria colony have developed a desire for this glymph pie. It also contains wind snake meat (red and black centipede/salamander things with poison sacs removed) and a vegetable. Also fantazi mushrooms are preferred.
Fantazi mushrooms - come from the Ord Sestus System, which contains a desert planet. The mushrooms are an hallucinogen, but it is not illegal at this time to transport (although it might be restricted, so check before delivery). Vanya cautioned me from turning into a drug dealer, but I see no problem with the distribution of legal substances. I think it might be profitable to strike a deal with the Mentats to supply them all three.
We had just emerged from hyperspace when we heard a distress call from the ship graveyard (Long Night era) nearby. There was space debris everywhere. The Tapanis don’t really clean up after themselves well. Creaks of metal as small things bounced off of the Mismatch’s shields. The ship’s systems remained ok, but I was on edge. The distress call came from the edge of the starship graveyard. “Under Attack”- The ship was called the Krayt Runner. The age of the call was unknown, although it repeated itself continuously. There were clumps of capital ships moving through the edge of the system, in an orbit of their own. A Ghtroc Freighter (turtle), badly damaged and leaking fuel was the source of the call. It was near a ruined Mon Calamari ship. No detection of life from ship’s scans, and Vanya couldn’t detect life, either, although she did sense sadness, then a chill, then an odd sense. No escape pods had been launched.
We decided that we must investigate, but first we needed to send a message buoy telling someone what we were doing, because Vanya said there might be evil shenanigans going on. And then another buoy later. And perhaps another after that.
“Master Yoda said it would be better if Vanya went with Eleni on this trip for some reason” Right then, I made a note to have a tete-a-tete with the little green frog when we returned. If one knows of danger large enough that the person going into it needs a wingman, one should most likely warn the person in question.
As we approached Krayt Runner, we saw it was a merchant ship, registered to Barnabas Colby. (Not Barnabas Collins. That would be a totally different adventure). Its last docking point, with a crew of four, was on Tallaan. We heard bits and pieces of the dead ships skipping off of the hull as we drew nearer. We saw several blast marks on the hull - pock marks. “Something” had torn into the metal hull and cut it like an animal clawing something. Yay.
The ship had power, but no heat signatures were on board. There was a mixture of ionization energy and blaster fire around, but it was as though whoever attacked wished to preserve the interior.
No thinking machine droids. R5 took the helm. NO air, so we used re-breathers. We extended a docking tube, and the ship shuddered. Then, we floated over, using the manual latch to open the door. Smoke and a fine white mist rolled out “like a gentle fog”. hm. The lights were not working well. Wires dangled. Shattered electronics and blaster fire on the inside. Blood red light silently blinking.
*Idea for a canary droid to sense poisons. GM says “Leave it to YOU to think up making a droid to take the place of a bird”.
Heading to the cockpit, I reached over and turned the beacon off. The computer system was badly damaged, but possible to repair. There was a recent log from Captain Colby from 4 days prior, at a colony on 3rd planet ( Pavia III ). Vanya graciously offered to cut the memory core out for later examination (with her light saber). Moving on through the ship, the cargo hold was blown out of its frame. The hold was programmed for temperature and dryness specs. Cargo is listed as “Unknown”. joy. Security measures taken so that only Captain Colby and senior officer could enter. It was apparent that explosives had blasted the door in the hold. Everything seemed completely empty. The exterior door had not been opened. A “plinking” sound was happening, and I went to search for smuggling compartments. They were also empty. Vanya said she felt an uneasy urgency coupled with anxiety. I bumped shoulder blades with Vanya as I climbed out of the smuggling compartments. The sounds were coming from the outside. R5 was asked to look outside, and reported seeing Buzz Droids on top of the Ghtroc freighter. Nothing on the Mismatch, yet.
Quickly, we hurried to the crew quarters. Vanya was looking for picture and data cubes, as well as journals and bodies. She found leather wraps for a headdress (presumably Twi'lek). I found a bow caster in another bunk. The things found were kept in order to send back to the families of the crew. I like Wookiees. I hoped at this point we found them alive.
Buzz Droids - three were moving on or towards the docking tube. They released the tube right after Vanya came across, and the buggers started heading for the Mismatch! Deft maneuvering and some quick thinking from R5 got us far enough away. Vanya helped a lot. We were near a “hive” of buzz droids, but not for long.
Once safe, we decided to examine the memory core. There was a video record of some things, but it was still unknown as to what the cargo was, except it was called “Very valuable”. Captain Colby mentioned a possible sale of the thing to the University of Mrlsst. He and his crew had found “it” on Pavia III, and stole it from the colonists, but hoped they didn't mind. He didn’t actually say he stole it, but it was pretty obvious to me. Then they were attacked by some kind of raider. The camera picked up armored individuals applying explosive to the doors and pulling out a large crate after - 5 ½ x 3 feet. The raiders must have seen or heard the buzz droids, which caused them to use the interior doors. These raiders had reddish brown armor. Nightsisters?
Captain Colby’s crew roster was also in the computer memory. The wookiee was named Snorryhn, and he was a gunner. A wookiee gunner. Bruck Flautis (not human) was the navigator. Yuned Freetaa was the Twi’lek first mate. The last was a human named Ephin Miskin who was also a gunner.
On to Pavia III.
It was a forest world with enormous trees and oceans. A research station orbits around Pavia VI, which is a brown dwarf star. Before the galactic civil war, the system made trade in both botany and energy research - reactors for starships and genetic manipulation of plants for transport and farming on other planets. The cities were known for their combination of high tech and the surrounding nature. Beauty. Desperately fought over by both sides during “the Long Night”. 2 billion inhabitants were killed. Since then, the system has been avoided due to the starship wreckage that floats in and out of it. A sense of unease has been reported. Many have complained to the Alliance of Worlds, but they only respond that Pavia is on a long list of those systems that need help. In a new entry, a Mentat colony has been founded on Pavia III. They are seeking to rebuild the planet as a hub of research, enlightenment and knowledge.
PIE! They like PIE because of PI!
Vanya offered to speak for the ship as we approached. So she could lie if needed. I haven’t yet gotten in trouble for telling the truth, so I was amused. It was a pretty world. A swarm of telemetry satellites were non-functioning. Some were new, but none were working. A lone automated port beacon transmitted landing coordinates. Vanya scanned the channels. No one was around. Also no one was “juicing”, much to the relief of both of us. The usual forest fires, thunderstorms and lightning could be seen on the night side. It was obvious where the cities had been - ruins (from the war). Livable radiation. The ground zero of the bombs have more radiation, but in the late afternoon there was a forest radiation that was not natural, but also not lethal. No city there, although the radiation was technologically oriented.
Vanya was bothered by the silence. At first, I thought she missed Danar, but that was not the silence she was talking about. She looked for troopers, and felt a very cold, dark fog about her. There were pinpricks of light from the other side of the planet.
I heard whispers of lots of memories with a tinge of nightmares to them. So many nightmares. Vanya wanted to have R5 drop the two off, then go back into high orbit and wait for “the signal”. I thought it a goooood idea. We landed (after explicit instructions to R5). The Mentats had been working hard to rebuild the place. The streets swirled away from a central spaceport in a fractal pattern. Vanya said she needed a null sign to indicate that she did not speak mathy. The colony was clean - not large. 4 air cars were parked next to each other. There were automated lights around, and we decided to split up along the path. I went right and Vanya went left.
There were no birds, and I could hear my footfalls echoing. I noticed a flier that said “Regroup at defense point Beta”. Another said “To all citizens - remain barricaded indoors after nightfall.” Vanya spoke in my mind: “Heads up.” Down the street, there were a couple of “human” figures skulking and wearing tattered flak vests. One had a human ribcage stitched to the outside. Both had body mutilations. From reading body language, they reminded me of Reavers, but I could tell that they rated as living humans, and they were also terrified of something other than a lone person walking their way.
Vanya said that they might need rescuing, so I wandered over to them and, in a calm but cheerful voice, said “Hi!”. The Reavers -yes, they were! - jumped and were suddenly much more violent towards me. I kicked one in the head. He spun from the impact and dropped, although not unconscious. I swear I heard him giggle. I thought “This is not a normal person at all. Someone must free him from this existence. Might as well be me”. The other tried to claw my face, but I blocked it, swinging around and giving a nerve pinch to the guy. Now both were on the ground and giggling. Unnatural. After catching up to Vanya, I killed another one as it tried to bite Vanya’s face off. There was nothing left of humanity in them.
Further exploration of the area led to a surgically split Reaver bent over an air car. It was dead. The wound was surgically precise - one cut up the torso with something resembling a metal scalpel. The bruising did not match a wookiee hand. There were no organs missing, either. I thought, “If I were doing an autopsy, this is how it might be done”. Bruises on legs had precise triangular shapes - like a chain or manacles. Vanya was checking out the car’s brain. Video revealed that a half mechanical spider-half man was doing all of the damage and scaring the Reavers. The triangle shaped bruises matched the shape of the thing’s pincers. Perhaps it was a powered work suit? Noooo. Perhaps a cyborg? Mayyyybe. What was it looking for?
We headed off into the forest to find the Mentats, and found 2-3 of them loitering around an abandoned Galactic Imperial base. Giant trees. The cog had been removed from the base, but the walls were still a dull gray, and hastily repaired in some areas. The feelings of oppression and desperation were thick in the air. Vanya got a headache as we saw some “guards” in light armor and coveralls patrolling the area.
*Discussion and light arguing about precognition and lack of mission briefings, a reiteration of the phrase “Look, you little green frog - “ from me. Vanya says she wants to watch that encounter*
Of course the patrol was standing there, watching the two of us discuss this stuff. Vanya finally said, loudly “Are these guys ever going to come down and say hi?” To which I replied “Maybe they could put their weapons down first.” using the Voice. The less pointed at us, the better.
Only two put earplugs on. The rest dropped their weapons. Someone came out - human with light brown hair - a Mentat. He did the hand gesture of a Mentat that I had seen from KitKat and notKitKat. His name was Korval. He knew of both Vanya and me from KitKat. They were apparently friends. SO Mentats are gossipy? That’s when we both noticed that the weapons of the others were improvised - flamethrowers, slug throwers, energy weapons. Everyone was armed.
Through a door walked a statuesque, athletic, red-brown body suit - yep - Nightsister. Carrying a tool box. Not paying attention to us in any way. Good luck all around. She was annoyed and muttering at the situation. Her name was Bel'tana. One other was also there. Both had survived a crash on the planet. Korval had no information about why they were there, or what had caused the crash. Their Captain had not survived, and the crash had occurred within the past day. When she did see Vanya, she acted slightly snotty, but not right-out rude.
Vanya talked to the Nightsister Bel'tana: Barnabas took the “artifact”. The Reavers appeared soon after. They ran through the city, and the Mentats retaliated with defensive parameters. The Mentats tried to administer psychotherapy, but that didn’t work on the Reavers. This is what happens when order meets chaos. Sometimes order is just too orderly. 10,000 year old egg - metal, taken from Barnabas et al. Spider things had something to do with the egg. 2 ½ kliks past colony to jungle. Guys and egg are both gone. She felt too warm to be comfortable about it. (I think this was Bel'tana being too warm).
Meanwhile, I sat down to research the archaeological records for Pavia III. They showed a reference to metal eggs with regards to a Jedi-Sith war that came through the system 10,000 years ago. The war dealt with Shey Tapani and living machines (Perhaps part of the Butlerian Jihad?). Also, this was at the same time the Bene Gesserit had dealt with the living machines. More recent archaelogical experts were convinced that there was an egg on Pavia III. A Jedi scout (Scout? Really? Do they even have those? Must ask Vanya) told them enough information to make a good guess. Somewhere on the planet should be a building that houses the egg. The egg was reported to be openable, which was the reason the Jedi and Sith both wanted it so very badly. The living machines also wanted it badly. The Bene Gesserit just wanted it destroyed. The legends spoke of a source of great knowledge inside, and lost secrets.
On the way back to Vanya with this information, I saw the other Nightsister doing her “Men are scum” thing and putting the whammy on one of the male Mentats, so I went over and “undid” it, telling the man not to listen to anything the Nightsisters said.
Vanya was farseeing in a quiet area. Once she was done, we spoke to each other and tried to figure out what to do. The spider-men seemed to be a derivative of the living machines that attacked on New Dendarii. I wanted to call in the green frog. Vanya had the idea of juicing up the mentats in an effort to send a message to said green frog and his lackeys. I called R5 with a similar request to send a message through more ordinary channels.
Then we took some speeder bike type things into the forest, to an ancient black obsidian temple structure. Vanya was doing her best to be sneaky, but I, still annoyed about the precog deception and happy to have snuck past the night sisters, was talking normally and kind of loudly. My mistake brought out a large half-man, half spider, terminator type thing with a British accent. The thing was actually happy to see us. It was very wrong to be that happy.
Darth Caliper -
Vanya - “Darth Caliper, like the tool?”
Darth Caliper in an annoyed voice - “Yes.” and “I can’t change it. It’s tradition.”
I used my BG abilities (Stayin’ Alive, Stayin’ Alive!) to create a resonance that messed up the symbiotic nature between flesh and machine to cause Darth Caliper a massive headache and split his personality(among other painful body woes). This was after Darth Caliper had smacked me around a bit, laughed at my more common use of the Voice on him, and dodged all of my more normal attempts to subdue him. He was also being rude and NOT standing still for Vanya’s light saber. She did succeed in cutting some limbs and getting a good hit to his back, but the guy was just too full of snark for either of us. After he was screaming and no longer trying to kill Vanya or myself, I, smug at nailing him with my Voice after having it belittled, but also very VERY determined, shot the part of him that kept scuttling across the floor. There are some uses for an E11, apparently. I was a bit concerned about whether this one would be considered human or not, but when all else failed, I figured that I and Vanya were definitely human, and we were better for the universe than an uppity metal-spider-sith-thing. As he lay dying (and smiling), Vanya caught his spirit as it floated towards the holocron in some of the obsidian that had fallen from the temple walls during the fight. It turned into a statue. I destroyed the holocron that was hooked up somehow to the egg everyone was seeking. I used Vanya’s light saber, which was exciting for everyone. The holocron exploded, knocking both of us off of our feet.
Ignoring the egg for the moment, we picked ourselves up and while Vanya did some very heroic and necessary damage to the Tool’s spirit, I ran off to find the missing crew of the Krayt Runner. I found 15 bacta tanks, some of which held uncomfortable and twitchy crewmembers. The tanks were hooked up to the egg through some computer interfaces. I figured out that the arrangement was siphoning the memories from its prisoners, using the memories as a source to teach the machine how to think. The whole thing was remotely controlling the spidery man creatures that had, until recently, been attacking the Mentats. Now, they were on the rampage towards the temple. I attempted to turn the thing off, but only speeded up the siphoning process. Eventually Vanya arrived to prevent any more “fixing” by me, and rescued both captain and crew.
Notes from Darth Caliper, the tool -
He’s trying to contact Mattress Merglin, and has been browsing the news feeds and black market. He’s convinced that she could be a colleague to collaborate with, then kill. He used temple communication and received response from the Obulette System, but it was not from Merglin. It said “Now is not the time, my friend. The seeds have been sown, but it is not time yet to reap the harvest.
In other news, the Mismatch has a trade route contract with the Mentats of Pavia III. Both Vanya and I are named in the contract, and so will most likely be returning on a regular basis together.
I made a mental note to introduce Barnabas and crew to Mak, and mentioned to the crew of the Krayt Runner that Mak was great at sniffing out deals on used ships. I also returned the bowcaster to Snorryhn, and Vanya gave the things she had found on the Krayt Runner to their rightful owners, as well.
Then we needed a drink, and between the two of us, knew just the place.
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