Star Wars - Dark Aftermath

Episode 3: Diplomatic Immunity

The diplomatic mission in question was a very delicate one. Senator Terence Mo’Ore who had recently been designated special emissary of the New Republic, was tasked with escorting a diplomatic delegation to an important summit conference with Empress Thul. He was to travel to different planets in his consular ship, the Corellian frigate “Rattattouille”, and take aboard several other emissaries as part of the delegation. But the controversial senator Haydal from Coruscant proved to be a giant headache for the young ambassador, as the politician didn’t travel alone. He had his wife, daughter, personal physician, chef and security guards in tow, as well as a very nosey reporter for Galactic Holonet News.

The troubles increased as – one by one – almost the whole crew and passengers fell victim to strange accidents and some were badly injured, while at the same time more and more of the ship’s systems failed. The reporter also continued to dig up lots of ugly secrets that let the once clean façade of senator Haydal crumble with every detail. In the end it was revealed that the senator’s chef was in fact an imperial spy who had infiltrated the crew to get rid of the hardliner. In a last ditch effort a disaster could be averted and ship, crew and passengers were saved.

The summit was immensely successful, and after careful consideration Empress Thul decided that due to the Empire’s past cruelty she no longer wanted any part of something like that. Therefore she declared the loyal worlds of her dominion to be the “Royal Alliance of New Alderaan”, RANA for short, and she herself took on the title of “Lord-Regent”. This step brought much appreciation from the New Republic and other surrounding worlds, and so the newly founded alliance gained several new allies thereafter.

Episode 4: The Lost World

During the Battle of the Eclipse Ewok-scout Cookie had made the acquaintance of her distant cousins the “Kewo” on planet Farnid III. Now, after the battle she urged her friend, archaeologist Dr. Shi Ravak, to start an expedition to find out more about the extension of Ewoks and their brethren in the wider galaxy. But directly after the battle the scientist had to answer many questions of the military and other experts concerning the ancient guardians and especially the defeated and vanquished Master Cyrus. So it took her several months to get going with the preparations for the expedition.

In addition, there was little to no interest in her work on Ewoks from the New Republic, as they had more urgent problems than discovering where Ewoks came from or where they had gone, so the whole enterprise had to be financed privately. Although Cookie and Dr. Ravak had gained quite some reputation through their commitment during the Battle of the Eclipse there were almost no respectable companies that had any interest in their research, only sensation-seeking reporters or marketing departments out for product placement.

Eventually they found a sponsor in Mr. Vaiak Shaul, industrial magnate and patron, who agreed to finance their expedition, but in return the eccentric entrepreneur demanded to come along and play an active part in all of it. The other participants also seemed to have no real interest in scientific research about Ewoks or Kewos, but were in for a paid job with much destructive potential instead.

The first part of the expedition went well and the Kewos on Farnid III were happy to host their honorary tribe members again. After a few days had gained enough trust so they showed Cookie and Dr. Ravak their most sacred place: A cave with detailed cave paintings. They found out that thousands of years ago the Kewo had indeed gone to travel the stars, and the paintings represented stellar constellations of their night sky.

Convinced that they had scored really big this time they broke off the expedition early and returned to their base camp on Kintoran II to resupply. Then they went to the planet that was depicted in the cave painting. On the way there they recruited Randrack Dalarn, a smuggler and Protector of the Galaxy, and together they went to the Zulow-sector. In the middle of the sector, there was a planetary system, hidden by a large, blue nebula that the scanners could not penetrate.

They found the Grond-system inside the nebula, orbiting a blue sun, but their freighter “Treekthin” was damaged by electric discharges inside the planet’s atmosphere so the ship went down in an emergency landing. When they scanned their surroundings they realized that the planet was split into different phases, where one seemed to be full of life and the other just barren, rocky wasteland covered by a mysterious fog.

When the brave explorers, who had landed in the wasteland-phase, disembarked from their ship they found a strange portal leading to the other phase of the planet teeming with life in a jungle environment with dinosaurs and other critters. But everything seemed to be affected and mutated by a dark energy, and after several battles against the mad and mutated creatures they found the offending object: the unstable jumpdrive core of the “Harbinger of Doom” supercruiser that had already opened a portal to this planet when it was still on the ship, but had fallen through its own portal when it had been jettisoned from the wreckage. When it had hit the planet’s surface it had split Grond into a light world and a shadow world. Most buildings, structures, flora and fauna had been dragged into the shadow world where the dark energies from beyond the stars had caused horrible mutations.

Further research led Dr. Ravak to a cave reminiscent of the sacred place of the Kewo on Farnid III, where cave paintings told the story of the furry inhabitants. According to these paintings they had been extinct for over a millennia, but shamans had foretold this current event and the paintings had recorded two possible solutions: Either the destruction of the jumpdrive core that would result in the creation of a black hole and thereby the end of all life on Grond, or the placement of a counterpart radiating “non-dark energy” to stabilize the dimensional rift. The symbol in the painting could be identified as the main reactor core of a small freighter – like the one they had arrived in. There was a short discussion, but all agreed that it was better to attempt their return to civilization with auxiliary power and backup hyperdrive than to blow themselves up together with the rest of the planet.

So they took out the “Treekthin”’s main reactor and placed it at the same location in the light world where the malfunctioning jumpdrive core lay in the shadow world. It seemed to work and the power drain on all of the ship’s systems and other devices ebbed away. They were able to repair the ship and reach the nearest inhabited planet of the sector, the industrial world Uprilia, where they were able to make the provisionary repairs needed to return to Kintoran II.

Nobody realized that before they left Grond some small creatures possessed with mysterious shadow beings had snuck aboard the freighter. These had disembarked on their first stop and were about to become the source of a new conflict that would eventually devour the whole sector: The Shadow Invasion.