Star Wars - Dark Trooper Campaign

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…

…the Rebel Alliance celebrated their victory over the evil Galactic Empire during the Battle of Endor and founded the New Republic soon afterwards to restore peace and liberty to the galaxy. A few years passed and it seemed that peace and prosperity had returned and old terrors had almost been forgotten.

Phase 0: The Ghost Ship

But in secrecy a new threat had emerged. It was first encountered by several groups of stranded space travelers. A huge black spaceship, much larger than an Imperial Star Destroyer, but clearly of Corellian design, appeared out of nowhere and vanished without a trace. Those unlucky enough to board the “Herald of Vitiation” in a desperate attempt to obtain spare parts to repair their own derelict ships met true horror. It seemed that the souls of the lost crew still walked the decks of this unholy ship – together with more sinister things from another world. Nobody knew where the ship came from or where it disappeared to, but everyone who had seen it knew that it was alive and absolutely evil. Even some of the liquids that were exchanged during a normal starship docking procedure contained enough negative energy to cause several cases of madness and gruesome deaths to unwary maintenance personnel.

Phase 1: Adventures of the Rattattouille

A group of space travelers accidentally stumbled across a derelict spaceship, a small Corellian frigate that was drifting towards the gravitational boundaries of a black hole. They boarded the frigate and found out that the crew had abandoned ship due to a womprat infestation that had gone out of control. They disposed of the womprats and since the original owners had already written the ship off their books the group took over the frigate as a consular ship for Senator Terence Mo’Ore. They gave the ship an overhaul and a new registration ID, together with a new name reminiscent of the events of its discovery: “Rattattouille”.

Their first official mission was to transport an elder gentleman and a seemingly valuable cargo safely through Hutt space. Curious about the nature of their cargo the crew secretly opened one of the crates and discovered a shipment of genetically and cybernetically enhanced and heavily armed humanoids clad in black stormtrooper armor. They lay in stasis and were kept alive by a glowing green liquid that was pumped into their bodies through various tubes. At the end of their journey it was revealed that they had just smuggled an illegal cargo for the Empire through Hutt territory. Admiral Kaler, the elderly gentleman who had enjoyed their hospitality, thanked them for their efforts with a handsome payment.

But this was to be just the first in a series of many encounters with the Dark Troopers which emerged on several worlds during the following months, after the Hutts had them reverse engineered, mass-produced and sold on the black market to several third parties for their own warfare.

At the same time several different parties started a hunt for human smuggler Trance Killian who had used the recent destruction of her freighter to make her exit and secretly work for the New Republic intelligence instead. One of her covert ops was to infiltrate a secret Imperial research station that experimented on new jump drives for capital starships. While she and her friends managed to destroy the station they also secured data suggesting that at least two ships were already equipped with this new jump drive technology: the “Dark Horizon”, flagship of Admiral Kaler, and the “Herald of Vitiation” that had vanished during her shakedown cruise. Since it had been the first of its kind the new ship’s class was named “Vitiation-Class Supercruiser”.

During this time the consular ship “Rattattouille” was part of several important missions for Senator Mo’Ore who’s service for the New Republic included diplomatic talks to several planetary governments and allies of the Republic after the sightings of Dark Troopers in battle had increased. More often than not did he and his crew find themselves in the middle of planetary or interplanetary conflicts and had to use all their tactical and rethorical skills to de-escalate the situation. Supervising New Republic officer for these covert and diplomatic missions was Colonel Lionel Shore aboard the Nebulon-B-frigate “Renewal” as his command ship.

One of these diplomatic missions became very delicate when republic agent Trance Killian was abducted by a bounty hunter and put in for a large bounty at the exact Hutt crime lord that the group was supposed to get into beneficial negotiations. In order to not upset the new Hutt ally Chiz’tor the group decided to leave Trance as a pleasure slave with the Hutt’s harem and Senator Mo’Ore instead bought off another slave girl: Mia, a Twi’lek woman who had been in slavery for almost 14 years. He set her free and enabled her to learn, study and train with the New Republic forces. In gratitude she took on his last name and henceforth called herself Mia De’Ore. Trance Killian, however, managed to escape from the Hutt palace some time later with the help of some other friends.

Phase 2: Waypoint Station

In the months following these events Colonel Shore relocated his base of operations to Waypoint Station, a New Republic run trading outpost in the Mid Rim. From the headquarters on the station he led the large scale search missions to locate an Imperial shipyard that had been reported by New Republic intelligence to be somewhere in the vicinity. A first lead was found with the help of Senator Mo’Ore and the crew of the “Rattattouille”, but turned out to be a cleverly set trap. The supposedly secret battle plan provided by New Republic intelligence almost doomed the heavily outnumbered Republic fleet in the “Battle of Hellfire”. Only thanks to the tactical genius of Colonel Shore and the fighting prowess of the mixed starfighter group “Wolfpack-Squadron” led by Colonel Greneb the Republic fleet was able to fight their way out of this trap and escape with limited casualties.

In the light of the latest events Colonel Shore ordered a complete investigation of this whole set-up, and some of his trustworthy agents discovered that the newly emerged lightsaber-wielders were actually Sith-Lords who had infiltrated the ranks of New Republic intelligence and had set up the trap for the Colonel and his troops in the first place. After this came out Colonel Shore secretly coordinated small scale operations to find the site of the real shipyard. During the course of these recon-missions a second Sith-Lord – Inquisitor Vengeanar – was unveiled and Senator Mo’Ore was able to use his acquaintance with Admiral Kaler to save a young Imperial Lieutenant from execution by the hands of the Sith.

Shortly thereafter the true location of the shipyard was found. During a covert ops mission most of it was eliminated thanks to the destruction of the jump drive core of an unfinished Vitiation-class supercruiser, resulting in a new black hole and awarding everyone involved the newly created “Red Star Medallion”.

During the next few months Waypoint Station became the starting point for several missions of different kinds and scales. Colonel Shore, now promoted to General, desperately tried to get more ships for his fleet from the New Republic High Command, but to no avail. While he was perfectly aware that the rising Imperial Starfleet posed an enormous threat to the whole sector and the rest of the New Republic, his superiors would only listen after disturbing reports of an Imperial invasion of the nearby Nirvalla-system reached the headquarters. But by that time it was already too late.

Phase 3: The Rebel Fleet

Even before General Shore could complete preparations for the evacuation of Waypoint Station the Empire sent in a large strike force. Though republic reinforcements arrived at the same time the aggressive tactics of the Mon Calamari fleet commander proved extremely vulnerable against the dense formation of the attacking Star Destroyers leading to an almost total annihilation of the republic fleet and the capture of the Mon Calamari admiral. Only the upgraded frigate “Renewal” with Cathar Captain Kima N’yarr refused the admiral’s order to join the battle and instead helped to evacuate the station’s personnel and visitors onto a fleet of almost 50 small and medium sized transport vessels.

After the republic forces were cut down by the Empire a mere three warships remained in active service to escort the fleet of freighters: the frigates “Renewal” and “Light of Hope” and the Mon Calamari cruiser “Endurance”. General Shore returned to using the “Renewal” as his command ship and thus began the long exodus of the rebel fleet. Due to the Empire’s aggressive campaign of conquest throughout the surrounding sectors of the Mid Rim all routes to the Core Worlds had been cut off. The rebel fleet mostly hid in the empty space between the systems and was constantly on the move to avoid detection by imperial scout ships.

Since they had departed with great haste there was a shortage of almost everything: food, water, fuel and spirits. In the days and weeks directly after their escape many missions were sent out to obtain these critical supplies. But not all expeditions returned with good news, let alone the much needed supplies, and suspicion arose that spies and saboteurs of the Empire were aboard the fleet. The suspicion was confirmed when a scouting team searching for a new planetary base site barely escaped an imperial ambush and subsequently the “Renewal” was captured by a Sith-Lord. Only last ditch efforts could prevent the destruction of the frigate.

In the meantime another Sith-Lord emerged. During the ordeal of the rebel fleet Trance Killian had gotten her own undercover mission where she infiltrated the organization of a newly risen crime lord on the smuggler’s moon Nar Shaddaa – disguised as a pleasure slave. But her cover blew when the brains behind the whole syndicate, a Sith Lord named Darth Deceptius, recognized her as the one who had thwarted his plans to infiltrate the New Republic intelligence a short while ago. Amazed and intrigued by the latent force potential Trance had shown on several occasions over the last 4 years and her prowess with the lightsaber she had taken from the hands of a fallen Sith apprentice Darth Deceptius attempted to seduce her to the dark side of the force. Before he could finish his evil plan, however, some friends came to her aid and together they were able to kill the Sith Lord. But during the battle Trance’s latent force powers had finally surfaced and so she began an intensive Jedi-training guided by a Jedi-master whose force essence had been trapped in a Sith-lightsaber crystal for more than three thousand years.

Another series of events started when the infamous “Wolfpack-Squadron” with Colonel Greneb in command discovered a secret datastore during one of their missions against the Empire. The data spoke of a trap for a parallel mission that one of the other rebel squadrons had carried out. Wolfpack-Squadron investigated the incident and found the remains of their comrade’s squadron which had been captured and taken to a secret asteroid base. Wolfpack-Squadron followed their trail and managed to take out the base and rescue not only their captured crewmates, but also other prisoners of the Empire. On their retreat they also managed to capture the imperial Victory-class Star Destroyer “Inferno” using ion cannons.

This not only enabled the rebel fleet to acquire a fourth warship for their fleet, but one that was fully intact and loaded with valid imperial passcodes. Using these codes the rebels set off on a series of daring undercover-missions deep into enemy territory. There, they witnessed a ceremony in which one of the last surviving members of Alderaanian nobility, Lady Alicia Thul, was crowned new Empress. Her first action was to rename the Empire into the Galactic-Alderaanian Empire, a safe haven from the lies and treachery of the New Republic. The fearless agents also managed to get a glimpse of the supreme Sith leader, Master Cyrus, whose face was hidden under a hooded cloak all the time. The ceremony also saw the launch of the Empire’s new flagship “Heart of the Eclipse”. And a part of the strike team also managed to steal secret data on all of the invasions, destructions and archaeological digging sites from the Empire’s databanks before they used the “Inferno” in a wild maneuver to escape from the heart of the enemy fleet.