Star Wars - Shadow Invasion
Episode 3: First Strike
As soon as he understood all the implications General Shore hastily assembled another team of voluntary agents to conduct an undercover mission to Uprilia and take out the shadows for good. Since the planet as well as the rest of the Zulow-sector was strictly neutral the New Republic could not easily dispatch a combat unit, since that would be seen as a violation of Uprilian sovereignty and could cause an interstellar incident.
Together with Captain Su who was put in command again the team consisted of outlaw Walto, fallen Jedi Artin An’nur and Wookiee Reeeroo Kaduck, while Verpine engineer Sinsua was in charge of technical operations. They received another YT-1300 freighter from SIS-stocks named “Butterfly” and registered to a Captain Liz from Wroona. Besides rifles, ammo, grenades and explosives they also were equipped with three experimental UV-rayguns which had been built by the engineers of the “Endurance” based on data previous teams had gathered on the shadows. It was to be seen if they would reach weapons quality.
The crew journeyed to Uprilia and, thanks to the new controversial immigration politics, could land on Upri-City spaceport without any hassle. They left docking bay 93 and set out into the city to find any shadows. At the cantina “Under a Blue Moon” they met barkeeper Aaron and Twi’lek waitress Kila who filled the newcomers in on the current situation. The tension between Uprilian citizens who feared to lose their jobs and the immigrants, eager to work and make a living were constantly growing. Residential spaces and even sleeping accommodations were scarce so many people were forced to sleep on benches or under bridges. All the while something was being built in the industrial sectors and it seemed to take massive amounts of manpower, so the team was encouraged to take a look.
On their way to one of the industrial areas they experienced a slight quake and the Jedi felt a disturbance in the force while many people ran in panic from one of the industrial complexes. The team took the chance, snuck in and took some fitting jumpsuits with the company logo attached from a locker room. Then they hurried to the site of the catastrophy and tried to convince foreman Kevin that they were a company inspection team. The foreman didn’t really buy it, but he nevertheless provided some useful information and gave them a tour of the site of the incident. In the middle of the company building some kind of device had seemingly blown up and similar to a thermal detonator had cut a perfect spherical shape out of a room and the surrounding walls and environment. Every cable and pipe that went into the cut-out section had sharp edges, but their contents, be it fluids or energy, were still partially going somewhere, as if there was some part of the room left somewhere and absorbed them.
After a few scans the team was sure that one of the devices that General Shore had warned them about, had been tested here. The 20 meter in diameter sphere seemed to have been a test run, so they were scanning the rest of the city for similar energy signatures. They found another one that was quite stronger moving under one of the residential and pleasure districts.
The strike team immediately raced there and descended into the sewer system. There, they found three people, who had been possessed by shadows, transporting a huge crate into position. During the ensuing short, but intense battle the shadows were destroyed, with the UV-rayguns proving helpful but too clunky, and at least one also broke during the fight. They retrieved the crate and raced to the spaceport where they were able to disarm the device.
When the team took off in their freighter, convinced that they had just saved a whole world from destruction, twenty more of the bombs detonated all over the city, each tearing a hole 500 meters in diameter into reality and snatching the physical existence into their shadow dimension. All of these explosions were measured precisely so they didn’t accidentally damage the infrastructure or the foundations of the city.
The team returned to the “Endurance” and brought with them the insight and the disarmed device. Scientists confirmed that this was indeed a variation of the McDoryan-generator which had originally created the dimensional rift that had resulted in the shadow dimension when the defective jumpdrive core of the “Harbinger of Doom” had hit planet Grond.
Episode 4: Manipulation
After the shadows had made their first aggressive move and plunged half the city into chaos General Shore requested permission from the Republic High Command to conduct a full scale operation. But the council led by Bothan Borsk Fey’lya had overruled the decision and had sent one of their ambassadors to attempt benevolent negotiations with Uprilia, in order to diplomatically legitimize relief shipments and support from the New Republic. The arrogant Bothans were so self-confident that they dismissed an escort from General Shore.
But since the general anticipated treachery by the shadows he sent his own team to keep an eye out for trouble and get in touch with the inhabitants directly to inquire their status. Ewok-scout Cookie and near-human explorer Larson were his first choice since they had been in contact with the locals and had gained their trust. Zabrak archaeologist Dr. Shi Ravak volunteered because as a former Jedi-student she had the knowledge and skills to fight the shadows.
This time the secret service YT-1300 freighter was named “Jaqueline” and had no problem getting a landing permission on Upri-City spaceport. The maintenance personnel, however, placed a tracking beacon on the outer hull. The crew immediately noticed this, removed the tracking device and placed it in an alcove of the landing bay. Then they went out into the city and to the cantina “Larry’s”, where they had befriended barkeeper Larry and prostitutes Ana and Maeve during their first visit.
It turned out that the cantina was located in the middle between three shadow zones and was heavily barricaded with road blocks, sandbags and other materials to become a small fortress. While Larry was still busy serving food and drinks, Nautolan Maeve was taking care of the wounded in the back room that had been made into a makeshift ward. Ana on the other hand wore military clothes and gear and sported a blaster rifle, and turned out to be the leader of this resistance cell. She reported that they were holding out for several weeks now by fighting back the relentless attacks of monsters from the shadow zones every night.
Nevertheless, the three travelers received a warm welcome and Ana was very happy that Cookie had brought a Jedi Knight. Since dusk was already approaching the three were asked if they would help with the perimeter defense during the night to which they agreed. There were assaults on two parts of the barricades during the night, when large cat-creatures with tentacles came out of the shadow zones and could only be pushed back with combined efforts. The UV-rayguns that Cookie and her team had brought along proved quite effective against these creatures and were only outmatched by Dr. Ravak’s lightbow.
After the first night went by with some casualties the newcomers wanted to know if there was any chance to get the official city leaders to either remove the obviously possessed prime minister from office or to at least overrule him to officially get help from the Republic. Ana told them that labor union representative Rick Styles was the only one left to openly criticize the prime minister and speak for the people. But due to the riot situation the upper city residences and administrative sectors had been cut off from the rest of the city and so there was no chance to get to him.
Former underworld boss Big Joe who had run a small part of Upri-City from Larry’s cantina was able to get a delivery van including a driver who could take them into the administration district. The plan seemed to work and Cookie, Larson and Dr. Ravak were able to get into the building and into the ventilation shafts up to level 30. There they had to sneak past a bustling atrium to get to the office of Rick Styles, and it was a really close call, but they eventually made it and were admitted by Styles’ secretary Voren.
At first all seemed fine, but during the conversation Cookie and Dr. Ravak felt that something was wrong. The secretary had been possessed by the shadows and this way he had kept the truth about all the happenings in the city from Styles who knew little to nothing about the shadow zones and what battle the citizens had to fight to survive. When the three agents wanted to flee the secretary stood against them and collapsed after a short fight. They ran through the atrium and back to their ventilation shaft, so they could very narrowly escape the building and get on their delivery van. After they had passed the road blocks of the administration district their pursuers gave up.
During the following night more shadow creatures appeared out of the shadow zones and not only annihilated two other resistance cells, but also overran the barricades around the bar. An engineer had the brilliant idea to bring back the shadow zones by causing a detonation with a certain energy signature at its center. Bereft of alternatives the trio took the explosives and went through an unstable rift portal into one of the neighboring shadow zones. There they met true horror as they were hunted by several creatures with long whipping tentacles and other shadow beings and they only barely made it out alive after placing the explosives. The engineer’s theory proved correct, however, and the shadow zone returned back to almost normal afterwards. This way, the area calmed down and the defenders were able to hold out a good deal longer.
The next morning the government declared a city-wide state of emergency and the officers of the ULE went out alongside the Uprilian army to hunt down Cookie, Larson and Dr. Ravak who were accused of murdering the secretary of Mr. Styles. Now it was the labor union representative himself who had been possessed and who gave up his position of supporting the populace in favor of displaying loyalty to the government. Under these circumstances Ana and Maeve could be convinced that they had to leave the planet and speak to the New Republic as representatives of and advocates for their own people so the Republic could finally act. Meanwhile, Larry stayed behind and vowed to provide shelter for as many fugitives as possible so there would still be a populace left when the Republic arrived.
So Cookie, Larson, Dr. Ravak, Ana, Maeve and two additional fighters of the resistance cell took a repulsor-van to get back to the spaceport where their ship was docked. But the ULE had foreseen this and had blocked several roads to the spaceport with heavy barricades. The army had contributed some mobile artillery to shoot down the fugitives and so they needed all of their skills to escape this wild hunt and head down to the spaceport. At the end there was a huge road block straight ahead when Dr. Ravak relinquished the controls of the van to Cookie together with the order to go straight for the barricades. She then used her Jedi powers to levitate the entire van over the barricades and into safety. Perplexed, the law enforcement officers were too slow to react and couldn’t stop them.
There was a small gunfight on the ramp when they had reached their ship, but then Cookie managed to take off and leave the planet behind. While they were ascending through Uprilia’s atmosphere the Bothan ambassador who had been sent by the Republic to negotiate publicly declared on Uprilian news television that he had been sent to overthrow the government and the fugitives were the ones who had hurt good people and wanted to destroy their precious city. He therefore had urged prime minister Mastarshan to seek out new partners in order to uphold the sovereignty of the planet.
When the “Jaqueline” had reached orbit and was about to engage the hyperdrive they spotted two Victory-class star destroyers entering the system: the “Stalker” and the “Ravager”. Both had been part of Admiral Ralin’s third fleet in the Farnid-system during the Battle of the Eclipse. Since only a small ground complement had landed on the planet and was subsequently left behind the Admiral still had his entire fleet at his disposal.
These news deepened the frown on General Shore’s face when Cookie and her friends arrived on the “Endurance” to officially plead for help from the New Republic. And something else also received a deep new scar: The main hangar deck of the “Endurance” was scratched when Cookie set down the freighter in a hurry. Now she was ranked among other pilots like Captain Su and Juri Shukov who had left their own marks on the hangar deck of the “Endurance”.
Side-Story: Cantina Brawl
A mixed team had assembled on the Mon-Calamari cruiser “Endurance” to take on a covert mission from General Shore. Gungan ambassador Sasuja was designated mission commander and her team consisted of Squibb-thief Red, human scoundrel Baldwin R. and Besalisk tech-mercenary Boze. Their means of transport was the same refurbished YT-1300 freighter provided by the New Republic intelligence which was now called “Sunrise”. It was piloted by fighter pilot Lt. Jarosh “Scrap” Mok.
The mission was plain and simple: an informant had been able to take a passage from Uprilia to the water world Wefreon and had brought along a data chip containing important intel on formations, troop numbers and defensive capabilities of the shadows and their allied imperial forces. This data was vital to the success of the planned offensive against the occupation forces and had to be brought back at any cost – preferably along with the courier of whom they only knew his name Nemgri as well as the code phrase “It’s a long way to Alderaan!”.
The crew boarded the “Sunrise” and took off. After a short hyperspace jump they reached planet Wefreon. There were no imperial star destroyers in orbit, but according to rumors the Imperials had stationed occupation forces on all inhabited planets of the Zulow-sector, so their goal was to stay as inconspicuous as possible. The descent through midday monsoon was no problem for “Scrap” and he set down the freighter on a small landing pad, of which ten had been built on metal struts right above the sea, only connected to each other and to the mainland through grated metal catwalks.
Sasuja decided to take Baldwin and Boze with her and leave the rest as backup on the ship. So the three arrivals went to the spaceport exit where they had to pay a small docking fee. Then they took a short walk into the small settlement on the island where their meeting place, the spacer’s cantina “Perry’s” was located.
Inside, all conversations in the smoke-saturated atmosphere stopped as the three arrivals entered, but after a short look they all continued. There was a jukebox providing music and a blue-skinned Twi’lek woman was dancing to the rhythm on a small, adjacent stage. Barkeeper Perry and Nautolan waitress Tiila were busy serving their hungry and thirsty customers. Sasuja and her companions went to the bar to get information, but were too cautious to ask for any.
Instead, they concentrated on the clients who sat alone at a table: A male Gungan, a female human, a female Rodian, a male Quarren and a male Devaronian. While Sasuja at first flirted with the Gungan, the others spoke to the human who turned out to be no friend of the empire, but both didn’t seem to be their contact.
Meanwhile, Red had gotten bored and didn’t want to stay in the ship any longer. He went to the spaceport-guard at the kiosk and tried to get a few deals of his own under way while at the same time snatching up bits of information. Although not successful in this area, Red and Scrap noticed an imperial Lambda-Shuttle setting down on the landing pad next to theirs and a detachment of stormtroopers led by an officer marching towards the cantina. They informed the rest of their team just as they were trying to persuade the grinning Devaronian that he should come along quietly. But since that scoundrel was not as cooperative he was stunned and Boze took him up with his strong arms.
In this moment the Imperials came in and demanded that all remain calm. The officer made it clear that they were only after Nemgri and would leave everyone else alone if the traitor was handed over to them. The group that was already on their way to the back door noticed the Quarren ducking under his table when the name was mentioned, which obviously drew much unwanted attention to him. But when the stormtroopers closed in on him the human woman and a few other clients knocked their tables over to take cover and opened fire on the Imperials. A wild and chaotic fight ensued.
No longer certain that they had acquired the correct informant Sasuja helped the Quarren to get back to them so they could flee. Perry showed them the back door and this way they got around the fight and back to the spaceport on a different catwalk. That was good because two more stormtroopers had begun to check their ship. When they noticed the group they tried to stall them on the narrow catwalks, but Sasuja shot one down with her stun-blaster and Baldwin tackled the other one so he went over the railings and down into the sea.
When they had safely reached the ship they ran up the boarding ramp and Lt. Mok took off as soon as everyone was in. A group of TIE-fighters chased them through the atmosphere, but due to pretty good flying from their pilot and a few clean shots from the laser turret they managed to escape. Just when they were about to make the jump to lightspeed a Victory-class star destroyer jumped in and deployed its TIE-fighters to intercept the freighter. Fortunately, the hyperjump-calculations were already done and so they were able to jump into hyperspace before the star destroyer came into range for its tractor beams.
The Quarren then introduced himself as Nemgri, thanked them for saving him and handed the data-chip over to Sasuja. The Devaronian on the other hand turned out to be a wanted criminal and appeared on a list of bounty targets, so he was taken in as soon as they reached the “Endurance”. General Shore was very pleased with the successful operation and came up with a strategy for their next battle.