Star Wars - Shadow Invasion
Side-Story: Sector Chase
Some weeks had passed during which the damage to the spaceships had been repaired and wounded crewmen had time to recover. The rescued civilians had searched for a new home and found one on the now-deserted planet Tagrom II that had been ravaged by the empire previous to the Battle of the Eclipse.
Captain Su had changed her style of clothing to account for her new role as advertisement-icon for Space Cola and had added more pieces of red color that went well with her Space Cola jacket. But all this was only one means to help in creating a new strategy for beating the overwhelmingly powerful Vitiation-supercruiser.
General Shore continued his tactical analysis of the battle of Uprilia, watched the tactical holo, read the reports of various participants and analyzed certain maneuvers, but as often as he did this he could not help but feel that he was missing something. Somehow the battle and all the circumstances felt odd, as if the fighting had only been a smoke screen for something else, but for what? Convinced, that he would not find answers while pondering in his strategy center he had his aide assemble a group of volunteers that he could send out to check on a few things.
In addition to Captain Su, who had been personally requested by the general, Private Jack, Jedi-apprentice Eric Mitanni and bounty hunter Blaze entered the briefing room. They were greeted by Twi’lek Captain Nira Taavi whose wounds had barely healed and – together with her eye-patch – looked menacing. Then the general came in and started the briefing. He wanted one small, inconspicuous ship like the “Red Crane” to make a round trip through the Zulow-sector and check the status at each of the five inhabited worlds, so he would gain a complete insight in all the things going on there. Any intel on shadows, imperial troop movements and other phenomena and occurrences would be helpful to piece together the larger picture. Proudly and confident Su promised the best possible results.
The crew took off and after a short hyperspace jump they approached the first system of the Zulow-sector: Zetryke with a tibanna mining colony on their gas-giant, which had been an important supplier for the heavy industry on Uprilia. But right after emerging from hyperspace the crew of the “Red Crane” could see that it was no longer the case: A giant black object, like a gas bubble of a nebula, semi-transparent and glistening in different colors had taken up most of the system and had already swallowed the sun and most of its planets. Sensors showed no life and even the light of the sun was almost powerless and could barely penetrate the dark veil. There was strong tachyon-radiation, but the sensors were unable to pinpoint a source. The black substance seemed to have started from planet Zetryke and still seemed to expand, albeit slowly. Depending on the speed the crew deducted that the black substance had been set free two days ago.
Since there was nothing left to do here they continued to the next system: Uprilia, former industrial center of this sector. The orbit around the planet was full of debris from the space battle weeks ago, but here the same phenomenon had started like on Zetryke: A black substance, originating from planet Uprilia, had begun to swallow the whole system. In this moment it was covering up the sun, so the sunlight was only visible like through a dark filter. Scanners also showed no life and instead strong tachyon-radiation. Jedi-apprentice Eric tried to use the force to sense if there was any life left that the sensors had missed, and he indeed discovered a whole lot of life on the seemingly barren planet, but at the same time it wasn’t really there, as if it existed in some other place.
Carefully they went on to the third system: Lastea, an icy world where inhabitants had carved whole cities out of the never melting ice cap and used geothermal springs to heat their homes and produce energy. Game hunting was also a big business on this planet so the crew decided to pose as big game hunters. First of all, the system was thoroughly scanned, but no shadowy substance could be detected. Instead they picked up normal radio beacons of an inhabited planet. One small freighter was landing on the planet, while another one, a Nella 342 named “Raven’s Tempest” was taking off.
Due to a gut feeling Su contacted that ship and asked about the situation on Lastea. A friendly captain named Randell Daroom answered their call and reported that even though the Empire had left a small detachment of troops to occupy the planet they were mostly busy adapting to the cold and adverse weather conditions and had little time to actually get involved with the inhabitants or any visitors. Except if one decided to stir things up which Randell strongly advised against.
Then he directly addressed Su if she was one of the Protectors of the Galaxy and had been present in the giant sphere for the showdown with the dark lord a year ago. When the Wroonian confirmed that this was the case Randell asked if what he had seen in the holo was true, if Trance Killian had really died. Su confirmed this as well and asked for the reason of his interest, but he only replied melancholically that he had once known Trance. Su also warned him about entering the systems of Uprilia and Zetryke as there was nothing left there. Randell was grateful as his next stop would indeed have been Zetryke. He thanked Su and her crew, wished them success in their business dealings and jumped into hyperspace.
Landing on Lastea was no big deal, but with occupational troops patrolling the area they decided to stay under the radar. So Private Jack was relieved of any items on his uniform that hinted at his New Republic employer, Eric hid his lightsaber, and Su swapped her Space Cola jacket for a snow-bunny outfit with thick fur. Only Blaze did not need to disguise herself as she was an officially licensed bounty hunter. Then they split up to search the capital city for hints what was going on, what the Empire was doing here and if there were any shadow activities.
Blaze and Jack went to the local cantina and found a group of bragging wannabe-hunters telling their fantastic stories of strange beasts in the ice. One of the locals who seemed to be a hunter himself could only shake his head in disbelief at so much arrogance. So Blaze confronted the leader of the wannabes and suggested a little shooting contest that she clearly won. But the shot had also attracted attention from the imperial patrol and they showed up and demanded to know what was going on. The wannabe proved to be impertinent and inconvincible and was subsequently taken in for questioning by the snowtroopers. This earned Blaze the respect of the old hunter and he opened up a bit and pointed them towards the riflesmith.
Meanwhile Su and Eric had gone directly to the arms dealer and pretended to buy rifles for hunting. But without any reputation from the locals they were only offered low level rifles. When the others joined them they could find out that the Empire had come here a month ago to preserve order and peace, something that had existed for millennia before the Empire. Nobody knew exactly what had caused this sudden imperial interest, but most had arranged themselves with the situation for the time being.
After they had received some other information they returned to the ship. There, Eric had a dark vision of shadows that were devouring the whole planet. Su saw this as a dire warning and took off immediately, but Eric proved a bit more paranoid and activated his lightsaber. Blaze was not happy with this and fought him in the ship’s lounge which caused some collateral damage to the plush couch. She was then able to subdue Eric, put him in binders and secure his lightsaber.
Just before Su could activate her hyperdrive she noticed the impact of a black sphere onto the planet. Within seconds it had covered the whole planet with its veil and it showed the same symptoms as on the other two worlds: there was no life left. Then they jumped into hyperspace.
Unfortunately Su had miscalculated her jump after the panic and so she had set the end coordinates quite close to their destination Outania, a desert world rich with minerals and ore. When the “Red Crane” emerged from hyperspace it was barely ten meters away from the hull of a Victory-class star destroyer. Su pulled off one of her stunt maneuvers and barely missed the warship. But when they were hailed from the star destroyer Su decided to ignore the call and get away as fast as possible instead. She was almost successful, but the current imperial tractor beam operator was quite competent and had caught the ship with his beam. Su went full throttle to break loose, but heard screaming sounds of constrained metal plating.
Meanwhile Eric had freed himself and surprised Blaze as she wanted to hide his lightsaber behind a wall panel. There was a short brawl and in the end Eric was stunned again and this time he was bound more carefully. All the while Su tried desperately to escape from the tractor beam which was pulling her ship towards the docking bay of the star destroyer. The beam itself seemed to be stronger as it deformed the ship even without additional force.
In a last ditch effort Su ordered Private Jack to man the upper gunwell and shoot the tractor beam emitters on the hull of the star destroyer. Jack started to fire and his second shot seemed to work and switch off the tractor beam. Su followed Jack’s shot with a proton torpedo which hi a vital energy distribution module and thereby disabled all tractor beam emitters of the star destroyer. She then tried to evade the turbolaser volleys, but was grazed a few times. Eventually she made it through and engaged the hyperdrive.
After a short course correction they were on their way to the last part of their journey: the water world of Wefreon where most of the foodstuff for the Zulow-sector was produced. Aquaculture, fish farms and fishing were the core businesses that exported supplies for the other worlds of the sector. The spaceport was small and well suited for light freighters like the YT-1300. The landing permit was easily obtained and Su set the ship down on a platform above the ocean. Then the whole crew, including the Jedi Eric who had come to his senses again, went out to get information.
The best place to get information seemed to be the spaceport-cantina “Perry’s”. Owner and barkeeper Perry was not happy when they told him what had just happened in the other systems, but he agreed to help them get the attention of as many people as possible. With the help of their holographic scanner data and a convincing performance from Eric as a Jedi who let his lightsaber float in front of him to prove his powers they managed to convince all customers of the gravity of the situation. Even a few imperial customs officers on leave who were not amused by the demise of their comrades on Lastea agreed to help.
The rallied together almost all citizens of Wefreon which was only a few thousand and used all available transportation to evacuate the planet. Even a few transport ships from General Shore’s fleet were sent to help with the evacuation. Only a few old people who did not want to give up their farm had to be left behind. While the evacuation was still going on Vitiation-supercruiser “Reaper of Life” appeared in orbit and seemed to siphon some of the planet’s energy, just like her name suggested. When the “Red Crane” was the last ship to take off and just had left the atmosphere the giant warship fired a black, spherical projectile onto the planet Wefreon which engulfed the planet within seconds and then devoured it. All remaining ships that had witnessed this then escaped into hyperspace.
General Shore aboard the frigate “Recreation” seemed tired and crestfallen. “All of them? Really?” he murmured to himself again and again. He thanked everyone involved for their invaluable information and the rescue of the civilian populace of at least one planet at the last second. Afterwards he retreated to his strategy room with Captain Taavi and Su was just able to overhear how the general suggested that they should talk to Lord-Regent Thul of the Royal Alliance of New Alderaan as their help would be direly needed in the upcoming battle against the shadows.