Session II: THE ENEMY OF MY ENEMY....

Note: The title of this session was originally "The Force Within," but the force wasn't really "within" anything for two reasons. First, two of the group members canceled on short notice, which means I had to rework what I had planned. Next, one of the group members was quite late, meaning we ran out of time before what was supposed to be the big climax. (Meaning we probably are going to start the next session with said climax.)

 

Opening Crawl:

The Death Star is no more. REBEL command is planning to evacuate their no-longer hidden base on Yavin IV.

Distress calls from IMPERIAL survivors have been intercepted. They originate from deep within the Yavinian Jungles, because where else would they be when the entire planet/moon thingy has only one biome, like all inhabitable planets in the galaxy.

Special Agent Arnette Sterling Turk, in his first mission as a newly-minted rebel sergeant, has been ordered to lead a team disguised as Imperials to “rescue” this band of survivors and silence any further communication they might have with the Empire...

Recap:

Turk, Lance, and *ahem Hunk and Sven were disguised as imperial officers -- Turk with the rank of captain. D'Wook wore a makeshift astromech droid costume. Aboard Tarkin's Lambda Shuttle, they flew over the site where the transmission was believed to have originated. There they spotted 4 imperial officers and 8 stormtroopers and the crashed Silverlight (that's Turk's ship). Turk, Lance and D'wook decided to disembark. Turk's orders were to take these survivors back to the rebel base alive. Also, radio silence would be maintained for the duration of the mission, on the off chance that the survivors might get wind of what's going on and do something drastic.

Turk was greeted by Captain Kark, who introduced Commander Spark, Dr. Mackie and Helmsman Solu. Kark was extremely happy for the rescue, as he'd been waiting out here in the jungle for over two weeks, and it appeared the rescue came hours before he had expected it. D'Wook didn't like the sound of that, but Turk and Lance didn't seem to catch on that this meant that a rescue effort for Kark and his men was already underway, and it was possible that this would lead the Empire to know the exact location of the rebel base on the planet. Just then a star destroyer appeared in the sky. 

Uh Oh...

D'Wook made some beeping sounds. The stormtroopers looked a bit uneasy. The Silverlight's radio started to pick up a transmission. "Kark, this is the Avenger. We've arrived a bit early. Prepare your men for rescue and debriefing."

Kark asked why they were sending a second team to rescue when a first team had already landed. Spark asked why the shuttle was nearly empty, when normally there would be at least a platoon of stormtroopers escorting. As Turk tried to think up some excuses...

Lance took the opportunity to shoot at the stormtroopers, starting the battle. Hunk and Sven were trying to figure out how to shoot from the cockpit of the Lambda shuttle. D'Wook sped over to the troopers and laid out a smokescreen using his droid body. Turk and Kark had a shootout. The troopers mostly missed things. Mackie pissed his pants. He's a doctor, not a fighter. Lance took out Spark and was engaged in combat with Solu. Mackie pissed his pants. Hunk and Sven managed to use the ship's weapons to take out four of the troopers, then two more. D'Wook managed to defeat one trooper, while another ran toward the shuttle and threw in a detonator, then dived for cover. Mackie pissed his pants. Turk told Hunk and Sven to "bug out," then dived for cover behind the Silverlight. Sven replied in a thick Swedish accent "Bug out, vhat does dis mean?" Hunk ejected from the cockpit, breaking his legs on the ground. Lance and D'Wook also made for the Silverlight.

BOOM!

The explosion killed everyone not taking cover in the other ship.

The real rescue party landed, and four officers with 20 stormtroopers came out searching for Kark. Turk said he was Kark and explained that the other shuttle there had another group of survivors who had joined up with them at the last moment, hoping to also be rescued, but there was a mutiny and the two factions had a skirmish, and now only he and Mackie had survived. He also asked if he could bring his astromech droid. The leader of the rescue party looked at them very suspiciously but allowed them to board. Once on board Turk and Lance visited the medical droid. They then managed to convince the stormtroopers to join them in dancing the galactic equivalent of the Macarena, so that D'Wook could pop out of his costume and use the medical droid without being noticed.

We all Needa friend.

Once on board the Avenger, Captain Needa met with them and debriefed them, explaining that they were really lucky that they had been sent to fetch Lord Vader after the battle of Yavin, it was when they were picking him up that they received the distress signal. They were now en-route to meet the Executor so that Vader could transfer to that ship. Lance sensed an evil dark presence nearby, so he thought he ought to tread lightly. Needa asked them to recount what happened exactly. How had they survived the Death Star, why there was a skirmish with other friendly forces, and whether or not they knew if the rebels were still on the planet or if the evacuation had already happened. Turk said he had no idea. Lance also was unable to confirm anything. Needa asked again...

"So, you've been on the surface of the planet for two weeks and you're absolutely sure you didn't see ANYTHING that would lead you to believe that the rebels have evacuated the planet?" Turk again was unable to answer definitively, as was Lance.

Needa again asked "Well, if you've got no indication that the rebels have evacuated then I guess we should probe the planet and try to locate the exact coordinates of their base. Lieutenant, I want you to send two squads down and we'll keep a long scan on the entire system to monitor rebel activity..."

Lance chimed in.. "Oh wait, there were those strange lights we saw in the distance over three nights. It looked like lights were shooting up into the sky. Suddenly they stopped on the fourth night. I thought it might be a meteor shower or something."

Needa replied "Oh, well obviously they have already evacuated. Lieutenant, nevermind!"

(GM note... JEEZ come on.. I'm practically FEEDING you lines here...)

Needa gave them a tour, showing them the brig, where they were holding a group of pirates they had picked up recently and were planning to transport to the nearest system for judicial processing. He also showed them the armory and the mess hall, where he left them to get back to the bridge. He asked "Kark" (Turk) to meet him on the bridge in 2 hours.

The three picked a secluded spot in the mess hall to discuss the plan. At first Turk suggested somehow taking over the entire Star Destroyer. D'Wook smacked him around saying in Ewokese... "We are heavily outnumbered here. We can't take over the ship. We should go release those pirates and get off the ship somehow..."

They decided to first visit the pirates. On the way to the brig they walked past the second hangar, which contained a CR90 Corvette (the same type of ship as the Tantive IV, but not the Tantive IV).

Once at the brig they fast talked their way past the guard and met the pirates. There were 6 of them, all different species. They could identify a Human, a Wookiee and a Rodian. The other three they could not identify. The human called himself Captain Hook, and introduced his associates Rook, Cook, Mook, Puke, and Duke. (I still don't know which is which, but whatever).

Turk told Hook that he wasn't who Hook thought he was. There was laughter from the aliens and a bit of conversation in alien languages amongst them. The Wookiee growled to Hook quite frequently. Turk explained that they wanted to get off the ship and he wanted their help. Hook said that he would gladly take them aboard his ship if they could open the brig and let them out and help them fight their way there. The deal was made.

The three then assaulted the prison guard and attempted to open the cell using the guard's workstation. Opening the cell required the approval of Captain Needa, and to get that they would need to make a request to the bridge. They cancelled their request. Turk and Lance decided to wait until Turk would join Needa on the bridge, leaving D'wook (still in costume) behind. The next guard came on duty and spotted the passed-out guard. He called in the emergency and the passed-out guard was taken to sickbay.

On the bridge Turk made some small talk while Needa showed him the Executor outside the window.

So huge!

"Look at the size of that thing! It's nearly ten times the mass of this ship!"

Turk and Needa exchanged pleasantries and Turk asked if he could sit in the Captain's chair. He tried to nudge Lance into returning to the brig to make the request. Needa misinterpreted Turk's attempts to speak in code to Lance as Turk coming on to him. Lance read Needa's mind using the force.

"Gee, Captain Kark is acting really weird, but I better be nice to him. After all, he must still be in shock after all the trauma he's suffered. But I sure can't wait to get this guy off my ship. He's giving me the creeps."

Lance finally figured out what Turk was trying to suggest him to do, and left for the brig. Once there, he and D'Wook overpowered the guard and made the request again.

About 10 minutes later a request came in asking for Needa's authorization in opening the brig. Turk tried to authorize, but he needed Needa's passcode. He attempted to ask Needa for the passcode, but Needa got suspicious. After looking at the terminal he decided that maybe Kark was playing him the fool and ordered that he be taken to the brig escorted by 4 troopers. Two troopers also showed up at the brig itself to arrest Lance. They decided not to resist yet, because they realized that someone would need to open the brig to put them inside. Once Turk and his escorts arrived, the the three fought in a battle that must have been over banana peels because two of the troopers fell onto Turk and Lance fell down himself once. After the battle was finished, Lance impersonated the guard and requested open all of the brig doors. The pirates then walked out of their cells and joined the party just as alarm bells began to sound...

Turk led the pirates to the armory first, then to the hangar. Guarding the pirate ship (The CR90) were 6 stormtroopers. (Yes, this is the third battle that involved 6 stormtroopers.) Together they made short work of the six and the pirates scrambled onboard. Just then from the doors behind the party emerged 20 stormtroopers.

The three made a break for the ship, a stairway emerged from the ship at about its halfway point, much closer than the entrance the pirates had used. Hook's voice could be heard... "climb on board quick we gotta get out of here!"

The storm troopers began shooting, but naturally they missed everything important.

The three ascended the stairway to find themselves in the dark. The ship broke free, blasting a hole in the hangar wall and quickly zooming off to lightspeed.

Once they had made their escape, the lights were turned on.

Turk, Lance and D'Wook were now in the brig of the pirate ship, with no means of escape. Over the intercom, Hook's voice could be heard.

AI art prompt: Captain Hook the space pirate

"Captain Kark, or should I say Turk.... Oh yeah I know who you are.... There's a bounty on you, Lance and that furball that's SOOO high... you not only helped up escape, but now you're gonna be our payday!"

Turk called back "There's a bounty on me?"

Hook replied, "You three and two others. I gotta hand it to you, you were able to swindle Jabba the Hutt out of 200,000 credits? That's pretty good, but also stupid. You had to know he would set a bounty on you if you crossed him. Duke... set course for Tatooine!"

 

GM's note: Lisette and Arnette (the two no-shows) were originally supposed to have been a part of this mission, but they will start the next session as prisoners in Jabba's palace, having been captured by bounty hunters while they were attempting to complete an undisclosed separate mission.