The Azure Expanse

[K_Feldspar]

The red dwarf Campa B was just rising over the horizon. Like a little ruby lodged into the dome of the sky. Campa A was already high overhead, and it washed the landscape in a warm orange light. A old intelligent looking Bothan rides on top a small green hover tractor pulling a plow. A cool breeze crosses the field bringing with it the sound of nerfs relaxing in a pasture nearby.

B'iw had been in his hover tractor plowing over a new field on his homestead when it caught his eye. He wouldn't have bothered with it except that he was an ex-archeology professor and somewhat of a history buff. “That doesn't look natural.” B'iw had done plenty of research on Campa before he decided to retire there and begin his hobby farm. “Wasn't supposed to be any settlements on this planet.”

B'iw reached over and picked up the object. “Hmmm. Ceramic.” He thought to himself as he gently hefted the object into the air. He squinted a bit, and looked thoughtfully as he turned the artifact over. There was an unfamiliar script on the other side. It was nothing like B'iw had ever seen before. Some parts blocky and square, and other parts curved and flowing. He cleared off a little dirt from below the script. There was part of a figure. Just a face. It was vaguely humanoid, but more dog-faced really.

B'iw sighed heavily, and briefly thought of just ignoring the object. Old professional curiosity got the better of him though. He dug around in the dirt looking for more pieces. He found several. There wasn't much more writing, but he did get most of the figure. A bipedal dog-faced individual holding something over his head in majesty. “Looks rather celebratory. Guess I'll message the Academy, and see if they want to take a look.”

The pieces were gently placed in a bag, and brought into the hover tractor. B'iw sat up in the operator's chair. He glanced around the verdant field. “Shouldn't plow here anymore.” He looked over at a series of boulders sticking up from the ground to the west. “I was gonna plow there next season, but I suppose I can do it this year instead.” Off he went. He was retired after all, and that little bit of ceramic could wait until he was done plowing for the day.
_________________
"I don't believe it!"

"That is why you fail."

[K_Feldspar]

Wow, a map of The Azure Expanse... created in Paint... yes I even looked up the RGB code for azure. I feel... geeky, but at least I know I'm among friends.


_________________
"I don't believe it!"

"That is why you fail."

[entropy]

We're back in the Azure Expanse, I can't believe it's been this long. We had a few misadventures in between, but no campaign stuck. Perhaps I'll regale you with those stories at a later date. But for now I'll stick with the adventures of Davu and his compatriots.

As you may have determined from our illustrious GM's intro, we are starting out just after RotJ. The crew is a professor and a group of students from the Bothawui Academy of Outer Rim Ancient Cultural Studies (BAORACS), a moderately expensive university on Bothawui which is well-respected. When the professor's old friend B'iw discovered some ceramic on a planet that was not supposed to have any indigenous cultures, he naturally contacted her to come take a look. One thing led to another, and now there is a field expedition to do an archaeological dig on a mostly unknown planet on the Campa system.

The Crew:
Professor Jedadora "Dr. J" - A Torguta professor of archaeology at BAORACS
Kar'kachaholie - A Barabel communications student at BAORACS, he's hired on as a guard for this expedition
Davu - A Meri student of medicine who thought this might be an exciting elective, plus he figures assembling skeletons will improve his (somewhat lacking) knowledge of anatomy.
Pirrush Frrass - A Bothan student of Archaeology, and the technician
Setyra - A Duros student of Archaeology and the pilot

[entropy]

My father was a rebel operative before it was cool (and when it was still illegal). He and his team happened to be in the right place at the right time. They got a chance to sneak on board the Star Destroyer Brazen while it was docked for repairs, and, well you probably know the rest. The short version is the Star Destroyer and half the imperial shipyard were destroyed in the explosion. He retired shortly after that, and seemed glad to hear that I was going to med school and not running off on some crazy adventures.

Still, the universe is a dangerous place, and when I took off for Bothawui my parents gave me a little care package including a brand new datapad, pocket communicator (don't forget to call home!), glow rod, breath mask, and blaster pistol. I never even figured out how to fire the thing, so I pawned it and bought a nice set of throwing knives. I also picked up a med kit because--you never know when that will come in handy.

I've studied hard to become a medic, but everything else I do just sort of comes naturally to me. Unlike my dad, who noticed everything, I can't tell you what color door I just walked through. Heck, most of the time I can't even figure out how to open the door. I'm pretty quiet when I want to be, though. I guess that comes from having a father who notices everything. Computers, and I guess anything technical, just come naturally to me. Knives are a longtime hobby, and I've been trying to work on my knowledge of alien anatomy since that grade nearly kept me out of med school.

I joined a martial arts club and found I'm pretty good at it. They call it Both-fu, but it appears to be based on a Noghri style. I've made some friends there, and they were talking about Professor Jedadora's field school. It sounded exciting, and I needed an elective so I signed up. "Dr. J" (I don't think she likes being called that, but everybody does anyway) seems a bit heavy on formality, while I'm more of a "get things done" kind of person, but I think it will all work out.

[Edj]

Note: I hate these reflection journals - glad this is the only one I have to do. Like I'm really going to crack this open in a couple years and ponder this week's insights. Still, can't wrap up the course credits for student success without it, so here goes:

Katunda, Helona 18, 5 ABY:

I've been assigned a short, off-world security post by Dr. Amicus, the Dean of crusty old crap at B.U. He claims my penchants for scanning mech and Honoghr-Do martial arts make me an ideal candidate for off-world work. I think he's still annoyed that his daughter found fleeting interest in this "worthless Barabel" last winter. Regardless, the school is giving me a couple course credits and beer money for looming over a gaggle of freshman tomb monkeys and their chaperone while they dig up some farmer's field. Sounds a bit boring, but it's certainly better than sitting in Sub-channel Comm 301. The extra creds also mean I can skip Art History, so I'm all in.

Atunda, Helona 22, 5 ABY:

Met the gaggle this morning. I was surprised to see so many of them were in the school's Honoghr-Do classes. B.U. prefers (demands really) that students call the style "Both-Fu", but the forms are all (and I mean all) ripped off from old Noghri martial arts techniques. It's a very aggressive style of fighting. Get in and get done. If you can close with and disable an opponent before your heart rate climbs, you're doing it right. In any case, the gaggle are known, and that helps. Should be an easy trip and maybe I'll get to play with the geophysical survey scanners they've stapled to the busted-up Lambda the school's thrown our way.

Note: Davu's in the group. I thought he was pre-med, but apparently he's just as happy cutting into dirt. Dude is whackadoo. Plays with knives way too much and gets off on cheap thrills. Could be dangerous to have around.

Lift-off.

Satunda, Helona 24, 5 ABY:

Yawn. Crawling through space is just super exciting. I remember when I was a kid, these trips actually seemed magical; a mad race against the silver streams of light to a far distant destination. Now, I kind of wish I was back in sub-channel comm.

Satunda, Helona 29, 5 ABY:

Finally arrived. Touchdown was smooth as silk. One of the gaggle; Syl... Seri... Sherp... (I'm so bad with names), dropped the Lambda like a pro. She's wasting her time digging up ancient pottery with this bunch, She ought to be focusing on running swoops or piloting starboats, but she's not getting smart on my dime, so what do I care?

The scanners on the Lambda are surprisingly nice. I was able to run a full sweep of the proposed site with EM and LIDAR. Located a large solid form depression ~7m below surface. Looks like we have our dig site.

Spoke with the land owner, Bob. Nice old guy. Says local critters amount to his herd of Nerf and some knee-high cat/dog predators. Should be an easy gig.

Datunda, Helona 30, 5 ABY:

Dig started. Nothing moving in the field other than the gaggle. Helped haul some equipment.

Evening - got some firewood for the gaggle. Don't know why we aren't sleeping in the ship. Don't know why we had to section areas with sticks and string instead of using the ship's systems. Don't know why we're digging with trowels instead of repulser-lifting the dirt away. Spotted a few tracks. Davu thought maybe large cats, then changed his mind.

Tracked a dog/cat down by the treeline. It saw me and ran off. Just about crapped myself tripping over Davu, who had crept up behind me. Have to work on that. Donoghr-Do flying elbow smash? You know, for his own safety.

Natunda, Shelova 1, 5 ABY:

More digging. More cat-dogs in the trees - needed to be dealt with, so I went down to confront. The beasts are pretty nimble - toothy, too. Drew and fired on one during the approach, but it jogged left and avoided the shot. Tossed the blaster to Davu and went at the beast bare-knuckled. They're fast, but not fast enough to avoid a beautifully executed Donoghr-Do Flying Vor. I leaped and snapped my right heel into the creature's muzzle. Beast hit the ground as an immobile heap of furry meat. Davu stuck a second cat-dog with one of his thrown knives; caught it just behind the right shoulder blade and sank the blade deep enough to puncture the thing's lung. He managed a second shot, and stuck the third cat-dog. It ran. Davu sprinted after it to get his crummy knife back. Seriously. Managed to put all three down after short chase.

Natunda, Melona 5, 5 ABY:

Couple weeks have passed. Busy with cat-dogs and shovels.

Found, carefully labeled, and diligently preserved a bunch of really important stuff on the dig: concrete, tranpara-steel (the gaggle have renamed it "transmantium" for some reason), some ceramic armor plating with inline silk-screened gibberish, and a spiffy black do-decka-something with a couple ports. The scanner can't see through the shell on the do-decka. Very odd. Dr. J and the geeks seem pretty fired up about it.

Katunda, Melona 12, 5 ABY:

Home. Paid. Credited. Not a bad trip, all said. Going to get hammered.

[K_Feldspar]

We briefly reminisced about the original campaign, and some artwork that was done. Unfortunately I was only able to find this small image. Wonder if someone in the group has a larger version. Can you guess who the jedi is?


_________________
"I don't believe it!"

"That is why you fail."

[roarthorin]

Pirrush Frrass

A bothan that grew up on the planet Bothawui.
He went straight out of high school to start working in ship maintenance and repair. Finding he was particularly good working on the lambda class shuttles. Always trying to keep an ear out for any stray information imperial officers might drop either while he was working or in the bar while they were on leave, to sell for a few extra credits. He was always amazed what a few drinks would uncover. After the past 12 years or so he started getting worried that the occasional bit of information he sold might get traced back to him. So he thought he might go back to school and pursue a mathematics or engineering degree pursuing some of his theory's relating to the distribution of wear for ship systems. The same parts always seem to be breaking and if that's due to design or materials he wanted to look into it. He's in his first year at the university and he took a class in Both-fu for self defense. In the class he heard about the archeology class that would be taking place off planet. Not only would this be a chance to get away from the books for a while they would probably be taking the modified shuttle the university has and he certainly wouldn't mind poking his nose around their ship.

*******
The initial ride on the ship was pretty uneventful giving a fair bit of time to look around the ship since it took a few days to get there. We did a fly by of the sight using the sensors which are impressive. landing went smoothly thanks to Setyra, and we got out and set up camp. we then plotted out the general area we have to do the dig. I got paired with a mari med student. He's talented but easily distracted. He kept running off with our guard to chase these large cat things that were around the site. He was doing the digging and was pretty good at it. While I did the screening. Found a bunch of transparent metal really hard stuff and ceramic which is possibly armor. I was the first one to notice the ash as we were digging down. after a few days and hitting concrete at the bottom of our hole the best guess is that this is some crashed ship. I thought this was supposed to be previously uninhabited. The materials definitely have my curiosity peaked but me and Davu can't seem to get them analyzed the tools we have here are just not accurate or durable enough to get a sample. Near the end of our time at the site we found a strange artifact which resists scanning and has a number of ports. Looking forward to getting that analyzed when I we have the chance. After our time ran out a one crazy Nerf stampede later, that professor had some guts turning the stampede, we packed up to head for home. We had some engine trouble on the way back and I was able to keep the ship together long enough for us to get to a port for me to affect a lasting repair. While I was under the hood so to speak I figured out why the shields don't work and the parts that would be needed to put that back into operation. On returning and analyzing what we took for transperisteel it appears that it is a whole new transparent metal. Me and
Davu dubbed it Transmantium. The black dodecahedron with the ports on it still defies analysis. We are all pretty sure that this is some sort of crashed ship. I'm looking forward to signing up for another dig and I'll have to brush up on my more general craft repair. Maybe I can get some independent study credit from the engineering department once we get some more artifacts back.
********

[roarthorin]

********

Student Journal entry for Pirrush

********
This morning I got a message from prof. J. Durocon saying that we need to head to an off world museum to pick up an artifact called the Durocon. She asked that I go over the ship and make sure its in working order. After looking it over from top to bottom its in perfect working order though no shield still. The paperwork must be moving slow for the funding. I decided to look into the Durocon and see if there is any information I can find about this artifact. All that I got was a holo of the thing thing it has three sides with ancient writing on it. I think I'll forward this to the professor J. The professor has called the rest of the gang from the dig. We are all going to head out together since this area is supposed to be under a bit of unrest since the empire fell. The travel to planet Baleus. was thankfully uneventful. We stepped off the platform and there is also a large carrier with many imperial remnant guards around it. Went over to go ask what was up and they brushed me off. Thought I might be part of some green droid gang, whoever they are. We all head out of the spaceport and a large transport pulls up outside of a nearby building then opens up with a bunch of repeaters the authorities quickly returning fire indiscriminately. we all hit the deck. Wow talk about unstable we haven't been on planet more than 5 minutes and walked right into a firefight. The imperial remnants have gotten control of the situation and one of their cars pulls up and arrests the lot of us just for being on the street. We are imprisoned by the imperial remnants and thrown in a cell. The prison cell was a blank room with a toilet at the back and light emanating energized bars keeping us in. We have a small slot for food and our pilot decorated the walls with it in boredom. We talk back and forth and manage to get someone down to hear our case after a day. They are extremely unhelpful and want us to pay a huge fine per person or face years of jail time just for standing in the street. We mull this over and after a half a day more in prison we hear explosions and shouting coming from outside the prison. The power and lights go out so now is the best time to make our get away. After a few attempts to find a way out karr ripped the durasteel toilet out of the wall and uses it to break down the rear wall which seemed to be a bit weaker. We found the behind the back wall we broke was an ancient tunnel. We running our hands along the wall to not get lost, the professor leading the way since she could mostly see. The roughness on the wall appears to be some sort of runes. We are not sure that this will lead out but we need some light so we head back into the prison to find one. Our cell is still locked but the cell next to us is likely not, I suggest. Karr breaks down the structurally sound back wall of the cell next to ours. we then are able to get into the prison while the sounds of battle echo outside. Getting to an office door we figure we should look inside. Davu tries to break in but again the lack of light is hampering us. R1 you had a light! Davu is able to get into the office and pick up a few things including some contraband which was given to another prisoner who we caught trying to sneak up to us then sent him on his way. Now that we have a light we go to explore the wall with the runes. They appear to be the same as the ones on the artifacts we had dug up before. We further explored the ruined hallways looking for a separate way out. the professor took a rubbing of the wall for further study. We finally came out in a large underground hanger. after walking the perimeter all the other entrances appear blocked. It has some awesome ancient spaceship relics just broken pieces but still. We have R1 take some holo recordings of these and the chamber itself. There seems to be no exit from large chamber so we head back into the prison to see if we can make our way out that way. After going through 2 more offices searching them we found a more important officials office. We did find some of the prison records which we took and near the back we noticed a hidden entrance. Karr scouted this secret passage for about 20 minutes to see if it was safe and then we all followed since it at least lead away from here. The final exit lead out into the governors mansion, who had high tailed it by now. We were able to leave discreetly over the wall around the outside. we then hailed a cab and finally were able to make it to the museum. At the museum we showed them the holos we took and they had to scrape their jaw off the floor. We retrieved the Durocon which had a static text in Duros and the remaining sides carvings changed to display other languages. One of these that we saw was the dog people language that we have been seeing so much of recently. We are able to make our way back to the space port by cab. The ship is a mess from all of the spaceport rubble from the fighting that went on. I think I can repair it in a couple of hours though if I can use materials in the spaceport to patch it up. The repairing of the ship went pretty smoothly. Just after we lift off a couple of star fighters peal off to pursue us. We have to fight them off and with out our shields. Karr is a pretty good shot with the ship weapons though it takes a while and only our pilots excellent skills keeps us from being blown apart. The rest of the trip home is uneventful. Once we got there we told off department head for sending us on an errand that could have easily gotten us killed.

*****

Sorry about switching from present to past tense through this It took me a while to get around to writing it all down.

*****

[K_Feldspar]

A graying average human sits behind an antique wooden desk. It's not particularly ornate. It's not even particularly nice looking. It was not, however, the cold hard steel table at which Captain Feldspar used to sit. He traces the brown edge of the desk as a smile crosses his face. “A nice comfortable, safe, desk job. Finally.”

Feldspar goes back to reviewing the intelligence report on his desk. The report tells a tale of political infighting, gruesome violence, and even a little technological mystery. All this from his former post in the Azure Expanse. The Expanse produces a tremendous amount of foodstuffs, and is only increasing its exports even after the collapse of the Empire. The New Republic desperately wants to open trade negotiations, but it's somewhat difficult with old Imperial sympathizers running most of Baleus.

Feldspar's first assignment is to bring Baleus and hopefully the whole Expanse into the New Republic. A somewhat difficult task for him considering his dramatically new circumstances in the intelligence department. Feldspar sighed, “I suppose it's too much to ask for the old space station back to blockade the planet.” The politics were different. There was no state of war between the New Republic and this particular band of Imperial wannabes.

So Feldspar looked for other opportunities. The political climate was a familiar one. Different factions vying for power. He could feed supplies to the local sympathizers until he could nudge them into making a coup attempt. There was the Green Droid gang too, and maybe he could move in some forces as a 'police action' if things became very turbulent. But there was this continuing intrigue surrounding the ancient technology in the Expanse. Feldspar wondered if he could somehow take advantage of that. “What resources do I still have in the area.” He poured over his notes and accessory reports. He looked twice at the activities of a Bothan technological institute of some sort. “Oh no! It can't be...” His heart sunk just as his office door hissed open.

A young and alert-looking Mon Calamari walked through the door. Feldspar, sufficiently distracted from his distress, got up from his chair. “Commander Tang. I'm so glad that you've been assigned to our group. You've got everything you need to make a huge impact on the galaxy. Please have a seat, and allow me to go over our first assignment.”
_________________
"I don't believe it!"

"That is why you fail."

[roarthorin]

*****

Student journal entry

Professor J has gotten a call from Bill from the planet where our first dig took place. He has informed her that her rival is working on the ruins on Baleus as he heard a talk he held at the most recent convention. Prof. J went and confronted the head of her department about him pulling the rug out from under her find. He admitted to doing so since she isn't a Bothan. He also admitted that he doesn't like her and would prefer to have her thrown out but her tenure prevents that only something serious like a student dieing on a dig with her would cause her to loose it. She offered go to the dangerous planet and continue digging her said that was alright, but unfortunately there is no money in the budget for HER to go on a dig. She has enlisted us students help in trying to drum up the funding to make the trip and docking fees and those of us who were on both missions will be with her on this next one. We were looking for Companies who might earmark or sponsor us going to do the dig. On searching for companies that could provide that funding we have the fruit and nut corporation and Ion industries. Another rout we can take is to appeal to the vice provost for internal funding. In the meeting with Ion industries, an engineering company, we brought a piece of the transmantium with us and Holos of the artifacts that we have discovered including the dodecahedron. On seeing these artifacts and Holos Martin Van Ion is willing to give us full sponsorship as long as they can barrow the dodecahedron for study. The fruit and nut company is willing to earmark a little for us but that will be insufficient. Unfortunately thee release forms on for letting them barrow the dodecahedron require the Head of the departments signature and take at least 2 months for the lawyers approval. We decided to appeal to the Vice provost who is human and not bothan to see what he can do. We all go into the meeting with Dr. Fundraiser. After meeting with him he is able to work out Mr. Ions engineers examining the dodecahedron on our university grounds; Since this needs only the Vice provosts signature for release. Taking the funding to the Head of department professor J got the permission for our mission and the release of the No Pomp Left, our shuttle (or Pompless).

When we took the ship out of the bay we clipped the bay door. The ship was undamaged but the bay door was not so lucky. we made the jump to hyperspace successfully. all of a sudden a day or two into the trip one of the circuits starts acting up. As I investigated it appeared to be a gravity anomaly that was localized to a few circuits. I attempted to isolate and fix the problem but I have no idea where to begin. A short time later the gravity anomaly caused irreparable damage to the circuits it was affecting and our ship dropped out of hyperspace. I was able to keep the overload from hitting anything but our drives but we were still stuck dead in the water between star systems. We had no replacement parts for this kind of damage. A few hours later our sensors detect a ship approaching. We receive a message telling us to prepare to be boarded. The craft could hold at most 4 people. We hail them and identify ourselves as university students on our way to a dig and needing assistance. They again tell us to prepare to be boarded. We decided to "prepare to be boarded" by waiting at the docking seal Davu with his knives, Prof. J with her blaster hidden but read and the rest of us with our martial arts training to subdue or stop these boarders. As soon as the doors open Davu hits two of them with his knives and they dropped dead. I trip one and our pilot, Setyra, strikes him to try and keep him down. Proj. J fires at the remaining but missing as his shot goes wild and he jumps and hides behind his side of opening. We ask them to surrender, and they do feeling that we students are overwhelming. We strip there ship for parts leaving them stranded with about a weeks supplies and an emergency beacon running. Then we go on our way once I replace the damaged parts on our ship. The rest of our flight was uneventful.

We arrive at Baleus landing at the ship port after hailing them. We will need to pay a docking fee as soon as we land. Once we land sure enough there is a knock on the ship door asking for the docking fee of 150 credits. We pay the docking fee and get the "inspector" to sign our data-pad so we have proof we paid it. After exiting the ship a young, around 8 year old, kid with a blaster walks up to us and asks if we want him to watch our ship for us. 1 credit a day minimum 4 days. We tell him we aren't interested for now and go looking for the rivals ship. When we get there we find a little girl, about the same age as the boy, with a blaster sitting on the ramp to his ship. We as to get on and she tells us to move along. We are not about to pick a fight with a little girl so we go off to find the little boy to watch our ship since apparently that is how things are now done around here.

Our first place to go is the museum to find out what is really going on. After a short chat we find out that the rival is exploring the tunnels under the city and that some of the ones that he is in are metal walled and not just stone. We decide to use the Pompless to survey the under ground tunnels. So we don't get shot out of the sky we clear it with the spaceport to do the low passes we need to for the survey. The survey indicates many underground passages tunneling and crisscrossing under the surface. It also more curiously has sensor holes which we know are there by following the tunnels until the readings just disappear. These holes are similar to the single one we found at the crash site on our first dig. We are also able to locate where the rival is digging. With the tunnel layout in hand we plot an intercept course so that we will get to where the rival is headed before him. unfortunately we will need to cut through a stone tunnel into the metal tunnels in order to do it. After documenting the walls and taking Holos of them we decide its time to break through. I pull out my fusion cutter and carve a hole to give us a door. after a short ways down the tunnel we run into the rival. He is decidedly flustered. After Prof J. and him talk she gets him to realize that they are both working toward different goals but just happen to be in the same field of study and don't need to be in competition with one another. That the head of the department has been playing them against one another.

While talking a noise is heard down the hallway. The rival goes off since he is only interested in the prestige and not the danger. We all go to investigate. There is a droid floating it turns and attempts to communicate. After a few more prompts it attempts to raise a barrel shaped arm that looks like a weapon. Davu "disarms" it by removing its limb. It bleeps and runs off down the hall. Our group gives chase. We meet up with a group of 4 more of them as we catch up. Davu also took the time while he was chasing it to examine the weapon. It apparently is a weapon that throws metal slugs from a mini rail-cannon accelerator. The power-source appears to be a regular polyhedron shaped object. (I think it was a pyramid or cube). One of us gets wounded by them firing and over a short time, 2 exchanges of fire, we either smoke them or disarm them. The remaining disarmed one attempts to flee again and Davu tackles it a short way down the hall. Setyra and I hold it down while all of us try to figure out how to shut it down. After a short struggle it appeared to turn itself off. Unsure if it will be able to reactivate I spot weld it to the wall so we can come back and investigate it later without it disappearing. Shortly after this the wall opens up with a portal behind it both are small less than a meter in size. and a green looking short bipedal creature sticks its head out of the hole. we quickly grab him. Talking with him he appears to be the maintenance here at this facility. He lives on another world entirely and comes here and all over the facility and others by these portals. His family has been fixing this place for generations. There is some AI sentience to the compound that sends out the work requests. He apparently can speak the language as well as understand it; though he refuses to talk to the facility on our behalf. He says he is will to wait us out if he has to. Apparently his race lives for a really long time. The previous maintenance worker from his family lived to be 800 years old or so. I don't think we could wait him out. The professor seems to have worked out a deal with him to teach her the language so that she can ask the computer/entity if we can explore this place.

To be continued.....

**************

[entropy]

Well, that is what happened... But the journal entry doesn't do it justice.

What is it with Bothans and fact-after-fact reporting? Their holo-news reads like the inventory of a produce department.

Come on, Pirrush, spice it up a bit. Your Bothan friends back home won't die of a heart attack just from reading something exciting...

Well, many will, but the ones that don't will be better off for it.

So we're floating aimlessly in space with a dead hyperdrive and no hope of fixing it. How are you feeling? Bored? Hopeless? Yeah, that came through in the narrative...

Suddenly, a ship appears out of nowhere telling us to prepare to be boarded! How did it make you feel? Excited!? Scared?! What was the first thought that went through your head?

The sensor sweep tells us it's mercenary and only got a crew of 4, now what are you feeling? Relief? Are you still overwhelmed by the first news? Do you think I'm crazy for pulling the knives out and walking to the airlock?

The airlock opens, and I see four armed humanoids. Two knives are in the air as I tell them to drop their weapons. Instead, two of them drop, one trips, and the other squeezes off a point blank shot at me. His hand was shaking so hard he missed by several degrees. I'm glad he took our offer of surrender rather than another shot. I wasn't really trying to kill them, but when blasters are pointed at you, you just react.

Later...
We're exploring an underground tunnel, unused for centuries, and we stumble across a dead humanoid with strange equipment and a stranger weapon. Of course I'm going to study it, it looks far more interesting than a blaster. The power cell reminds me of the one from the old ship at the first dig. It's connected to some sort of railgun-based slugthrower with 5 shots. Looks a bit beefier than a blaster, this could put a serious hole in something.

There's a noise down the empty corridor! What could have survived being sealed off for centuries? A droid, of course! It trying to communicate with us, but I don't understand. It raises its arm, pointing the business end of something at me. Now this I understand...

I figured I'd just point the weapon at the wall, but apparently the droid wasn't built for physical combat and I take the whole arm off. The droid floats slowly away. Not wanting to outpace the party, I examine the arm as I run. Another interesting weapon, this one's a smaller, single-shot model, but based on the same principle as the first one we found.

I guess I got a little distracted because I didn't realize I was outpacing the group anyway, and I sure didn't expect to see five droids when I turned the corner. I guess the new ones don't want to talk first, and slugs start flying. Dr J is hit! We take down the droids, but get a few scrapes in the process. I grab the droid, and Pirrush welds it to the wall (nice job, by the way). Just as I'm about to pull out the medpack for Dr. J, the wall opens and there's a little green guy standing there.

Having had enough surprise creatures shoot at me this week, I grab him before he gets the chance. Turns out he's just the maintenance guy for a crazy old AI complex we're standing inside of. (Who sends unarmed maintenance personnel into a firefight?). It sounds like it spans most of the planet, maybe I'll call it the infinity complex...

The tech doesn't like me much, probably because I won't put him down, but Dr. J makes a deal with him. We'll see where this goes...

-Davu

...many bothans died, counting these apples.

[K_Feldspar]

Stygian grabbed a few items off the crumpled lifeless form of the lieutenant as he unceremoniously crammed the carcass into a footlocker. He turned then, and pushed aside some scanning equipment. After some digging he pulled out his own satchels, stood up, and gave a glance out the small window. A familiar globe hung there in space. "Mine." He briefly thought.

Stygian walked over to the door, and looked down at his chronometer. He waited for a bit listening intently. Footsteps. Stygian counted to himself, and then strode through the door into the hallway beyond. The patrol had turned the corner headed in the opposite direction. Confident, maybe even slightly exuberant steps carried Stygian towards the hangar bay.

Thirty seconds later he came to a stop, and pressing his back against a wall glanced again at his chronometer. The hallway went dark. He darted around one corner, then another, then carefully slid unseen through a busy intersection. He stopped on the other side, and from one of his packs produced a cloak. The cloak is long and black, but doesn't look quite right--just a bit fuzzy. Importantly, it's hooded, and Stygian pulled it over his purloined uniform to conceal himself.

The lights came back on again, and Stygian heard some distant cheers over the renewed illumination. But just as quickly as the lights came back they start flickering again as an explosion could be heard ripping through part of the ship Stygian just left. He continued his trek towards the hangar bay now more urgently than before.

There was chaos as he strode into the hangar bay. Another black hooded figure wielded a crimson red light saber and twirled about near one of the other entryways. Maintenance workers ran frantically away from the fiend. Storm troopers were being cut down by their own reflected blaster bolts just as frequently as they were parted by the blade.

Stygian let a disappointed sigh escape, and growled to himself. "Impetuous. We'll need to work more on control." Across the deck he saw an officer guarding the entry ramp to the personal shuttle of the Star Destroyer's captain. The officer was screaming into his comlink now, and was completely unaware of Stygian's approach. A snap-hiss cut through the chaos--and the officer. Stygian stood waiting on the entry ramp while the blade cast a pallid glow on the gore around him.

The other hooded figure approached the shuttle quickly cutting down a few more nearby opponents as he ran. "I'm sorry master. The explosion was invigorating, and I couldn't help myself."

Stygian's eyes narrowed under his hood, and he rebuked his apprentice. "Timing is critical. We will discus it further when we are safely away."

The apprentice slouched a bit at this reproach. Tips of mostly concealed head tails could be seen twitching disappointingly as sabers were extinguished. They walked up the ramp together, and departed for Baleus and unknown mayhem below.
_________________
"I don't believe it!"

"That is why you fail."

[K_Feldspar]

M'orio Nem head of the Department of Galactic Preclassical Antiquities hated doing this for the non-Bothan Dr. J., but he knew this was a great opportunity to advance his own career. M'orio skittered across campus to one of the bureaucratic office buildings. He leapt up the stairs to the building, and threw open the door. Several strange looks were cast his way as he pushed through the halls. Bounding around one turn, then another, up two flights of stairs. He paused briefly to take a deep breath outside the dean's office. Then M'orio burst through the door of the anteroom, and charged towards the inner office. A secretary leapt out from a chair trying in vain to stop him. Muttering something about, "can't go in" or "important call." But M'orio was confident that nothing could possibly bring the Academy more prestige and thus be more important than this.

"Dean Nemay, we have somewhat of an academic emergency on our hands." M'orio managed to get out as he tried to catch his breath.

A sumptuously comfortable looking tall back chair spun slowly around, and Dean F'eren Nemay raised a furry eyebrow. "That's quite an entry M'orio, but I think I can spare a minute. Please explain this... academic emergency."

"Dr. Nemay, our sites on Baleus are about to be taken over by remnant Imperial forces. Considering the level of productivity we have there I want to lead a large expedition to recover as many of the sites as possible." The words poured out of M'orio's mouth. It was an exciting prospect even if he had to rely on an inferior species to assist. Dr. J. was at least competent unlike other average odoriferous outlanders he'd met.

"I see, and how much of the Academy staff and ships can we muster?" The Dean's tone was measured and even.

"Well, we've lost track of Dr. Amicus, and his ship. However, we have the rest of the staff, 3 small shuttles, and I think I can rely on some native assistance at the site as well."

"Lost a professor and his ship have you M'orio? And have you filled out the requisite forms for either that loss or this new proposed field excursion?" The Dean's tone was cold now.

A brief look of surprise washed across the furry features of poor M'orio, "Well no, but the matter is urgent. Remnant forces are already on the scene, and may be extracting material now. I was hoping you'd be willing to navigate us around those forms at least. We could search for Dr. Amicus while we're on site"

"Dr. Amicus was competent member of your staff. Your favorite as I recall. His recovery cannot be a mere afterthought. And M'orio, those 'forms' are necessary tools for the responsible functioning of our Academy. Scurry back to your office, and begin constructing the documentation. This is an emergency after all." The Dean turned his chair back around clearly indicating the conversation was over.

"But..." M'orio was stunned. Held up for proper forms?! And how was he supposed to search for Dr. Amicus? What was happening? This was a huge opportunity for the Academy, and the Dean knew it too. As the plush chair with the Dean finished swiveling around M'orio caught a glimpse of a holoconference in progress. He could just make out the tiny blue visages of the Academy President Dr. Carlos Fundraiser, the Provost Dr. D'rin Borax, and Martin Vanion of Kuat Drive Yards. "Oh no..." M'orio thought as he slunk out of the office. "I've been outmaneuvered!" A sinking feeling washed over him and his career.

Dean Nemay tried to clear the irritation from his face as he resumed his call with the Academy leadership and the Kuat executive. "Well, Dr. Fundraiser I can see your point of view on the staffing concerns more clearly now. I'll go down to Dr. J.'s and see what this talk of 'Imperials' really means."

"Thank you very much F'eren." Dr. Fundraiser responded with sincerest gratitude. As a human he couldn't quite grasp all the nuances of Bothan politics, but he knew enough that he had stumbled in on an opportunity to help out a friend. And as the token human in leadership he knew he needed as many solid friendships as he could gather.

"Before we go--" The Kuat Drive Yards executive quickly interjected. "we'd be more than happy to assist if you think you'll need extra manpower or transportation."

"For a price I'm sure. What is it?" The Dean responded somewhat more coolly than he planned, but recovered quickly. "No matter. I'm sure we can make some mutually beneficial arrangements for both of us. Time seems to be of the essence here."

The holoconference ended, and Dean Nemay rested back into his cushy chair for a second. “No rest for the politically adept,” he said to no one in particular. He rose from his chair, and headed out through the anteroom. He called to his secretary, “Please clear my schedule. I'll be out the rest of the afternoon.” Then he moved quickly off to find Dr. J.
_________________
"I don't believe it!"

"That is why you fail."

[roarthorin]

*****

Continued student journal entry:

We stayed In the facility for 3 days with the small green maintenance guy. During this time Martha the human guard for the rivals group came over to assist us with keeping watch and guard duty as the rival had little need of them. They probably got bored. After professor J had been practicing for these three days to learn the dog peoples language we heard a voice coming from the facility around us. It addressed us in basic and introduced itself as Phalanx. It said that it was one of the computers in control of this facility. After we asked what it meant by one of It told us that it was just one of three voices that could communicate and that the others would not at this time. It had a proposition for us so that it could get its mechanic back and to prove our worth. If we go and investigate a computer signature that was in orbit around Baleus that felt familiar to it and helped phalanx to contact it we would be allowed to explore this facility unmolested. So as the sign of good faith we let the maintenance worker go. With some follow up questions phalanx we asked for a way to contact him at range if we needed to. So Phalanx had the small green guy load some information onto one of our datapads after he disappeared and reappeared through some walls and floors and was gone for about 5 minutes. When I got my datapad back it had some information about the ship signal that phalanx got as well as a comm unit to phalanx which we tested to ensure it worked. Further questioning about how the technology works were greeted with a flat refusal and it saying that there would need to be quite a bit more trust first.

We packed up to go looking for this signal which had appeared and disappeared over the past few weeks, when we noticed that the rival and his crew was packing up in a hurry. He said that he was leaving so fast because there was a small imperial star destroyer above the planet. We decided that it was also a good idea for us to make tracks as well. We all piled in the ship and stowed our few finds. Shortly after take off the star destroyer hails us to stand down and be inspected before we leave. Have no contraband and nothing that we should need to hide we comply. They bring us into the port side hanger where the rivals ship is also being "inspected" the scanning crew comes on board our craft. One of the individuals seems to be a lot older and more experienced than would be on a standard scanning crew. we are told we need to wait outside on the hanger bay while they do the scan. while we wait we can see the rival getting irate and argumentative with the guards. That doesn't bode well for him. on leaving our ship the scanning crew informs us they need to confiscate the droid arm that had fired at us (the rest were left). We also see them carting off lots of the artifacts that the rival had collected with him protesting and arguing all the while. we get back on our ship. The tell us all is well and we can be on our way. after a brief discussion we decide to try to discreetly use our ships sensors to see if we can find that alien signature. We find the signal coming from the ships starboard hanger. Great, now we need to find an excuse to stay here. So we say we are having engine trouble because of what shape the scanning crew left the ship in while I go to make it look like our ship is sabotaged. I find that it already has been. I take down on my datapad a manifest of all our missing parts and we call up the guard and let them no we can't leave because our ship is missing essential parts that the scanning crew took. showing the guards the places where the parts go and the list of missing parts they believe us. A short time later we are called to report to conference room 2 which the guard shows us too. There are sandwiches and water here so we have some. A imperial officer comes in and greets us. He asks why and what we are doing here. We explain about the rival moving in on Prof. J's dig and the politics of it all. That we are archeologists and call it there for explaining further. He thanks us and says he will clear everything up, we should be able to leave in a few minutes, and that we are welcome to some more sandwiches while we wait. A few seconds after he leaves the doors lock shut and the room fills with gas. We fell unconscious, the last thing i remember hearing was professor J. berating them.

When I woke up we were all stuffed in a prison cell minus everything we own. Then a large human with a leather mask over his face comes in points to Prof. J and motions for her to come with him. we all sat around in the cell for a fairly long while until they dragged a very bruised and beaten professor back to the cell along with a medpac. She was chewing them out for her poor treatment. Davu fixed her up. A little while later they asked for Davu. Prof. J said that they were asking about the things we found. Then a very short time later they brought back Davu. They asked for our new guard Martha who we knew didn't know anything. After some time they brought her back too. They asked for me. After he asked where we found these I made up a story about tunnels along the passage way to the governors mansion. They left then a short time later they came back saying I was lying but what I gave them was close enough. Oh, well I tried to mislead them. They shoved me back in the cell. After trying to figure out how to get out for a while they threw another prisoner into the cell with us. The imperials had messed him up pretty bad. We were able to get out of him that he was from the alien ship in the starboard hanger and his name was Leptus. He hadn't eaten in 2-3 days. We tried to get him to open up but he just assumed this was another way the imperials were trying to get him to talk. We asked if he had a medpac so we could fix him up since they gave us one. They had but he left it in his old cell since he didn't know how to use it. Davu tried to stabilize him as best he could with what was available. We then went back to plotting our escape. After failing to come up with anything for a while. Leptus told us he didn't know if he could trust us but he asked us to take off the heel of his boot. we took it off and he said that inside it was a miniature EMP devise with one charge in it. we placed it where it would need to go to shut down the door and activated it. The door unlocked and we opened it up. replace his boot and began to make our escape. We searched the corridor thoroughly and found a hidden panel that revealed a bay of blaster rifles. There were ~6 of them enough for all of us. A pair of storm troopers ran into us and the rest of the group managed to take them out. We searched some of the nearby rooms that weren't locked cells and found our stuff heaped in a storage closet. We called up Phalanx and let him know we found the source of the signal he was looking for, that it was on the star destroyer and that they might know where he is and he may be in danger. He paused for a bit then said he would be back in contact in 1 week. Everything lurched and the only the emergency lights came back on. Leptus was very curious who we just contacted. We let him know that Phalanx would probably want to get in communication with him once we get him back to the ship and get off this ship. We start making our escape by heading toward his ship and mabye we could commandeer another ship in the bay if there is one. Davu fixes him up now that he has his medpacs and we go on our way. We catch some officers talking about wondering where they are and what just happened all the stars are wrong. We avoid them but make a note that we will need to rendezvous a short jump away to get our bearings before we head home. After we blat down a few more guards on our way, most of my shots going wild. We make it to the starboard hanger. The alien ship is operational and Leptus gets in there isn't another ship in the bay so we will have to trek back on foot. we ask him to wait for us before he launches so that we have a better chance to get away. We fight our way back through the ship to ours. we take out the guards in the hanger. The rivals student are still being detained in the hanger. we jump on to the rivals ship I grab all the parts we need to put our ship back to working order. I don't know if they disable his ship too. While everyone else grabs the supplies and moves them to our ship. I replace the stolen parts in record time and we boot the ship up after getting all of the rivals students on our ship. We contact leptus and we make our get away. We rendezvous out a short ways away by hyperjump and we give him some supplies so he won't starve. We plan a randevu time above baleus. We then head back to Bothawui and drop off the students.

Davu, I'm surprised you put so much emotion. If you don't keep it strictly to the facts some bothan spy might sell YOU out as well as just the information they get. You never know what leverage they might glean from you saying what you care about and who you do or don't like. I find it odd that non-bothans can't fathom this but, you are certainly are interesting.

*****

[roarthorin]

*****

10/14/13

A short time ago Prof. J got a call from the Dean of students asking if she would like to be new head of her department. After her conversation with the Dean, and accepting, she call us in to discuss things. Everyone was surprised that the Dean gave her, a non-bothan, the post. She told us that the sites on Baleus were going to be raided soon. She had been given the post in order to with all speed get all of the professors there to retrieve as many artifacts as possible and hide/ bury the rest. She confirmed that she had access to all of the department funds, and that in only a short while Martin Van Ion of Kuwatt drives would be arriving to discuss how he can help and what transport he can provide to get all of these artifacts recovered. We talked over what we would need to bring, repulsor sleds, a number of heavy loading devices and some “real” defensive weaponry. We will also need demolition explosives in order to bury phalanx’s facility for now. After talking amongst ourselves it seems Setyra our pilot might have seen a black market gun shop we could pick up our “real” defensive weapons. The professor withdrew some of the funds in hard credits and we made our way to the seemingly normal gun shop. When we got there we asked the store owner if he could set us up with some more heavy duty equipment. After he offered us a hold out blaster to protect ourselves we asked for a few specific high powered weapons and asked him how he felt about hard credits. That got his attention. He closed up shop and led us into a back room. There we picked out all sorts of gear and a few heavy lifting rigs. he asked how we would pick it up and we said we would pull a truck around where he wants to pick them up crated. He gave us a time and an address along with a knock to have them open the door. we left and went to the designated location with a truck and Karr got out and gave the specific knock. An old bothan woman opened up the door and questioned us about what we were doing there. We said we were here to pick up our crates. She then verbally laid into her husband after showing us our creates and we proceeded to load them on the truck while staying out of the middle of their tiff. We met up at the spaceport with Martin van ION who explained that he had gotten ahold of a ship, a correlian cruiser, that was about to be mothballed and put into a museum. we got our shipment of demolitions explosives arrived for sealing the caverns. The professors and the students who hadn't excused themselves arrived. We all boarded the cruiser and took off. We jumped to hyperspace and began our trip. With Setyra our pilot taking the ship out.

After a day or two while on the bridge Davu and Prof. J ended up passing out. Those of us on the bridge decided to bring them back to their quarters. once they left the bridge they regained consciousness and started saying they had dreams. Great, I hope that the pressure isn't getting to them. They went back into the bridge a short time later the ship shuddered and we got knocked out of hyperspace with the ship spinning end over end. This was straining the inertial dampers to their limit. I when on damage control keeping in contact with everyone in engineering. while I was trying to figure this out Davu and Prof. J kept having fainting spells. Our two security officers Martha and Karr stayed with them and In one corridor they also had a fainting spell. They seemed to say that they were having the some visions and seeing the same thing. While I waited for the report from engineering I decided to investigate the possibility of these "visions" being correct. It seems that not all the parts on the ship are original and the call sign for some of these parts are untraceable. I also determined after they showed me the hallway they fainted in that the ship at one point had been breached by a boarding party here and then repaired. Around this time Setyra who is much more familiar with smaller ships controls got the cruiser righted again. We were still having power fluctuations however. I contacted Mr. Van Ion and found out that they installed a new piece of prototype equipment into the ship before we left that should have improved drives and our fields. Guessing that this was why it was acting up I headed down to the engine room and Davu with Karr as an escort came too since we are both the most familiar with weird tech. once there we investigated. I noticed it was behaving strangely though I couldn't discern why. I asked the engineers here and they described some of the components, for the T-13 device as they call it, which to me sound reminiscent of the parts we located on Baleus. When me and Davu headed back over to the generator lightning arced all across it and once big blast flew out and hit Karr square in the chest then arcing to us as it also exploded. When I came to I was on the ground and badly injured being tended by medical personnel along with most of engineering. Karr was not looking very good he had 3 or 4 medics around him working frantically. Davu was about in the same shape I was. Karr had a hole in his chest clean through and was barely breathing. I'm kind of amazed how tough he is If that had hit anyone else they would probably be dead. we were taken to the medical bay and me and Davu finished fixing each other up. He gave the medics a hand while I went back to engineering to disconnect this generator from the rest of the systems as well as re-rout everything that fried. After a surprisingly short time I was able to get things back in a working order considering most of engineering was in the med-bay. We resumed our hyperspace rout and arrived on Baleus.

When we get there we see the star destroyer smoking and not doing well. We decide that we need to land and get everything and go as soon as possible. Contacting Phalanx we go over what the plan is and why. He asks us to make a way for us to identify ourselves from any intruders while we remove what we need to and seal him in. Also asking that we would make sure he doesn't stay sealed forever. we decide to have a University shirt printed for everyone on the planet and have the school symbol be the thing everyone will have. We then distribute these to everyone and make sure they keep them on while working. We put ourselves in charge of setting the explosives. When we land on the planet we catch sight of the old guy from the scanning crew dressed completely differently. Professor J. and Davu say they are getting a feeling of evil from him. I'm inclined to agree but for different reasons. after we get down into the complex and the crews start working we let Phalanx know that this individual specifically was looking for his tech and to watch out for him, forwarding a digital image of him that we have. We set the explosives and get every student, teacher and guard back to the ship. after confirming role call, we get top side to head back to the ship. after we get in our car and are passing the jail we hear an explosion from it. We get out to investigate while setting off our own explosives. That should create confusion. We see a mon calimari running out with an unconscious guy. He hands him to us introduces himself as commander Tang notes that we are from the university. He tells us he knows where professor Amicus, Prof. J's rival, is and so Karr, who had fully recovered by the time we got to the planet, went with him to get Amicus out. They get out with him. place him in the car and Tang heads away in his own vehicle and we head back to the spaceport. Just before getting on our ship that older guy is there again and gave us all a mean look. the hatch closes and we lift off. Prof J. told us later that she heard him say something in her head. Weird. Anyways, we revive the guy and he is a republic infiltrator. He introduces himself to us as lieutenant Soand So. He won't be able to get back into the cell on Baleus and will need to be reassigned. We drop him off at the spaceport on Bothuwii on our return. Overall a job well done even if it was not the smoothest.

*****