A New Friend and an Old Problem

After taking off and leaving behind Rwarr's body, they piloted the ship to locate another safe landing area.  Not far off in the distance, they spotted what appeared to be a wrecked ship.  They flew over to get a closer look and it appeared to be crashed into a rocky area of the desert with no clear blaster damage on the top.  Despite its apparant condition, it did not appear to be on fire or even smoking.

They landed nearby and approached the ship cautiously.  While approaching they say a four legged creature darting off around the back of the ship.  They got closer and noticed a large tear in the undercarriage of the ship's hull.  They could hear something coming from inside the ship so they decided to investigate.  They climbed into the ship and found a large 'gator type creature eating someone pinned beneath debris.  Nearby a human was also pinned, this one moving to try and break free.  The group began blasting away at the creature until it was killed.  They assisted the other human, Jodo Biggs, and learned that he was part of a smuggling operation to bring some weapons grade hydrogen to the planet for sale to Poggle the Lesser.  The equipment, although extremely explosive, was to be part of some larger weapon, and likely not useful for fencing.   The dilemma was that he had already been paid half a million credits by an anonymous older human, identified only as "Tarsus" to deliver the goods to Poggle.  They stripped the ship of its landing gear and shield parts to repair their own ship and returned to the Geonosians to check in on them after fleeing the battle with the Jedi.

They landed again in the same area several days later to learn that the Jedi had been defeated - one killed and the other captured.  Kannon Kapos proudly showed off his new lightsaber taken from the dead jedi.  He told them that they had been torturing the Jedi and recently resorted to some medieval techniques.  They learned that there was a "secret" set of astrogation coordinates to get to the citadel but hoped that further torture would reveal an elusive way in and out of the citadel.  Kannon asked them to take over the torture process to learn this information.  They asked for time to discuss a course of action.  While on their ship talking it over, they received a hologram message from Calla the Hutt asking them to return to Tatooine for a very time-sensitive purpose that would be profitable for both sides.  Grateful for a way out, the group decided to take off and abandon geonosis.  They rigged Jodo's old ship to explode, faking his death to avoid any trouble with his seller.  The subsequent megaton explosion was enough to distract the blockade ships and allow them the opportunity to cross back through the blockade.

They landed on Mos Espa and went to visit Calla.  She revealed the reason they had wanted Barin Trevino in the first place.  Barin had purchased a liquified form a cure for a deadly virus then jettisoned that cure over the planet Rodia when he realized that the Hutts wanted it badly.  This was why their ship didn't originally have an escape pod.  Calla asked them to go to the planet and locate the escape pod with the cure.  Although he was willing to offer them a permenant 5% cut in the Disilik Hutt operation, they group negotiated a flat fee instead.  Part of the negotiations required them to also deliver a large canister (torpedo-style) to the planet Gamor along the way. 

Land there ... no there... no there...

After the shock of seeing a Jedi imprisoned, the group asked the Geonosians through the interpreter how they captured the Jedi.  They learned the Jedi a series of strikes attacked their hive a few days back, and, although another group of Jedi successfully captured Poggle, this particular group of Jedi were defeated by their defenders.  Three Jedi were killed but they captured this Jedi and have been interrogating him but have so far been unable to learn anything significant.  Unwilling to discuss their options in front of the Genosians, they agreed to go back to their ship.  While on board, Bib informed the group that he had sensed two force users approaching their direction quickly.  While assessing their options, the Jedi arrived and combat began around their ship.  As cannon fire rained down from the mountainside, they took off flying low.  When they moved a cannon shot blasted one of the jedi while the other surged forward for cover. 

The group flew their ship out of the area and landed in the desert in what appeared to be a safe clearing.  While assessing the damage to their shields, suddenly the ship lurched down and they appeared to be trapped in some sort of mud pit.  Punching their sublight engines, they pulled free and while looking for another location to land, Dekapota went into the cargo hold to inspect any damage.  Turns out one of the landing gears was damaged.  Trying to use the force to remove the sludge eating away at the gear, Dekapota pushed with too much force and broke the landing gear off the ship.  Locating a safe place to land surrounded by rocks, they set down and all but Bib and got off the ship to begin repairing the gear.  Connected to the ship was what appeared to be mud corroding the metal from the mudpit.  Using the force to begin pulling it off the ship, two large creatures came over the rocks aggressivly approaching the party.

Rwarr charged forward with his vibroaxe and began to engage the creature.  While the rest of the group dealt with the aggressive sludge and shot at the creatures from afar, Rwarr was punctured with two claw attacks and bitten almost in half.  His body was tossed behind the charging reptile.  While Bib fired away at the creature with the ship's guns, the rest of the group was able to do enough damage to drop the larger of the two creatures.  Although Zeph fell unconscious, Dekapota was able to grab him and carry him onto the ship before successfully taking off to escape yet another bad landing zone.

Geonosis Blockade

After committing to the acquisition of additional explosives, the group waited for their black market contact to get back to them.  Meanwhile, a group of three humans approached their hanger and asked for an audience.  Their leader, Kannon Kapos, explained that they had extremely precious cargo that needed to reach the people of Geonosis, who had recently been blockaded by the Republic.  Offering the group half a million credits to make the trip through the blockade with him and the goods, he hgave them 200,000 upfront when the cargo was loaded. 

After investigating the information channels, they learned that Republic blockades were extremely rare.  Five years earlier the Senator from Geonosis was censured and he was withdrawn from Coruscant after an investigation into crimes against his own people was opened.  The planet is currently undergoing a resistance movement against the Republic lead by Archduke Poggle the Lesser. 

Using their downtime to fly near the planet to inspect the likelihood of running the blockade, they decided they should install a jammer onto the ship and use the cover of the asteroids to navigate through the blockade hopefully undetected.  After installing the jammer, purchasing their thermal detonators and explosives and loading the cargo, they shot into space to the atmosphere of Geonosis.  Flying into the body of a large asteroid, their ship smashed into the edge of the asteroid damaging their shields.  However, they were able to avoid the starships and head into Geonosis.  Before leaving the view of the blockade, they noticed a pair of small starships leaving a larger ship and flying into the planet.

After landing near the entrance to a large catacomb settlement, they were greeted by inhabitants and learned that the buyer for the cargo, Poggle the Lesser, was recently kidnapped by the Republic and sent to the Citadel, a large prison on a planet near Coruscant.  Disappointed in their lack of a buyer, the group threatened Kannon, who insisted he could only offer them 100,000 more for their ride.  However, the Geonosians requested an audience and a job.  In return for rescuing Poggle from the Citadel, the Geonosans promised the group 2.5 million credits.  While getting in and out of the prison planet seems impossible the Geonosians claimed to have information that would make it possible.  They escorted the group into the catacombs to a small chamber with a human jedi, imprisoned in an energy shield. 

I thought we were done with that guy?!

Lying low and watching the tree line, the group was surprised by the sudden arrival of a trio of Gamorreans dragging a pair of scientists.  Although Bib tried to use the Jedi Mind Trick, the leader of the Gamorreans smacked the two tricked into action.  Sizing the enemy up, the gamorreans stalked their prey.  Although a well thrown thermal detonator obliterated the first set of pig faces, a dozen Gamorreans charged from the tree line and quickly made up the distance.  Taking blaster fire and frag grenades the remaining Gamorreans decimated Spandow and Rwarr with their thickbladed axes.  Dekapota and Bib held out long enough to kill the remaining Gamorreans.  while one of the scientists insisted on returning to the work station, the other was quite vocal about tagging along with the group. 

After gathering up their allies, they headed into the trees and located their air speeder, flew back to Juggsmuk Station and rested up.  They learned from the scientist that he had developed a use for the mushrooms while offworld, but he sold it and the notes that went with it to a Balosar from Tattoine.  After some questioning the group realized the purchaser was Barin Trevino.  He confirmed that the transaction was made on Point Nadir and the timeline matched up.  The scientist declined the polite offer to purchase a timeshare on Hoth and agreed to return to Tattoine with them. 

Meanwhile the group contacted the Bothans to confirm Khirra's death.  They shared the images on the datachip with the Bothans.  The chip was transmitting a live hologram image of an abandoned fort/castle and the coordinates matched up with those they had taken from Khirra's astromech droid.  The group cloned the datachip and headed to Moonus Mandel to exchange the chip with the Bothans.  He kindly offered them 500 spacebucks for their work.  The group also gave blood samples to the Bothans so they could try and work on whatever antibodies they could.  The Bothan spynetwork was aware of the viral threat and were anxiously working with the Jedi Council to investigate.

Arriving on Tattoine they sought the Black Market dealers to acquire more thermals and frags.  After some work, the located him and learned that Prella the Hutt was dead (the victim of a lightsaber strike).  The group denied it was them although many on the planet believed it was them.  While waiting for the explosives, the group agreed to remain close to their ship for safety.

Nighthunters and the Dark Side

After detecting a nearby transport on their scanner, the heroes headed west until they located a speeder bike with what appeared to be a body lying near it.  Sensing a trap, Dekapota used stealth to manuever around to get a closer look at the area.  To his surprise, he spotted two lupine creatures lying in wait.  Giving time for the rest of the party to make their way quietly forward, the group got the jump on the Nighthunters.  After a dangerous battle that had the party on the edge of defeat, one creature fell and the other limped away into the night. 

The dead body was a Rodian with a large bite of him taken out and head injuries.  He appeared dead for several weeks.  The speeder was damaged by some sort of energy and contained a compartment with two sealed containers which the group suspected was more of the virus released in the mines.  Taking the time to repair the speeder, the party split up to seek shelter overnight.  They located two outpost buildings to the west and spent an uneventful night in the sanctuary of the supply room.  Looking through the gear, they looted a set of medpacs and some breathing apparatuses.  While Rwarr felt slightly better the next morning, Bib began to feel the effects of the virus. 

Deciding their best option was to head back to the south and their air speeder, the group abandoned thoughts of heading north to investigate the disturbance in the Force.  On foot they traveled the half days journey back to the landing area, sneaked back over the fence and caused sufficient distraction to climb back up into the forest canopy.  Recovering their speeders they headed back towards the breach in the fence, only to spot a series of Gamorreans in the tree lines beyond the fence.  Unwilling to give away their position, and confident they could avoid interfering, the party hunched down to wait them out.  Shortly afterwards they were surprised to hear commotion behind them.  A trio of Gamorreans were dragging a pair of Mon Calamari scientists towards the breach in the fence and out to their eager tribemates.

That's a bad cough you have there

The group decided to use the four swoop bikes and the knowledge of their scientist escort to take them north to the mine area to find Khirra.  Evading patrols, the group traveled for a time until the scientist told them to pull over since they were roughly 200-300 feet from the clearing that would overlook the main hanger area.

In order to guard their approach, Dekapota began a scan of the treeline to discern if there were detection devices and discovered two sensors and several mines which he could easily identify as magnetic anti-personnel mines.  Unable to fly high enough to go over them, Spandow used some strong piloting skills to take them through the mined/sensored zone.  Shortly after, they arrived at a clearing in the trees before the ground sloped downward about 70' to a huge hanger/landing zone.  Several large buildings filled the area with hundreds of miners milling about talking to one another.  Since none of them seemed alarmed, Dekapota and Spandow went opposite directions along the ridge to look for a better area for them to approach the zone and cross to the mine area beyond.

Dekapota was detected by guards but was able to bluff his way out of the discussion but Dekapota's bluff took him down into the landing zone where he spoke to several miners and learned that they had been brought in for their shift, but kept here and promised they would be paid.  This had been going on for weeks.  His travels allowed him to see a zone with several smaller transports meant to take people to the mines but they were guarded and no ships were in the air.  Spandow took an elevator up to the roof of one of the buildings and quietly killed two of the guards at a lookout station allowing the rest of the group to make their way down the slope to the landing area.  Disguised in uniforms, they began to discuss ways to distract the miners so they could jump the fence and head down into the mines on foot.   Zeph and Bib Commet acting like officials visited the mess hall and with a trick of the force implanted into the manager the suggestion to offer free beer to the miners, who cleared the courtyard hastily to get their beer!

With the Great Beer Diversion complete, the party hopped the fence and stealthily made their way down into the various mining indents in the Earth.  They traveled for several hours on foot until the monotony was broken up by a human miner limping out of the clearing ahead.  He asked if they were there to rescue his friends.  Bluffing, they asserted yes and learned that Olen had been wandering for weeks after a mining accident resulted in many deaths.  They directed him to head back towards the hanger but before he could get far, Olen collapsed.  Checking him over with the medkit, they noticed he had no clear wounds but his internals showed severe damage.  Realizing they may be exposed, the rested in a safe area nearby but when morning came, Spandow and Rwarr both felt ill.  Alarmed, they decided to tend to the two until they got better but the second morning in the elements, Rwarr was getting worse.  Deciding they may have limited time before everyone got sick, they pushed on towards the coordinates Khirra had left.

A strong sense of the Dark Side loomed over them from further north, but soon after the second morning they encountered a scene of gruesome death.  Perhaps 100 miners lay dead on the ground outside the entrance to a mining shaft.  Inspecting the nearby facility, Spandow located a soda sized can in the air intake machinery.  Although the electronics seemed fried in the whole station they discerned that Khirra had "punched in" here with 80 other miners three weeks ago and hadn't checked out.  Unable to decontaminate because of the machinery not working, Dekapota began exploring the mines below and eventually located and identified Khirra's dead body.  With some searching they were able to locate a small datachip on her body and climbed back out of the mine.

Not sure whether to head further north to the source of the darkside, or locate a decontamination chamber for Spandow but all too aware of Rwarr's deteriorating condition, the party decided to take a scan of the area nearby and something popped up on the sensors before the shorted out.

May You Always Find Water

After a quick discussion about what to do, the group creeped forward in an effort to storm the laboratory.  As they approached, they noticed a fifth Rodian scout observing the lab from a distance but they appeared undetected.  Not wanting to waste time, they began to head backwards towards the rest of the group but were overheard when an errant tree branch snapped beneath them!  The Rodian charged towards their general direction until Dakapota stood up and used Force Thurst to hurl him through the air towards a large rock.  Before the Rodian could recover, Spandow Calcitron lined his head up with his trusty club and made mince meat out of him. 

Confident the quick combat went unheard, but unwilling to waste any more time, they headed directly towards the Lab door.  When it opened on its own, Dekapota leaned into a cleaning chamber to see the rest of the interior.  To the right, the building's L-shape turned out of his line of vision.  However, on his right, two Rodians were stringing up explosives on the wall and a third, larger Rodian was facing them, flanked by three Mon Calamari prisoners, bound in the corner. 

Although Rrwarr the Wookie burst into the room to force the Rodians to act, he was blasted by both explosive-laying Rodians as well as a third Rodian from the right whose efforts with a vibrodagger made the Wookie regret his actions.  A few well placed blaster bolts from Bib Comett saved him, however.  In the meantime, Spandow and Dekapota took on the Rodians on the left, exchanging blaster fire, accidentally killing two of the hostages and narrowly avoiding hitting the charged explosives.  Despite the leader of the Rodians threatening to blow up the building in an act of "space martyrdom" the group called his bluff and between blaster bolts and force powers, they took down the last of the Rodians.

After checking on the last hostage, they grabbed a datapad carried by the Rodians and noticed the computers had been wiped clean. The pad contained what appeared to be data regarding mushroom growth patterns and medicinal uses.  The scientist, grateful for his life, told them he and his team of scientists were hired by Kalgass Mining to come here and work three weeks ago and a month ago all mining ceased.  He believes that there are other mobile labs in the southern part of the land owned by Kalgass but each group of scientists must be working independent of one another because he has no contact with other groups.  He insists they were brought in to look into the usefulness of the mushrooms and to try and work out ways to grow them outside of their native terrain and environments.  He used the computer to access employee records and noted that Khirra was not on the employee list  but her name did appear weeks ago on the shuttle transfer from Juggsmuk Station to Kalgass facilities and then on a smaller transport to the northern mines, but her return from the mines was not noted.  Agreeing to travel with them to help them avoid security, they deactivated the explosives and returned to the breach in the gate so they could fly their airspeeder further away into the woods and then returned.  All five of them set out on swoop bikes headed north.