Chapter One - There Are Cracks In The Walls

Pharo wants to get closer to Mennoe so Pharo moves to V14 H40(which is 10 spaces so it needs a Dexterity check)

10 spaces = 20m

Initiative Order

Kezza
Dan’lo
Trooper, Varn, Ubese, Kid
Lynax
Grenobaks
Mennoe
Roooargh

Narrator: Kezza acknowledged and relayed that there were others nearby and that they were providing cover. They were set to move. Dan’lo and Varn provided cover fire as Lynax dashed through the thicket to the other side. Once through the thicket, he saw the strange pair in action. The trooper shouldered his rifle, and lobbed a grenade into the thicket at the direction of his Ubese partner. Further to the south, the little girl continued to jump up and down shouting. "This way! Come this way!"

Dan’lo continued behind Varn through the thicket who shouted to Kezza, "Out, out, out!" The three brushed past Roooargh as Varn continued to shout, "Out, out, out..." All four of them could hear the remainder of the grenobaks hurrying up in the trees as the retreating monsters were being covered by their own still high up in the trees. Quill-like darts covered in a sappy poison could be seen jetting into the jungle forest floor and vegetation around them as they cleared the thicket. They were greeted by a scene of Mennoe being redirected by the armored pair. "To the girl! That way!"

Mennoe and the others looked down back towards the girl as they paced outward and away from the thicket more. None of the grenobaks continued their pursuit on the ground or continued to fire their projectiles once everyone was in the clearing.

The little girl pulled out a flare gun, and the trooper took off his helmet revealing an older man with a cybernetic eye replacement.



"Minzy! No! No flares! They see you!!! Stay where you’re at!" he shouted.

Minzy put the flare gun back in her hide outfit as the older man walked at a solid pace towards the newcomers, weapon at his side. The Ubese held their blaster pointed towards the grove and continued to watch.



An electronic voice came from the Ubese’s helmet as they continued to provide cover. "Yah-tay, Yah-tay, Yoh-toh, Yoh-toh."The older man nodded in agreement...

"I’m aware Zilli. I’m aware. We’ll talk and walk...in a minute. Hard to yell with that brain bucket on…..Well, what do we have here? (looking at Varn’s body armor and equipment), surely you haven’t come all this way to hand me my discharge documents? If you have, you’re two years overdue sir. Sergeant Hektor Drak at your service, sir."

Varn kept his blaster out, but the muzzle was to the grass. "I’m afraid not. What happened here sergeant? How many people are left here?"

"Well, that’s a long story, but few to tell it. There’s me, Minzy, 2BA6, and Father Dusk. We’ve been here for four years. Zill’axia and Scarabak joined us about two years ago after her ship was attacked by pirates. So, six of us...counting the droid. Zilli’s right. It’s not very safe out here, so if you’ll follow us...You’re either ISB or Naval Intel, who are you? Your agents certainly aren’t regs."

They continued to walk south...

Narrator: Before long, the newcomers and stranded passed an escape pod overgrown partially with a type of grass and ground vine.

"Dolan Varn, Special Agent, ISB. No, they’re certainly not regs. They’re contracted to work outside the ISB, INI or the regular Navy."

The Ubese woman in armor said nothing, but the older Stormtrooper thought for a second.

"You trust mercenaries over your own, Special Agent?"

"I do. You were left here for years, and at the edge of this system sits an Imperial capital warship doing nothing but trying to keep anyone away from their ‘restricted space’. No aid delivered to you? No respite? Nothing?"

Sergeant Drak nods a short "no" as Minzy and her mounted lizard zip ahead of the group.

"Be careful up there!" The trooper shouts to the girl.

"I will grandpa!"

After the girl was out of sight, the trooper continues.

"She’s not my granddaughter, but we’re still a family. Her family died in the disaster. Father Dusk rescued us after the last shuttle left. He sealed his fate when he moved his fighter to block the landing pad access. They...were hemorrhaging out of it. I was in the infirmary with 2BA6 and Minzy. We were cut off from escaping with the others that he managed to band together. We’re all she has left. No, Special Agent Varn, we were abandoned, and Dusk has his theories on why. I really don't."

The Ubese woman finally spoke for the first time during the trek to the facility.

"Ya-tay. Yo-toay. Yo-toh. Yo-day." Her electronic voice was flat, but her gesture back towards the region that surrounded the cave near where The Rising Blade had landed, and then bowing to it slightly, gave what she had to say more meaning.

Sergeant Drak nodded and paraphrased a translation. "Indeed. He saved all of our lives. Multiple times. He’ll be back soon. He’s at the cave, ‘contemplating matters in the cave of sorrow’, or so he would say. He’s an old soul, and knows a great deal."

"What happened here?"

"We’re living on top of a tomb Special Agent. Stranded here. We’re on top of a tomb, where the dead walk about underneath...2BA6 and Dusk have their theories on what caused it, and how to even reverse it."

"What? It can be reversed?"

"You’re asking the wrong guy. I’m no scientist. You’re probably tired of hearing me say it, but Dusk thinks he has a solution, if you believe in the mystical. It’s a theory, and definitely not one I would have come up with. (looks towards the top of the building) Lower it down."

A sturdy rope of jungle vines drops down before the newcomers over the next few seconds.

"It will be nearing sun down soon. Time to go up."

Pharo looks around and says, "I believe that we will have to be extra careful and not do anything unwarranted."

"We very well may be staying aboard the ship, but for right now, let’s see what’s going on and how these people are living." Varn added.

"You’re safer up here than you are down there. I don’t think the dead can get in your ship, but if you give them time, they might be able to. They haven’t been able to get up here yet." commented Drak.

Narrator: As the last of the crew of The Rising Blade were lifted up the rope by a pulley on top of the building, a cloaked figure appeared out of the jungle forest from the south. It stood by the edge of the forest patiently as the rope was lowered once more. The figure was alone, appeared unarmed and only carried a shovel. The others watched as the pulley system lifted the figure.

The little girl Minzy appeared from a makeshift building atop the roof, giving the impression that there may have been another way atop the building. "Grandpa, what was he doing out there?"

"Burying little girls who ask too many questions!" said Drak as Minzy laughed. "He’s coming up the wall. Ask him." he commented further.

The cloaked figure reached the top of the roof. He walked like a human, but from the small tendrils that dangled beyond his jawline, it was clear that the being before them wasn’t human. He sounded human enough. "Newcomers. I am called Dusk. Are you an evacuation party?"

"I’m not leaving until this thing is set right like you say!" Drak blurted to Dusk. The Ubese nodded in agreement to Drak. Minzy watched the adults, and then looked over to a building that operated the pulley where a Skrilling came out. "Please tell me that I’m not lifting any more people up today….What am I missing?" he barked as everyone mostly ignored him.

The cloaked figure’s head lifted slightly to where everyone could see Dusk’s eyes. His eyes reflected light back, giving him an especially eerie stare. "That may depend on what this Imperial Agent and his operatives have to say." His stare meets Varn’s. "What do you have to say? Are you here to take those that remain, or did you want to try to save them all?"

"What?" Varn said, a bit confused.

"I said, did you want to save them all? Everyone here, in the thousands." Dusk smiled, but it wasn’t a pleasant smile to look at. His eyes seemed to glow as they fixed in on the newcomers. "Did you want to be a hero? Do your operatives want to be heroes? Do you want to forsake the force that did this to them? Do you want to redeem yourself...Agent? We need heroes."

"Redeem myself? I’ve done nothing wrong."

"I have. I’ll admit it. You will too someday." Dusk said as he lifted his free gloved hand. His gloves were the color of dried blood.

"Minzy asked me once why I wear these gloves. It’s because I have blood on my hands and dishonor. She didn’t understand. (looks to Roooargh) A Wookiee would understand the dishonor I feel, for I have done the equivalent of using climbing claws to strike down opponents in anger, for my former master, but far worse. I’ve done a lot wrong, but I have seen the burning man, watched as he received his armor, and I know that he will fail to stop billions from dying in the blink of an eye, when he was once capable of such greatness. You too will see it in time. You will. We served the same master Agent. Just for me, no longer."