The Legion’s Foil

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The central console of your ship comes to life with a crackle! A second later, and the blue hologram of a gruff-looking Mon Calamari flitters in and out of view. Well-informed rebels will know that the hoarse voice now crackling over the comms belongs to one of the top brass.
"Come in, Meridian Astra! Meridian Astra…" the voice and image distort as the message struggles to cross the vast expanse of the known galaxy.

"…igh Command. Bad news, I’m afraid. Fant…ic work on Agoliba-Ena, but don’t come home j…t yet!

We’ve just intercepted an Imperial distress sign..l! The Meridian Astra is the closest ship to the coordinates!"

The heavy jowls of the Mon Calamari are at odds with the tinny sound now coming through the busted comm system of the Meridian Astra.

"… imperative that you get there before the Empire! Capture Ado Thorsh and deliver her to Alliance Hi… Command! For the Rebellion!"

The blue hologram cuts suddenly, leaving the five rebels looking at each other across the central console. A moment later and an encrypted communication is sent through to the ship, detailing the location and the target of this little venture!

AC-D3 is gives a low whistle as the screen diplays the Imperial scientist as he wobbles back and forth on his stubby legs.

"A top secret Imperial science facility, eh? That's going to be as easy as brushing a Sarlacc's teeth. We got any information on that system?"

He extends his manipulator arm to jack in and interface with the ship's computer, speaking directly to it in their native binary rather than using clumsy human buttons.

Nobody can tell (because no one has seen a jawa's face) but Knibbec Knasses looks a little scared! So, as usual, they speak their emotions.

"Lady looks scary." There, that should be clear enough. Wait...Dathor...Ado Thorsh... A thought is bubbling below the surface of their brain. Knib scratches their head through their robe. "Ah! Dathor! That's where my parents were working when they disappeared!" Knib smacks a fist into the palm of their other hand. "Finally I can get some answers. Their boss was Plob Diddlyobb, and I believe he was the one who caused their disappearance."

C4PQ’s photoreceptors glowed faintly as he adjusted his posture, bringing his hands delicately to the console like a human would do. His polished red plating reflected the flickering blue lights of the central display as he peered at the encrypted communication, his servos humming faintly.

"Well, while our dear Gonk droid goes on manhandling the ship’s systems, I shall endeavor to try to gather the necessary intelligence on coworkers, research projects and associates of… what was the name? Ah, yes—Ado Thorsh." He delicately keyed a sequence into the console, his servomotors precise and deliberate, his voice taking on an air of professional detachment.

The hooded figure sat in the rear quarters of the Meridian Astra, as was his custom between hyperspace jumps, meditating on the distant threads of the Ashla as he could sense them. For these were still dark times, the age of the Legion, which obscured much of his inner sight. When the transmission came from Alliance High Command, he looked up as if by instinct even though he did not physically hear it, and stood up to make his way to the cockpit of their Karellian hybrid-fighter. Tall for a Lacertian, and oddly clad in battleworn plastoid durasteel underneath his robes, he walked with none of the menace of his species, but with a quiet step and even more faraway nictitating eyes.

"Thorsh? A familiar name. The circle is now complete." Hss'kas announced cryptically to the other four. "One must take in order to give."

Plok the Anuran watches the transmission with his eerie, unblinking eyes. He listens to their Mon Cal contact with his pointed ears, and turns to the others as they voice their varying opinions on the mission they have just been given. He knows AC-D3 and C4PQ are adept at using the Astra's systems; they will find out what reinforcements the Imperials are sending, and from where. They will plot the course and make ready the ship.

Knibbic and the Jedi seem to have a more personal involvement. The Anuran's rubbery lips move as he speaks, almost like they are not in time with his words. "Neb plup emm ah term dib. Blub da."*

Plok does not speak Galactic Basic Standard, but everyone can understand him regardless.

---

* What were your parents working on? And what circle, lizard space priest?

AC-D3 jacks into the main computer and searches through the ship’s galactic archive. Albeit limited, the archive furnished rebels (and more) with a basic, working knowledge of the galaxy.

AC-D3 chirps and trills as it communicates with the ship, scans the data, and then produces something the rest of the crew can read. A small clutch of planets are beamed blue right where the Mon Calamari had stood a moment earlier:
The computer whines, as it zooms in on the coordinates of the distress signal. It zooms in again, rotates the map and zooms in some more. The computer lets out a frustrated trill as it restarts the process; spinning and zooming and searching until it’s quite sure…

No Moon Found
The point of origin of the distress beacon is not coming from one of the celestial bodies mentioned in the archives aboard the Meridian Astra.

C4PQ taps away at their console, delicately searching up any information on the crew’s target - Ado Thorsh. Ado is a Chiss, like the much-feared Admiral Thrawn. While Thrawn had climbed the ladder of the Empire militarily, Ado Thorsh had put her efforts into the scientific pursuits of Emperor Palpatine.

Karrak
Much of the data was redacted; by the Empire or the Rebellion, C4PQ couldn’t tell. One word comes up again and again in the data that the protocol droid could scan: Karrak.

The jedi appeared competent with Rodian and Jawa (though not as much as C4PQ presumably), and replied Plok with ease.

"Hard to see where Thorsh was, but now clear. The Force gives, and karrak takes." Hss'kas intoned through his visions. "Where is the moon?"

C4PQ shares his findings with the rest of the crew and begins preparing the ship for the hyperspace jump.

"Mim plub dop poot duka gookla? Deeb kuka, derb? Plar dar Dathor do blum,"* Plok says after he reads the wall of text that 4PQ brought up. He then moves to unholster his blaster and check it over, a cool habit he is trying to develop... and finds it not there. There last few missions have been difficult ones. His pistol had fallen from his holster when he'd made the jump to to the repulsorsled on Yfindan. Or he left it in the canteen on Baarpa Dem. One or the other.

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* Do we have details on where the station was located? Was it orbiting one of the three planets, or the star? Also, I seem to be missing my blaster pistol. We might want to re-arm on the way to Dathor.

"An inelegant weapon for a less civilised age." Hss'kas observed with reference to Plok's mention of obtaining blasters. The jedi appeared to carry no weapons himself, save for a simple utility knife by his belt.

"Seek what we must find at the space station. " Perhaps the pirates knew where to locate the moon, and they would expect weapons aplenty at such a hive of scum and villainy.

The central computer twits and boops as the crew plot out how to go about approaching the Imperial coordinates: the moon that didn’t exist on the star map. Alliance High Command’s coordinates show that the moon you intend to infiltrate is quite apart from any of the three planets in the system. The computer trills again as it warns you that you’ll be entering what should be empty space.

At the mention of pirates, the computer throws up known bounties of wanted pirates, suspected of operating in the Dathor System. Stills of five individuals, seemingly captured on surveillance devices, are thrown up on the hologram, as C4PQ starts to punch in the coordinates and the ship shudders in preparation.
ID: Aurelian Sword Smugglers
Identities: Unknown
Bounty: 10,000 Credits Each

Plok would frown and narrow his eyes at the would-be Jedi if he could, but he can't -- so he doesn't.

"Blokto," he says as the pirate profiles flash by, "plen dega tu git denna gootombios!"*

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* Fine, then we should get thermal detonators!

"Look, ladies - there's probably a whole Imperial Legion on its way to Dathor right now. If we don't beat them to the punch, we're cooked. PQ, have you got those coordinates from the navicomputer yet?"

After double-checking the calculations himself, the box on legs saunters up to the rest of them.

"So Jedi, you sure got a big pair of cojones! Going into a top secret Imperial nest with just a utility knife? Now I can see why you all got wiped out by the Empire! But you're right, we're going to have to improvise some firepower on the go."

"You know, all those nice pirates in them pictures seem to have lots of guns. I wonder if they'd be interested in ransacking an Imperial secret base? All we need is that blue lady, they can have the rest. Plus, it gives us a layer of - what is it that the brass is always talking about? 'Plausible deniability.' Wasn't no rebels that hit their base, it was some ASS-hole pirates! Heh."

Hss'kas was used to AC-D3's feistiness, and took no offense at his straight talk. "The Force is with us. It is all we need. Strike us down, and we shall return more powerful than you can imagine."

In fact, the Trandoshan saw the wisdom in recruiting more help. It wouldn't work coming from a Jedi, lest they felt mind-tricked into it. But the others could. Hss'kas did consider another option to help them locate the secret Imperial base.

"The Force surrounds us and penetrates us. It is created by all living things. If the secret facility is producing karrak, it also means they would be testing it. The base would be a place devoid of the Force, a null space." Hss'kas sat back down and closed his eyes and reached into the vastness of space towards the Dathor system.

Knibbec looks at these others with talks of joining pirates and acquiring weapons. And whatever mumbo-jumbo the lizard man was constantly spewing. "Ikee Akriwi Tiwih Kuliwad. Da Juwi 'Huist'? Huat Akriwi Kuliwad. Uta Juwi Uiuokka Yuyu? Ikee'd hatiwi Yua Uiuokka Yua Juwi Ut. Huist misso'on Uta."

I think these pirates are the bad guys. Do you see this word 'bounty'? That means they are bad. Hey, none of you have bounties right? I'd hate to have to turn you in. After this mission of course.

With the imperial facility strangely absent from its coordinates, Hss'kas looked to see if the absence manifested itself in other ways as well.

"Dobop-ta plam,"* Plok says after looking harder at the pirates, his old habits dying hard. He raises a rubbery eyebrow at the idea of being penetrated by the Force, but says nothing further as the lizard starts in on his star yoga.

* 50,000 credits...

As C4PQ punches in the coordinates, the ship starts to shudder and locks in on its target at the far side of the jump. The hyperdrive of the Meridian Astra begins to come alive, and the ship shakes ever so slightly.

As the same moment, Hss’kas is tapping into the Force, in the hopes of gaining some insights into what was happening upon this strange Imperial moon. Casting a bemused eye over the whole spectacle is Plok, who thinks to pull out his own piece of hardware as he looks over the faces of the five bounties projected before him.

A few taps on the small device, and Plok has accessed data furnished to him by Ziro the Hutt and the criminal enterprise sprawling across Coruscant.
As the ship begins to warble and set off, the bounty hunter scrolls through known contacts and wanted holo-posters. One of the pirates in particular matches some data on the Hutt device. The human, seemingly known as Redd, has crossed the Hutts and is a wanted man.