The God of Hyperspace

Well, they finally finished retaking the station this week, plus a thrilling lightsaber battle, and lots of special effects, make up for an action-packed episode of The God of Hyperspace!

Last week, we left our heroes: Detectice Mok Rebus, Coruscanti homicide investigator; Kira Chan, Twi'Lek Jedi; and Ensign Crona Gock, Human Pilot; as they had just secured the control dome of the station orbiting the planet Allooine from the anti-hyperspace terrorists that took it over. Their security monitors indicated that there were some terrorists left in one of the docking bays assembling what appeared to be a bomb while Dolok, the terrorist leader, and a man resembling the Republic Senator entering the main power core shaft that runs the length of the station.

They jumped immediately to action. Kira went off after the leader and the Senator while Mok and Crona went to deal with the terrorists in the docking bay. Kira used her Jedi linecaster to quickly drop the 6 or 7 levels to catch up with the escaping pair. Leaping in their path, the Senator, whom they suspect to be Sone, the rogue Jedi and chief suspect in the murder of Incom executive Dyet Nayal which brought them to Allooine in the first place, immediately drew a lightsaber. Dolok, the iron-masked leader of the terrorists, said, "Deal with her!" and the intense lightsaber duel ensued!

The battle went really well, though it took copious amounts of Force Points on both sides. Early in the battle, Dolok suprised Chan by forming a circle of light around himself and teleporting away! However, there was still Sone/Senator to deal with. I can't describe to you all the details, but suffice it to say it was exactly the kind of back and forth duelling you would expect from Star Wars. Chan became so desparate during the battle, that she allowed herself to feel the temptation of the Dark Side.

Gock and Rebus emerged into the control room above the docking bay to find the terrorists finishing their assembly of what appeared to be a bomb, then arranging themselves in a neat circle. Their plan was to activate the fire-suppression equipment to suprise and confuse them, then have them all give up. This tactic worked at first, the unarmored terrorists froze and gave up, but the one power-armored terrorist turned to shoot. At that moment, however, a glowing circle appeared in the floor in the midst of the terrorists. Dolok materialized out of the floor, and the circle began to expand around his men. Rebus ran back inside the control room and Gock deactivated the atmosphere force field. Several of the terrorists when flying out into space, but the rest held together and teleported away with Dolok!

After the bay repressurized, they went down to inspect the damage. The one unpiloted power armor still stood, magnetically attached to the floor, as did the bomb apparattus. Not knowing anything about bomb disposal, the pair called for R2-LX, their astromech droid, but he did not respond. Instead, he soon appeared from the turbolift to save the day. After inspecing the bomb, R2-LX began to leave the room. Mock and Rebus, stunned, shouted angrily at the droid, who explained that the bomb was actually a decoy. Upon relaying this info the control dome, they learned that two terrorists were hiding in the Power Core access and had removed the safety control rods to the Power Core, which was overheating and threatened to destroy the station. Rebus and R2-LX took off immediately for the Power Core but Crona decided to try on some Power Armor.

In the Power Core Shaft, the battle continued. Chan was now on the defensive, and leapt in retreat to the catwalk going to the central Power Core pillar. Sone was confident. At that moment, a circular band of energy from above destroyed the catwalk. Chan leapt for her life but barely managed to grab ahold of the catwalk along the wall of the shaft. Sone was preparing to finish her off, but Dolok, above on an upper catwalk, shouted, "No, we've got what we came for, we're leaving!" Sone grudgingly acquiesced and allowed himself to be teleported by Dolok while Chan pulled herself up onto the catwalk.

She saw Dolok above and used her Grapple Gun to pull herself up to his catwalk. Dolok was by then teleporting himself. As he was dematerializing, Chan attacked with her lightsaber, which sliced through his tranparent body, causing him to scream in shock and pain, but then he dissappeared. It is uncertain at this time whether her lightsaber actually did any damage to the immaterial Dolok.

At that, she heard from Rebus over the comlink about the trouble in the core, 20 levels below. She used her grapple gun to lower herself down the core quickly.

In the core, Rebus met up with Chan. They quickly took care of the last two terrorists, stunning one and capturing the other, who gave up. However, the Power Core control panel was damaged in the firefight. The techs who were on hand were dumbfounded. They had no way to re-insert the control rods back into the reactor to stop the overload. Someone would have to go in and do it manually, but the heat and energy inside the Power Core would kill anyone without a protective suit, including droids. They had only 20 seconds, not enough time to put on a suit!

About that time, Gock showed up in his new Powersuit. He was quickly pulled down into the Power Core and told what he had to do. He had to re-insert 6 control rods into the Power Core in 15 seconds, and he had to be extra careful because if he bent them they wouldn't work! Gock went into the Power Core itself with 15 seconds to go and went to work. (He had to roll his Technical 6 times in two rounds, getting an average roll of 20. He spent a Force Point, of course, and I allowed another player to spend HIS Force point on him. I allow players to trade Force Points and Character Points.)

As the time was almost up, one of the techs didn't think he was going to make it and was ready to eject the Power Core. The other tech argued against it, believing that Gock would do it! After some tense argument, the nervous tech pulled the ejection handle, only to find it stuck! Chan used her Telekinesis to hold it in place to give Gock more time.

And he did it. The Power Core began to cool. He had done it! (the player rolled 20.3333 on his rolls!)

With the excitement over, the station began to clean up and recuperate. The 9 dead hostages and the dead Senator were transferred to the med bay. The Power Armors were confiscated by the Rara Avis, which was now docked at the station. Ensign Gock was told he'd be put down for a commendation when they returned to Coruscant.

Soon afterwards, a ship arrived from the far side of the planet with classified registry. Chan sensed the presence of powerful Jedi, and, ashamed of her flirtation with the Dark Side, decided to immerse herself in Emptiness while the other Jedi were aboard. Gock, curious, ran to watch the mystery visitors disembark. He saw 5 men in black Republic uniforms and dark eyewear. They were flanked by two black spherical droids and were accompanied by two Republic techs in coveralls. When it appeared as if he was noticed by one, he hid and didn't look back. They boarded the turbolift and went to the control dome. Gock told Rebus what he saw.

Rebus saw them walking to the Control Dome and went to intercept them. He barred their way to the Dome and demanded to know their busniness. Rebus' interest in them was personal. A group of just such men covered up the murder and investigation of his partner years ago. He never found his partner's murderer because of the cover-up. They told him it was classified Republic business and that they now had jurisdiction over this matter. With a wave of the black-clad man's hand, Mok stood aside and let them past. Moments later he shook free of the confusion and went in to the Control Dome only to find the Commander leaving with them through another door. When he went to follow, his path was blocked by one of the dark-clad men. Mock went around and accessed the station's security system. They entered the med-bay but the signal soon became unitelligible. He had the security droid monitor for the scrambling. He found the cadre went to the med-bay, then the security center, then the hotel, then back to their ship and left.

He talked the flight controller into giving up some information. Apparently, the mystery ships come once every 30 days, transfer some mystery personnel (just like the 15 hostages who were seperated, 9 of which were killed in front of the Senator) and leave. Apparently there's a top secret facility on the far side of the planet. The whole reason for the station to be here was to service the facility. Hardly anyone actually goes to Allooine.

Rebus comes across Gock, who has been given 3 days shore leave after his adventure, and asks for his help. They investigate every place the the black-clad men went, only to find that the hostages, dead or alive, were gone and no one remembered them. That no one remembered the black-clad men. That no one remembered the senator and that his aide, the only witness, had been taken as well.

When Chan woke up, they questioned her. She told them about the Shadows, Jedi who, although working in the interest of the greater good, adhere to the philosophy of "the ends justify the means." And that these men must be Shadows.

They interrogate one of the imprisoned terrorists, and learn of their recruitment practices (selected by the secret elders and trained in secret camps, always transported in hoods, never knowing who your fellow terrorists are, etc.) and that Dolok is planning something great that will bring the Galaxy to its knees!

To be continued.

Okay okay, it was a prettly lame cliff-hanger. But my players just weren't going on to the next level! It was somewhat frustrating. I had a big cliffhanger planned, but they had to go to the planet's surface to get to it. Going to the planet's surface was something I thought would be the next logical step. But go figure players, right? They're still on the station and almost refuse to leave. It was getting somewhat late by this point and I had to end it.

However, the game started with a bang, and what a bang! The lightsaber duel was phenomenal! I was so impressed with the desperation of the battle. I went a little easy on the PC, I probably could have killed him easily. I went for the disarms (which were unsuccessful) and parries (kept the bad guy alive!). The battle went on for 10 rounds! It also had the cinematic flair I wanted. It helps to have a player who's more interested in a good story than killing bad guys!

And the Power Core scene was PURE DRAMA! I raised the tension level and just kept raising it. I kept the result of the rolls a secret long after Neil rolled them. He was dying to know if he succeeded, but I went and did some side-scenes first, even letting another PC save his life without him knowing it. It was grand opera! What a ride! After the first half of the session, the second half seemed almost boring and anti-climactic.

The encounter with the MIB was suitably scary, mysterious, and informative. I really liked how that went. And now the LACK of evidence is even MORE evidence. The Players are starting to understand that there's something more going on. They're starting to see that things are more than mere coincidences. They're starting to put the pieces together, and they're SO CLOSE, but they don't quite have it. It's a wonderful thing to see.

To quote a great man, "Everything that has transpired has done so according to my own design."