MS - 133 MS - 133 was an Imperial science team commissioned by Moff Kentor Sarne , warlord of the Outer Rim Territories ' Kathol sector . The team was led by Doctor Lancer Brunou , a respected archaeologist , and was comprised of scientists , technicians , and soldiers . In 8 ABY , they were assigned to explore a series of extensive ruins on the planet Aaris III that had hosted a civilization thousands of years prior . After several months , the team uncovered a chamber known as the Place of Kastays , and discovered an artifact , the Plaque of Victory . The Plaque , a sentient inanimate lifeform , had been responsible for the civil war that had led to the downfall of Aaris society by inducing feelings of paranoia and homicidal tendencies in those around it . Following the discovery , MS - 133 began to experience feelings of being watched from the jungle . Events took a turn for the worst as members of the team began to disappear , and the base camp came under almost nightly attack from the primitive descendants of the native Aaris . Eventually , only Doctor Brunou and Solla Deremot , a research assistant , were left alive . Both were rescued by the " FarStar " , a New Republic CR90 corvette , which was in the process of tracking down Sarne in the Kathol sector . The Plaque , taken aboard the " FarStar " , began to have a similar effect on the crew of the corvette , until it was jettisoned out of an airlock . History . Expedition to Aaris III . MS - 133 was a science team formed in 8 ABY , commissioned by Imperial warlord Moff Kentor Sarne , ruler of the Kathol sector in the Outer Rim . Sarne created the team with the intention of investigating a series of extensive ruins on the planet Aaris III . The ruins indicated the presence of a civilization that had been extinct for several thousand years , and Sarne hoped the team would be able to discover the reason that the population of the planet had died out . The personnel of MS - 133 were drawn from the scientific , technical , and military staff of his forces , and were under the command of Doctor Lancer Brunou , a respected archaeologist from the University of Byblos . The mission was classified as top - secret . The team , which included a small detachment of soldiers and technicians , traveled to Aaris III aboard a " Curich " - class shuttle . A communications booster satellite was deployed in orbit , and the team made base camp in a large field of extensive ruins upon planetfall . Doctor Brunou suspected , but could not prove , that the pilot of the shuttle — who was also the commanding officer of the security team — was under orders to land at those exact coordinates . Nevertheless , MS - 133 began their explorations ; Brunou kept a journal of their work as they charted and excavated the ruins . On day forty - nine of the expedition , one of the team ' s other scientists , Grigor Tansad , found a way into one of the ruined metal structures . The structure was located away from the base camp , closer to the shuttle landing site ; Brunou authorized the setting up of a secondary base camp to be staffed by Tansad , fellow scientist Jelok , two technicians , and five troopers . Discoveries and hostilities . Examining a chamber inside the ruins , Jelok discovered that the walls were covered with square , neatly ordered bas - relief pictograph s that emitted sound when touched . Jelok believed the sounds to be the key to the language of the long - dead civilization , while Tansad suspected that they were a dating system . Both scientists began translation efforts until Tansad was able to prove that his theory was correct by correlating the sounds with Aaris III ' s annual revolution . With this discovery , Jelok abandoned his own efforts and assisted Tansad . A day later Jelok , along with the research assistant Solla Deremot , discovered a flat metal ingot in a sealed vault in the floor of the chamber . Brunou studied the new find at the primary base camp , and determined that it was made of a metal not known to Imperial science . In addition , there were faint traces of energy emanating from the object . Brunou decided to send the discovery back to Moff Sarne ' s capital , Kal ' Shebbol , for further study in a fully - equipped laboratory . Unbeknownst to the team , the ingot had been known to the ancient Aaris — the name of the civilization that had called Aaris III home — as the Plaque of Victory . The Plaque was an inanimate sentient lifeform that fed off the life force of other beings . Its goal was to cause the destruction of those around it , by inducing fear , paranoia , and homicidal behavior in individuals , who would become increasingly violent and turn on one another . It had precipitated the Aaris civil war in this way . Following the discovery of the Plaque , several troopers began to feel ill at ease , reporting that they felt like they were being watched from the jungle despite there being no evidence of intelligent life on the planet . The team was completely unaware that the Aaris has survived the downfall of their civilization , and that the primitive descendants lived in the ruins of their former cities . The commanding lieutenant led a group of five soldiers into the foliage to investigate . After an hour , the team at the base camp heard blaster fire from the jungle ; none of the recon force returned . The remaining troopers immediately issued sidearms to the science and technical staff . Jelok and Tansad continued to work in the chamber — now known as the Place of Kastays thanks to Tansad ' s work on translating and deciphering the pictographs — although Tansad began to suspect that something was wrong with Jelok , but put his behavior down to professional jealousy . Tansad ' s translations had revealed how the Plaque of Victory had been responsible for the downfall of the Aaris , and how one individual — the scholar Kastays — had recorded the last days of his people in the pictographs . That night , the base camp came under attack by the Aaris from the jungle . The remaining troopers returned fire , although both a technician and Doctor Theda were wounded . Upon examination of the foliage line in the morning , the bodies of several troopers who had gone into the jungle the day before were found . Jelok later reported that Tansad was missing , and that two technicians had been shot by energy weapons from the jungle . Doctor Brunou ordered that the planet was to be evacuated , despite this clashing with Sarne ' s standing orders . He ordered Jelok to pack up the secondary camp ; when the scientist refused , stating that his work was at a critical juncture , Brunou ordered some troopers to escort him to the shuttle while the base camp was packed up . That night , the team ' s shuttle was destroyed , and the remaining members of the team at the base camp — Brunou , Deremot , the injured Theda , two troopers , and a technician — began to dig into one of the mounds in the ruins and erected makeshift barricades and fortifications , and also mounted an E - Web heavy repeating blaster on the ramparts . Against Sarne ' s standing orders , Doctor Brunou transmitted a distress signal to Kal ' Shebbol , requesting assistance . Two days later , the base camp was attacked again . The two troopers and the technician stormed over the barricades to engage the Aaris , leaving Brunou , Deremot , and the steadily declining Theda . Rescue . Brunou ' s transmission had been received , but not by Moff Sarne or any of his forces . In the months that the team had been on Aaris III , Kal ' Shebbol had fallen to the New Republic . Sarne had since fled into the depths of the Kathol sector with the remnants of his military . In an effort to track him down , the New Republic had assigned the CR90 corvette " FarStar " to follow him . It was the " FarStar " that intercepted the distress call , and the commanding officer , Captain Kaiya Adrimetrum , diverted the ship to respond , hoping that the team may have had pertinent information regarding Sarne ' s whereabouts . A landing party was sent down to rescue the survivors ; Deremot and Brunou were initially wary of the team , believing them to be in league with the Aaris — whom they had never seen clearly and were still unaware of their survival — but eventually the New Republic personnel were able to convince them of their good intentions . Brunou and Deremot were evacuated up to the " FarStar " but Theda had already died . On the " FarStar " , Brunou and Deremot relayed all the information they had on the expedition and Sarne ' s reasons for sending them to Aaris III . Adrimetrum decided to send a second landing party to the planet to scavenge for supplies and fresh foodstuffs . Both survivors of MS - 133 declined to return to the surface . The landing party also conducted an investigation into the events that had transpired on the surface . They found the body of Grigor Tansad in the pictograph chamber , hidden under rubble and having clearly been killed by a blow to the head with a large rock that was nearby . The remains of the shuttle also showed that traces of detonite had been used in its destruction . In orbit , the crew of the " FarStar " began to feel like they were being watched , much as MS - 133 had on the surface of Aaris III . This was due to the fact that Brunou had brought the Plaque of Victory aboard with him . He and Deremot argued over possession of the artifact , which escalated into a physical confrontation witnessed by several crew members . Eventually , the crew realized that they were under the influence of an outside force , and rationalized that it was the artifact that Brunou had brought aboard . They managed to get the artifact away from the scientists , then ejected it out of one of the corvette ' s airlocks , ending the Plaque ' s influence on them . Organization . MS - 133 was comprised of individuals drawn from scientific , technical , and military backgrounds . The team was led by Doctor Lancer Brunou , a respected archaeologist from the University of Byblos . Rounding out the scientific team were Doctor Theda , Grigor Tansad , and Jelok , with Solla Deremot — whose primary scientific specialty was biological research — acting as a research assistant . The scientists were supported by at least three technicians , as well as a squad of ten troopers including their commanding officer , who doubled as the team ' s shuttle pilot . Behind the scenes . MS - 133 was created for the adventure " Artifact of Aaris " in " The DarkStryder Campaign " , published by West End Games . In the adventure , the crew of the " FarStar " , a New Republic ship crewed by the players , responds to the team ' s distress signal . Most of the team are dead or missing prior to the start of the adventure , and the remaining members — Lancer Brunou and Solla Deremot — can die during the course of the adventure depending of the gamemaster ' s decisions and player ' s actions . If the characters do not die , then they can join the crew of the " FarStar " . Deremot will willingly ally herself with the crew and be pleased that her talents are being put to good use as she had no love for the Empire . Brunou , on the other , is a staunch Imperialist , and will seek to jump ship and rejoin Sarne ' s forces at the earliest opportunity . " Artifact of Aaris " implies that under the Plaque of Victory ' s direction , the members of MS - 133 turned upon each other resulting in multiple deaths and the destruction of the shuttle . However , " The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia " , published in 2008 confirmed that the team came under attack from the remnants of the Aaris civilization .