SotB XXX: Lay Down Your Burdens

*In testing a new invention from the MIGHTY INTELLECT, the Agents stumble upon something they weren't supposed to find...*

## Agents

### Session 1

* (Balken)
* Deng Dine
* Fai Mei
* Gristle
* Hawk
* Nin'pei

### Session 2

* Durin Boge
* Jokan Benn
* Kii'Vera
* R0C-K4
* Rogesh Vai
* Saber Scintel

## Mission Report

*Summary by Ben*

Taking the crew out to a remote nebula in the Sunflare, Balken’s research team’s flagship, The Farseer, docks and both Balken and hired hand Deng Dine board. He requests that the crew help him use the Sunflare to test a device his team has been developing, utilizing hyperspace beacons to plot courses through a nebula. The team agrees, seeing no potential danger in conducting the experiment. After some modifications to the hyperdrive, the team prepares to begin the experiment. Fai notices that Balken has wired one of the devices from Facility 07 into the hyperdrive with a nexus of wires and cables. The others lounge around and wait to observe the experiment’s results. Deng uses PIPA to enter the coordinates, and the Sunflare makes its jump to their destination, the stellar nursery. However, they land directly in the middle of an asteroid field surrounding the planet. Fai jumps into the pilot’s seat and manages to pull the Sunflare out of harm’s way and into a clear spot in the planet’s orbit. Balken calls to the cockpit with concern. The planet in question is already fully formed and appears habitable, but all of the planets in the nursery are supposed to be lumps of young, burning rock. What’s more concerning is that there’s a space station in the planet’s orbit, and it immediately deploys a set of fighters that begin closing on the Sunflare. Fai turns the ship back toward the asteroid field to lose pursuit, and Gristle gets on the comms to try to call off the fighters, but gets no response.

Several corvette-sized craft close in from around the space station, but can’t pursue too far into the field. However, a blue beam from the planet’s surface strikes the ship, disabling electronics and allowing gravity to pull the Sunflare back toward the planet’s surface. Fai and Deng manages to pull the ship back into operation using Balken’s portable generator and Gristle marks out a suitable landing zone where they can set down the ship to hide. Balken informs the group that, while his device did manage to obscure their transponder, their crash landing resulted in the hyperdrive suffering critical damage which will be irreparable without parts. According to a sensor sweep, there is a settlement nearby, so the crew unloads and makes the hike over. The settlement they find is simple, with landspeeders and droids milling about. Gristle, Deng and Fai head into town while Hawk and Nin’pei trail behind. In the village, there are several obvious banners of the Alliance to Restore the Republic, and an announcement blares over a PA system, telling the citizens that an unidentified craft has entered the system. The miners seem suspicious and move to report the team’s presence to a nearby group of soldiers, but Fai calms them and the group approaches the soldiers themselves. Gristle identifies them as the unauthorized visitors, and the soldiers immediately move to arrest them. The group stands down and their weapons are confiscated before they’re loaded into the speeder and taken to another settlement. The other settlement is larger and has an open marketplace. The team is huddled into an elevator in one of the larger buildings at the center and are brought up to an office on the higher levels, where a man and a woman await. The man has the team sit, still bound by their hands, and explain themselves. Gristle and the others explain their situation and try to earn the trust of the apparent leader, and he explains that the planet is a hidden sanctuary world for the rebellion, and that by being present there, the group is a significant breach of security. A heated argument ensues, and it turns out that the woman, Olia, is a former acquaintance of Gristle, and the leader, Sarvok, knows of Fai. After some convincing, Sarvok gives in and allows them to leave as long as they can scrub any trace of the planet’s location from the Sunflare’s databanks. Gristle assures Sarvok that his trust is not misplaced, and the agreement is made. The group is then allowed to go find the parts to fix the Sunflare. There’s a bit of a commotion during the negotiations for the proper parts, but they do manage to find something suitable after Nin’pei enrages the shopkeeper. Gristle also manages to re-acquire Olia’s comm frequency.

Back at the Sunflare, Balken is trying to ward off the techs sent to scrub the data, but Gristle calms him. The techs get their work done and the crew is allowed to leave, Fai tries to disable the virus scrubbing their databanks, but isn’t able to stop it. Hawk and Nin’pei consider selling the information regarding the sanctuary world to Borga.