Bakura

*Reference Book: Star Wars Saga Edition Force Unleashed Campaign Guide*

*See also: Galactic Gazetteer*

Though not formally part of the Republic or the Empire forged by Palpatine's New Order, Bakura does not remain entirely free from Imperial influence during The Dark Times. During the Clone Wars, this world experienced an increase in population, industry, and economic prosperity as various groups immigrated to Bakura seeking new and profitable business opportunities. Some people came to Bakura to flee the upheaval caused by the Clone Wars, and others migrated here to escape what they viewed as the growing tyranny of a corrupt Empire. This growth helped the planet expand mining operations to three outer-system planets and Bakura's two moons; their success fueled the formation of a flourishing industry that manufactured repulsorlift coils and exported them to Imperial-controlled vehicle manufacturers such as Aratech, Ikas-Adno, and Mekuun. The initial migration and industrial prosperity in turn created more jobs for educated workers relocating to the system.

The Empire benefits from stability on Bakura and does not openly interfere with its government or industrial affairs. Even while maintaining this illusion of independence, the Empire sends ISB agents to infiltrate the corporate structures of both Arden Repulsorlift and Bakur RepulsorCorp to ensure the continuation of mining and manufacturing operations that supply repulsorlift components for Imperial military vessels. These operatives work with Bakurans who are loyal to Imperial interests in sustaining their cover and quietly eliminating any dissent as news of the Empire's tyranny in other regions of the galaxy filters back to The Outer Rim. More intelligent, freethinking elements of the population begin questioning the Empire's motives and establish cells of responsible, loyal citizens to investigate and uncover secret Imperial involvement in local industries. These undercover groups expand their operations from simple inquiries to more active sabotage as they discover the extent of ISB infiltration into government and industrial affairs. This movement doesn't evolve into a full-blown resistance during The Dark Times. (The Empire eventually sends a small occupation fleet to officially annex Bakura shortly after the Battle of Yavin, ensuring a steady flow of repulsorlift components to support the Imperial war machine and suppressing open dissent against its policies.)

## Bakura and the Outer Rim Worlds

*Homebrew Reference Book: Geonosis and the Outer Rim Worlds*
Bakura is a lush world located in a half-explored region on the edge of the galaxy. The planet began as a corporate mining colony, then diversified and became a moderately well-known maker of repulsorlift components. That caught the eye of The Galactic Empire, which seized Baku), shortly after the Battle of Yavin to ensure its production would be used for Imperial ends.

Just days before the Battle of Endor, a task force from The Ssi-Ruuvi Imperium invaded the system, seeking to enslave the Bakurans and "Entech" their life energies in Battle Droids. Though the truth wouldn't emerge for years. Palpatine had secretly agreed to cede parts of the galaxy to the invaders, after which he planned to renege on his bargain and seize the Ssi-Ruuk technology. A Rebel battle group responded to Bakura's SOS and joined with Imperial warships to repulse the invasion. The brief-lived bargain marked the first truce between Rebel and Imperial forces after the Emperor's death.

### Bakura Statistics

**Region:** Wild Space

**Climate:** Temperate

**Gravity:** 105% Standard

**Moons:** 2

**Length of Day:** 23 Standard Hours

**Length of Year:** 302 Local Days

**Sapient Species:** 95% Human, 5% Kurtzen (Native)

**Government:** Bakuran Senate

**Capital:** Salis D'aar

**Major Exports:** Namana, Raw Materials, Repulsorlifts

**Major Imports:** Medicine, Technology

### History

The Baker Corporation was an exploratory mining consortium based on the wealthy Core World of Hemei IV whose top officers believed in the Cosmic Balance, which holds that every intelligent being's action is balanced by another being's offsetting action. These officers saw Hemei's concentration of wealth as disruptive to the Balance; in a bit of faith-based diversification. they searched the galactic edge for a system that could become a self-sufficient colony and, in time, a mirror image of Hemei IV.

Some 150 years before the Battle of Yavin, scouts located a perfect candidate on the outer edge of the thinly inhabited Shiritoku Spur, far beyond Republic Space. The new colony, Bakura, survived the calamitous sabotage of its Droids by the rival H'Lokk Consortium and made peace with the native Kurtzen. Bakura's mineral veins played out quickly, however, and so did Bakur's interest in its colony. (Ironically, the Balance is extinct as a faith on Hemei IV and Bakur Corporation is now a Hlokk subsidiary.)

Though shaken by a brief Separatist incursion, an independent Bakura opened itself to outside settlement during the Clone Wars, spurring a boom in population and production. Bakurans established new mining operations on three outer-system worlds and on Bakura's two moons, while new processing stations turned namana-tree nectar into liqueurs and candies. But those industries were dwarfed by Bakura's success as a maker of repulsorlift coils. That attracted Imperial attention: A few months after the Battle of Yavin, a small Imperial fleet annexed Bakura by force.

Nearly four years later, the Ssi-Ruuk invaded. For years, spacers had whispered that egg-shaped warships prowled the Shiritoku, stealing crews from their ships, and cantina tales had hinted that the destruction of small outposts such as Kammia, B'Knos, and G'rho were somehow connected with such talk. Those tales now proved horribly true: The Ssi-Ruuvi Imperium attacked Bakura in force, prompting Governor Wilek Nereus to send a desperate message to the Emperor, whom he knew was not far away at Endor. The Alliance received the message and sent a cobbled-together task force down the little-traveled Bakura Trace. The Rebels struck a truce with Nereus, and both sides fought furiously against the invaders. When the Ssi-Ruuk began to withdraw. Nereus betrayed the Alliance- but the citizens of Bakura rose up against his troops.

An Alliance fleet pursued The Ssi-Ruuvi Imperium to their home cluster and found an unknown enemy- later revealed as the enigmatic Chiss- had ravaged their worlds. The Alliance and the Ssi-Ruuk fought to a stalemate: while grateful to The New Republic, Bakura and the other Shiritoku worlds chose to stay independent, and the area remained formally part of Wild Space.

Bakura repaid part of its debt to The New Republic when its warships intervened in the Corellian Incident. After the Yuuzhan Vong invaded the galaxy, the Shiritoku worlds went on high alert, fearful that The Ssi-Ruuvi Imperium might attack again. Those fears were well founded: The Ssi-Ruuk nearly captured Bakura in an elaborate gambit that came undone only when the P'w'eck, a Ssi-Ruuvi client Species, sprung a surprise of their own and betrayed their masters.

### People

Bakurans are an independent-minded, fractious lot, insular and proud of their planet. They immediately want to know two facts about other Bakurans they meet: are they descendants of the original settlers, and are they adherents of the Balance?

The Balance flowered as a faith on Bakura under the hierophant Dif Istuvi, who wrote its sacred text, the *Fulcrum*, and founded the order of priest-prophets known as the Zanazi. Families who count themselves among the Faithful hear pairs of children close in age and follow the Rule of Feather and Bowl. When each pair of children are teenagers, they undergo aptitude tests. The more-promising child gets a mall white feather: the other receives a small golden bowl. The Child of the Bowl leaves home and joins a communal Simple Home, serving the Zanazi as an ascetic. The Child of the Feather remains part of secular Bakuran society and receives Zanazi funds for higher education. Some Children of the Bowl leave the Faith, but most submit to a lifetime of service, believing this inequality will be redressed in the Life To Come.

Many of the first Bakurans died in a Droid rebellion engineered by the H'Lokk Consortium, leaving Bakurans with a distrust of automatons, which are banned from public use. Aside from the Kurtzen, alien Species are all but unknown on Bakura, leaving many Bakurans suspicious or even fearful of them.

### Locations

Bakura has a number of interesting locations for heroes to visit, including those described below.

#### **Salis D'aar**

Some seven million Bakurans live and work in the planet's graceful capital, located atop D'aarmont, a huge outcropping of quartz three kilometers long and fifty kilometers wise at the confluence of the East and West rivers. The city is laid out in a roughly circular design, with its major streets either concentric circles or spoke boulevards. Salis D'aar's three districts are also concentric circles identified by different-colored streetlights. (These streetlights hover on repulsorlifts, which are widespread on Bakura- even hand tools and toys sport them.) Salis D'aar's inner district is primarily for public buildings and lit blue-white; the middle district is mostly divided between residential and commercial buildings and lit pale yellow; and the outer circles is reserved for service buildings and light industry and lit deep red.

Bakura's principal spaceport sits just south of Salis D'aar, on D'aarmont. A kilometer south of that is an Imperial garrison base identical to those found on countless worlds.

#### **Bakur Complex**

Just southwest of Salis D'aar's central park sprawls the Bakur Memorial Building, Bakura's seat of government. The Complex will surprise visitors used to drab government buildings. An intricate system of gutters feeds rain into transparent pillars, wall tubes, and floor panels, many enhanced by colored lighting. This system runs throughout the Complex's maze of rooms and corridors, which are variously of smooth white stone or polished namana wood, with high arched ceilings and ever-present greenery. Many informal discussions are held in the Greenwell, an arboretum in the building's center dominated by a large central fountain and filled with tall pokkta ferns and passion-bud vines. After the Ssi-Ruuk invasion, shelters and weapons caches were built in the Complex's sublevels in case of a future attack.

#### **Arden Repulsorlift Plant**

Named for Bakura's first prime minister, Deredith Arden, this vast plant is located just north of D'aarmont. The visible parts of the complex are rolling lawns and small, tidy research labs and officers; most assembly is done in automated factories built underground in an old mine.

The Arden plant and its satellite factories elsewhere on Bakura produce nearly fifty million repulsorlift drives a year. Two-thirds of these are shipped down the Shiritoku Way to the depots at Timora, the nearest major system within the formal boundaries of the Empire, and sent from there to Imperial-allied manufacturers such as Aratech, Ikas-Adno, and Markuun. The rest belong to Bakur RepulsorCorp, whose well-made Airspeeders are sold locally and to worlds as far away as the Senex and Juvex Sectors.

### Adventure Hooks

*See also: Conn Doruggan, Bix Arden-Govia, Salia Arden-Govia*

The adventure hooks described below are intended for use by Gamemasters only. If you are a player, stop reading now.

#### **Black Hulk Down**

The heroes are hired by Bix Arden-Govia to help investigate a rumor going around Salis D'aar: a strange ship crashed in the Prytis forests a week ago. When the heroes investigate, they find a kilometers-long furrow gouged in the soil; at the end of it is the wreckage of a strange alien ship. A triumphant Arden-Govia identifies the wreck as one of the alien ships he's seen prowling the Shiritoku. But as he's mulling how to salvage the wreck, a strike team of Stormtroopers lead by Conn Doruggan arrives with urgent orders sent up the Shiritoku Way from Timora: secure the site and kill anyone who's discovered it.

(If the GM is playing in The Rise of the Empire Era or The New Jedi Order Era, the strike team is made up of rogues hired by a Bakuran collector. In The New Jedi Order Era, the wrecked ship will be easily identified as a Ssi-Ruuvi *Fw'Sen*-Class Picket Ship.)

#### **What Goes Up...**

A saboteur claims he's tampered with recent models of Bakur RepuslorCorp's Tinok-F Patrol Cloud Cars and Kishh'tih Airspeeders. If his demands aren't met, he will send a signal to the planet's vehicles that will burn out their repulsorlift coils, possibly killing thousands. Bakur could ground all its vehicles, but that might ruin the company, so it hires the heroes to crack the case. They're meeting with Bakur officials at the Arden plant when the saboteur makes contact again. A Bakur tech traces the signal to somewhere in the automated factories below the planet.

The heroes must find the saboteur, but they don't know he's taken control of the factories and can turn the very machinery against his would-be captors.