Agents of the Outer Rim 1 - Saving Skids McDougal

*Returning to Coruscant after doing a solid for Luke Skywalker, the team is asked by Cal Omas to help out their old friends in Charlie Team yet again. Lengthly back and forth discussion is held by the team in the planning phase of their newest mission, and they finally depart with a space semi filled with snow cars en route to the edge of Wild Space.*

## **Previously**

*With Bota Zi reunited with the team, things have been looking up. Their fame rising, the team was asked to perform a personal favor for New Republic hero Luke Skywalker, even meeting Droo’s secret crush, Kyle Katarn. In the rescue/retrieval of Sten Thannis the heroes captured the night sister Silri and thwarted the intervention of Tyber Zann, then Katira put some nightmares to rest by brutalizing M-1 in his unexpected arrival before Rusty delivered the final blow. The team then departed from Dathomir, leaving Tek behind to chase after a new love interest for a time. The only real hiccup seemed to be abandoning Luke’s acolyte in the grip of a vicious rancor, but she was totally okay with it… we think. Oh, and let’s not forget that whole Jawa Jimmy shooting and nearly killing Blaine thing. Yeah, things have been looking up.*

## **Recap**

### **Mission Brief**

Narrowly escaping the imposing Rancor thanks to the sacrifice of Teneniel Djo, the heroes make their way to Yavin IV where they deliver Sten Thannis to Luke Skywalker and get Blaine the quality medical care that he is in desperate need of after being shot by Jawa Jimmy. Blaine comments that he has had enough adventuring for the time being, and the group parts ways once again, with Blaine returning to the safety of Cloud City with the body of M-1 and the rest of the team responding to an urgent summons from Cal Omas.

Cal leads off the meeting with a brief summary of the goings on of the galaxy at large. Luke Skywalker and the Jedi Praxeum are slowly developing for the time being, while the governance of the New Republic has continued under Mon Mothma, with Senator Leia Organa working closely beneath her and being widely thought of as the next in line to lead.

Stability also has its detriments, and the New Republic seems to be falling largely into a false sense of security. Though Jabba the Hutt and Zorba the Hutt are dead and the Hutt Empire has been weakened, their own power struggles have lead to the rise of regional crime lords in the place that are proliferating slavery, drug sales, and widespread crime that is beyond the fledgling government’s ability to keep in check. Similarly, the main part of the Empire has fled to the unknown regions following the apparent death of Grand Admiral Thrawn, but the power vacuum left behind is being filled by the emergence of Admiral Daala and Gilad Pellaeon, with several other Imperial Warlords still fighting for prominence but slowly being absorbed into the two main camps.

Still, the team has not been without their own impact. The defeat of Sithspawn has removed the strongest enemy facing the Jedi, and the solving of the Clawdite Conspiracy has had a major impact on the scope and reach of power exerted by the Eriadu Authority. Through these missions, Cal and Al Mosfriday have come to the realization that this particular group is best suited for missions as a strike team, allowing them the freedom to act decisively and keeping them from getting lost in the chaos of a large scale operation. With this in mind, a new mission has been proposed, possibly the last that the team will be asked to undertake.

In the outer rim, just at the edges of wild space, there is a planet called Illsauvin that has remained unaffiliated with either the New Republic or the Empire. Due to its proximity to wild space and the apparent allowance of the Illsauvin people, the Empire recently decided that it would be a perfect staging ground to buy and trade slaves that are being brought in en masse. It is believed that this operation is being run by Admiral Daala, but it is unclear what the end goal of the Empire is through the operation. Even on the most basic level, it is unclear why the Empire suddenly has such a large need for slaves.

> "*We didn’t ask you to look into this first. Don’t take it as an insult. You may recognize Taz Solana. She was sent in recently with several other members from Charlie Team, and they all have disappeared.*"
> ― Colonel Cracken
>
>

From the back of the room a new voice interrupts as he walks into Cal’s office. Cal introduces the speaker as Colonel Cracken from New Republic Intelligence, and the Colonel continues on with the briefing, explaining that the only guess that intelligence has is that Daala may be gathering the remaining materials needed to complete construction of her Super Star Destroyer. In order to learn more information, Taz, Skids, and a few others were sent to recon and interrupt. Outfitted with a transport filled with explosives and a few snow seeders, they were able to locate the main Imperial garrison and slave trading hub on the planet, but lost contact soon after.

> "*The main goal of this mission is to rescue the operatives and interrupt the Imperials as possible during the process.*"
> ― Cal Omas
>
>

> "*We can discuss the order of precedence for those operations later.*"
> ― Colonel Cracken
>
>

### **Arrival on Illsauvin**

The group debates their best options for approaching the planet without being immediately identified as out of place, eventually settling on utilizing the Haulin' Oats as a “slave transport”. Due to the vessels size they are able to load several snow speeders and have space available as needed, and the New Republic agrees to legally install a new transponder onto the vessel and lend the speeders. There is a short wait, with Jowkazza taking a moment to look after his business and Katira taking a moment to look out for some spice, and without any further delay the transport is on course for Illsauvin.

Coming out of hyperspace smoothly (thanks to some expert astrogating by Sparky), Jimmy sports a Gozanti Cruiser with 2 TIE Fighters attached patrolling some distance off just before the vessel transmits a message acknowledging the team and directing their course down to the planet’s surface.

> "*Your ships name is the uh… slimy… slaver. So that’s why they assume you’re slavers.*"
> ― Jordan
>
>

The Haulin’ Oats makes its way into atmosphere with no issues and soon the group is off boarding their snow speeders. The planet is surprisingly warm given the frozen surface, and there should be no issue with adverse weather affecting their transit to the nearby Prime City of Khloris. Leaving Sparky behind to keep watch on the Haulin’ Oats they split into pairs and take off in four snow speeders in high spirits, racing to see who will make it to the city gates first.

Unfortunately, in their haste the team doesn’t spare a moment to think of scanning the surrounding area, and fails to spot the Imperial probe droid a short distance away transmitting ahead of them.

## **Featured Characters**

### **Our Heroes**

* Bota Zi
* Droo Vos
* Jawa Jimmy
	+ Sparky
* Katira Eve
* Roostan Steele

### **NPCs**

* Cal Omas
* Colonel Airen Cracken

### **Mentioned**

* Teneniel Djo
* Sten Thannis
* Luke Skywalker
* Leia Organa
* Mon Mothma
* Taz Solana
* Skids McDougal
* Solo Mon

## **Inventory**

* +”Slimy Slaver” transponder code for the Haulin' Oats (Bota)
* +snow speeder x4 (group)

## **Notes**

* M-1’s Body has been frozen in carbonite and is currently being held by Blaine on Cloud City
* Jowkazza asked Cal Omas if the New republic may be able to aid his fledgling accounting firm, to which Cal responded that he may have an aide that can assist, and offered a no interest loan to keep the firm running if Jowkazza is low on funds.
* Before departing from Coruscant, Katira walked through a few seedy alleys in search of spice, not asking outright but hoping that someone would offer. She was not successful, but when some creepy guys decided to hit on her she left them in need of medical aid.

* Illsauvin intel:
	+ planet is covered in ice with the exception of pockets where large hot springs have broken through the crust and created lush pastoral and wooded lands
	+ the hot spring locations have since given way to the development of isolated towns and city states
	+ planetary governments appear to be more feudal in nature, similar to the governments of the Tapani Sector
	+ the majority of planetary trade occurs with wild space, though small trading operations from the rest of the galaxy have a presence there as well

* In addition to Taz Solana and Skids McDougal, it is known that Kyla Katarn and Solo Mon were apart of the missing strike team

## **Quotations**

> "*You guys met Kyle Katarn?!*"
> ― Droo
>
>

> "*Yeah, I think Katira got his number.*"
> ― Blaine
>
>

> "*Look, we’ve tried to reward you as best we could. Maybe some of those rewards weren’t the best.*"
> ― Cal Omas
>
>

> "*That’s putting it kindly. Some of those rewards haven’t even materialized.*"
> ― Katira
>
>

> "*So there are two reasons we’ve asked you to undertake this mission. First, we need this to happen, and we think you’re the best candidates. Second, we thought you might like to rescue Taz and Skids.*"
> ― Colonel Cracken
>
>

> "*You let Taz go on a secret mission with Skids **again**?*"
> ― Katira
>
>

> "*Yes. Yes we did. That’s what I’ve told you at least three times now.*"
> ― Colonel Cracken
>
>

> "*With the… the love of my… of my last few months?*"
> ― Katira
>
>

> "*I won’t tell Wampa you said that.*"
> ― Bota
>
>

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