In the Dark of the Night 11 - End of the Eriadu Authority Part 4

*Thinking themselves in the clear, our heroes find themselves in the middle of a trap laid out perfectly for them. Outmanned, outgunned, and outmaneuvered, Katira only makes things worse when she gets her first taste of the force and finds a difference of opinion between herself and the voices in her head.*

## **Previously**

*Leaving nothing but destruction in the vehicle bay behind them, and feeling confident that they are prepared to face anything ahead, our intrepid heroes braved the uppermost level of the Eriadu Authority base on Kampe to rescue the prisoner held there. Discovering a bounty hunter with a grudge against Boba Fett and their old friend Zardra, they made the hurried decision to bring the pair along on their escape and headed down to the hangar bay in search of a ship.*

## **Recap**

### **Good Grief**

The turbolift doors slide open, and the team is immediately faced with a pair of stormtroopers beginning to raise their blasters. Ready for the inevitable moment that they blew their cover, the party jumps into action. As Katira disarms one trooper with a well thrown knife, Rusty charges ahead and crushes in the chest of the second trooper, letting him crumple to the floor without a sound. Not one to be shown up, Zuda lands a similar blow to the second trooper. Batting clean up, Bota catches sight of a pair of troopers further down the hall and takes them both out with his repeating blaster.

> "*Yeah, I think we make a pretty good team.*"
> ― Ailyn
>
>

> "*What? You didn’t do **anything**.*"
> ― Katira
>
>

> "*Yeah, what the…?*"
> ― Bota
>
>

> "*Didn’t I?*"
> ― Ailyn
>
>

Content with the group she has hitched herself to, Ailyn drags the unconscious body of Zardra down the hall while arguing about the best course of action with Katira. Pointing out that she knows the location of two things in the base – her ship and the brig – Ailyn proceeds in the direction of her vessel without concern as to what is ahead.

More annoyed by the moment that she convinced the group to mount a rescue, Katira points out that if the hangar layout is similar to the vehicle bay below, then the controls should be through the door adjacent the turbolift. She punches open the door, finding 10 stormtroopers with blasters pointed straight at her. Katira manages to dive out of the way without being shot, but Rusty is caught unprepared standing behind her. Two blaster bolts strike his inner thighs, bringing the Aqualish to his knees.

> "*Katira, if you don’t have a medpack I’ll just take all your drugs now.*"
> ― Rusty
>
>

Seeing blaster fire erupt from the newly opened doorway, Zuda quickly turns and expertly throws a concussion grenade into the room. The explosion erupts in the dead center of the soldiers, but seems to have nearly no effect.

> "*We need some higher yield explosives in here.*"
> ― Rusty
>
>

> "*The thing is, grenades either aren’t strong enough or they’re so strong that we hurt ourselves.*"
> ― Jordan (clairvoyantly)
>
>

Bota quickly realizes that 10 stormtroopers is about 7 more than he wants to fight at the moment, and rushes to close the blast doors before shooting out the controls to buy more time.

### **Stranger Things Have Happened**

With a brief moment of respite, the group soon realizes that nobody currently present has any medical gear to assist Rusty. Zuda pieces together a makeshift explosive to go off when and if the blast doors open, while the rest of the team searches the bodies of the dead troopers for medpacks to no avail. Just as they are starting to think that Rusty might not make it, the turbolift doors open behind them, and Jawa Jimmy steps into the hallway.

> "*Oh, thank the little Jawa! Jimmy, if you help me out brother, I got a big life day gift for you.*"
> ― Rusty
>
>

As Jimmy patches Rusty up, Katira takes a look behind the second door down the hallway, this time opening the door with a grenade ready to be thrown in if anyone is waiting inside. The blast doors open quickly, revealing… the bathroom. With no Imperials immediately in sight, she sneaks in to check if there is anyone in the stalls, discovering a pair of red boots below the third stall door.

Looking to clear up loose ends, Katira quietly draws her lightsaber, *Beginning*, and ignites the blade as she thrusts it through the stall door. The door splits in two, revealing an Imperial royal guard, their leg now lying on the floor separate from the rest of their body. Displaying amazing fortitude, though he cannot strike out at Katira with the force pike that he brought into the stall with him, the guard does manage to pass word of the group’s arrival over his helmet communicator. As Katira pauses, trying to discern what language is being spoken, a newly patched up Rusty rushes into the scene.

> "*Damn that stinks! What’s going on in here, Katira?*"
> ― Rusty
>
>

The sight of an Imperial royal guard – legless and still on the toilet or not – brings a sense of terror to the former Rebel commando, and Rusty instinctively strikes out, landing a blow to the face that knocks the Imperial unconscious.

### **Another Round**

Katira and Rusty rummage through the Imperial’s belongings, Katira taking their helmet and Rusty slipping on the red boots before passing a pair of new medpacks to replenish Jawa Jimmy’s reserves.

> "*I already got a red dress, so I don’t need the cape.*"
> ― Rusty
>
>

Listening in to the helmet comm, Katira cannot manage to decipher the speech but recognizes a sense of urgency permeating the conversation. Nearby, Bota opens the remaining door in the fresher, standing clear as the door opens to a cacophony of blaster fire. At the same time, Ailyn comments to Zuda that they should hurry up and get to her ship before things get further out of hand. Now knowing that the hangar bay has been set up as a potential trap, she approaches the end of the hallway with Zardra in tow. Reaching the corner, she props up her unconscious bounty and waves Zardra’s hand, drawing yet another barrage of blaster fire and confirming the suspicion that the entire hangar bay was awaiting their arrival.

Coming down from the turbolift, Jawa Jimmy pauses at the entry to the fresher to toss a smoke grenade in toward the newly revealed troopers before making his way to Zuda and Ailyn at the end of the hall.

As Katira takes down two of the three newly arrived stormtroopers in the fresher – her new red helmet providing a timely method to see through Jimmy’s smoke grenade – Zuda peeks around the corner and gets a first glimpse of the hangar bay, where well over a dozen Imperials are double timing in his direction.

> "*You see three royal guards. They are running, sprinting.*"
> ― Jordan
>
>

> "*Running… away from me or towards me?*"
> ― Zuda
>
>

> "*I love the optimism.*"
> ― Jordan
>
>

Zuda takes an expert shot with his rail gun, killing one royal guard, then runs to take cover alongside Ailyn before informing the rest of the group that they have some major problems incoming.

Still in the fresher, Bota charges through the three downed stormtroopers, kills the two officers just behind them, then turns to find himself at the opposite side of the room abutting the turbolift, a number of stormtroopers already turning in his direction following the commotion. Just as Bota moves to take cover behind a nearby table, a blaster bolt flies in from behind him as Jawa Jimmy and Sparky – having fallen back to the area after seeing Zuda and Ailyn flee from whatever might be in the hangar bay – fire toward the remaining trooper near the doorway.

### **Hearing Voices**

Soon, the table that Bota is crouched behind is blown to kingdom come, with Bota cursing the Uggnaughts that likely built it for failing to follow the directions and leaving several key braces short a screw. The sound of blaster fire and shattering the splintering conference table is not nearly enough to prevent Bota from hearing a massive explosion behind him, however.

With her friends running in terror from the hangar bay and two royal guards emerging around the corner in chase, Katira decides that now is the best time to try her next mystery vial. Quickly downing the contents of what was described to as a vial of force sensitivity, Katira grabs a thermal detonator from Rusty and prepares to throw it when whispers encroach on her thoughts, asking whether she wants to kill the important ones or kill the largest number. Saying she wants the important ones taken out, she releases the thermal detonator and runs for cover, wounding as many allies as enemies in the process.

> "*Katira throws it. It bounces off the wall, then right onto the back of this royal guard in front of Zuda Zorbo. I need you to roll 10D6.*"
> ― Jordan
>
>

> "*I… I don’t want to.*"
> ― David
>
>

> "*Katira, I don’t blame you for my death.*"
> ― Rusty
>
>

> "*You **should** be apologizing to Zuda Zorbo.*"
> ― Jordan
>
>

> "*It’s okay. This is exactly how I want to go out.*"
> ― Zuda
>
>

In the ensuing explosion, the remaining royal guards are left dead on the floor, with the nearest stormtroopers behind them knocked to the ground. Unfortunately, with the detonator failing to make it around the nearby corner as she hoped, Katira also wounded Jawa Jimmy and Rusty, and the unconscious body of Zuda Zorbo is barely clinging to life.

> "*Haven’t you ever heard that it’s bad luck to throw a thermal detonator inside?*"
> ― Bota
>
>

> "*Alright Bota, your turn. Huge explosion, everything shakes, smoke blows out of this tunnel, but you got problems of your own. 10 stormtroopers staring right at you.*"
> ― Jordan
>
>

Now without any means of cover and concerned that the explosion behind may have been meant for his allies, Bota decides to throw a grenade of his own into the nearby cluster of troopers, managing to buy himself a moment to retreat to aid his friends.

## **Featured Characters**

### **Our Heroes**

* Bota Zi
* Katira Eve
* Roostan “Rusty” Steele
* Jawa Jimmy
	+ Sparky
* Zuda Zorbo

### **NPCs**

* Ailyn Vel
* Zardra

### **Mentioned**

* Genos Ia'danian
* Jowkazza
* Special Director Baül

## **Inventory**

* -concussion grenade x2 (Zuda)
* -rail spike x2 (Zuda)
* -medpack x2 (Jimmy)
* -vial of “force sensitivity” x1 (Katira)
* -thermal detonator x1 (Rusty)

## **Notes**

* After being shot twice, Rusty changed out of his stormtrooper armor and back into his bounty hunter armor
* -2cp to attack troopers in the fresher (Bota)
* -3cp to dodge 12+ stormtrooper shots (Bota)
* -2cp to throw thermal detonator (Katira)
* -2cp to throw frag grenade (Bota)

* Final result from thermal detonator:
	+ Zuda Zorbo: mortally wounded
	+ Rusty: wounded
	+ Jawa Jimmy: wounded
	+ Sparky: stunned
	+ Ailyn Vel: wounded
	+ Zardra: dead
	+ Royal Guards: incapacitated, mortally wounded, killed
	+ Stormtroopers: 3 killed, 1 mortally wounded, 2 wounded, 3 stunned

## **Quotations**

> "*I may stand in front, but I never seem to act first.*"
> ― Bota
>
>

> "*You’re a seasoned bounty hunter who always gets the second shot.*"
> ― Katira
>
>

> "*If only there was another person to throw grenades, now that they’re all tenderized.*"
> ― Jordan
>
>

> "*Instead of looking like a damn ragdoll on the floor in a stormtrooper uniform!*"
> ― Rusty
>
>

> "*Remind me not to give Jawa Jimmy a life day card.*"
> ― Rusty
>
>

> "*So nobody has a medpack?*"
> ― Jordan
>
>

> "*To be honest with you, I didn’t bring one on this mission, because I expect everyone else to carry those.*"
> ― Bota
>
>

> "*Usually the Jawa and the Wookiee bring those. When I use one, it’s kind of hit or miss: you might get better, you might die.*"
> ― Katira
>
>

> "*I only carry the opposite of medpacks.*"
> ― Zuda
>
>

> "*Can’t we like, reverse engineer one of these grenades?*"
> ― Rusty
>
>

> "*My chiropractor says I can only carry one person.*"
> ― Ailyn
>
>

> "*Could I use a bunch of character points to like… use some positive thinking to make myself feel better?*"
> ― Rusty
>
>

> "*These bathrooms are never going to be the same again.*"
> ― Bota
>
>

> "*That taco deposit is going to be all over the walls.*"
> ― Zuda
>
>

> "*Did you just kill Rob?!*"
> ― Jordan
>
>

> "*Just barely alive, but mortally wounded.*"
> ― David
>
>

> "***By one point!***"
> ― Jordan
>
>

> "*Wow, this is terrifying.*"
> ― Rusty
>
>

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