STAR WARS: Edge of the Empire

**STAR WARS: Edge of the Empire**, also titled **Star Wars: Edge of the Empire II**, is a fan-run, non-canon, fanon Star Wars Roleplaying campaign utilizing Fantasy Flight Games and Edge Studios Star Wars Roleplaying system. Set between 0 ABY and 1 ABY, or between **STAR WARS Episode IV: *A New Hope*** and **STAR WARS Episode V: *The Empire Strikes Back***, it details the adventures of several rogues from across the galaxy, battling enemies of various sources, as well as encountering worlds and creatures from the thousand, thousand worlds amongst the stars. The campaign is mostly homebrewed, but is heavily influenced by published *Edge of the Empire* material, using lore and locations created in *Long Arm of the Hutt*, and even plays through the *Beyond the Rim* adventure sourcebook. It is heavily connected to its sister campaign, **Star Wars: *Age of Rebellion II***, featuring story elements that tie into that separate campaign.

## Synopsis

### **Season One:**

*It is a dark time for the galaxy. Striking from their hidden base, the Rebel Alliance has destroyed the evil Galactic Empire's powerful Death Star. Now, Imperial forces strike back, throwing the galaxy into war.*

*In the midst of conflict, countless planets suffer under Imperial tyranny. May flee from oppression to build new lives beyond the bounds of civilization. Scoundrels and smugglers, bandits and bounty hunters, explorers and exiles all scramble for a living.*

*Two such fringers; REEF MONSOON, a fierce Karkarodon Hired Gun, and AMON BEROYA, the legendary Mandalorian Bounty Hunter, are about to begin their search for the nefarious MISTRESS SYNDULLA, are entirely unaware of the journey they are about to embark on. On the edge of the Empire, these renegades will set upon great adventures to survive and gain great fortune in the midst of ongoing turmoil, oblivious of the allies, friends, and enemies they are to make in the coming days and months....*

#### **Episode I: *Complicated Professions***

##### **Part One:**

Rendezvousing with a mysterious client on the remote Outer Rim world of Ryloth, the armored Mandalorian warrior Amon Beroya met Reef Monsoon, forced to work with him to locate a fugitive bounty of Durga the Hutt's: the mysterious and deadly Mistress Syndulla. Travelling to the town New Meen, the pair met the settlement's wonderful community, with individuals such as Grunn'ur and Mula providing a frontier hospitality for the two mercenaries. Ambushed after asking the townsfolk for information about Mistress Syndulla, the two battled dozens of her thugs, chasing them into the wastes aboard a speeder when the remaining bandits boarded their escape skiff. After a tense chase, with Reef driving the speeder and Amon knocking out the skiff's engines with his disruptor rifle, the fierce hunters struck up a deal with the terrified goons; information on Mistress Syndulla's operations in exchange for their lives. Venturing to the revered Old Lylek Den, which Grunn'ur had warned the two to never enter, Amon discovered two dead bodies, presumably those of two of three missing bounty hunters their contact had warned them of. Meanwhile, Reef and his albek pet Rusty spied upon of another gang of Twi'lek bandits at a rendezvous point at another entrace to the Old Lylek Den detailed by Mistress Syndulla's enforcers earlier.

##### **Part Two:**

Unknown to the two hunters, a third party had entered the picture. The Corellian lawlady Marshal Ciri Kast had been on the trail of Mistress Syndulla for weeks, hoping to bring the alien woman in for justice. On the other side of the Old Lylek Den entrance, where Amon and Reef were spying upon the renegade warlady's men, she crept up among the rocks, using the cover of darkness to hide her movement. Launching a surprise night attack, the two hunters hastily joined forces with the marshal, dealing with all but one of the renegades. Surprised to witness the arrival of the buyers of Mistress Syndulla's spice, a group of unusually heavily-armed smugglers travelling aboard a *Firespray*-*31*-class patrol craft, Ciri lept aboard the craft, identifying the smugglers as Rebel Alliance smugglers trading blasters for spice. As Ciri held the smugglers inside at blasterpoint, Amon shot an armor-piercing rocket from his gauntlet at the ship, destroying one of its engines and making the craft useless. They let the remaining Alliance smuggler leave with his life, then meeting together officially in the open sands near the cave's entrance. With a tense standoff, Amon and Reef made a deal with Kast; they would split the reward three ways, working together to capture Mistress Syndulla, who appeared to have more firepower than they expected.

Badly injured, Reef decided their vote; they would return to New Meen to seek medical aid and determine the next course of events. Travelling on a small open-canopied light speeder truck, which was carrying ryll spice the bandits were going to trade the rebels blasters for, they entered the town early in the morning. Mula provided them with rest in her home, and cooked meals for them. The group rested for a day before meeting with Grunn'ur, who said they could trade the spice they gifted to him, as well as look for leads to Mistress Syndulla's true location at the far-off city Kala'uun. While Amon flew alongside with his jetpack, the three fringers drove the captured speeder truck, taking two days of journeying through the forbidding wastes and wilds of Ryloth before reaching Kala'uun, a monolithic city built into one of the spiring, craggy mountains of the Lonely Five mountain range.

Gaining entry, Grunn'ur sold off the spice, gaining a great fortune for New Meen that he told the three hunters he had great plans for. While the Twi'lek took his time doing that, the others met with ne'er-do-wells across the city's spaceport. Fate seemed to be on their side when they entered the company of a Twi'lek businessman named Reom, who offered them a deal they couldn't possibly refuse: information on Mistress Syndulla's location, as well as a ship he would gift them. In exchange, they owed him a considerable favor that he could call upon anytime, anywhere. Agreeing, they boarded their new vessel, an HWK-290 light freighter, with Grunn'ur and his speeder truck, flying back to New Meen and landing outside the town. Amon, Reef, and Ciri dropped off Grunn'ur, promising to return to ensure the town's safety once they had captured Mistress Syndulla. As Ciri flew them towards the mines detailed by Reom hours earlier, Amon contacted his friends aboard the *Avenger*, a *Neutron Star*-class bulk cruiser he was the captain of. He told them to bring the ship from Xostooine to Ryloth and land it in one of the canyons near New Meen, from where he would make plans for it as a new business venture.

##### **Part Three:**

In the early hours of the Ryloth morning, Ciri landed the trio's new starship in a canyon near their quarry's quarry. Reef volunteered to stay aboard the ship, knowing that Mistress Syndulla's forces were vast and that their ship would be unprotected should members of her posse locate it. Amon and Ciri then set out on foot, travelling to the mine entrances detailed to them by Reom. Unfortunately the large bay door had been shut, yet the Mandalorian narrowly made it inside just as it closed. Ciri, however, was still left outside, but the lawlady Kast found a side entrance, slicing open the door and managing to work her way inside.

The two then crept through the mine individually, with both of them noticing that it had become quite decrepit in the past few weeks. Ciri faced off against reclaimed B1 battle droids armed with plasma saws, gunning them down point-blank with her trust blaster pistol. Amon had better luck simply sneaking around the mine, but unfortunately was captured by large load-lifter droids. As he was shuffled towards Mistress Syndulla for interrogation, he noticed Ciri following along closely behind, using the darkness and stalagmites as cover as she snuck along with the droids leading Amon.

The Mandalorian soon came face-to-face with Mistress Syndulla herself. A beautiful, seductive Twi'lek woman, she tried to question him, using her looks and amorous ways to fool him into revealing his employer and any partners he may have had. The Chiss' will was stronger, however, and her seduction attempts failed: he told her nothing, save for that she would be leaving the mine with him in binders. As she boringly ordered his execution, Ciri jumped out from the shadows, blasting droids in the process. Amon leapt into action, with the two gunfighters defeating many of her organic Twi'lek henchmen and all of her reprogrammed mining droids. Even a pair of old destroyer droids entered the fray, but the Mandalorian trampled over them with a binary loadlifter he had commandeered, plowing into a wooden structure where their bounty had rushed to when the fighting began, and destroying an E-Web heavy repeating blaster one of her bandits had begun to shoot at Ciri with.

With the battle over, Ciri tackled a fleeing Mistress Syndulla, cuffing her with her binders and escorting her out of the mine with Amon. Unfortunately, the remaining contingent of mining droids began to chase them out of the mine's now-opened bay door, with Reef saving the day as he roared to the rescue with their ship. The two pushed their bounty inside and boarded as well, taking off for New Meen as the droids lost them, failing their programming to protect their Mistress.

Soon, they returned to New Meen, parading Mistress Syndulla through the streets as they checked on the townsfolk. All was well, and cheers for the three hunters sounded through the streets. After realizing all was well, they left once more aboard their ship, travelling to the arid desert world Socorro. There they were to meet with Durga the Hutt's contact, but he was a no-show. As the three brought Mistress Syndulla into the Bounty Haunt, two-parts cantina and ship refueling center, they were intercepted by a group of bounty hunters, who had apparently gunned down the contact's Gamorrean guards. Kac Caeb, a strange and cunning Mandalorian bounty hunter, Dengar, and Nhego Roolan, an Aqualish mercenary, demanded Mistress Syndulla from their opponents. After refusing, Amon entered a showdown with Caeb, with the superior gunslinger coming out on top as Caeb blasted Amon's beskar helmet. A fight raged on inside, but the three opponents backed down, agreeing that they would stand aside and that it wasn't worth it. Amon, Reef, and Ciri left the cantina, but were intercepted by a shifty Rodian calling himself Toxar Kree, who begged to join their crew. They agreed, as the alien spacer made some good points about an extra blaster, and they set off for Nar Shaddaa, where they knew Durga the Hutt would be.

They eventually arrived at the Smuggler's Moon, coming out of hyperspace to navigate the smog-choked skylanes and land at Durga's residence. Srilvo, their Neimodian contact and Durga's majordomo, met them with several of his Gamorrean guards on the landing platform. A defeated and resign Mistress Syndulla was traded for a case of credits, split mostly three ways, and somehow even Toxar received a few credits just because he managed to convince them of it. As the Twi'lek woman was brought inside Durga's sky palace for whatever debaucheries the Hutt crime lord had planned with her, the four bounty hunters, smugglers, hired guns, and colonists left Nar Shaddaa with their ship, ready for whatever adventures awaited them.

#### **Episode II: *Friends Old And New***

##### **Part One:**

After their adventures capturing Mistress Syndulla and claiming the bounty on her deadly lekku head, Reef Monsoon, Ciri Kast, and Toxar Kree prepare for their own further adventures in the hangar of the *Avenger*, which had landed on Ryloth as its captain earlier requested. Amon Beroya has left their presence, claiming that he must build the star cruiser into an underworld black market for monetary gain. Receiving a message from Boc Kairn, a fierce warlord on Ryloth, that offered work in exchange for their secrecy, the three traveled to the war-torn city of Sala'deen. Landing in one of the cavernous docking bays, they met with Kairn and were introduced to Jaster Scorros. The four then departed for their mission after witnessing one of the warlord's bodyguards be killed because of Reef's callous words, and a bit of shopping in the poor market quarters. Their quest: spring the warlord's lieutenant from Imperial imprisonment, return the head of the Imperial in charge, and determine why Jaster Scorros would interrupt Boc Kairn's court to demand a meeting with the three fringers.

Arriving at the location, that of which was uncovered by Jaster's clever infiltration of the Imperial network via their ship's holonet array, the four landed, trekking through the thick and lush jungle banding Ryloth's equator. After a short bit, they arrived at the overhang of a Twi'lek town carved into the side of a canyon. While Reef and Jaster searched the area with their macrobinoculars, Toxar and Ciri departed further into the jungle. Encountering an Imperial speeder bike patrol, Ciri and Toxar ran into a literal entanglement, that of which eventually caught the attention of more scout troopers and Jaster and Reef. After a fight, the four fringers stole the now-unoccupied speeder bikes, travelling into the deserted canyon town of Quabat to find their quarry. They soon found it, battling another group of speeder bikes and an Imperial jailspeeder. High above the canyon floor, Reef and Jaster lept from their bikes with the help of their individual grappels, climbing to the top of the jailspeeder and searching for a way inside while Toxar and Ciri exchanged laser shots with the Imperial speeder bikes.

It wasn't until Toxar caught a glimpse of swoop bikes racing behind them at a higher rate of speed that the real battle began. The swoop bikers planted a charge of the side of the jailspeeder, moving behind the craft to prepare for their own insertion into the Imperial vessel. Finding the entrance into the jailspeeder, the boarding ramp on the keel of the craft, Jaster rappeled from his position at the top, swinging underneath and slowly opening the entrance. Reef then jumped from the top as well, this time without restraints, bashing the Imperial in the face with his exoglove punch and holding onto the hot tailpipe with his free hand. With the stakes at an all-time high, the swoop ganger's explosive detonated, and the three-way race to obtain Boc Kairn's apparently-vital lieutenant began.

### **Season Two:**

*It is a dark time for the galaxy. One year has passed since the daring Rebel Alliance attacked from their hidden base, destroying the evil Galactic Empire's powerful Death Star. Since then, Imperial forces have struck back, throwing the galaxy into war. In the midst of conflict, countless planets suffer under Imperial tyranny. Many flee from oppression to build new lives beyond the bounds of civilization. Scoundrels and smugglers, bandits and bounty hunters, explorers and exiles all scramble for a living.*

*As the fantastical journeys of the* Sky Angler*'s crew come to a peaceful pause, a new story begins to emerge in the far reaches of space. A derelict prison ship hailing from the war-torn world of Onderon has come under attack by mysterious forces, barely escaping into hyperspace before reemerging right into the path of a terrifying asteroid field. The dungeon transport's crew and passengers were forced to work together to survive their new horrifying predicament, unaware that the will of the mystical energy field known as the Force had their destinies collide together for their fateful encounter. Escaping the transport's certain fate of a slow death, the scoundrels and vagabonds team up together to find purpose and fortune in an unrelenting galaxy.*

*Now reunited with his inherited starship, the plucky Corellian freighter called the ASCENDANT SPADE, Captain Aritev Lightskipper now leads his haphazard newfound crew into daring adventures across the galaxy. Thrust together after their horrible debacle, Zel Faraam, Mestra, Whitefur, and Zurdali join forces with the intrepid space smuggler, each one looking for their personal gain and a name for themselves in this uncertain time in galactic history....*

#### **Episode I: *Question of Conviction***

##### **Groggy awakenings**

The campaign begins with the *Conviction II* emerging from lightspeed, the familiar retroactive lines of the faster-than-light travel now a twisted combination of pink and green. The Hammerhead corvette's hull bristles with fires and carbon scoring from a possible starship battle, and the craft slowly drifts into the gaping maw of a deep space asteroid field. Its running lights flicker on and then off, just another sign of the extreme torture this poor ship has been through.
Inside the creaking hallways and corridors of the derelict prison transport, one of its convicts, Zurdali, awakes from her slumber. The blue-skinned Twi'lek woman is clad in an orange prisoner jumpsuit, and sits up on the side of her short bed. The room is dark, with only a single red emergency light flickering above her. She begins to shout for help after seeing nothing in her cell that could assist her with getting out, leaning on the door and looking above the cell door's high-placed bars.

"Help! Someone please come and help me! I'll make it worth your while..." The elegant and sultry voice wakes the human prisoner called Zel Faraam. He jerks awake, the sound of cries for help dying out after ringing down the hall corridors. Zel, a human male with longer black hair and a short beard to match begins to shift off his own bunk. He sees the same sight as everyone else in the detention block. The red emergency lights quickly rotate above his head, and it gives him an idea. Although Zel cannot unlock the door from his side, he could attempt to do so by reaching around the other end of the door. Zel grabs the mattress from his bunk, folds it in two the best he can, and stands atop it, craning one arm through the cell bars above the door and hits the unlock button. The door begins to slide open to the side, but the man's arm is caught, and he yells out in pain, another sound that rings through the detention block's hallways.

"Mestra...sister...arise! Awake, sister! The spirit realm is not ready for you yet..."

A pair of steel-colored eyes snap open, a green mist rising from them as she blinks it away. The voice, one deep from inside her head, begins to fade away with the smoke that has now dissipated above the near-human woman's head. Her hardened features ripple from groggy confusion, and she sits up from her bunk. A shout of pain bounces off the corridor's bulkheads, matching the eeriness of the dimly-lit room. As the red emergency lights flicker above her head, the Dathomirian woman, known only as Mestra, fiddles with the simple control box for the door. As she cannot unlock it, she conjures a pick out of nothing, the tool forming out of a green mist into her hand, and pries the hatch open. A few wires pulled and spliced allows her to unlock the door, and just as the lithe lady stands up, the pick disappears into green mist once more. Mestra shoves the door open, and begins to creep out, seeing a pair of glowrods bouncing up and down the corridor.

Up inside the bridge, a young human male, sitting in the co-pilot's chair, jerks awake. The crash harness bounces with his sudden movement, and Aritev Lightskipper immediately recalls the events that transpired from his point of view right before the *Conviction II* made its unexpected jump to lightspeed. He looks over at the dead pilot, who's body is thrown across the control surface in front of the seat, muttering, "uh, Evers. Kriff", as he flips on the secondary systems for the ship, including the life support and gravity. Unfortunately he notes that both hyperdrives, the sublight engines, and more critical systems are offline. The Corellian unbuckles himself from his crash harness, wandering to the back of the bridge, and going through the corpse of Captain Tarson, who is similarily laying across the holotable, with blood pouring out from his head now dry and cracked on the holotable's surface. After a brief search, Aritev finds Tarson's locker combination, but no other pieces of equipment or authorization that would assist him in any way. Gathering his own belongings, which are still equipped to him, Aritev carefully wanders to the rear of the bridge, going outside the main room itself and into the lounge behind the bridge. Looking inside a locker to find anything valuable, he finds nothing, and suddenly feels a blaster's muzzle tap the back of his head. "Where's the captain?" A croaking voice asks him.

Above everyone else, high in the reactor deck, a little Chadra-Fan picks himself up from the cold grate protecting him from exposed pipes below. Beside him, a little pit droid powers up as its sensors pick up movement nearby. Whitefur makes a quick scan of his surroundings, and notices a Duros crew member wearing a blue uniform sitting against the bulkhead to his left, entirely wrapped in wires. Whitefur races over to his side, and after seeing his terrible situation, uses his tools to pry the wires apart with his pit droid's help. N1-G9 uses his mechanical strength to pry them apart as Whitefur uses rubber gloves to keep himself from getting shocked. The Duros thanks them for their help, and Whitefur asks what is going on to the ship. The alien mechanic reveals that he was rushing to the reactor to stabilize it once the ship mysteriously became under attack. He thanks Whitefur, and the little lifeform sets off with N1, knowing exactly where to go and how to fix the power fluctuations that are arcing across the ship.

##### **First meetings**

During all of the other events transpiring around her, Zurdali had managed to get the attention of a pair of crewmates. Convicing them to let her out of her cell, as they would need help searching for anyone else alive and uncovering what had happened to the *Conviction II*, the Twi'lek slunk out of her cell and walked down the hallway corridor as the two crewmates went down the other end of the dilapidated hall. That was when she witnessed a woman younger than she, wearing a matching prisoner jumpsuit and sneaking out of her own cell. They shared their names, Mestra and Zurdali, and agreed to work together to get out of their predicament. Together, they reunited with the crewmates, and the two went ahead of them, going down the other end of the corridor to an intersection.
That was when they encounted yet another prisoner. Zel had managed to wrangle his arm out from the door and dropped to the deck, and crept up the corridor to his right. As the voices of several people and a pair of glowrods cast their light towards his direction, he quickly identified the prisoner lockers, learning where his possessions must have been. Then, he came face to face with a beautiful Twi'lek woman. A hushed conversation led to the crewmates and Mestra discovering Zel as well, and the crewmates suddenly realized how outnumbered they were. Zel quickly took advantage of this, and with Zurdali and Mestra's help, fought off the crewmates after they attempted to arrest them once more. Zel threw them in his old detention cell, and the three unlocked the lockers, obtaining their gear, weapons, and more.

Further session synopsis will be entered.

#### **Episode II: *Recovery of the* Ascendant Spade**

A few hours after the *Conviction II* has landed at Cloud City, the new, rough-and-tumble crew sits in a large white interrogation room. High inside the Security Tower, a Bespin Wing Guard sergeant has just finished his questioning, reminding the mismatched combination of aliens, humans, and droid of their situation. A short conversation ensues as the crew asks about the next step, and the sergeant leaves the room with his fellow Guards. The six individuals are left alone for the first time ever, as Zurdali notes that there appears to be a lack of any surveillance equipment in the room.

A conversation between the group leads to an interesting set of questions about their next move. Uncertainty seems to ebb and flow between everyone, as they are not sure whether or not they should stick together after they are cleared or go about their separate ways. Fingers are pointed at each other for their situation and personalities, with many wary of the other's intentions and apparent foul deeeds. Whitefur quickly becomes bored with the conversation, and buzzes the door alarm to ask the guard outside a question. The uniformed Wing Guardsman opens the door, and the little Chadra-Fan immediately requests that he fix up anything and do the Wing Guard a favor. The officer, after much uncertain curiosity, allows Whitefur to tinker with his blaster pistol. The Modder fixes it up in a matter of seconds, replacing the gas chamber, tuning the power pack, and realigning the barrel to make it a more effective pistol. The officer thanks Whitefur, and at that moment as the others are looking on in awe at the little furry alien's quick and delicate work, the Captain of the Guard approaches.

Thankfully he brings more good news than bad news. Captain Ogun Bylig, a human male in his mid-forties, reveals a bit more of an answer as to what happened to the *Conviction II* that caused it to have its hyperdrive mishap. Showing his guests a hologram recording recovered from the bridge, it shows the exact chain of events that led to the ship becoming stranded on the edge of the Ivax Nebula. The vessel was attacked by Rebel Alliance X-wing starfighters as it was about to jump to lightspeed, causing a tragic accident that led to the Captain and pilot's death. This clears up Aritev's name and does not convict him as a murderer, and due to Cloud City hoping to avoid attracting Imperial attention, Captain Bylig has been ordered to clear the crew and prisoners of any wrongdoing and allow them to leave unmolested.

Unfortunately, the *Conviction II* has been absconded from the care of the Bespin Wing Guard. Captain Bylig is still unsure what happened, and informs the party that he has his best detectives on the case to determine what happened, and if it may be possible to recover the ship. The man tells everyone as they are leaving that he is grateful for their cooperation and will inform them with the investigation's progress. This leaves Aritev, Whitefur, Zurdali, Zel, and Mestra stranded. However, as they leave the Security Tower and make a brief series of goodbyes, they all notice that Cloud City is a remarkably large mining colony, with the area around them in particular being a fantastic location of glitz, glammer, shopping, and opportunity. They take advantage of this, agreeing to rent a hostel together before travelling to the bazaars and expensive shops the next day to look for equipment they may use to bargain with a freighter captain to leave Bespin behind.

After the first quiet night's rest in a long time, the sun has risen on Cloud City, with a new day dawning. This is reflected with the adventurers awakening from their nightly slumber, preparing for their day by sipping cups of caf and having space waffles together in the kitchen. Each crew member knows they must begin their own quests to leave Bespin, so Aritev and Zel depart together to search for some items of theirs. The smuggler is unable to locate a pair of infrabinoculars, but the Mandalorian is successful in purchasing an augmented spin barrel to futher customize his Black Barrel carbine.

As the two gunfighters browse the morning markets, the other three join them as well, with mystical Mestra simply wandering the storefronts in her concealing robes and purchasing a common comlink as tantalizing Zurdali buys a few stimpacks for their forthcoming adventure. Whitefur goes as far as to venture into a sporting goods store with Aritev, after obtaining some credits from Zel, and purchasing a foot speeder from a local young salesman, who is a fan of foot speeder feats. With their shopping done, Aritev and Whitefur head to the spaceport, where they hope to locate a ship to book passage aboard. Tired of their companions and ready to haul jets, Lightskipper tells Whitefur in confidence that they should find a ship for themselves and depart without the others. His companion is quick to disagree, and says they should at least take Zurdali with them.

Eventually making it to the spaceport, the two partners discover that there are no readily available flights in the near future. Speaking with a customs official, the man explains that the pirate attacks in the areas of space surrounding the gas giant have made passenger captains wary of travelling there. He does say, however, that he recalls a human captain of a YT-2400 light freighter hoping to find a job soon. Unfortunately, the YT-2400 is docked in a hangar in Port Town, in the shipping zone deep in Cloud City's metallic "crust". This quickly catches Aritev's attention, connecting the dots and seeing a familiarity between the described freighter's captain and Jax Holdak, his personal nemesis.

Secretly departing the spaceport, Aritev and Whitefur travelled through the levels of Cloud City, arriving in the shifty shipping zone called Port Town. Quickly navigating their way to the hangar bay described by the spaceport's customs official an hour before, Whitefur managed to slice the computerized lock rather quickly, with his gunslinging captain quick drawing his blaster pistol and rushing into the hangar ready for a fight. Oddly enough, however, the hangar bay is dark and empty, all save for one large object in the center of the facility; a Corellian Engineering Corporation YT-2400 light freighter. Both scoundrels recognize the ship's markings immediately, recalling that it is indeed Aritev's prized starship- the *Ascendant Spade*.

The Corellian and his Chadra-Fan counterpart make a quick getaway plan: Aritev will attempt to break inside the ship and deal with any potential resistance within, and begin powering up the ship. Meanwhile, the crafty technician would enter the hangar bay's contol room overlooking the hangar floor and somehow open the large hangar door before meeting up with Lightskipper inside their vessel and blasting off. As Aritev kept his unholstered gun in the palm of his and and began inputting the potential codes to unlock the boarding ramp, Whitefur easily entered the empty control office, and began tinkering with the electronic panels and systems inside. A failed attempt to open the doors with a manual winch lever caused the mad mechanic to brazenly rip and tear the wiring in the control board with his bare front mouse-like teeth, actually managing to succeed, albeit with a rather uncomfortable shock as the wires caught spark and gave way. With the door opening before his wee little eyes, the little mouse-man raced to assist his captain, thoughts of Zurdali praising him for his bravery filling his mind.

The Corellian's hereditary luck paid off, with the door opening rather quickly as he guessed the new passcode. Blaster still in hand and his fingers in the other flipping his lucky coin, Aritev raced up the familiar surface into the warm embrace of an unoccupied starship. Their luck was paying off, and far more than it perhaps should have. The *Ascendant Spade*'s rightful captain sat himself in his pilot's chair and began powering the ship's engines, hearing the reactor power critical systems and feeling the ship begin to rumble under his seat. His faithful co-pilot entered as well, shutting the cockpit door behind him as the boarding ramp closed. Within only a few minutes the engines burned hot blue, and the Corellian freighter blazed out of the hangar, with the two shipjackers waving and saluting at a screaming Jax Holdak and crew, who had responded to a silent alarm in the hangar and arrived barely moments after the ship was leaving.

With the *Ascendant Spade* in its rightful captain's hands there was no star unreachable, and no planet out of grasp. Aritev Lightskipper was ready to leave everything behind and haul jets, but as always, thoughtul Whitefur managed to convince him to think of the others. Begrudgingly so, Captain Lightskipper turned the ship back around, sending a transmission to Zel, Mestra, and Zurdali to meet them at a nearby landing pad so they could officially join the *Spade*'s crew for their further adventures.

#### **Episode III:** *A Smuggler's Spicy Sellout*

With the *Ascendant Spade* in its rightful captain's possession once more, its new crew had begun to settle in. Aritev had assumed the captain role, as was natural for owning the ship, and began assigning quarters and responsibilities for the others. It didn't take long for the shenanigans to begin as each crewmember settled into a state of comfort and open relaxation. While Whitefur grabbed a bucket of nano-paint and a brush and raced to his quarters, lady Mestra tapped into her mystical ways, first making a meal for everyone and eventually isolating herself in her room for some quiet time. This gave the rest of the space for Lightskipper, Zurdali, and Zel Faraam.

The Mandalorian sharpshooter was no stranger to the vessel. He had, in fact, previously been its assigned gunner on a few laser-brain-schemed heists and blockade runs in the past, and began to wander the passageways and corridors sentimentality. While a few things had been altered slightly while in Holdak's possession, he noticed it had remained relatively the same, much to his relief. "I always like a familiar layout" he remarked to Zurdali as the Twi'lek enchantress asked what he was doing. Aritev didn't quite yet trust Zurdali, and asked Faraam to keep an eye on her while he investigated some flight logs in the cockpit.

Zel had a reasonable assumption that Zurdali would be no harm, and joined his Corellian captain in the cockpit to assist in decoding a particularly interesting coded transmission. This credence was ill-placed however, and it would soon come to fruition. Making sure they were out of view and that not a single individual were around, even N1-G9, Zurdali poured a vial of powdered ryll spice out onto the galley's food prep table and snorted it. Her blue face instantly became flushed, her eyes bloodshot as the substance ran its course through her bloodstream. The alien woman's addiction had been satiated after so long, and she had been looking forward to consuming the spice since she reacquired it on the *Conviction II* days before. With that out of the way she meandered to the cockpit, where her two male companions had finished decoding the hidden transmission.

Paying her little attention, they played back the recorded message. It appeared to be a disguised voice using a scrambler to conceal the speaker's identity, but the message was clear; Jax Holdak owed the individual 110 metric tons of ryll spice, and it needed to be delivered soon, or he or she would send bounty hunters after the ship to repossess it. Aritev managed to send a message demanding a conversation back, and after a few tense minutes the *Spade* received a two-way transmission request. It was still cloaked, but now they had someone to speak with. After explaining that he was now the correct and "new" owner of the ship and that whatever deal Jax Holdak had made was between he and the masked persona, the individual still didn't care. He explained that the ship was collateral in a bet, and that the debt had been passed on to Lightskipper and his new crew. If they would manage to obtain 110 metric tons of ryll spice and bring it to the Peldaasa system, where the debtor would then send them meeting coordinates, the debt would be lifted.

This still wasn't enough to the scoundrels. Zel and Aritev both argued that spice costed credits, and unless the person wanted the spice to move, it wouldn't ever get there without a credit transfer so they could pay for it. After a moment of tense silence, the individual agreed, wiring them 20,000 credits. He stated that it would be a bit more than the spice was worth, but they may keep however much is left as the remainder after the spice was paid for and loaded aboard the *Ascendant Spade*. Finding this acceptable, the transmission was ended, and Aritev and Zel happily turned around to discuss the plan with Zurdali, only to notice her pale expression, bloodshot eyes- and the Chadra-Fan next to her completely drugged out of his mind.

The blame was immediately pinned on Zurdali. "Of course it's her fault!" Aritev proclaimed, but Zel was insistent. Perhaps, he argued, they could utilize Zurdali's keen sense for spice and her gift of the gab to locate ryll spice much easier than an armored Mandalorian warrior and a cocky Corelllian smuggler could. Whitefur just wobbled back and forth on his paws, a dumb smile on his tooty lips as he attempted to gaze under Zurdali's skirt. Without a moment to lose, Zel and Aritev talked over their plan with Zurdali and set out into more run-down areas of Port Town in search of hard spice, leaving Mestra in charge of the ship to keep an eye on Whitefur.

Navigating the slums of Cloud City's Port Town, Zurdali approached many different potential spice dealers and/or addicts. All seemed to point to an individual called Ahloon One-Eye as the seller for quantities big enough to fill a space cruiser. The perfomer had managed to get his location: it appeared he typically hung out in his favorite cantina; the Harpy's Harkening. While Aritev and Zel kept a careful few paces behind their Twi'lek spicehead's position, they watched as she entered the run-down watering hole, with two nefarious street tough's trading a glance at each other as she walked in next to them and following her inside. Moving to guard the vulnerable and equally beautiful woman from any scumsucker who "wanted some" as Zel put it, they entered as well, with the Corellian taking a seat at the bar and the Mandalorian cradling his Black Barrel carbine as he leaned against the wall near the door. Both had an incredible view on Zurdali, who had sat down next to a strange alien with one missing eye, and were only a few paces away should anything happen.

The space siren's negotiations were short, yet pleasant. Ahloon One-Eye was more than pleased to sell 110 metric tons, or four industrial-size shipping containers, worth of ryll spice to the mysterious and gorgeous blue Twi'lek lady seated before him in the booth. However, he demanded only one thing: the spice pusher wanted to know which crime family Zurdali was working for. He explained he had a bad few experiences with galactic-scale crime syndicates, and wanted to know what he was getting into. To get a proper answer out of her, he let Zurdali try a sample of the product as she requested. Finding that it hit the spot, Zurdali responded that she worked for the Pyke Syndicate.

While Ahloon One-Eye continued his pleasant exchangee with Zurdali, Zel noticed three more rough humans join the two vagabonds at a table near the booth. Discussing it quietly with Aritev over the comlink, his captain remarked that they should just keep an eye, and only pull their blasters if they made an aggressive move towards Zurdali. Sipping at his expensive shot of Corellian whiskey, he commented that he only cared that Zurdali could get them the spice, and that she was useful only for that. Faraam quietly disagreed to himself, but agreed on one thing with his old partner. If they could work together to keep Zurdali alive, they could definitely solve many of their problems; and avoid even more to come.

With their business concluded, Ahloon One-Eye escorted Zurdali to his warehouse, where he would show her proof of his word before a transaction of credits was done. Taking their cue as the booth's inhabitants arose, the five roughians got up from their own chairs, moving rather quickly to follow the pair of spice dealers. Both of Zurdali's secretive bodyguards followed behind them immediately, and as Zurdali and Ahloon One-Eye were ambushed and held at vibroknifepoint at the entrance to an empty alley, Aritev and Zel instantly drew their blasters from behind the gang, with a short blaster fight ringing out. The gunfighters quickly dispatched the five street toughs, but Zurdali and Ahloon One-Eye escaped their view. The Twi'lek entertainer put her acting skills to good use, exclaiming that they should leave and seek shelter in One-Eye's warehouse right away. The alien dealer responded that they weren't far, and raced towards his own miniature fortress with her in hand.

It didn't take long for Zurdali's partners to keep up, watching as the two entered the warehouse from the front entrance and seal the door shut. While Zurdali was brought up to the office overlooking the warehouse work floor, Aritev began fidgeting with the emergency exit door's control panel while Zel kept a precious eye out from across the street. Inside the office, Zurdali faked severe stomach pain, and convinced Ahloon One-Eye to retrieve laxative medication "fitting for her species" from a drug store down the street. Using the excuse as a cover and finding it to work, she raced to the front door, discovering that Lightskipper and Faraam had entered through the nearby emergency exit door. She escorted them to the office above, where they discovered the guard One-Eye had left to protect her curious as to why she left. Zel and Aritev absconded the man, knocking him out and dragging him to the office's bathroom while Zurdali searched the office for a safe and any controls to the overhead warehouse cranes and lifts.

After not finding any, and with Ahloon One-Eye approaching up the stairs with the medication Zurdali requested, the three locked themselves away in the restroom, with Zurdali continuing to fake extreme gastrointestinal pain. As the alien spice pusher called out for the guard he assigned to watch over his enchanting Twi'lek customer in his absence, the two blaster-wielding assailants he intervene in the holdup earlier jumped out of the bathroom door, deadly laser weapons in hand and demanding his arms up in the air as Zurdali continued to moan in "pain" in the bathroom. Tossing Ahloon One-Eye into the restroom and pulling their Twi'lek spice addict out, they locked him inside, and headed down to the warehouse floor, where they could see from the overhead walkways they were descending down that the shipment of ryll spice has already been prepared by the alien seller's goons.

The nondescript humanoids didn't care much that Ahloon One-Eye wasn't present as the three buyers approached them, but one hired Trandoshan mercenary demanded that he needed to be present before any shipment was to be loaded aboard their ship or signed over to them. After a tense exchange involving insulting one another's heritage and homeworld, the Trandoshan merc and Captain Lightskipper faced off in a duel to the death. The Trandoshan never got to cash out his jagganath points, however, with Aritev landing a quick series of return shots after the lizard-man grazed his shoulder with an initial shot from his blaster rifle. The other hired help didn't want their fate to be similar to the largest footman's, as he lay dead on the warehouse floor with his long tongue spilling out on the ground, and allowed the three scoundrels to load the cargo on the *Ascendant Spade*, which Aritev had notified to meet with them at the precise docking bay.

Just as they had finished loading up the four crates, however, Ahloon One-Eye appeared, rushing out with the previously-unconscious sentry and shouting at Captain Lightskipper to return his stolen ryll spice. With a jaunty salute and a cocky grin, the Corellian daredevil spacer took the controls from Mestra, settling next to Whitefur in the cockpit and roaring out of the magnetic field. Soon, a pair of Cloud Cars followed them; reinforcements of Ahloon One-Eyes for this exact scenario. The high-performance airspeeders were no match for the *Ascendant Spade* skilled crew, with the Mandalorian gunner back in his familiar seat and destroying one as Zurdali blasted One-Eye out of existence with the other laser cannon turret. With the help of Mestra's sensor readings and Whitefur's handle on other necessary, but distracting, bit of cockpit control, Aritev Lightskipper reduced his freighter's speed, causing the Cloud Car's twin spar engine to overheat in the *Spade*'s ion engine burn, exploding into a fireball as the smuggling starship soared above the wispy clouds and into space, ready to drop off their cargo to Holdak's burned client and clear their recovered ship's name once and for all.

### **Season Three:**

*It is a dark time for the galaxy. One year has passed since the daring Rebel Alliance attacked from their hidden base, destroying the evil Galactic Empire's powerful Death Star. Since then, Imperial forces have struck back, throwing the galaxy into war. In the midst of conflict, countless planets suffer under Imperial tyranny. Many flee from oppression to build new lives beyond the bounds of civilization. Scoundrels and smugglers, bandits and bounty hunters, explorers and exiles all scramble for a living.*

*With the adventurous crews of the SKY ANGLER and the ASCENDANT SPADE about to collide on a course of unexpected variables, the war-weary planet Vit Onax is about to become a new port for illicit trade. Straddling the border of the Mid and Outer Rims, the world's history of warfare has attracted the attention of bounty hunters and hired guns from across the nearby sectors of space.*

*With the Empire focused on nearby flashpoints such as Onderon, both renegade and established warlords and commanders of Vit Onax call upon mercenaries brave or foolhardy enough to join in on their martial campaigns. In this time of certain upheaval, it falls upon these soldiers of fortune entering dangerous covenants to keep the peace in the most distant parts of the galaxy....*

#### **Episode I:**

##### **Part One:**

A small transport flies down from its emergence from hyperspace, correcting its course for its approach vector. Before it rests Vit Onax, a long-settled world of galactic civilization, situated on the border of the Mid and Outer Rim, inside the well-explored Slice. Its passengers, a motley mix of organics and droids, a fair number of them armed and dangerous, rest in their seats and view the sight of the large city districts spread across the world's surface from orbit. "Passengers," a tinny droid voice rings from the speakers above their heads, "we are preparing for our re-entry into Vit Onax' atmosphere. Please be seated and prepare for landing."

Heeding their droid pilot's advice, the passengers finish whatever it is they have occupied themselves with on this long journey through the stars, and sit down in their seats. A young boy, different from all the others, as his discipline far outweighs his peers, gazes his eyes across the seats around him. Across from him and his father, a Pantoran woman with a large blaster rifle sits, looking out the viewport and catching his eye with a wink. In the next seat over across the aisle, a Wookiee, of all beings in the galaxy, sits beside a rougher-appearing human male, more similar to his father in many ways. The pair are discussing something back and forth, and largely ignore the boy's look.

Joining his father in watching the clouds pass rapidly around their craft, each passenger pays witness to the ocean below, its archipelagos twinkling like corusca gems in a nebula. Without much of a fanfair, the shuttle enters the airspace of a large city, itself stretching farther than the eye can see above the clouds. Weaving in-between developing buildings and lopsided structures, the shuttle extends its landing struts and sets down in a spaceport's landing pad, slowly cooling down the engines and lowering the boarding ramp with a report of flight success and a "welcome to Vit Onax" from the shuttle's droid captain.

The passengers exited, while the Wookiee's human counterpart, Jac Sardok, eyed them carefully. He had been keeping a close eye on the Pantoran woman, knowing the capabilities of female bounty hunters, and let she and the man and his son pass by before he motioned for Worskrr, his Wookiee friend, to join him in leaving. Coincidentally, each group had the same arranged meeting to attend; meet with their contact for their new employer, a mercenary outfitter called Blaster Galactic, in the spaceport's reception lounge. Hoss'del Gannon, or simply "Gannon", and his son, Luca, were the first to arrive, meeting with a large orange Trandoshan named Hsskor. They exchanged pleasantries, with Sardok and his furry companion also arriving and greeting the others for the first time. Finally, the Pantoran from the flight, Rhea Orden, also met with them, and they set off, with Hsskor stating that their first job already began; escort him to safety to the Blaster Galactic base. As they passed through the different city districts, they asked him questions about the planet, the people, and Hsskor's importance. He explained to them that Vit Onax may not seem like the typical place to attract mercenaries, but their company, Blaster Galactic, had appointed him as System Coordinator to oversee all operations on the planet.

An hour passed by, entirely uneventful. A quick verbal exchange with the security guard at the front energy-shielded gate allowed them to pass inside, and Hsskor quickly made identification cards for the whole party before allowing them to rest before their first real mission. As they began to settle in and thought about exploring the Blaster Galactic compound, a large, concussive explosion was felt near the front gate, rocking the buildings side-to-side. Grabbing their weapons and armor, the new hires kitted up, and raced out to discover the cause of the explosion. Blasterfire rang out across the courtyard as other mercenaries fought off their unknown assailants, and Rhea, Gannon, and Luca witnessed several armed aggressors race through the courtyard, killing a Blaster Galactic contractor in the process. Racing after them to stop them before they ambushed anyone else, they engaged them in deadly combat in a separate building.

Meanwhile, Jac and Worskrr ran to Hsskor's last known position in the command room, backing him up as he fought off several alien attackers in a vicious lightfight. Worskrr's scatterblaster managed to distract them long enough for Sardok to blast one of them, and then ambush the last fighter as he ran away from the fight through a side door. Rhea, in her own fight, stunned one of the attackers, but accidentally grazed Gannon's arm, distracting him but allowing him to still utilize his vibrospear to kill two of the newfound enemy. A quick investigation of each body determined that they were Rodian, which was of little surprise to the other mercenaries.

A plasma grenade, thrown by Jac through a side door, completely wiped out a heavier-armed Rodian, and Worskrr finished off the remaining two in the courtyard. With the small but capable force defeated, the Blaster Galactic mercenaries met in the courtyard, following Jac's device to construct a temporary barrier where the energy shield was destroyed by a landspeeder, rigged up with explosives to become a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device. Rhea's previous stun of the Rodian allowed Gannon to interrogate him in the open, threatening him greatly. Spilling everything, the Rodian informed them that this was a test, and that his clan, the Chonwo clan, had been hired to attack the Blaster Galactic compound. An enraged Hsskor asked the newcomers what they would do, as a test, and Jac killed the Rodian after Gannon's questioning was done, stabbing him through the throat with his wrist blade.

With that out of the way, Hsskor put the compound on high alert, with each mercenary equipping themselves with their full gear and arsenal as they patrolled the facility. At Sardok's recommendation, a proper wall was beginning to be created, and Hsskor promised a bonus to everyone for staving off the Chonwo clan attack. With that done, he once again welcomed the new mercenaries to Vit Onax, and they all finally found time to rest in their bunks, ready for whatever real first mission would be required of them.

A full day would pass by before that would happen. Under the instruction of Hsskor and the sound advice of Jac Sardok, a temporary barrier wall construction took place where the energy shield had once been. Patrols were constant, as was the attitude of preparedness across the Blaster Galactic compound.

Itching for a real fight, Hoss'del Gannon ventured a question to Hsskor as the latter inspected the destroyed landspeeder's chassis in the garage: what would be the potential of getting revenge for the attack? Hsskor made it abundantly clear to the human that there was no concrete battle plan, as the location of Chonwo clan safehouses or outposts on Vit Onax was unknown to many. However, the possibility of the local populace knowing was more than likely. The Trandoshan gave full approval for the new hires to begin their own low-visibility investigation and questioning in the slums, which would only be a short walk or speeder bike ride away. Seeking Rhea Orden's assistance, Gannon, his son, Luca, and the assassin ventured from the safer confines of the Blaster Galactic outpost into the awaiting arms of the locals.

With the walk underway, the trio entered the slum districts, looking for the first signs of Chonwo clan interaction. The tight alleys and streets littered with detritus, low-hanging smoke, and the sounds of aliens, humans, and droids mingling together with airspeeders, working equipment, and loud conversation did not improve their situation much. The mercenaries would have to talk with a local and appear as friends with a few questions. While they blended in fine with their armor and rougher, heavy clothing, they decided to instead investigate first in a small corner tapcafe. There, they surmised, they would be able to listen in and speak with natives in a quieter and more intimate setting.

Rhea immediately entered the tapcafe and sat down in a dingy, unkept booth in the back corner next to the bar. As Luca was about to join her, Hoss'del stopped the boy, instead insisting they stay near the door in case anything got too heated and they needed a quick getaway. The Pantoran bounty hunter's instincts served her well, as she sat down, she almost immediately heard a conversation between two workers discussing the local conversation about a mercenary base being attacked the day before. Rhea gave a quick signal to Gannon, but the last bit was hidden from the man as a woman walked in front of his view of his seated companion, and he decided that whatever she was trying to signal him about the two locals at the bar must be important enough.

Saddling beside the pair at the bar with his boy, Gannon immediately ordered a water for his son, and then started small talk with the two workers. Much to their annoyance, as they attempted to dismiss his conversation starters multiple times, they made it clear that they knew he was a mercenary, due to his armor, and that if he was asking about the attack, then he was either from Blaster Galactic, or looking to join them. Their jobs at the starship docks were enough for them, and they didn't care much for his questioning, trying to just ignore him and carry on.

As this was happening, Rhea noticed a green figure hidden behind a locally-made and patterned blue cloak getting nervous and leaving the tapcafe, as he was watching Hoss'del and the two day laborers discuss the attack. The bounty hunter alerted her friend to the situation, and the human thanked the two for the conversation, leaving the business with his son and partner to go after the possible escapee. A street chase broke out, and Rhea and Hoss'del chased down the figure, now truly revealed as a Rodian, through the congested slums. Rhea was stopped by an airspeeder landing directly before her as she tried to chase the fleeing Rodian into an alleyway, but Gannon charged into the craft, knocking it partially aside and allowing him and his son to continue their pursuit of the alien up a set of cargo crates along the wall. Rhea immediately climbed the wall, and met them halfway down the side path, while Gannon had tripped the Rodian as he tried to climb some crates and was holding him at vibrospear-point at the throat.

Hauling the Rodian up to her, and waiting for her friends to join her, the assassin forced an answer out of the Rodian with the hired gun's help. The creature gave up the fight at once, admitting he was a Chonwo clan Rodian fighter and letting her toss aside his weapons as he kept spilling everything he knew. Gannon had Luca pat down their foe, and then help them haul him down the crates back down to the alley. With everything seeming to come to a conculsion, they started hauling him back to the Blaster Galactic compound. Much to their dismay, however, a smoke canister was tossed into the alley, and a metallic voice stating, "Rhea Orden, by order of Black Sun, you are to be captured for the attempted fleeing of the Order of the Night Wind! Give up at once."

Stepping into the open and through the plume of smoke, was an IG-series assassin droid. It's designation was inscripted clearly and boldly on it's head in aurebesh; IG-88G. Not wasting any time, Rhea drew her blaster and fired at the droid, hardly denting its combat plating. Hoss'del also launched his own attack, as the assassin droid began spewing blaster fire in their direction, jabbing it with his vibrospear. A wild fight broke out, with all members damaged quite heavily as a melee weapon duel between the mercenary and assassin droid began, the feared droid revealing an electrostaff- a weapon Hoss'del was intimately familiar with. Gannon was able to snatch the weapon from the droid, but a new problem revealed itself; a Selonian woman, dropping from the alley's roof behind Rhea, made clear in her language that Rhea should surrender if she wanted her friend and his son to live. Realizing they were outmatched and outgunned, Hoss'del ordered Luca to drag the wounded Rodian away to the compound, delaying the assassins with Rhea's help. The two then made their way to the facility as well, racing through the slums on foot and avoiding another confrontation with the pair of bounty hunters.

Now back at the Blaster Galactic base, they met up with Jac and Worskrr, handing over the Chonwo clan Rodian to Hsskor and another group of fellow hired guns. Congratulating and thanking them, as well as understanding their warning of other dangers unbeknownst to the mercenaries beforehand, the Trandoshan boss invited them for drinks in the dining facility, hoping to discuss further missions against the Chonwo clan, as well as any credits involved.

In the next few days, not much had happened since the attack. The Rodian's interrogation was proceeding well, and Hsskor was preparing to send teams to perform low visibility reconnaissance, using the techniques advised by Hoss'del Gannon and Rhea Orden from their own investigation. The three newcomers were getting restless, however, and approached their Trandoshan boss for a job.

Hsskor had a simple mission; provide security for a local debutante at a gala she was hosting at her residence. It should be a simple mission, nothing out of the ordinary for mercenaries. Departing aboard a Blaster Galactic landspeeder, with the help of Worskrr and Luka, the five soon arrived at a cantina to see about drinks before heading to their job. Entering the dingy cantina, which was fairly busy but packed full of tense Weequays, they approached the bartender, a heavyset Twi'lek man with a fairly nervous disposition.

The bartender kept the conversation short, providing only drink and limited conversation. Jac eventually discovered that the alien mixologist was nervous about the chief Weequay's presence in a booth opposite from the bar. While Rhea watched from a corner where she could keep an eye on the other groups of Weequays in the cantina, and Gannon guarded his son while standing a bit back from the Jac and Worskrr, whom were approaching the corner booth. The Weequays demanded they leave, telling Jac to mind his own business. A nervous voice continually spoke up from the back of the booth, but the Weequays told him to shut up, and kept demanding that the mercenaries leave them to their business.

Never taking no for an answer, Jac unclipped a frag grenade from his belt, and casually tossed it into the rounded corner booth. Gannon moved to immediately shield his son, and Worskrr began to slam the head Weequay against the wall. With a brawl breaking out, Rhea began a one-against-four hand-to-hand fight with the other concentration of Weequay, who moved in to assist their compatriots. Eventually blasters were drawn, and the Weequay were killed, as the figure from the back of the booth pickpocketed the chief Weequay as he kept up his brawl with Worskrr. Finally, with Gannon's assistance, all four of the Weequay were neutralized, either being killed or knocked unconscious.

The figure then revealed himself, a Rodian named Toxar Kree. Jac allowed the Weequay to leave with him, finding him to be a bigger problem than the enemies they eliminated. Begging to be rescued, Toxar was hauled out of the cantina, and the bar had been emptied. The bartended did not seem relieved in the slightest, however, and revealed that the Weequay had placed bombs inside the cantina as a threat to not call for help from local security. The group moved immediately, determining that the power source of the cantina was allowing the bombs to be activated in the first place.

Before they could move forward, however, more of the Weequay from the same group bursted in from the back room, as well as the floor grate below. Reinforcements! As the bombs counted down, each mercenary and bounty hunter took fighting positions, engaging the alien marauders with blaster shots from cover and the crackling of Gannon's electrostaff. Eventually, teaming up together proved to be a fruitful plan, however, the team took a few scrapes of their own before eliminating the hostiles. Racing against time, Jac ran out the back door into the alleyway between the buildings, and shut off the main power source, which Rhea had been originating from an electronic link from the lighting system, all the way to a bomb strapped on the bartender's back. Activating the backup power system, the interior lights flickered on, but the bombs had stopped chirping.

Satisfied, the group finally relaxed. Saloch, the bartender, advised that they toss the dead Weequay bodies outside the door as a warning sign to other troublemakers. He then made a deal; in exchange for saving his life and allowing the business to survive, he would give them free drinks forever, as well as allow them to use his backroom for their own purposes, in exchange for protection. They agreed, already prepared to leave the Blaster Galactic compound for their own domicile. Settling in, they purchased beds and home equipment, as well as gear to help recover from the injuries they would sustain as they continued operating as blasters and blades-for-hire on the deceptively dangerous planet of Vit Onax.

##### **Part Two:**

As the sun rose over a new day on Vit Onax, the four mercenaries were continuing their search for better supplies for their new base of operations inside the Kloo Horn Cantina. Saloch, the pudgy Twi'lek bartender and owner of the establishment, was cleaning the entire building with the help of Luca Gannon, using the small boy's assistance to dig into smaller locations to scrub off carbon scoring. As that effort was going on, Hoss'del Gannon, the boy's adopted father, and his compatriots Rhea Orden, Jac Sardok, and the Wookiee warrior Worskrr, were out doing their shopping and getting a feel for the locals.

Some had success, but largely the excursion was all for not. Returning to their new home, they arrived to discover that Sardok and his Wookiee companion were in a tense conversation with another Wookiee, this one having assaulted Saloch by reaching across the bar to yank on his collar, bringing him face-to-face as the angered Wookiee demanded the location of a cute blue Twi'lek girl and her group that had been there a few days before. Worskrr was livid, demanding the "madclaw" to release the alien and clamly explain the situation. Continued miscommunication led to a standoff and eventual fight between Jac and the Wookiee, with his own companion choosing to stay out of the fray.

Only the intervention of Hoss'del with his electrostaff, racing to Jac's side and forcing the Wookiee assailant to stand down stopped the tavern from experiencing a fiery dose of grenades and acid projected from the Wookiee's weapon. Hsskor, having recently arrived, had been watching the entire time, recently making Sardok the team leader while he inspected their new base of operations independent from the Blaster Galactic compound. The Trandoshan was impressed, and invited the Wookiee, whose name was revealed as Khaarl, to take part in the new mission he was putting forth. Agreeing and looking for work, the group was silenced, and Hsskor began his briefing.

High above the planet, he explained through snarls and hisses, was a series of orbital repair docks. Massive freighters and other cargo barges, far too large to descend to Vit Onax' atmosphere where the heavier gravity would cause engine failures, docked to offload their cargo, refuel, and perhaps pay for repairs before jetting off to new stars. One particular cargo ship that he had hired had failed to report in since it docked with one of the docks, and he wants the team to investigate. Fearing the Chonwo clan could be pirating the ship, Hsskor once more invites the Khaarl on the mission to rendezvous with the Duros pilot, secure the cargo, and receive a permenant raise on their regular pay if they could ensure the cargo's safe transfer to the surface. Satisfied with their enthusiasm to explore a new facet of Vit Onax and the potential for a pile of credits, now based on their performance, he authorizes the mission for them, departing to oversee new operations in the actual Blaster Galactic facility.

Leaving Worskrr behind to protect Saloch and the Kloo Horn Cantina, per their agreement, the team boarded a shuttlecraft from the nearby spaceport, arriving at the orbital repair dock within an hour. They questioned the staff, including an informative protocol droid, and discovered that the particular freighter had not persisted communications with the dock, and the ship itself wasn't even listed on the manifests. Rhea had noticed a board displaying the map of the space station, and under Jac's leadership, the team split up into two. Jac and Rhea would investigate one docking strut, while Hoss'del, Luca, and Khaarl would check out the other. They inspected each airlock, Khaarl and Hoss'del accidentally boarding another lifeform's ship, but found nothing. Rhea's vigilance caught a shimmering object nearby in their docking strut, with she and Jac hearing clinking sounds around the strut rapidly moving towards the opposite end.

With one call for backup from Jac, the other team raced through the station to help out their friends. United once more, the team cautiously inspected the end of the corridor, eventually seeing on the very far end a cargo ship matching their provided desciption floating in space, disconnected from the airlock with its engines and running lights off. The clinking began again, this time drowing out all other ambient sound from the space station, until Jac, noticing an object materializing out of nowhere and setting itself on the airlock door, began blinking a red light. An explosive! The mercenaries ran as fast as they could from the airlock and towards the space station's main superstructure.

Stun beams, materializing from unknown sources, began warping around the team. Someone was indeed attacking them, and each combat-hardened fighter unholstered and unsheathed their weapons, blasting at the invisible force attacking them. Luca, out of cover and running to it, was stunned unconscious. Jac scooped up the boy and ran through the fire to the end of the docking strut where they had entered, with Hoss'del running behind to provide cover for his son on his friend's back. Rhea also did the same, motioning for Khaarl to join their attempt to flee the fight. The Wookiee, agreeing and telling the Pantoran assassin that he would provide cover, sprayed into the invisible force, the acid destroying the attacker and revealing it as some sort of droid as it materialized into view. His attempt to provide covering fire worked, as the droids kept their assault and focused their fire on Khaarl. Rhea notified Jac and Hoss'del of Khaarl's sacrifice, and as she stayed behind to guard Luca, the two men raced back to carry the Wookiee back, dodging stun blasts and the wind whipping past them as the airlock exploded.

While this happened, Rhea caught the image of a Duros in pilot garb watching them from a corner. Shouting his position to Jac and Hoss'del, who arrived with Khaarl slumped unconscious over their shoulders, the three raced after him, chasing the blue alien through the throngs of people rushing to emergency stations. Jac was caught off, but emerged from a side passageway, catching up to Rhea and Hoss'del still pursuing their new target. Fingers brushing the pilot's flight suit, they were surprised when he suddenly stopped, and a blade was run through the pilot's chest. The body collapsed to the floor, blue blood dripping from his chest as he croaked a final breath. The three, chests heaving from all the recent excitement, looked on to an elderly Besalisk standing before the body, holding a cane calmly in two of his hands as the other pair of massive forearms were clutched behind his back.

The remaining sessions will be entered shortly.

#### **Episode II:**

##### **Part One:**

The adventuring party of mercenaries has undergone some changes since their return from Kranak and their victory over the dark Jedi Jyun. Khaarl, seeking better employment elsewhere and the ability to do as he pleased, left the group for work offworld. Hoss'del Gannon, witnessing the countless dangers his group has been prone to, has kept himself in a reserve status to train his son Luca and overlook the boy's safety. The rugged man now sits at the back of the cantina, watching over the place for Saloch in the other's absence as they have taken more jobs for even more dangerous beings.

On one particular day after burying Jyun, the crew is resting in the Kloo Horn, retelling their stories over a few pints of spotchka at the bar. As Jac is about to recount his adventures with Worskrr long before the group met, the door opens, footsteps heard racing down the stairs as a Bith male pants and races to the bar. Asking for the mercenaries who protect the business, the Bith is pointed to Jac, Worskrr, Reef Monsoon, and Tarnos Virai by Saloch. The man begs in his native tongue for the mercenaries to help him. He and his bandmates, he explains, are captives of a vicious band of raiders that boarded the ship they paid passage for, killed the crew, and knowing who the musicians were, took them as hostages along with their instruments and whatever loot they could find from the ship. After that, he explains, they spent an unknown amount of time buried inside a secure fortress, where he recently escaped from. The musician, now having collected himself fully, explained that he heard Jac Sardok was the man responsible for saving the space orbital depot before it crashed into the planet, and if anyone could rescue his bandmates, it would be the man who saved an entire planet.

Jac, Worskrr, and Tarnos were very interested in what the Bith had to say. Probing him further with questions of who he is and where this fortress is located, the Bith proudly stood himself up and announced himself as Jiboon "The Horn" S'adorn, and his Bippet Boppers were still held captive in a docking bay not too far away. Taking on the job as a man of honor, Jac asked Worskrr to join him, with Reef, Rhea, and Tarnos also expressing their desire to rid their neighborhood of degenerative filth.

Jiboon then led them into the Slums, past exotic kiosks and interesting aliens milling about. With the sun setting at their backs, the Bith star musician pointed out a docking bay, its dark grey walls appearing much like an evil fortress in the twilight sunlight. After spotting a pair of guards protecting one of the entrances, Tarnos told their new client to return to the cantina, and that they would deliver his friends to him once they found them. "The Horn" quietly took off, agreeing that was for the best.

Meanwhile, Jac, Reef, and Worskrr found a corner that was unprotected, and began a climb up the side to the roof. It was excruciatingly slow, as they did not want to alert the guards, and even after slamming into the wall once, Jac and the other two were able to summit the climb. Rhea and Tarnos also found an emergency ladder on the other corner directly opposite attached to a holosign advertising a Lothal spicebrew brewery, but were not able to climb it as the ladder began too far above their heads. Instead, they walked past another pair of guards that were protecting another blast door to the docking bay, with the assassin hiding the lightsaber she still had on her hip into the folds of her clothes as she attempted a mind trick through the Force on one of the guards. The masked humanoid was more resilent that she thought, and resisted the mind trick and realized that they weren't new guards sent to replace them.

It was at this moment, after Jac and Worskrr had climbed down into the docking bay by jumping onto the docked ship and then slipping onto the ground, that the two mercenaries sprung an attack, opening the blast door from the inside and killing the two guards with their blades. Inviting Rhea and Tarnos inside, they met up with Reef, who finally made his way down as well. Inside the cold and empty docking bay, the team of hired guns could hear the sound of music and laughter from all around them in the various walled rooms ringing the actual docking bay itself, and went to investigate the starship. They boarded up the cargo elevator, disappearing inside.

The ship, in comparison to the docking bay, was well-organized and tidy. After killing a mercenary who was wandering the deckhalls, the team split up to check out the ship. Rhea found a drunk crew member who passed out on the floor after mistaking her for a dancing girl, and Jac and Worskrr investigated the lounge and galley. It was empty. Tarnos, on the other hand, found the cockpit, relaying that the ship was clear through his comlink, and checking out the ship's status. The Besalisk, with his four arms stretching out across the cockpit to multitask, found no such evidence of captain's logs, manifests, or flight logs. Indeed, he relayed to the others, these guys were playing it safe. With the others joining him in the cockpit, they decided that they could steal the starship after rescuing the band members, taking it as their own for the quest across the galaxy that Nikos Awaud had set them up on.

Suddenly, the ship was surrounded by armed mercenaries, who had rushed in from the walled rooms. The team could see this from the cockpit, and cautiously exited the ship to meet their foes. "Jac Sardok!" A metallic voice boomed out, "you and your scum have trespassed my property, killed two of my men, and have no doubt attempted to steal my cargo. Surrender yourselves now or you will be slowly disintegrated!"

Jac and his team refused, standing their ground with their weapons as they faced down the mob of angry and drunk mercenaries. A figure emerged, looming over the others. Clad in worn Mandalorian armor, the man demanded their deaths if they did not surrender. When the group silenced themselves, instead gripping their weapons even harder, a battle broke out. Blaster bolts flew everywhere, with the team spreading out to attack the mercenaries and deal with them so they could finally rid the Slums of such a nuisance. Jac engaged the Mandalorian, dueling him with blaster pistols as the man soared into the air with his jetpack. Tarnos, Reef, Rhea, and Worskrr engaged the others with their melee weapons, drawing cane swords, vibro-axes, lightsabers, and ryyk blades, respectively, killing many in an interesting display of strength and tenacity. Jac had finally downed the Mandalorian, killing him with a ruthless blaster shot to the neck after shooting through the landing gear the warrior crashed on. The fight was virtually over, with all but one of the guards killed and the Mandalorian raider dead.

While Jac claimed the Mandalorian's armor, saying that he would wear it with honor, unlike the man before him, a message was found. In it was another Mandalorian, declaring that all true Mandalorians should find Jac Sardok and kill him, as he was taking a quest from Nikos Awaud, failed and exiled Mandalorian, one that would destroy them all if they succeeded. Tarnos and Rhea found the band, releasing them from their bonds and having them board the ship, declaring that they would reunite them with Jiboon. Looting what they could from the place, the team boarded the ship and set off, finding another docking bay just a block away from the Kloo Horn Cantina. Escorting the band members to the cantina, Jiboon greeted them with tears in his big black eyes, providing 15,000 credits to the heroic hired guns for saving his band. Saloch, needing a band and noticing they were down on their luck, offered them a job to stay and work at the Kloo Horn Cantina.

With drinks in their hands and credits in their pockets, the heroes celebrated with the rest of the cantina's patrons, once again saving the downtrodden and oppressed in the pitiful neighborhoods of Vit Onax.

##### Part Two:

With their own ship and the neighborhood safer, the team of mercenaries operating out of the Kloo Horn Cantina decide to take matters into their own hands. Instead of reacting to the district's attrocities, they decide to take the initiative and go on the offensive. Seeking out a target of opportunity from the Chonwo clan, they learn of the day's event to come from Saloch: Tribute Day.

Tribute Day, the wrinkled and pudgy blue Twi'lek explains as he pours the team a pint of lum each, is a day each month that the different warlords and militias "celebrate" by going out of their way to collect tribute from the denizens of their individual sectors. This money is proclaimed as protection money, but in reality is outright theft. The Chonwo clan is one of the greediest, and takes as much as they can.

Sipping on their beverages, Jac Sardok and Worskrr exclaim that this is the best time to raid the Chonwo clan and severly weaken their holdings. Tarnos Virai replies in thought, saying that they now have an opportunity to give back to the citizens what they lost: something incredibly and internally important to the gentleman bounty hunter. As they are discussing this, Rhea Orden returns from a bit of shopping in the bazaars, noting the lack of stalls open and much of the populace being inside their homes. Hearing this, the three decide that it is time to begin their mission. They thank Saloch for the lum and pass on a few credits, telling Worskrr, Reef Monsoon, Hoss'del Gannon, and his son Luca to stay at the cantina and protect it from the inevitable Chonwo clan arrival. Saloch tells them he will assist, advising all the patrons to either hunker down with them or leave to their homes as he pulls a scatter gun from underneath the bar.

The team of three exit the Kloo Horn and begin venturing down the seemingly abandoned road, searching for the Chonwo clan and their Tribute Day collection parties. It doesn't take them long before a pair of Rodians mounted on heavily-repaired swoop bikes careened around a corner, whipping past the mercenaries. They halted and spun around, ready to take from them what they could. Before they even had a chance, Rhea unslung her blaster rifle from her back, firing a single shot that took out one of the swoop bikers right into his chest. The other one began to pull out his own blaster pistol in response, but as Tarnos mounted his riot shield to protect them from the inevitable blaster fire, Jac fired his blaster pistol from his hip, several of the red blaster bolts penetrating the exposed engine in the rear of the bike. The craft spun and whined in protest, finally exploding into pieces as metal debris rained down on Tarnos' shield.

Jac decided to take the comlink from the Rodian that Rhea killed, the alien's swoop bike coming to a stop before them. With it, they managed to learn that the Chonwo clan was wrapping up its own Tribute Day and was preparing to return with their stolen loot back to a warehouse on the outer edges of their turf. Tarnos collected the navigation data from the swoop, tracking down their path from stop to stop from where they began: the outer edge of the Chonwo Clan Holdings. With this important intelligence, they cleaned up all the debris and the dead body, stuffing them into an exposed alleyway before turning to retrieve their own light speeder truck.

About a half hour's drive was quiet, with the neighborhood's occupants beginning to exit their dwellings cautiously and try to pick up where they left off; albeit without much of their most valuable possessions. Jac, Tarnos, and Rhea were saddened by this, but it reminded them to charge on in their quest and return as much of the stolen property as they could. They finally arrived at the edge of the district, the swampy and shallow ocean's small waves lapping against the artificial construction that is the Slice District. They stopped halfway up the street, exiting their speeder and creeping up on foot. The Chonwo clan, as always, was unprepared for an assault. As the three hired guns looked around the corner to the entrance of the warehouse, they spotted four Rodian goons with blasters having a conversation and smoking cigarras. Rhea took it upon herself to act foolish, playing the fool as she walked up to the four and asked where the refresher was. They barked in Rodese to leave, sending one of the guards to follow her away from the warehouse. The assassin tricked the guard into following her into a separate abandoned building, where he was jumped by Tarnos and Jac, tied down to a seat and interrogated.

The Chonwo Rodian cracked almost immediately, stating that the Chonwo clan soldiers were preparing their loot for a shipment back to Rodia. Inside the warehouse, he croaked after being punched by two of Tarnos' massive fists, was a speeder truck being loaded by the Chonwo clan. It would soon leave for the spaceport, where a freighter would arrive and take the tribute for good. Satisfied with the intel and also learning of a secret entrance in the back of the warehouse that no one ever used anymore, the team prepared to head out and finish what they started. Jac, sealing his menacing Mandalorian helmet, stared at the Rodian, telling him that if he was lying, the warrior would return with his Wookiee friend, whom would rip off his arms and feed them to the chemilizards.

Jac, Rhea, and Tarnos sliced open the door of the "secret" entrance, silently making their way inside. Creeping and tip-toeing through the few remaining boxes of the warehouse, they silently dispatched guards, investigated crates, and made their plan. Jac crawled atop a stack of crates, going prone and spying on the team of Rodians and droids loading up a boxy A-A4B speeder truck. Rhea entered a small turbolift leading up to the control center, where she quietly knocked out a guard and took up a sniper position with her blaster rifle. Tarnos decided to go the other way, creeping along more boxes and hiding from a binary loadlifter that completely ignored him and carried out its programming.

With their little line of fighters set, they opened fire, killing a trio of Chonwo clan fighters almost immediately. As Rhea took sniper shots and Jac launched grenades, Tarnos raced across the fire to the control panel for a crane on the ceiling, shielding himself barely from the blaster fire pinning his location. Rhea and Jac worked together to cover their Besalisk bounty hunter friend as he maneuvered the crane, grabbing onto the speeder truck at the last moment with its magnetic clamp before it could leave. The trio of hired guns finished off the group of Chonwo clan fighters in a vicious lightfight, ending the battle as Jac put one final grenade in the brute laying down suppressive fire with his light repeating blaster, which had knocked out the unstable flooring Rhea was on, causing her to fall to the ground level. Clearing the area, they ran as fas as they could to the speeder truck, ordering the Rodian driving it to leave and let the others of the Chonwo clan know what happened when they stole from the innocent peoples of Vit Onax. As Jac hopped in the speeder truck, Tarnos and Rhea ran back and boarded their own speeder, ready to escort Jac back to the cantina, where they would then decide what to do. As they left the warehouse, unfortunately a group of four swoop bikes raced alongside them, opening fire on their speeders and the innocent peoples who were just trying to live their lives. They had a fight on their hands!

##### Part Three:

With the swoop bikes pursuing them from the very start of their heist, Jac Sardok took the lead, racing the stolen Trast A-A4B speeder truck through the industrial slums of the Slice District. Wanting to ensure their friend's safety and the cargo that they must return to the rightful owners; the innocent people's of Vit Onax caught in the middle of violent turf wars, Tarnos Virai, accompanied by his friend Rhea Orden, sped after their foes in their own Dray light speeder truck.

The chase went on for several streets, with Jac running one of the Chonwo clan swoops off the road and Rhea sniping one directly off his bike. While Tarnos and Rhea were caught up in traffic and forced to a crawl after the Besalisk driver careened a third swoop off the street, Jac continued to race ahead, followed by the very last swoop biker. The biker shot out a holosign above, hoping to knock it in the way of the speeder truck. Unfortunately, the alien's plan didn't work, but it did shower sparks across the viewport of Jac's speeder truck, making his attempt to drive without hitting any innocent bystanders that much more difficult. With his blaster pistol in his hand, the Mandalorian hired gun leaned out the window of his door, blasting out the engine of the swoop and causing the biker to explode mid-flight.

Their enemies now completely removed, the three mercenaries returned to the Kloo Horn Cantina, their base of operations and their safe refuge against the dangers of Vit Onax. Discussing different methods of how to return the stolen "tribute" back to the neighborhood over pints of lum and shots of high-value Corellian whiskey, they finally decided to use the Kloo Horn as a center of distribution, with Tarnos going throughout the neighborhood and inviting all to come to the cantina to reclaim their property.

Little did the neighborhood heroes know, however, that they had impressed far more than just merchants and homeowners. Impressed with their skill and generosity, a Gran named An Kleal introduced himself to them, inviting them to his table for drinks and slabs of fresh puffer pig bacon; the same delicacy now a regular treat at the Kloo Horn Cantina that was introduced to them by Tarnos and his friend Salyo's meat stall. Kleal soon got to the point, understanding that these fighters were not fools and drunken hands common throughout the halls of warlords across the galaxy. The three-eyed alien explained to them that he was a member of the Rebel Alliance, and he had a proposition for them that would be most beneficial to all parties involved.

Imperial spies, he warned, were becoming interested in the team's actions and successes in the Slice District. While they posed no threat to the Empire and were even once employees of Blaster Galactic, a licensed paramilitary company hired by the Empire on numerous occassions, the Empire always liked to knock down a threat before it could arise. An Kleal and his rebel cell also needed a mission performed, and they didn't have the assets needed to finish their mission. If he paid the crew of mercs, purely as freelance mercenaries, 100,000 credits in total, they would need to raid an Imperial convoy recently having left Vit Onax and recover valuable intelligence. Whatever cargo they captured was theirs, all the Rebel Alliance needed was the information.

This greatly interested everyone, as they were hoping for a big score like this one to finally purchase the materials needed to build their own garage/hangar bay and potentially create their own mercenary gang. Tempering their excitement, An Kleal also told them that in exchange, his rebel cell would do everything possible to stave off the Imperials, as well as use the Kloo Horn Cantina as a quiet meeting point to discuss missions and distribute intel, items, weapons, etc. Tarnos and Rhea in particular were concerned that going around Saloch in his own place of business wasn't the best idea, but An Kleal assured them that Saloch was a reasonable lifeform, winking two of his eyes in the process as he took yet another sip of his lum.

Agreeing on a 50/50 split of payment up front and the rest upon completion, the team finished their negotiations and slapped hands in the usual Outer Rim way of doing business. Satisfied, An Kleal returned to his booth, meeting with two others there who gave the mercenaries a smile and a respectful nod as they continued on in their hushed conversation. Jac and Rhea made sure Saloch was aware that they were going out on a mission, and didn't know when they would be back. Reef Monsoon decided to come along, setting his drink down and reminding his friends that since his time at Cholganna, he was once a pirate captain and knew a thing or two about boarding starships in the vacuum of outer space. Oncemore leaving the Kloo Horn Cantina's safety in the capable hands of Hoss'del Gannon and his little lookout scout Luca, they left the busy drinking establishment, cheers and thrills going up around them as the Slum's denizens celebrated their success from earlier.

Thanks to their reputation regarding saving the planet from the crashing space station a month before and the good deeds they had done ever since, the team did manage to obtain some of the upgrades for their ship. Even though they didn't get everything they wanted, especially the incredibly rare Nightshadow coating Rhea was hoping to find, Jac did purchase a quad laser cannon from Taim & Bak to swap out the triple light laser cannon, and Tarnos even managed to grab parts for a reinforced shield generator. It took the mercenaries most of the remaining day to install the upgrades in the docking bay, dishing out credits for parts and small tools to get the job done, but thankfully the docking bay had everything they needed. With their ship, now settled on the name the *Ashfall Bandit*, the five, including Worskrr and Reef, cleared for liftoff with the spaceport control and travelled through the congested skylanes of the Slice District, leaving Vit Onax behind as they raced off after their Imperial prey.

## Behind the Scenes

After the events of Season 2, Episode IV, several changes were made after both all the players, as well as the Game Master, left disatisfied. An extensive reworking is underway, however, and the "non-canonical" events have been changed and a new story developed, picking up with Episode III and altering the "canonical" timeline of the campaign. In addition, due to extenuating circumstances outside the game and in real life, Season 2 of *Edge of the Empire* and *STAR WARS: Age of Rebellion II* will be put on hold as Season 3 of *Edge of the Empire* is begun, with both campaigns updated as need be.