SotB XXXIII: A Show of Hand

*A profitable contract has come to the team through a rebellion contact. An Imperial base located in an Asteroid field outside of Hutt space is committing genetic experiments that are nothing sort of atrocities.*

## Agents

### Session 1

* Derra
* Hawk
* (Jaa Walder)
* Nin'pei
* R0C-K4
* Rogesh Vai
* Saber Scintel

### Session 2

* Durin Boge
* Erdogan Cael
* (Fai Mei)
* Gristle
* Jokan Benn
* Kii'Vera

## Mission Report

*Summary by Ben*

While lingering on the colony of Hatch after the qualifying swoop race, Jokan receives a call from a rebel agent staying on the planet. She requests that Jokan bring some friends along to hear about a task she needs done. Her ship seems mildly beat up, as if it’s seen combat recently, and she invites the crew onboard after introducing herself as Sapphire. She’s found an Imperial research base in a nearby asteroid field, and needs help stealing the research regarding genetic manipulation. She claims that it shouldn’t be overly dangerous. She suggests that she enters as a loan inspector to distract the guards while the crew sneaks aboard. She supplies some uniforms and explosives, and the group heads off to the asteroid facility itself.

After some piloting through the field, dodging sensors, the crew sets the Lining down in the station’s auxiliary hangar. The doors seem to open for them, and Gristle calls in to ensure Sapphire is the one helping them out. She responds by transmitting part of a conversation between her and someone on the station, complaining about a virus taking over some of their systems. The hangar they set down in appears to be completely open to the vacuum of space. Erdo leaves the Lining in a space suit and accesses a console to shut the hangar doors and vent air back into the vacuous chamber. At the same time, the console notifies him that an inspection team is on the way. Jokan and Erdo quickly don the pair of uniforms to intercept the team.

They do their best to talk through the inspection, and while they can avoid having the ship boarded for the moment, the inspection team calls in their superior along with a squad of stormtroopers. Jokan and Erdo are able to evade questioning with some effort, and learn of a prisoner in the holding wing. They head back into the ship to retrieve the others, and Erdo suggests that he head off to the holding wing on his own while the rest of the group completes the mission. Soon, however, the whole crew decides to head to the holding area together, with Gristle and Boge in binders and Kii shadowing along with his stealth field. They give a story about having captured the two on Dantooine and Ord Mantell, and the officer in charge recognizes Boge from his show. Heading down the rows of cells, they see a few rooms marked as special prisoners. Through the room viewports, they see Koriss and Krohn in various states of agony, with the former having his brain operated on and the latter missing nearly all of his limbs. They make their way to the end of the hall, and as one of the troopers directs them toward an open cell, Erdo shoves him in, but also stumbles inside at the same time.

Erdo strikes at the trooper, breaking the comlink in his helmet and stunning him while the others incapacitate him. The commander from down the hall comms in, and he brings his squad down toward the cell. Feeling the pressure, the crew decides to spring an ambush on the Imperials, cleaning them up quickly before unlocking the cells and letting the rebel prisoners out to collect the fallen troopers’ weapons. They unlock Koriss’ and Krohn’s cells, and while Gristle is able to secure Krohn for movement and ensure his recovery, Koriss seems well and truly braindead, having been lobotomized by the Imperials. Gristle stops the twi’lek’s heart and orders one of the rebels to take his body before the crowd takes the elevator in shifts. Sapphire calls in for help from the medical bay, so the crew heads her way with the exception of Boge, who takes a group of the rebels to the Lining to secure it for escape. They find a squad of Imperial soldiers already setting up, and manage to ambush them, destroying a missile tube that they’d been setting up and causing an explosion in the hangar bay. This sets off alarms all throughout the base.

The rest of the crew heads toward the elevator to the medbay and finds it billowing smoke after having been destroyed by explosives. Kii climbs down the shaft and finds Sapphire pleading to an individual who stalks by, not even noticing Kii and allowing him to slip the grenade launcher from the rifle on his back. The mysterious person force-jumps up the elevator shaft, landing just ahead of the others. It turns out to be Freath, one of the jedi betrayed by Amunet during the Battle of Geonosis. Gristle and Erdo recognize him and step forward to delay him, attempting to convince him to stand down before he finally gives into the Emperor’s influence and attacks. The crew and their rebel friends respond with a hail of stun bolts, driving Freath back while his reinforcements head in from the other side of the station. His lightsaber is destroyed by a blast from a stolen heavy repeating blaster, and he’s forced to retreat away from the hangar bay. Kii tries to pursue, but Freath quickly brings him down while the others attempt to head to Sapphire’s waiting shuttle. Erdo, Sapphire and Gristle head back to collect Kii as Freath breaks down, realizing he’s just gunned down a child. Erdo convinces Sapphire to try to help Freath along, and manages to drag him along as the group escapes to the shuttle and leaves the rapidly degrading station.