The Last Command 7 - Best Laid Plans

Having been victorious in a string of encounters, luck runs out when our heroes come too close to Imperial Grand Admiral Thrawn

### Runtime

1:30:36

*"Something, something.... Star Wars.... Something” Our heroes realize they have wandered into a well devised trap by Thrawn intended to trade the data that was recovered from the second Death Star. They decide to modify the data just like it was modified when they originally gave it over to the Bothans.*

## **Previously**

*Having succeeded in overtaking the Imperial ship Scylla, our heroes commenced with transferring New Republic personnel onboard. A brief argument over who should be in charge of the mission occurred, with the Bothan representative Prark overruling Bota Zi and co. for dominance. Arriving from hyperspace, the group docks with the Charybdis and Chimera and discovers an Imperial operation, codename “Honor Squadron” has been prepared to pilot a squadron of X-Wings in an effort to undermine New Republic legitimacy. After obtaining the necessary intelligence, our heroes are tasked with stealing the X-Wings if possible.*

## **Recap**

### **Arrival: Consulting the Dice Gods**

As Tek accesses the *Charybdis* directly, he suddenly receives incoming transmissions that theImperial Star Destroyer *Daggerwyrm* has exited hyperspace and is preparing to dock with the *Chimera*. Encoded messages follow and Tek attempts to slice and translate these messages, resulting in a partial message:

> "*… Jedi defeated… storehouse secured…”*"
>
>
>

Looking for the best way to exfiltrate from a rapidly devolving situation, Tek proposes a plan to slice their own information in place of the original *Honor Squadron* to create a means of escape. Looking at the current timeline, *Honor Squadron* is scheduled to depart in 48 hours while the *Scylla* departs in 51 hours.

> "*Part of me supports Tek’s plan to impersonate Honor Squadron, because it gives me the chance to kill more Bothans.*"
> ― Katira
>
>

> "*We’re not actually going through with their mission!*"
> ― Tek
>
>

The team huddles for a moment, and proposes a handful of plans that range from hiding on the *Scylla*, to impersonating *Honor Squadron*, to a variety of options in between. Unsure of what may be the best option they decide to let the dice gods decide. The result is taking the most difficult route of the lot. Hoping to sneak aboard the other Imperial vessels and slice what data they can access before returning on the *Scylla* to escape.

### **Checkmate**

Just before everyone departs, a communique comes in to the bridge calling for all senior staff to report to the *Chimera* for a briefing. Taking advantage of the turn of events, Katira suggests leaving Vice Captain Lyss’ communicator open so that they can listen in. Tek modifies the transmitter to multicast to their receiver alone, and the nervous Imperial traitor is sent in.

A few minutes later, the composed voice of the Grand Admiral can be heard as the meeting begins. Without being too specific, the Chiss begins to mention the recent successful Imperial operations and lays out a framework for how they have arrived at this point.

> "*The operation has been a success. I have uncovered all of the artifacts from the various storerooms and using my experience in the unknown regions I now know what the Emperor now wants for the Empire and all of us… We will regroup and continue the mission.*"
> ― Thrawn
>
>

Listening in, frustration mounts as Thrawn merely alludes to a variety of Imperial operations. With the exception of the mention of an “Operation Cinder” there are little to no leads as to what is even being talked about. Suddenly the tone of voice changes as a comment is made for all personnel to depart with the exception of a list that the team cannot see.

After a brief pause, Thrawn’s voice continues. He lays out the general concept of *Operation Cinder*: to devastate a few wealthy planets so that Imperial loyalists would more readily depart with the Imperial Remnant. He then carries on with *Operation - The Center Will Break*: to splinter the New Republic and sow seeds of weakness within. The first phase has been completed, it is now time to move to phase two and fool the New Republic into believing the Empire has surrendered while in reality they will depart into the Unknown Regions. Steadily becoming more specific he then states that a purchase on the planet Roon for the creator of life model decoys, allowing him to fake his own death and escape to lead the Imperial Fleet through the Unknown Regions.

> "*And the reason I’m telling you all of this is that I know we’re being listened to right now.*"
> ― Thrawn
>
>

The floor seems to have fallen out from under the group’s feet as Thrawn calmly continues on. He states that he is offering a trade, and specifies a meeting location (XO-99) and told to meet there in 15 minutes so they can discuss the trade with one of his representatives. As the voice of Thrawn cuts out, the team is left to decide what their next course of action will be.

### **Negotiations**

Knowing that only the *Scylla* would be suspect of holding any traitors, thereby highlighting Lyss, Katira decides to page the Vice Captain in hopes of gaining more information. The communication channel opens, and Lyss can be heard vomiting. He states that he is already under guard and regrets his decisions.

> "*I wish I could say it was great knowing you, but it wasn’t…*"
> ― Vice Captain Lyss
>
>

Pulling up the engineering schematics of the *Chimera*, Tek locates the conference room XO-99 where the meeting is set to take place. Bota offers to be the representative in the room and tells Katira to prepare to flee, but she insists on being present as there is no reason to think they will escape unless Thrawn allows it, but also refusing to take what she would see as a cowardly route. As Bota and Katira head over, Tek slices into the room to pull video and audio data remotely.

Katira and Bota arrive in an empty room, and Tek’s feed from the room cuts out the moment the door closes behind them. Entering in from the other side of the room, a single Chiss wearing the uniform of the Chiss Ascendancy takes a seat. They state that the group has been invited for an exchange. Thrawn is aware that they have recordings and copied intel on the Imperial Remnant and their operations. In exchange for all the group’s intelligence, Thrawn offers to let the team go free. In addition, their mining operations on Lok are known, and to improve the exchange value the team will be provided the locations of Doonium ore sites as well as the small Imperial base on the planet.

The Imperial Remnant has accomplished their mission on the planet, and is willing to exchange their unusable galactic resources for the intel the group has in order to better hide their trail. This is the principle that Bota is least willing to trust. Stating that he doesn’t see why they wouldn’t just come back and take the mines back, he pauses and thinks the situation over. When Katira asks why they are leaving, they simply reply that they await the best time for their return.

When the exchange is expected to occur on the ships right now with guards observing, Bota refuses. Instead he proposes that the exchange be done by using a third party. Initially he recommends that a Hutt be chosen as a broker, but the Chiss counter by selecting Talon Karrde. In addition the information will be scanned by a slicer and Imperial force users for validity, and whoever may want to scan the information for the team.

> "*Do we know any force other force users to help on this? Genos?*"
> ― David
>
>

> "*Tek… the amazing Tek*"
> ― Ilya
>
>

> "*Genos definitely wouldn’t help. Genos would try to assassinate everybody. He would try to assassinate Thrawn, and it would be a fitting end for him.*"
> ― Jordan
>
>

With the tenets of the deal agreed on, the Chiss exits the room. Leaving the room the group is given a clear path back to the *Scylla*, and a transmission is sent to move up the time table and allow the ship to depart immediately. With plans for the Empire tied up, the only remaining loose end to be tied up seems to be the New Republic. Existing data is sliced and modified by Tek so that a copy can be provided to Prark onboard the *Scylla*. Tek succeeds, and Bota manages to convince Prark of the legitimacy of the information. As a result, the mission is considered an overall success for the New Republic.

## **Featured Characters**

### **Our Heroes**

* Bota Zi
* Katira Eve
* Tek Krodak

### **NPCs**

* Grand Admiral Thrawn
* Vice Captain Lyss
* Unnamed Chiss Representative

## **Notes**

* Tek officially declared that his Languages cartridge is what he keeps installed by default

> "*Roll your base language, you didn’t have your knowledge cartridge in.*"
> ― Jordan
>
>

> "*What?! I always have my languages cartridge in!*"
> ― Tek
>
>

* The *Daggerwyrm* was a Victory-Class II Star Destroyer

## **Quotations**

> "*We gotta name a character after grandma. A Southern Belle.*"
> ― Luke
>
>

> "*She’s been at more RPG sessions than any of our significant others.*"
> ― Ilya
>
>

> "*She’d have to be like a D12 character.*"
> ― Luke
>
>

> "*To be fair if we were to be Honor Squadron we would probably end up face to face with Thrawn, much like Socorro Squadron, and then be sentenced to summary execution… much like Socorro Squadron.*"
> ― Katira
>
>

> "*We could just kill Thrawn and end this whole thing.*"
> ― David
>
>

> "*I think a big plot rock would drop on us.*"
> ― Luke
>
>

> "*And end RPG as a whole, because I think that’s a suicide mission.*"
> ― David
>
>

> "*No one would honor that story if this went public.*"
> ― Ilya
>
>

> "*Yeah, we would never be canon that’s for sure.*"
> ― Luke
>
>

> "*That Bothan was so excited that Thrawn was here, why don’t we tell them we have a private meeting set up for them and let them go.*"
> ― Bota
>
>

> "*Hey guys I just lost my eyes and ears, and by that I mean that I cannot see or hear anything going on there. Just in case you didn’t understand.*"
> ― Tek
>
>

Back to top